I never find the exact words to recall my experience of the 10-day Vipassana Meditation retreat, so I try to evade the question every time people ask me about it. How has the meditation changed my life? I know how it feels to live the change, but my effort to find the words that can perfectly convey the essence of that change is futile.
Vipassana is a method of introspection that is more about doing and experiencing than talking or telling. When I try to write about it, I become acutely aware of the shallowness of my words. [break]
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In Vipassana meditation camp, 10 days of self-consented imprisonment is a strange feeling—where you are away from words and the world. Ten days of total silence (of mind, body and speech) and withdrawal from the happening world brings one face to face with one’s stark inner reality. In this journey to the center of the ‘self’, exploration becomes intense—memories burst like dormant volcanoes, thoughts swirl like tsunamis, unconscious stirs.
Meditation in Vippassana is about moment to moment acceptance of reality. Starting from breath and gradually moving to the actual sensations of the body—painful or pleasurable, there is no moving away from reality. And very often, this encounter with reality becomes painful. For the first three days, meditators learn to become aware of the simple reality of breath coming in and going out through the process called Anapana. Anapana is a Pali word for incoming and outgoing breath.
Though it’s difficult to get hold of straying attention, the result is more than a simple revelation. It gives the actual firsthand experience of how our mind is conditioned, the realization of the insanity we all live with. The mind may slip back into the past, leap into the future, or lose itself into the false pleasure of imagination ignoring the present reality. Thus we realize how we ignore the most vital part of our existence—‘Now.’
Constant vigilance over the breath results in the subtlety of mind preparing meditators to the deeper surgical operation through cleansing of stockpile of karmas on the fourth day by the process called Vipassana. Vipassana is a Pali word meaning ‘insight’ or ‘to see things as they really are’. It means mentally scanning the body from head to feet and feet to head, detached awareness of the sensations that arise in the body and its acceptance without judgment i.e. without craving and aversion.
It is a way to dig deeper into the unconscious. In this process, subconscious and unconscious come alive, accumulations of past actions and deeds get excavated, and forgotten things, suppressed animosity, and attachments all start floating to the surface.
Meditators merely observe everything as a bystander, they watch them arise and vanish, they watch them bring joy and pain to their body, but remain in equanimity. In continuous equanimity, the accumulations of past deeds or mental conditionings called ‘sankharas’ lose their intensity and are eradicated, leaving the mind purer and cleaner. On the tenth day, meditators share this delight and peace with the entire universe through another meditation technique called the “Metta Bhavana” or the meditation of Loving Kindness.
Vipassana, the path of Buddha, or the path to enlightenment, leads inside. Though it is not possible to walk out enlightened in a single course, certainly the meditators come out a little illuminated about the art of living without being miserable and without making others miserable.
Through introspection, Vipassana makes us realize that until we consider the outside world responsible for our happiness or blame it for our misery, we can never live a happy life. It is something that can be translated into living, and if translated properly, holds the capacity to change life in a positive way.
Be it in professional or family life, anger, hatred, stress, frustration, and pain are words that describe our everyday state of mind. And the solutions our mind devises are often mere escapisms. For example, one escapes into drinking as an easy solution to the frustration with work or friends.
This escape entangles one in the web of further frustration, and the problem aggravates. This alteration of state of mind is the first tangible effect that Vipassana has on its practitioners. Regular and proper practice of Vipassana leads to the eradication of the emotions and reactions that hold our life in the labyrinth of endless miseries.
The obvious result is the readiness for acceptance. The moment to moment acceptance of reality through introspection results in improved relationships, increased efficiency, positive thinking, positive living, and a better ability to deal with everyday stress. It makes us the master of our emotions, our deeds, and of our lives as a whole.
What is Vipassana ?
Vipassana is the meditation technique practiced and taught by Buddha. Buddha achieved enlightenment with this technique of meditation. To learn this meditation, one can attend a 10-day course in any Vipassana meditation center in Nepal or around the world. Two 10-day courses are held every month.
This meditation is practiced in three stages, Sila—discipline, Samadhi—concentration and Pragya—enlightenment or wisdom. For Sila, meditators have to take five precepts—to abstain from killing any being, to abstain from stealing, to abstain from sexual activity, to abstain from telling lies, and to abstain from intoxicants. During the course, meditators are asked to practice noble silence, that is, the silence of body, speech and mind.
They cannot have conversation of any kind with fellow meditators. This practice of Sila leads to Samadhi or Concentration, which gradually leads to Pragya or wisdom. Vipassana is a non sectarian meditation practice for mental purification, which in turn helps eradicate the sufferings and miseries of life.
Vipassana Teacher SN Goenka passed away last month. He was the man behind the revival of the 2500 year old meditation technique practiced and taught by Gautam Buddha. He brought back Vipassana meditation to Nepal (the birthplace of Buddha) in 1981. This article is a tribute to SN Goenka, a householder saint who reminded many like me that suffering is a choice and there is a way out of it.
The author is A-level English Language teacher at Chelsea International Academy
Paudel.smita@gmail.com
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