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Zen
What Is Vipassana Meditation?
The History of the Vipassana Movement
How to Practice Vipassana Meditation
Why Do We Focus on the Breath?
What Is a Vipassana Meditation Retreat?
What Is Vipassana?
Vipassana, the Pali word translated as “insight,” is a term that means clear awareness of exactly what is happening as it happens. Vipassana means seeing things as they truly are, not how they appear. Together with samatha, or calm abiding, Vipassana is the quality of mind described in the Pali canon that is essentiall to develop in order to escape suffering. In a modern context, Vipassana has become synonymous with Vipassana meditation, a mindfulness practice of concentrating on a stream of experience, typically the rise and fall of the breath, with the goal of developing insight, or wisdom.
It is important to note that the widespread practice of insight meditation as a practice of observing thoughts, the breath, or other sensations doesn’t not exclude insight from other Buddhist meditation practices. As teacher, writer, and scholar Stephen Batchelor notes, “Vipassana is central to all forms of Buddhist meditation practice. The distinctive goal of any Buddhist contemplative tradition is a state in which inner calm (samatha) is unified with insight (Vipassana). Over the centuries, each tradition has developed its own methods for actualizing this state.”
Repeated Vipassana practice allows practitioners to go beyond blind faith and to experience for themselves the truths that the Buddha taught. This is crucial because the Buddha described the dharma as ehipassiko, meaning “come and see for yourself.” Vipassana practitioners will come to know the nature of impermanence that defines everything, as well as the suffering that arises from clinging to experience. They will see that everything is interdependent, and that the construct of the self is as impermanent and conditioned as everything else. For an experienced Vipassana practitioner, craving or aversion loosens its hold, equanimity arises, and suffering diminishes.
The History of the Vipassana Movement
Before the term Vipassana largely came to connote practice, meditation was, for the most part, practiced by monks and nuns. But in late-19th-century Myanmar (formerly Burma), to protect their religion after British colonization, monks started teaching meditation to laypeople, with an emphasis on Vipassana meditation, mindfulness of thoughts, and sensations in the body, moment to moment. Burmese meditation teachers Ledi Sayadaw, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, and Mahasi Sayadaw became well-known figures in the Vipassana movement.
Vipassana meditation spread within the country with the establishment of two major meditation centers, the International Meditation Center and Thathana Yeiktha Meditation Centre, both in Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Then it spread internationally. By the mid-20th century, Mahasi Sayadaw had set up meditation centers and taught Vipassana in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, elsewhere in Asia, and in the West. Later, Indian teachers S. N. Goenka and Dipa Ma, and American teachers Ruth Denison, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, and Joseph Goldstein would continue to spread Vipassana practice. In 1975, Kornfield, Salzberg, and Goldstein founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.
Read more about how colonialism sparked the global Vipassana movement.
How to Practice Vipassana Meditation
The Satipatthana Sutta—”The Establishing of Mindfulness Discourse”—from the Pali canon contains detailed instructions for how to practice mindfulness meditation, with the goal of developing tranquility and wisdom. When this mindfulness meditation is practiced with the goal of developing wisdom, or insight, it is Vipassana meditation.
To practice Vipassana meditation, practitioners typically follow the rise and fall of the breath, noting the sensation of the breath without trying to control it. When the mind wanders, practitioners should simply note those sensations, emotions, or thoughts, and then return to the breath.
Read Joseph Goldstein’s detailed instructions for Vipassana meditation following the breath.
This practice sharpens concentration and helps the mind attune to increasingly subtle sensations. As world-renowned Burmese meditation master S. N. Goenka explains, turning toward the senses, instead of away, reveals the clinging—the craving or aversion—that follows. Clearly seeing these cravings and aversions, and their impermanence, loosens their grip; practitioners may begin to respond, instead of react, and act with equanimity.
Read S. N. Goenka on the crucial role of the body in Vipassana practice.
Why Do We Focus on the Breath?
As Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk Bhante Henepola Gunaratana explains, the breath “serves as that vital reference point from which the mind wanders and is drawn back. Distraction cannot be seen as distraction unless there is some central focus to be distracted from. That is the frame of reference against which we can view the incessant changes and interruptions that go on all the time as a part of normal thinking.” The breath is also always with us, an anchor that is reliable as it is motion. Practitioners who have trouble breathing, or for whom focusing on the breath is more difficult, may find another stream of experience, like listening, to concentrate on.
Vipassana and Samatha
While Vipassana is referenced in the Pali canon, samatha and jhana, the deep levels of concentration that samatha can lead to, appear more frequently. Where Vipassana comes up, it appears alongside samatha. Some practice Vipassana and samatha in succession, with samatha offering the stabilization to practice or achieve Vipassana. As meditation teacher Narayan Helen Liebenson explains, “With calmness as our foundation, as the mental chatter begins to calm itself and cease, wisdom has a greater chance of emerging, of thriving, of growing.” But in certain traditions, these practices or aims can also be viewed as complementary, to be engaged together. As author and meditation teacher Lama Rod Owens explains, “In the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, the goal is to practice calm abiding and insight in union and, ultimately, realize the true nature of mind.”
What Is a Vipassana Meditation Retreat?
A Vipassana meditation retreat takes place during a set period of time in which participants remove themselves from daily life to practice Vipassana, listen to dharma talks, and study. Meditation retreats may last for varying amounts of time—a weekend, a few weeks, or even three years—and may take place at a retreat center, a temple, or even a hermitage or cave. The Buddha originally held three-month retreats for monks during the summer rainy season, but today, people go on retreat any time. Some retreats may require complete silence, while others dedicate only certain hours to silence.
Read more about Buddhist retreats on Buddhism for Beginners.
Famous Vipassana Teachers
Ledi Sayadaw (1846–1923)
Ledi Sayadaw was a Burmese monk who was among the first to bring meditation to the lay community and to promote Vipassana practice. He also wrote books on the dharma that were accessible to laypeople, and while he supported advanced study and practice, he suggested that insight practice was possible for everyone, even those who hadn’t previously worked on developing deep samadhi and entering the jhanas—a departure from the status quo.
Saya Thetgyi (1873–1945)
Saya Thetgyi was a student of Ledi Sayadaw and one of the first lay meditation teachers in Myanmar, representing a significant development in the spread of Vipassana outside of the monastery and into the everyday lives of the lay community. Although he was not a monk, he did leave his family to pursue a life of meditation.
Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1889–1971)
Sayagyi U Ba Khin, like his teacher Saya Thetgyi, was another influential proponent of meditation in the lay community. Unlike his teacher, however, U Ba Khin lived an active lay life, with a family and a government job. When the country gained independence from colonial rule in 1948, he became the accountant general of the Union of Burma, and he continued to be a leading voice in the government’s efforts to spread meditation and use Buddhism as a unifying force. In 1952, he set up the International Meditation Center in Yangon.
Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982)
Monk, scholar, and meditation teacher Mahasi Sayadaw was a contemporary of Sayagyi U Ba Khin and in 1949 was appointed to lead the new Thathana Yeiktha Meditation Center in Yangon, which came to be known as the Mahasi Sayadaw Yeiktha. After establishing many meditation centers in Myanmar, Mahasi Sayadaw brought his Vipassana training to Sri Lanka, Thailand, other parts of Southeast Asia, and the West.
Dipa Ma (1911–1989)
Nani Barua, affectionately known as Dipa Ma, was an Indian meditation teacher and Buddhist master whose students include Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg. Born in what is now Bangladesh, she moved to Myanmar with her husband and had a daughter, Dipa, after which she took on the name “Dipa Ma,” mother of Dipa. When her husband died, she discovered meditation and practiced at Mahasi Sayadaw’s Thathana Yeiktha Meditation Centre. In 1967, she returned to India, where she taught meditation from the one-room apartment she shared with her daughter. She defied convention by becoming a great Buddhist teacher, not only as a layperson and a woman but also as a mother and a widower..
Sayadaw U Pandita (1921–2016)
Burmese monk, meditation master, and Buddhist scholar Sayadaw U Pandita was a world-renowned teacher and the spiritual advisor to Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He was a student of Mahasi Sayadaw, and set up meditation centers around the world. After leading a three-month retreat at the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, Massachusetts, he gained a large following in the West.
Ruth Denison (1922–2015)
Ruth Denison, who was one of only four Westerners to receive authorization to teach from Burmese meditation teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin, was one of the first female meditation teachers in the West and the first to lead an all-women retreat. She studied both Zen and Vipassana and focused on grounding the mind in the body. After growing up in Germany and escaping a Stalinist work camp during World War II, she eventually moved to the United States and came to Buddhism. She taught around the world and founded Dhamma Dena Desert Meditation Center in Joshua Tree, California.
S. N. Goenka (1924-2013)
S. N. Goenka was born in Myanmar to Indian parents and authorized to teach by Burmese meditation teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin before he moved to India and set up his own meditation centers there. He traveled around the world and within the United States, spreading the Vipassana movement far and wide and becoming one of the most well-known Vipassana teachers, with thousands of students, including Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Sharon Salzberg. He emphasized the universality of meditation and possibility for enlightenment. Read an interview with S. N. Goenka by Tricycle’s founding editor, Helen Tworkov, here.
Henepola Gunaratana (1927)
A Sri Lanken monk affectionately known as Bhante G, Henepola Gunaratana is the abbot of the West Virginia-based monastery and meditation retreat center Bhavana Society, which he founded in 1985. He is the author of numerous books, including Mindfulness in Plain English, and has introduced Vipassana to thousands through his books and retreats. Read some of his teachings here.
Joseph Goldstein (1944)
Joseph Goldstein is cofounder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and its Forest Refuge program, and helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He has been studying Buddhism since 1964 and leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats since 1974. His recent books include A Heart Full of Peace and One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism. Read and listen to some of Goldstein’s teachings here.
Jack Kornfield (1945)
Jack Kornfield was trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India, and holds a PhD in clinical psychology. He is a psychotherapist and founding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and the Spirit Rock Center. He has been teaching meditation since 1974. His books include Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and A Still Forest Pool. Read some of Kornfield’s teachings here.
Sharon Salzberg (1952)
Sharon Salzberg is a founding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. After studying meditation and Buddhist philosophy in India and Burma, she started teaching meditation in the United States. Today she hosts the Metta Hour podcast and cohosts Tricycle’s podcast Life As It Is. Her latest book is Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom. She also teaches the Tricycle online courses The Whole Path, Real Love, and The Boundless Heart. Read, watch, and listen to some of Salzberg’s teachings here.
Additional Reading
How Long Is a Moment
Meditation teacher Cynthia Thatcher explains the practice of Vipassana and what it means to stay in “the present moment.”
A Path of Discovery
Meditation teacher Jack Kornfield describes Theravada Vipassana practice.
What Is Mindfulness?
An introduction to the widespread term from Buddhism for Beginners.
The Buddha’s Original Teachings on Mindfulness
The Satipatthana Sutta, from the Pali canon, outlines some of the Buddha’s first instructions in establishing mindful awareness.
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