Conceptualizing the efficacy of vipassanā meditatiation as taught by s.n. goenka.pdf

Buddhist Studies Review 23(1) 2006, 113–30

ISSN (print): 0256-2897

ISSN (online): 1747-9681

Conceptualizing the Eﬃ cacy of Vipassanā

Meditation as Taught by S.N. Goenka 1

MICHAEL S. DRUMMOND

Faculty of Theology, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

msdrummond@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: In the 1950s, E.T. Gendlin developed a philosophical system, published as

Experiencing and the Creation of Meaning , to explain the role of bodily feelings in cogni-

tion, and he then evolved a psychotherapy known as Focusing, based on this system.

Focusing works primarily with bodily feelings and how they relate to the thinking

processes. Gendlin’s work has had an important impact on the ﬁ eld of Psychology.

An aspect of the historicity of E.T. Gendlin’s work is that it has intriguing similari-

ties with how the Vipassanā meditation teacher S.N. Goenka (one of the more impor-

tant personages in international Buddhism of the twentieth and early twenty- ﬁ rst

centuries), teaches, in line with the Pāli Nikāya s, that a correct understanding of af-

fective bodily feelings can lead to the dissolution of destructive emotional tenden-

cies. This article uses these similarities to begin a process, from a Western academic

perspective, of conceptualizing the eﬃ cacy of Vipassanā meditation, as taught by S.N.

Goenka, in dissolving harmful emotional habits. This will be done by comparing how

S.N. Goenka and E.T. Gendlin understand the operative factors in personality change.

INTRODUCTION

It is only since the mid-1970s that applied psychological research has given birth

to what is generally termed the ‘psychology of emotion’. An important example

of this was the work of Paul Ekman (Ekman & Friesen, 1975) that established the

actuality of basic emotions shared across culture and geography. By the early

1980s, psychologists had shown that, when considering mental health, it is at the

level of emotion that sense perception undergoes its ﬁ rst full evaluation (Frijda,

1986: passim; Zajonk, 1980: 151–75). However, some twenty years prior to this,

in the 1950s, certain psychologists ascertained that the systematic examination

of emotions and their related bodily feelings was necessary in attaining men-

tal health (e.g. Fritz Pearls of Gestalt Therapy, or Carl Rogers as referred to in

Gendlin, 1962/1997: passim).

1. This article, as a comparison of certain critical methods used by E.T. Gendlin and S.N. Goenka,

shares this central structure with Drummond (2006). Aside from this common feature, it has

been extensively restructured, and has diﬀ erent ﬁ ndings and conclusions.

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Amongst these pioneers was E.T. Gendlin, who had a privileged position in the

formative period of Humanistic Psychology through his work under Carl Rogers,

wherein he developed the Focusing technique, which can be technically termed

‘Experiential Psychotherapy’: a therapy that, in short, works with the experi-

ence of feelings in the body. 2 The intellectual and practical thrust of Experiential

Psychotherapy boils down in large part to ‘emotional intelligence’, and it is now

accepted in applied psychological research, including in Cognitive Psychology,

that the human condition requires, for a healthy mental life, that emotions

be given as much consideration as the thinking processes. This then gives a

prominent role to the therapeutic experience of bodily feelings in Experiential

Psychotherapy and the development of emotional intelligence, as bodily feelings

are seen as the aﬀ ective root of emotion.

These developments in the West, concerning emotion and bodily feelings,

mirror the Buddhist meditation method of the mindful observation of feelings

and key aspects of Nikāyan psychology, which has been of wide in ﬂ uence in Asia.

The article takes the work of the Vipassanā meditation master S.N. Goenka as the

prototypical example of the observation of bodily feelings in the twentieth and

early twenty- ﬁ rst centuries. Chronologically, Goenka and his teacher, Sayagyi U

Ba Khin, began their teaching of Vipassanā at about the same time as the devel-

opment of Humanistic Psychology as a school of Psychology.

PART 1: FROM AFFECT TO EMOTION IN DEPENDENT ORIGINATION

Nyanaponika Thera has rightly noted that Buddhist psychology does not see the

three tones of vedanā – pleasant, unpleasant and neutral – as being ‘emotion’

(Nyanaponika, 1983: 7). Rather these tones, as ‘aﬀ ect’, play a key role in determin-

ing the more complex manifestation of emotion. 3 This process is mapped out in

the 12-factored model of Dependent Origination from factor 5, the six sense base

( saḷāyatana ) through to factor 9, grasping ( upādāna ). The soteriological impor-

tance of the aﬀ ective qualities of vedanā is highlighted by its inclusion in the

Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta under the rubric ‘ vedanānupassanā ’. Nevertheless, the Nikāya s

do not give much technical detail about vedanā , nor the other components of the

ﬁ ve aggregates. 4 In the form of vedanā , one of the three tones will arise as the sev-

2. For details, see www.focusing.org/gendlin_existentialism.html (31 March 2006).

3. The Sutta s distinguish between mental and physical vedanā (SN V 209), the physical being sim-

ply the pleasure and pain felt due to the stimulation of the tactile sense organ, the surface of the

body (though also including neutral vedanā s directly arising from the stimulation of the other

four senses). I employ here the more common division of vedanā into three, without reference

to whether they arise due to stimulation of a physical organ or the mind. I assume that mental

vedanā can be referred to both by sukhā vedanā, dukkhā vedanā and adukkhamasukhā vedanā when

vedanā s are divided into only three types, and by somanassa, domanassa and upekkhā when they

are divided into ﬁ ve, as at SN V 209.

4. Hamilton (1996: xxix), mentions the brevity of details about the ﬁ ve aggregates ( pañca khandha ),

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115

enth factor in Dependent Origination, once conditioned by contact ( phassa ) with

a given sense object. 5 Contact, as the sixth factor of Dependent Origination, is the

basic experience of sense perception.

It is explained at MN I 303 that vedanā acts as a conduit for the arising of the

underlying tendencies ( anusaya s) towards attachment ( rāgānusayo ), aversion

( paṭighānusayo ) and ignorance ( avijjānusayo ). 6 Perhaps an important reason that

the sutta s asserts that vedanā is the immediate condition for the arising of attach-

ment, is the experience, in meditation, of pleasant feeling arising followed by a

movement ( anusaya ) towards attachment, aversion or ignorance. MN III 285 men-

tions that, ‘When one is touched by a pleasant feeling, if one delights in it, welcomes

it, and remains holding to it, then the underlying tendency to lust [ rāgānusayo ] lies

within one’ (translation by Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi, 1995). Based on sutta statements

like this, Waldron (2003: 34) notes that the underlying tendencies are bridge or

link between the arisen vedanā and craving ( taṇhā- close to rāga in meaning) and

grasping. A possible conceptualization of the function of an anusaya might be as

follows. When walking in a school, one sees many coﬀ ee cups on a table in an empty

room. No sooner does one see this, than an impulse to take one of the cups home

arises; just as quickly, thought interdicts this impulse. No strong urge to take the

cup actually arises and the interdiction happens so fast and thoroughly that the

whole event transpires in a few seconds. The impulse is rejected, the cup remains

where is it was, and one or two minutes later the whole event is forgotten.

In further conceptualizing the arising of an anusaya , the impulse to take the

cup functions like a small parachute (the tendency) pulling out a large parachute

(the craving) when sky diving out of a plane. Moreover, it would appear that it is

easier to see or experience an anusaya functioning when one has no struggle in

rejecting it. The sutta s state that as long as the anusaya is in the mind, even though

one might not act on it (for example, taking the cup), one cannot claim to have

a fully puri ﬁ ed mind MN III 285. Therefore, unrestrained vedanā s and anusaya s

focused on objects of a particular category result in new layers of habitual crav-

ing and grasping of objects of any given category.

This formula gains further coherency when perception ( saññā ) is brought in.

MN I 111–12 introduces saññā ’s function when it places its verb form, sañjānāti ,

after vedanā . The passage is as follows: ‘With contact [ phassa ] as a condition there

is feeling [ vedanā ]. What one feels [ vedeti ], that one perceives [ sañjānāti ]’. The sut-

ta s state that vedanā , saññā and consciousness ( viññāṇa ) are conjoined and cannot

be disjoined from each other (MN I 293). 7 We know the functional relationship of

including their commonly seen order in the sutta s, of which vedanā is in the second place, while

Gethin, 1986: 35, says much the same.

5. AN V 107: Vedanā samosaraṇā sabbe dhammā, ‘all mental phenomena arise with a feeling’.

6. Bhikkhu Bodhi (in Narada & Bodhi, 1993: 154–7), notes that in the Abhidhammatha Saṅgaha ,

the anusaya s are de ﬁ lements ( kilesa ). The anusaya s are, more or less, habitual tendencies of the

mind to respond to the various qualities of vedanā .

7. The Sutta s here see the verbs vedeti, sañjānāti and vijānāti as synonymous with their noun forms,

vedanā, saññā and viññāṇa . MN I 293 uses both forms synonymously in the same sentence:

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vedanā and the anusaya s; this can be seen as a stream of feelings and the arousing

of aﬀ ective tendencies that they elicit. On the other hand, the function of saññā

is connected to memory in the recognizing of such things as colours and shapes,

etc. (MN I 293; Vism 462). 8 It appears then that saññā has a direct impact on the

arising of thought ( vitakka ), as MN I 111–12 goes on to say: ‘what one perceives,

that one thinks [ vitakketi ] 9 about’. This can be seen as a stream of cognitive experi-

ence. It appears that in spatial terms, MN I 111–12 places perception and thinking

where craving would normally appear as factor eight of Dependent Origination.

This then seems to indicate that thinking begins as craving arises.

This can be illustrated as follows: one is attracted to a current sense object,

say a jacket, and pleasant feeling ( sukha vedanā ) arises; this then conditions the

arising of the underlying tendency for attachment ( rāgānusaya ). At almost the

same time, perception ( saññā ) recognizes certain physical aspects of the jacket

and this then conditions and blends with the arising thought process, (hence the

previously cited passage, ‘what one perceives, that one thinks [ vitakketi ] about’).

It is at the point of factor eight and nine, craving and grasping, that the above

mentioned streams, the aﬀ ective and the cognitive, meld into the emotions of

craving and grasping.

Craving then is ﬂ owering out of the underlying tendency which in turn is

structured by all past reactions towards similar objects. We here can see the

‘shadow’ of the saṅkhāra s (volitional activities and tendencies), the second fac-

tor of Dependent Origination, in the sense of who, behaviourally speaking, we

‘tend’ to be. 10 The MN I 111–12 passage closes with ‘what one thinks about, that

one mentally proliferates [ papañceti ]. With what one has mentally proliferated

as source, perceptions and notions tinged by mental proliferation beset a man’

(translation of the whole passage by Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi, 1995); this then is an

‘expansion’ of the saṅkhāra s as it indicates many feedback loops of feeling and

latent tendencies, perception and thinking, craving and grasping. 11

‘Feeling [ vedanā ], perception [ saññā ], and consciousness [ viññāṇa ], friend, these states are con-

joined, not disjoined … For what one feels [ vedeti ], that one perceives [ sañjānāti ]; and what one

perceives, that one cognizes [ vijānāti ] ’ (translation by Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi, 1995). The insistence

of MN I 293 that feeling, perception and consciousness are ‘conjoined and cannot be disjoined’

re ﬂ ects a tendency in Nikāyan Buddhist psychology to be process-oriented rather than seg-

ment-oriented. In other words, the diﬀ erent functions of the ﬁ ve aggregates, for example, ﬂ ow

into one another, rather than stopping at a ‘border’, whereat the next aggregate begins.

8. But viññāṇa is left out of the passage, even though these three cannot be disjoined.

9. ‘ Vitakketi ’ can also be rendered in English as ‘reasons about’ (Ñāṇananda, 1986: 3). Ñāṇananda

also holds that the term vitakketi ‘presupposes language’ (p. 4). The whole of Dependent Origi-

nation describes a continual remolding of saṅkhāra s , while taṇhā and upādāna (and bhava )

constitute a critical moment in that remolding. The anusaya on the other hand, express the

tendency to remold it along those lines.

10. The second factor of Dependent Origination, the saṅkhāra s , is an element of the past which

determines that we always begin from where we were, we are an extension of who we have been :

the mind tends to repeat what it has already done.

11. ‘Feedback’ here indicates how these functions of feeling and latent tendencies, perception

and thinking, craving and grasping, continuously and conditionally ‘rebirth’ themselves, with

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117

In conclusion, this could be interpreted as an emotion-cognitive model of

sense cognition, indicating that the contact-feeling-perception process results

in two streams of experience, one aﬀ ective and the other cognitive, that come

together in at craving and grasping.

Mindful awareness of bodily feelings

The Nikāya s see the unaware habitual attraction or repulsion towards one’s feel-

ings as further strengthening the anusaya s and so the habitual reactions of desire

or aversion, soteriological aﬄ ictions that become the basis of a vicious cycle of

attraction and repulsion. The sutta s therefore urge the cultivation of a complete

understanding of the nature of the feelings. For example, one passage compares

the incessant ﬂ ow of feelings in the body to the winds in the sky. It then asserts

that in fully knowing and understanding these feelings, one’s mind is puri ﬁ ed

and awakening is achieved (S IV 218).

Of the various meditation practices in the Nikāya s, the sutta s identify that of

the four establishings of mindfulness ( satipaṭṭhāna ) as being the one that eradi-

cates mental de ﬁ lements, thereby resulting in awakening (AN V 195; SN IV 235–

7). The above passage on understanding bodily feelings (SN IV 218) is an indirect

reference to the second category of satipaṭṭhāna practice, the observation of feel-

ings ( vedanānupassanā ). Based on passages such as SN IV 218, or DN I 16–17, 12 as

well as on statements internal to the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN I 55–63), it can be

asserted that the mindful observation of feelings on or in the body, gradually dis-

solves the de ﬁ lements.

The full examination as to why and how mindfully observing such body-

related phenomena have such a ‘shaking out’ eﬀ ect on the de ﬁ lements is a sub-

ject for a lengthy research project involving an in-depth analysis of the Nikāya s

and related ﬁ ndings from various disciplines in the cognitive sciences, including

experimental neuropsychology 13 and the psychology of emotions. Nevertheless,

attempting to begin to conceptualize why and how the observation of feelings

on/in the body can result in the dissolution of the de ﬁ lements is the focus of

this article. To further undertake this inquiry, now that key aspects of Nikāyan

psychological principles have been articulated, we will turn to a short analysis of

how the Nikāyan practice of the observation of feelings is taught by the Vipassanā

meditation master, S.N. Goenka. After that, we turn to the work of E.T. Gendlin

to consider how his philosophical and psychological writings understand bod-

input from ongoing sensory contact, thereby prolonging, while giving variations on an event

of anger or passion, and so on. In this way an object can be maintained in sensory perception

for extended periods of time.

12. D I 16–17. ‘Having truly understood the arising and passing away of feelings, their attraction

and peril and the deliverance from them, the Tathagata is liberated without remainder’ (trans-

lation by Walshe, 1987: 75).

13. For example the work of Damasio and Bechera (Bechara et al., 1997).

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