A central teaching for both the understanding of suffering and the practice of insight meditation is that we inhabit what are essentially two parallel realities. One is the reality of what the mind is actually encountering through the senses in any moment, before the imposition of any labels, concepts, and proliferating thought. This is called paramattha in Pali and is often translated as ultimate truth or reality. The other world is the world of concepts and ideas that immediately springs up in the mind when sense contact occurs. This is called sammuti in Pali and is often translated as suppositional or relative reality or truth. It is in this suppositional or relative reality where we spend virtually all our time, and it is in this web of concepts and ideas that the foundation for all our suffering is laid.
Of course, we need our mental concepts and narratives to live our lives. The solution the Buddha discovered involves not the discarding of our conceptual world, but the clear seeing of it as it stands in contrast with our unelaborated sensory experience in the moment. In this retreat, we will explore this fundamental teaching that is part of the Buddha’s path to the ending of suffering through both discussion and meditative practice.
This retreat is open to both beginners and experienced meditators. While it will be conducted mainly in silence, there will be brief instructions in vipassana meditation available, a Dhamma talk, and a discussion period at the end.