Xinyi's Contemplative Practice (vipaśyanā-caryā)

Recently, this disciple has been engaged in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the Noble Truth of Suffering, as well as on the impermanence and suffering nature of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), and has gained some insights. Recently, along with the pandemic in Changchun, this disciple has not gone out for nearly a month. During this period, I have come to feel even more deeply the impermanence of life. In the past, I always wanted to make my life "fixed," progressing and studying the Dharma at a rhythm familiar to myself, but things did not go as I wished—life is impermanent, and illness and calamities always arrive uninvited. And in this process, what can ultimately be realized is only suffering. In the past, I loved this world; I loved sports, singing, and music, and had very wide-ranging interests.

But in the process of these loves and pursuits of interests, my life did not undergo any essential change, nor did I gain inner peace. Now I continually reduce my own preferences, study the true Dharma, and strive to act in accordance with its content; only then has my disposition undergone some change. I have gradually discovered that whether it is form (rūpa) or feeling (vedanā) and so on, none of them are reliable. They constantly change, and if one chases after them, one can only increase one's own afflictions. And whatever causes oneself affliction is suffering—whether it is a pleasant feeling, a beloved thing, or pure pain.

Assessment: Theoretical contemplative reflection is never as direct and profound as the experience of real life. The tangible feelings and experiences of the five senses always have a greater impact on a person and a deeper influence than the solitary mental consciousness's deliberation and analysis. Therefore, when contemplative practice is put into practice in real life, the realization is more direct and profound, awakening comes faster, and wisdom is more easily opened. Xin Yi's observation and realization are very good. With this observational wisdom, the power of meditative concentration (samādhi) can be strengthened—using wisdom to lead concentration, and then using concentration to enhance wisdom. When concentration and wisdom assist and accompany each other, only then will one's cultivation make great progress. Keep it up.