Ariya B. Baumann left her career as a music and dance teacher in favour of her deep yearing to understand herself and the world. Based on her many years of practice, twenty-one of them as a nun in the Burmese tradition, she now lays a strong emphasis on the practice of loving-kindness (including metta chants) as a basis for the vipassana meditation practice. She has translated a number of Dhamma books from Burmese to English and German, among these are Mahasi Sayadaw’s ‘Manual of Insight’. She is a co-founder and president of ‘Metta In Action’ which supports a variety of social and medical projects throughout Burma, especially nunneries.
The reflection on death helps us prepare for this unavoidable fact, makes us look at our priorities, and brings much gratitude, joy, and lightness into our life.
Walking Meditation is an important and integral part of meditation practice with many amazing benefits. It facilitates insights into the four primary elements, conditionality, or the not-self nature of phenomena.
Thoughts are part of our existence as human beings. With the practice of meditation, the nature of the thought processes in particular and the nature of the mind can be understood by closely observing these thoughts whenever they arise.
The latent defilements are the base from which they manifest as either obsessive or transgressive defilements. Their abandoning, temporary or complete, can be acheived by the threefold training in virtue, concentration, and wisdom.
The three trainings in virtue, concentration, and wisdom enable a practitioner to suppress or abandon the different levels of defilements. But only the practice of vipassana mediation is able to completely uproot them.
Aversion and anger are states that need to be thoroughly understood. When applying bare awareness is impossible, we can deal with them by using some contemplations or other practical methods
We need to see and understand the true nature of craving and attachment in order to abandon them. However, besides mindful observation there are other ways to deal with craving and attachment.
When practicing meditation we can observe different sensations in the body, feelings, states of mind, and mind objects. They are as they are – and we need to recognize and understand that.
In dealing with the demons of the mind that is with all the emotions and mental states causing fear, sorrow, attachment or any other sort of mental anquish we are able to courageously face them with bare awareness. When this awareness or mindfulness is strong without reacting to the experience, even the worst enemies are dissolved like the morning mist in the rising sun.
How can we best make use of our material possessions, body and mind with regard to our spiritual practice? How can they be a support in our quest for liberation? The essences to be extracted from our material possessions, body and mind are generosity, virtue and meditation.
The practice of lovingkindness yields powerful and unexpected results both in formal meditation practice and in our daily life. Getting a thorough understanding of the spirit of metta helps to cultivate a genuine and selfless feeling of lovingkindness.
