Vipassana meditation questions.

[hawkal]

Hi, I was reading part of an ebook about Vipassana meditation and I got to a part that suggests getting to a deeper level, to a point at which what you want in the form of material possessions become meaningless to you because you have a higher level of understanding of the world around you.

My questions is would it be ok to still have things you want and practice Vipassana meditation or does this just create tension between the two?

For example I would love a nice car, like a Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin,
I know that Vipassana meditation is about looking beyond this because there
is a much greater chance you wont ever have such things but what if you
come into a position in life where you can have such luxuries? You may meditate in such a way but that doesn't mean you should live "with out" or not try to increase your financial freedom.

Any opinions are more then welcome.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by hawkal

My questions is would it be ok to still have things you want and practice Vipassana meditation [...]?

Not being attached to something doesn't mean you can't have it, it just means that losing it or not having it no longer degrades your state of mind. Actually having something makes it much easier to let go of it, otherwise a lot of people are left thinking they'd be happy if only they could have a certain material item or experience (sex, winning the gold, or whatever).

You may find that as attachments fall away that most things no longer seem worth fighting so hard for, but it's also possible that you could become comfortable taking even more risks, not being concerned about the potential losses anymore. If your state of mind is solid no matter what happens, you can get by in most any situation. Just decide how you want to play the game for the moment and go for it.

[hawkal]

Thanks for the reply Openeyes.

So would I be right in saying that it is about breaking the connection between things you want and believing that having them will bring happiness and not about not having things you want? So it would be still be okay to want such things while fully knowing they won't always bring happiness and that you could
live a happy and fulfilled life without them.

[openeyes]

Originally Posted by hawkal

while fully knowing they won't always bring happiness and that you could live a happy and fulfilled life without them.

That'd be a fine path.

[Groundless]

Originally Posted by hawkal

My questions is would it be ok to still have things you want and practice Vipassana meditation or does this just create tension between the two?

For example I would love a nice car, like a Porsche, Ferrari, Aston Martin,
I know that Vipassana meditation is about looking beyond this because there
is a much greater chance you wont ever have such things but what if you
come into a position in life where you can have such luxuries? You may meditate in such a way but that doesn't mean you should live "with out" or not try to increase your financial freedom.

Any opinions are more then welcome.

Why? The above bold words seem to be expressions of desire.

If everything is perfectly perfect (and it is), do you deisire anything?

Let it all go. Fear not.

[reflections]

If you decide to go deep enough with Vipassana meditation a lot of desires will dissolve. That's just part of how the technique works. How deep you go however will depend on how you master the basics and learning some of the more advanced techniques. A lot of the books I've seen as well as the 10 day courses just offer the basics, as in observation of the sense doors, sensations, etc.

[Billy]

If you were to reach the state where you were not attached to material possesions you would'nt even be concerned with the right or wrongs of ownership. Its not about coming to an understanding between the two principles but actually changing a state of conciousness. One of the tenets of meditation on a very deep level and a concern to the meditator is mind. We as human beings do not understand mind. At the deepest levels all reality is false and an illusion. The creation of what is called a Tulpa is an advanced technique in creating a visual illusion in any animal form that can posses virtual life and shows the creator of it that what we experience as reality is just mind stuff.