What is Vipassana?
Reflecting on the 10-day seminar taught by S.N. Goenka
When a friend recommended I check out a Vipassana meditation course 14 years ago, on a whim I went with no expectations. The sense of peace and stillness I emerged with ten days later was something like no substance had ever given me.
Since then it’s been on my bucket list to get family and friends to experience this seminar at least once in their life because of its immeasurable benefits.
Yet, Vipassana, and meditation in general, can be shrouded in mystery, steeped in language and tradition that makes it inaccessible.
I recently completed another ten-day seminar so here’s my attempt to demystify the experience and encourage anyone reading to check this out for themselves.
What is Vipassana meditation?
Changing the mind’s habit patterns.
If I had to summarize Vipassana meditation, that would be a five-word attempt. However, in this case, succinctness only serves to obscure, so let’s take some time to unpack.
What does Vipassana mean?
Vipassana is to ‘see things as they really are’ (see also). It represents the crux of Siddhārtha Gautama’s (Buddha) teaching on the practical methodology (non-sectarian, open to people of all religious faiths and persuasions) for changing the patterns of one’s mind so one can be freed from the reactive habit of attachment (to pleasure) and aversion (to pain), ultimately leading to true peace.
How is it a meditation practice?
Meditation means many things to many people. It’s incredibly diverse.
Within the context of Vipassana (as taught in S.N Goenka’s 10-day residential course), there are two meditative practices. One focuses on observing natural breathing (respiration) to focus and still the mind; and the second focuses on observing bodily sensations to develop insight (wisdom).
Insight into what?
Insight into the nature of reality, of things as they really are.
Vipassana uses your awareness of your body’s sensations to help you gain insight (note: sensation widely encompasses everything that you feel on all parts of your body as you sit and meditate, including: itchiness, numbness, tingling, lightness, heaviness, subtle pains, sometimes intense pain, sometimes pleasurable, chills, pulsating, throbbing, dryness, perspiration, heat, cool, the feeling of the air against your skin…etc.) (See here for another practitioner’s description).
The insight you gain include: 1. How these sensations come and go (always changing, not permanent, not worth getting attached to). 2. How your mind has a habit tendency of reacting; either attaching itself to pleasure (e.g., ‘ah, this feels good, more of this please’) or having an aversion to pain (e.g., ‘ouch, ugh, this hurts, let’s not do this again’). 3. When sensations come and go, and you spend your life chasing the sensations, you identify with the things you’re chasing (e.g., I want that car/mansion/status symbol because, it gives me this positive sensation that comes with a sense of status, accomplishment, so those things are mine), but really there is no ‘you’ chasing. And finally, 4. Not seeing things as they are being the source of unhappiness in life.
What is Vipassana not?
It’s not an organized religion. Its principles are universal.
(However, the methodology — theory and practice — was discovered and taught by the Buddha, so it shares an affinity in language and concepts with Buddhism. But it really is open to all) (see response to ‘Do I have to be a buddhist to practice Vipassana?’)
It’s not a philosophical or academic endeavor (i.e., debates, discussion).
There is theory, but within a 10-day course, practice is given primacy.
Now, as there is theory, there is a system of belief which one can explore (here and here). But personally, I find it helpful to err on the side of practice when starting out. The 10-day course is self-contained, you do not need to do any outside reading prior to the course.
10-day Course: Rules, Structure and Curriculum
Not a Retreat
When you google ‘meditation retreat’, here is an image that comes up. The word ‘meditation retreat’ connotes certain moods, tones and atmospheres.
One may think about relaxed sessions beach-side or at a remote resort.
Perhaps one imagines light yoga interspersed with meditation, capped off with a spa-like experience.
A 10-day Vipassana meditation course does NOT look or feel like this image. I wouldn’t even use the word ‘retreat’ to describe the experience. It’s 100% not a vacation. It’s not a weekend getaway, nor an opportunity to catchup and socialize with peers.
Quite frankly, it’s intense work and requires commitment. In fact, the phrase ‘work patiently, work ardently, work diligently’ was repeated at around 30+ times throughout the 10-days.
There is a strict code of discipline that is expected and maintained throughout the 10-days. Perhaps the most jarring for people is the silence. No form of communication with any other student including speaking, signaling, eye-contact or physical contact is allowed (however, you are permitted to speak to management and the instructors pertaining to anything inhibiting your practice).
Physically Strenuous
In addition, the days are highly structured starting at 4:00am and ending at 9:00pm (see here for details). Up to twelve hours a day are spent in meditative practice.
Although this was my third course, it had been fourteen years since my previous course and, initially, I had tremendous difficulty sitting on the meditation mats provided (see picture). I don’t have a regular yoga practice and, prior to the course, did not have regular opportunities to sit crossed-legged, let alone full or partial lotus position, in any capacity for any substantial length of time.
My first days were extremely uncomfortable, so much that on the third day, I approach the course staff to ask if I could use a chair during meditation. He quickly replied, “you’ll have to ask permission from the instructor”, as I had not signed up for a chair prior to the course. So, at noon, I signed up to consult with the main instructor.
I requested a chair as I thought the discomfort, bordering on pain, was to the point where I had to change positions just after fifteen minutes of sitting (each session lasts at least an hour) and this was hindering my ability to practice.
Sensing my plight, she smiled calmly and with compassion said:
“I know it’s uncomfortable, but I want you to try sticking it out for another day”.
Yes, my Vipassana meditation teacher basically told me to toughen up and stop being a baby. But there was good reason for this.
First, the nature of Vipassana meditation is such that whatever pain you’re feeling, it’s magnified under focused attention and awareness. The point of Vipassana meditation is to observe the reality of the moment and remain detached from it. If that ‘moment’ includes discomfort/pain, you’re thus resisting your mind’s reflexive tendency to move away from this (conversely, the tendency to move towards anything pleasurable).
Therefore, discomfort is actually an important tool that you leverage within the framework of your body and mind to develop insight. In Vipassana meditation, discomfort is magnified yet leveraged.
Who knew the path towards peace lies through discomfort and, at times, pain?
Of course, the point is not to put you through pain and if you’re physically limited, chairs are provided (my 68-yrs old mother requested a chair prior to the course so did not have these difficulties).
Course Curriculum
One aspect of this 10-day Vipassana course that does not get discussed enough is the thoughtful curriculum. The technical title of the seminar is “Vipassana Meditation, taught by S.N. Goenka, in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin”. S.N. Goenka’s 10-day courses take after the tradition started by Sayagyi U Ba Khin in the 1950’s so the course structure has had decades to turn into what it is today. It should be no surprise that the curriculum is well thought out.
The foundational element of Vipassana meditation, ethical practice, is cultivated outside of the meditation hall in the form of eight ethical practices. New students can observe the first five, existing students must observe all eight rules (see also). These include refraining from: 1. killing, 2. stealing, 3. lying, 4. consuming intoxicants/substances, 5. sexual misconduct, 6. eating any time after noon, 7. consuming entertaining content (i.e., music, movies, singing, dancing or wearing cologne), 8. sleeping on luxurious bedding*
There is good reason to observe these eight practices, particularly during the 10-day course. Breaking any of the rules, in addition to other rules explained in the code of conduct, will destabilize one’s mind and hinder one’s meditative practice. These eight rules are pre-requisites, the price of admission. These pre-requisites are foundational to Vipassana meditation and are to be strictly observed over the duration of the course.
The next major component of the course is developing concentration and sharpness of mind through meditation that focuses on observing respiration. This is the focus of Day 1–3. You are taken from observing your own natural respiration (i.e., all types of breaths, shallow, deep, left nostril, right nostril or both) with an increasingly smaller area of focus (i.e., whole nostril to the area just above your upper lips) to at once still and sharpen your awareness.
Again, the meditative practices in this tradition are very specific. There is careful explanation as to why there is focus on the natural breath as opposed to any other meditative objects that people might be familiar with from other traditions (i.e., abdomen-focused, imagery-focused, sound-focused, counting).
While going into the details of why the practice is beyond the scope of this article, suffice to say there is a reason for everything. The point is, during these 10-days, to give fair trial to the practice and follow its instructions as given.
Day 4, called Vipassana day, is when the course’s namesake gets introduced. Having sufficiently stabilized and sharpened the mind, you are ready to move onto the second meditative practice of observing bodily sensations (see above).
It is said that while various meditative practices to improve sharpness of mind exists in other traditions, the unique insights gained from observing body sensations is unique to this method and is the focus from Day 4 onwards. Different ways of exploring body sensations are introduced, with increasing complexity of methodology introduced slowly over the duration of the course.
Psychology: A brief detour
Throughout this article, I elude to Vipassana meditation’s impact on “the mind”, specifically changing its habit patterns of reacting to positive/negative sensations.
Psychology (not to mention a plethora of self-help books) has explored the science of changing habits at the behavioral and cognitive levels (sometimes touching on subconscious, automatic processes), but a distinction needs to be made from Vipassana which focuses primarily at the deeper unconscious level.
From the perspective of western, academic psychology, habits are routine behaviors that occur after repetition, often subconsciously. These behaviors are generally observable actions (i.e., opening the Facebook tab on your computer, checking your favorite social media account when picking up your phone, or drinking a glass of water upon waking up) that depend on various schedules of reinforcement and conditioning. The fascination with habits are the automatic nature of the behaviors, learned over time.
Vipassana meditation also seeks to get at habits — learned, automatic responses — but instead of targeting observable behavioral habit patterns, it targets the mind’s unconscious, unobservable habit patterns.
While the behavioral habits take on a variety of forms depending on the different schedules of conditioning and reinforcement, the mind has two fundamental habit patterns: attachment to pleasurable sensations and aversion to unpleasant sensations.
Perhaps the closest conceptualization is Freud’s pleasure principle — the instinctive seeking of pleasure and avoidance of pain to satisfy the id’s needs. Freud went on to contrast the pleasure principle with the reality principle that suggests that as we mature we can delay gratification, implying that we do not simply give in to our impulses.
While it is true that adults can delay gratification for things that it can consciously control, the habit tendency towards pleasure and away from pain often happens at the reactionary, pre-conscious level and Vipassana meditation teaches us how to get at this root level (that affects people of all ages, young and old).
Avoiding Pitfalls
The mind’s reactionary tendencies are so deep rooted, so subtle and nuanced that even while meditating, there are pitfalls that can derail the beginning meditator.
Upon reflection, I think this is what happened to me during my first two Vipassana courses. I had been overly concerned with finding the ‘right’ sensations (i.e., the pleasant, free-flow, tingling sensations, combined with the stillness that comes with deep absorptive concentration), that once I found these, I unwittingly, found myself attached to these positive sensations.
I had fallen into the ‘games of sensation’ trap that S.N. Goenka goes to great lengths to urge practitioners to avoid. Thus, the nature of sensations — pleasant or unpleasant — is not the barometer of progress. Above all else, progress is measured by our ability to remain equanimous across all sensations.
Equanimity is how progress is measured in Vipassana meditation.
Summary
Above all else, Vipassana meditation should be practical. One should find immediate benefit, in the here and now. I’ve certainly found mental benefits. I’m much more still, centered, less anxious but I know this will slowly fade as I reintegrate back into the chaos of real life.
The difference is, this time, I’ve resolved to keep practicing. If Vipassana meditation is to be of use, you should be a more compassionate and kind person. I think these outcomes are longer term in nature and, for me personally, will require continued practice (i.e., I don’t see myself as more kind or compassionate, yet).
Hopefully, this has somewhat demystified Vipassana meditation.
Yet, reading this is still just an intellectual exercise. Vipassana is useless so long as it remains an intellectual exercise. I encourage you to get skin in the game, to experience it directly, for yourself and sign up here.
May all beings be happy.
