Page 49 - Dhamma Practice

have the intention to choose how we contemplate. If we wish to focus on the descriptive reality, we will listen for the content. This is sometimes necessary when we listen to dhamma. If we wish to remember (the content), we need to enlarge our mind to be bigger than the sound, to absorb the story. But, if we wish to use the sound to contemplate the emergence-cessation phenomenon, we should put our awareness or our mind at the same place as the sound. And, contemplate the emergence-cessation of that sound. If our awareness is really in the present, we would only experience the emergence-cessation of the sound but we would not understand its content. Therefore, it depends on what our intention is.
When we contemplate the physical body within the physical body, we also see our mind. We do not only know that our body is suffering, that it is hot, that it is cold, or that it is in pain. Where we feel ache, stiffness, numbness, itchiness, tautness—all these that happen to our body are sensations within the “Vedananupassana Satipatthana”. This is called the contemplation of sensation within sensation. There are two types of sensation: Physical sensations that include pain, ache, stiffness, numbness, itchiness, tautness, and heaviness. And, mind sensations that include feeling airy, uncluttered, unburdened, light, happy, and neutral. In dhamma language, we talk about happiness, suffering, equanimity (upekkha), sadness (domanassa), happiness (sommanassa)—these are all
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