What is VIPASSANA and its benefits

What is Vipassana?

The word Vipassana is a Sanskrit word that means Insight, Clear Vision Or Special Vision. Vi means ‘multi,’ and ‘passana’ means watching. So literally, it means watching a thing from multiple dimensions or facets and gauging its reality or the truth inherent in it.

Vipassana is thus a type of meditation practice. It originates from Buddhist teachings and is one of the oldest mindfulness meditation practices. It is derived from Satipatthana Sutta or Foundations of Mindfulness, a discourse by the Buddha himself.

It involves focusing on the sensations of the body to gain insight into the nature of reality and the self. It is often practiced in silent retreats and is known for its emphasis on mindfulness and non-judgmental observation. The meditator gets trained progressively to notice more of his flowing life experience.

Objectives of Vipassana

It is a codified system of training your mind, teaching you meditation through:

Listening attentively, seeing mindfully and testing what you perceive carefully.
Learning to touch fully, smell acutely and to pay full attention to the experiences happening around you.
The main objective of Vipassana is to practice and learn to see the truth of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of phenomena.

Types of Vipassana

Kayanupassana: Kaya in Sanskrit means ‘Body,’ and ‘upassana’ means worship. Kayanupassana means to worship one’s body as a temple. In Buddhism, it is the practice of observing one’s body while doing meditation.
Vedananupassana: This form of Vipassana is the practice of being mindful of your feelings. They can be either painful or happy feelings. Vedana in Sanskrit means ‘pain.’ Thus Vedananupassana is the worship or deep observation of one’s feelings.
Cittanupassana: Citta refers to ‘Chitta’ or mind in Sanskrit. This form of Vipassana is the study of the mind and the intelligence and thoughts revolving in the Chitta.
Dhammanupassana: Dhamma in Sanskrit means upliftment or upholding. Dhammanupassana type of Vipassana is the upliftment of our spiritual beings through mindfulness of our Mental Objects.

Benefits of Vipassana

Clarity of Vision: As a result of the consistent, daily, silent practice of Vipassana meditation, you will observe an all-pervading peace of mind and a clarity of vision about your life. You will gain knowledge of what you want in life. Your goals will be clear to you, and you will get a sense of what your future will look like. This clear vision will give direction to your dreams and will keep you on the right path to achieving them. Having clarity of vision also helps you to stay persistently committed to your path, even during difficult or turbulent times.
Composed Mental State: Helping you to achieve a calm and composed state of mind is one of the main teachings of Vipassana meditation. It helps you to embrace all outcomes in your life through the understanding that your joy or suffering is not a cause of your circumstances or experiences but rather your response to them. It teaches you to remain equanimous and accept everything without any judgment or reaction. You learn not to cling to an enjoyable experience as well as to let go of bad experiences.
Detox: Vipassana meditation is a form of detoxification of your mind. It usually is a 10-day period of noble silence. No reading or writing material and no electronic devices are permitted in that period. This allows you to focus totally on your meditation practice. This helps you to regulate and slow down your chaotic thoughts and go into deep meditation. In today’s busy world, with so many distractions around us, it is essential to detox our minds.
Victory over Illusion or Maya: Shedding the bonds of Maya is one of the main purposes of learning the art of Vipassana meditation. Maya is an illusion or unreality, trying to pull us away from the reality of our existence. When we identify ourselves with our names, minds and bodies and ignore our spiritual nature, which is inherent to our real being, we become prisoners of our desires, attachments and consequent actions. We come under the bondage of Maya. this blocks our senses and vision, and we are unable to see clearly and see the truth. Vipassana is a cleansing of the body and minds to help you see the reality of this existence. Your mind is calmed, and you eventually free yourself from worldly desires, emotions, attachments, expectations and attractions.
Self-love: When you start taking care of yourself and stop pleasing others, you start on the journey of self-love. Being stuck in an unfulfilling career, having poor finances, and having bad relationships are signs of not loving yourself enough. Vipassana teaches you self-love without being selfish. You learn to accept yourself with all your flaws and limitations and have a positive outlook about yourself and your views.
Letting go of selfishness: When you have a self-centered mind that thinks and cares only about yourself and disregards others’ feelings, then it becomes the root cause of many mental illnesses like personality disorders, anxiety, depression etc. Vipassana teaches you to focus on the outward life and does away with a selfish attitude.
Reduces overthinking: When inyou overthink about the next step you have to take in your life in order to achieve your life’s goals and plans, then this acts as a barrier to your success. When your mind is occupied with unnecessary thoughts, then productive thoughts can in not get a foothold. This results in apathy of mind and actions, stress and illnesses and diseases. With regular practice of Vipassana, one can overcome the problem of overthinking and focus the mind on the right path.
Improves lung capacity: The parasympathetic nervous system regulates the heart rate. Due to the sustained practice of Vipassana meditation, one can activate this system to slow down the heart rate, which results in decreased production of carbon dioxide and an increase in bicarbonates. This helps in making the lungs efficient. This, in turn, has great physical, mental, and emotional benefits. One gets improved immunity and quality of sleep and reduced stress and anxiety.
Increase concentration: Relaxation changes the structure and function of the brain. As a result of vipassana meditation, your focus, concentration and memory are enhanced. This leads to more creativity and faster problem-solving skills. To focus on one task at a time is a difficult skill in today’s multitasking world, but it can be possible through Vipassana.
Understand the concept of impermanence: Nothing is permanent in this life and in this world. When we learn to accept this reality of impermanence, only then can we accept things as and when they are and not hanker after wishful thinking. A major cause of stress-related diseases in life. You realize that your body and all your possessions will one day leave you. Through Vipassana meditation, you will learn the art of letting go.

Conclusion

In Vipassana, you simply observe your inner self rather than trying to control your experiences. Regular practice of Vipassana helps you to quieten your mind, focus on the present, and accept your thoughts, emotions and different sensations as they present themselves. It helps you to dwell less on your past and worry less about your future.

However, it is advisable to learn Vipassana either through step-by-step guidance of meditation recording or by attending a Vipassana meditation course for personalized guidance.