Beginning of the Insight Meditation

This is an occasional complaint: “Venerable Sir, I practise Insight Meditation (Vipassana). However, when I meditate I don't see anything.”

Your mind observes but nothing is observed. If this is so, look again at the mind that is not observing anything. A mind that observes nothing passes away without observing anything. With your wisdom (nana) again observe the mind that observes nothing. The unknowing mind passes away. Observe it to understand this passing away. This passing away is known as "impermanence" (anicca). Knowledge of this passing away is known as the "path" (magga). If you cannot practise Insight Meditation, then meditate on the mind that is unable to do so. 

You may think this is very strange. But it is perfectly normal. You see the object of meditation but you don’t know how to meditate. Thus I have to teach you. You say you cannot meditate although the object of meditation is present. Your mind is looking at the meditation object but its passing away is not noticed. When you practise Insight Meditation, the unknowing mind may arise in you. That mind should be noticed by wisdom (nana). When you observe it, it has already disappeared. As mentioned earlier, the passing away of the unknowing mind is “impermanence (anicca).” Knowledge of this passing away is the "path" (magga, i.e. lokiya-magga, vipassana-magga).”

What is this meditation method? This is a method in accordance with the Buddha’s teaching: “Samohacittam samohacittanti pajanati, Comprehend the consciousness accompanied by ignorance (moha) as it is.” Understand? When you cannot meditate on anything, when you cannot observe anything, ignorance (moha) is taking place in you. Make this consciousness your meditation object. You can observe it though it cannot observe anything.

What kind of meditation is this? This is “cittanupassana.” This is “dhammanupassana.” Knowing the dissolution of unknowing mind is “cittanupassana.” Knowing the mind in trouble is “dhammanupassana.” All are included. Now can you practise the Insight Meditation?

Please note that the beginning of the Insight Meditation is knowing the unknowing mind.

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Ref (25 May 2011):

(“၀ိပႆနာအစ မသိတဲ့စိတ္က စ၍ ႐ႈရပံု အလုပ္ေပးတရားေတာ္”၊ မိုးကုတ္ဆရာေတာ္၊ အလုပ္ေပးတရားေတာ္ အမွတ္စဥ္ - ၂)

“The Beginning of the Insight Meditation is the Unknowing Mind”, Moegok Sayadaw,

http://dhammadownload.com/MP3Library/Mogok-Mp3-Ver2/AlotePayTaYar/AlotePayTaYar-D02/001-MoGokSayaDaw-INSIGHT-MEDITATION-BASIC.mp3

Picture from (28 May 2011): http://alinsek.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-post_833.html

Translation is mine.