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mind sensations. In brief, all feelings of suffering or happiness that emerges in our mind.
When we sit and practice vipassana, we all experience sensation, correct? After we sit for nearly one hour, they begin to appear. For some, after just 30 minutes, they already start—perhaps, a back ache, a shoulder ache, pain in the legs, and pain at the impact point. Some will experience headache. These are all sensations. Sometimes we wonder what causes these sensations. Are they caused by our defilements? Are they caused by our stress? Are they caused by natural conditions? We need to observe these. As we sit in the same position for a prolonged period, bodily sensations emerge. This is the nature of our physical body.
What benefits can we gain from contemplating sensations? Sensations phenomenon has two parts— physical and mind sensations. Physical sensations such as when pain emerges, the first thing we must contemplate is whether the pain that emerges and the mind that experiences it—are they one or are they separate? This is what we must contemplate, not only to “think” that they are separate. If we “think”, it means that we do not “see”, but we merely use deduction or logic. When we use deduction or logic, we cannot experience clearly when the natural conditions indicate that sensations phenomenon is not stable. We only know that sensations emerge, that pain emerges, but we do not know when they cease. We also