A Study of Vipassana Practice in Phassamulaka Sutta

Abstract

This article aimed 1) to study the contents and teachings in Phassāmūlākā sutta and 2) to study the development of Vipassana in Phassāmūlākā sutta. In this study, it was documentary research by studying information from Theravada Buddhist scriptures, related documents, collecting, summarizing, analyzing, and compiling in descriptive style. The results of the research revealed that Phassāmūlākā sutta is the discourse concerning on 3 aspects of feeling: 1) pleasurable or Sukhavedanā, 2) unpleasurable or Dukkhavedanā, and 3) Non-pleasure or Ubekkhāvedanā which arises from contact, having contact as its cause, having contact as its factor. Vedanā means feeling experiencing of the objects. Categorized by its nature, the experience of feeling; happiness, unhappiness, equanimity, and contact means touch, impact, and right that caused internal sensations such as eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, and external sensations such as form, sound, smell, taste, contact, mental objects, and consciousness. 2) The cultivation of Vipassana in Phassāmūlākā sutta focuses on the determination of the senses arising through the six rectums by pursuing knowledge according to 3 feelings based on Vedanānupassanāsatipaṭṭhāna: (1) observing the happy feeling  referring to bodily happiness such as clearness, comfort, or feeling of inner happiness, (2) observing the bodily suffering such as pain, heat, cold, tiredness, or mental suffering, and (3) determining the neutral feelings, neither happiness nor suffering, or indifference of the mind as they really are. The benefits of Vipassana meditation practice found Phassamūlasutta was that it can lead to the elimination of defilements, the end of impurities, and finally attaining the Noble Path, the Fruits, and Nibbana.