1996-07_07 Vipassana Retreat, Part 7 of 8 - Q&A 5

Talk: 19960707-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-vipassana_retreat_part_7_of_8-43311 Start_time: 00:38:07 Display_question: A moment of paying attention while walking brought me back to childhood—is that ok? Keyword_search: walk, walking, feet, attention, lake, personal, insight, Vipassana, calm, relaxed, insights, meditation, parent, childhood, confused, arise, pass away, ultimate truth, dream, psychotherapy, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Vedanta, Freud, deep, learning Question_content: Questioner: Now I think I’m a little confused but I thought I wasn't. When I was walking to the lake, I was walking to the lake earlier, and I was putting my attention to my feet. And I said, “I’m walking to the lake.” Which brought back an experience when I was seven years old. I lived that experience by feeling what I was feeling, walking to the lake. And I've learned a lot. Is that okay? Larry: Yes, it's okay. I'm not the Ministry of Thought Control. You learned something, right? You just said that. Yeah. Questioner: I felt things I didn’t feel before either. Larry: Okay. And it helped you in what way? If it's too personal, just give me the conclusion. Okay. Questioner: It’s too personal. Larry: What? Questioner: I can’t find the… Larry: Okay, I think I can think of a way of relating to what you're saying. Some of the problem comes from the use of the word insight, which is a perfectly good English word. And when we brought this teaching here, a number of us started using the word insight instead of Vipassana, because it was so exotic. We thought it was, relative to what was going on, that the last thing was Vipassana. So we said insight. And people felt more calm with that word, more relaxed. Break_line: The problem with it is that everyone thinks they know what it means because it's a perfectly good English word. So, there are insights that come out of meditation at many levels. And who's to say that that—that is valuable. There are some of the things you learn in the practice that are identical with what you learn in psychotherapy. I don't see how they're any different. We're not banishing that. It comes. Suddenly, you understand something about a parent or you understand something about your childhood and you're… Fine. Break_line: There are other insights which have to do with the nature of all formations, the nature of life itself. I don't want to say that's more important than you are clarifying your personal existence. I think both are needed. To live in this world, you do have to clarify your relationships, to your parents, to your children and so forth. And yet there's something else. There's another angle of learning that this insight is about. It's seeing that everything arises and passes away. It's fundamental, basic, and it leads to something called ultimate truth. Break_line: So that psychotherapeutic type—I shouldn't use the word psychotherapeutic, because people have learned about themselves forever probably. You know, you just learn about yourself. And psychotherapy formalize that and develop methods, Freud and so forth, which have been extremely helpful to people. Okay. This is more of the same. So that what I meant earlier… Let's say certain things that we learn can turn our life from a nightmare into a happy ending dream, but it's still a dream. The goal of insight practice, of Zen, of Tibetan Buddhism, of Vedanta, of practices like that, is to wake up from the dream altogether. They're not mutually exclusive. You have to live in a world with your parents, and it would be helpful if you can clarify it, but sometimes seeing the impermanence of everything helps you even more than the literal content of understanding. But I can't give you a rigid formula for that. Questioner: Could it be in the context of clearing away, for deeper learning? Larry: Yes, absolutely. You see, if the mind is all cluttered up with unfinished business, it's not going to be interested in process. That's what I meant. “I'm not interested that everything arrives and passes away. I'm interested that my boss is a son of a and I hate him.” Okay, so you've got to, in some ways, come to terms with that. And if there's a lot of that, then you still could benefit from this method. And as it ripens more, that's what I meant, at a certain point, “Gone with the Wind” isn't so interesting. Yeah. Good. Please. End_time: 00:42:52