Winter Meditation Series: Vipassana Meditation
As part of our Winter Meditation Series, this episode explores the foundations of Vipassana meditation, an ancient practice the Buddha used to attain enlightenment.
Vipassana invites us to slow down and observe what’s here, just as it is. Sensations, breath, thoughts, and emotions are met with mindfulness and pure witnessing.
In this episode, I first share a brief overview of what Vipassana meditation is and how it’s traditionally practiced. Then, you’ll be guided through a simple Vipassana meditation you can return to throughout the season.
This practice is ideal if you’re seeking more presence, clarity, and calm throughout your days.
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Transcription:
Vipassana is the form of meditation Buddha used to attain enlightenment. It is a simple but profound practice of focusing on the breath and the sensations of the body. The practice was lost for hundreds of years eventually reintroduced on a global scale by a man from Burma named Goenka. He began 10-day Vipassana meditation courses for sentient beings to learn the practice. The amazing thing is that these courses are all run by a donation. When you arrive, you are treated exactly the same way as every other person there. You are given a simple bed and three meals a day.
Without the thought, I paid for this, therefore everything should be a certain way, we dampen the ego and use the time on retreat as if we were a monk. With all of our food and lodging provided, everything has been given to us. I sat my Vipassana course in Dharamkot, India, a village just north of the Dalai Lama's temple, a few years ago. The first few days of the retreat we solely focused on the breath. The breath is considered the vehicle to better understand the voluntary and involuntary functions of the body. By tuning into the breath we come in closer connection to all the functions of the involuntary body, our heartbeat and the other organs that continue to work without our mind consciously telling them to.
After focusing the mind through the breath to a single pointed focus, awareness is then brought to the sensations. The idea is as humans, we experience craving to pleasurable sensations and aversion to painful sensations. However, there is no way around experiencing both. Our job through the practice is to become a witness to both of them and simply watch. Whether a painful or pleasurable sensation arises, we learn through the body it eventually passes away. By having a direct experience of this impermanence on a physical and cellular level, we can have a greater understanding of the nature of life. All is impermanent. All will rise and pass away. When I sat my course, I had a lot of pain arise in my body. A lot of these sensations that were difficult that I wanted to push away. And in the practice, I believe we call them our sankaras. And these difficult sensations that come up are really there. They're past karmas. There's things coming up to really
help us move through and release. And when we are able to come into a place of being a witness, to just notice them and not be attached to those sensations, they eventually pass. And we realize that we are something so much more than our body, our physical sensations. We can transcend them. We can release them. And only in our unattachment is when they begin to dissipate. Everything is impermanent, especially the body. The body is continually dying and renewing itself on a cellular level. When we understand impermanence within ourselves, we let go of our strong attachments to the things and people around us and eventually to the strongest attachment of all, life itself. Through the Vipassana meditation practice, You can close your eyes. Turn to the breath.
Relax your eyes, relax your jaw. Without any straining or trying to change anything in this moment, just notice. Notice the inhalation and the exhalation. See if you can become so focused on the breath that you can even feel the exhale brush against the little hairs on your upper lip. When you feel you have brought your mind into a state of focus, bring your awareness to the crown of the head. Now begin to notice the sensations in the body. Maybe you feel a tingling or an itchiness somewhere. Or maybe you feel pain somewhere in your body. Just notice it. Don't try to push it away. Just become a witness. all is impermanent, all will rise and pass away. Our job is to maintain equanimity through all craving and aversion, to become that silent watcher, noticing it all.
You can move your awareness from the crown of the head all down the sides of the head. Notice the eyebrows, the eyes. Notice the jawbone. The back of the hand. Notice the nose. The lips, teeth, the chin. And the awareness to the neck. Front and the back. Notice the tops of the shoulders. shoulder. armpit. front of the chat. the solar plexus, the belly button, the lower belly. And move your way down the back, top of the back. A lower path. It is the hip. Bye. It's easier for you, you can notice one leg at a time, or you can do both at the same time. The knee, the shin, the calves, ankles, tops of the feet, soles of the feet, all the way to the tips of the toes.
And when you find yourself at the tips of the toes, bring your awareness all the way back up through the body from the tips of the toes to the crown of the head. And when you reach the crown of the head, again, scan the body with your awareness from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes. And through this practice, we are just noticing all of the sensations in the body we come into contact with a direct experience of impermanence. We realize that everything in this body, all these sensations, they arise, they pass away. And this is the nature of life. When we release our attachments, we can move through life with equanimity. We're no longer swayed by difficult situations. We know that everything arises and passes away. We can be in the state of stillness and contentment throughout all walks of life.
Notice your breath. Continue moving with the sensations of the body, bringing no special attention to any part. Just notice. All is impermanent. Notice the breath. What is this sensation? Now continue with this form of meditation, as long as you please.
