Acharya Goenkaji narrated his own experience.

Acharya Goenkaji narrated his own experience.

"I was also asked to keep my attention steadfastly fixed to the area at the entrance of the nostrils parimukhamṃ satiṃ upatthapetvā, that is, nāsikagge and the middle part of the upper lip uttarotthassa majjhimappadesa. 

I tried to keep my attention at this small area with the awareness of natural respiration at a stretch as long as possible. 

I understood the reason behind this technique a little later. 

In a day or two, the breath started becoming shorter and shorter, subtler and subtler, finer and finer. 

I came to know that if the area of concentration is small, the object of concentration is subtle and the continuity of the awareness is maintained uninterrupted for some time, the mind naturally becomes sharper and sharper and more and more sensitive. 

It starts feeling some sensation (vedanā) or the other on this small part of the body. This started happening on the second and the third day.

From the fourth day onwards when the meditation technique was switched to Vipassana, I was amazed to feel sensations throughout the body from the top of the head to the tips of the toes. 

With every sensation I could realise the nature of arising and passing away, which was bhāvanā-mayā paññā, to experience the nature of anicca. 

🌷 At the devotional level or the intellectual level it would have been merely suta-mayā paññā and cintā-mayā paññā, which according to my teacher cannot take us to the final goal of liberation. 

The Buddha gives importance to bhāvanā-mayā paññā, which was totally missing in my previous meditational practices. 

And now I understand that feeling of sensation on the body is the crux of the meditational teachings of the Buddha.'

[Vipassana newsletter. Sep'2001]