Vipassana - learning to meditate

Life by Wiebke M.

The first time we heard about Vipassana was shortly after we arrived to India. A friend of us talked about it. That it is some old, Indian traditional form of meditation, where you are not supposed to talked during the course duration and where you can learn in different centers all over India for free. Sounded interesting and mysterious enough that we both decided to give it a try. We did it and it was amazing!

Where does it come from?

Vipassana was discovered around 2500 years ago by Gotama - later called the Buddha. In Pali - the language of these days - it means to see the things how they really are. When Gotama discovered the meditation technique of Vipassana it was universal and non sectarian. He had students of different faith, nationality, color and background. Vipassana started in the north of India and spread from there all over India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, China, etc.. With time the Dhama - the teaching of Vipassana - started to get lost, overpowered by religions or changed into Buddhism. Only in Myanmar it was kept in its pure form and passed from teacher to teacher each generation. Sayagyi U Ba Khin was a master of Vipassana and taught its pure form in Myanmar to his students. One of them was S.N. Goenka. Goenka brought Vipassana back to India and with the help of his assistant teachers it spread all over the world later on. Today you can find Vipassana centers in pretty much every country. The Vipassana courses are offered for free (donations are welcome but not required). 

Vipassana center in Chennai

Vipassana center in Tiruvanamalai

And what is Vipassana now ?

Vipassana is a meditation technique to sharpen our minds through exploration of nature within the framework of one's own mind and body. The goal of Vipassana is to eradicate suffering, misery and to achieve mental purification. Therefore Vipassana tries to eliminate the three major causes of unhappiness: craving, aversion and ignorance. It is about observing your own mind and body without any judgment about it. It starts of with observing your breathing – anapana- and later your sensations. It teaches you to see how the things really are and to accept them the way they are. One important principle is: that everything changes. So the thought, situation or sensation you just had will change and not stay like this. Everything is impermanent and therefore it is not wise to cling to things as the only thing for sure is that it will change. Vipassana is not a religion but an art of living in harmony with all living beings, even if you can find Vipassana as one of the core elements of Buddhism. For both of us it was sometimes hard to make a distinguish between the meditation technique and where Buddhism starts but as Goenka said:

“Leave out the parts you don't agree but don't throw away the entire concept of Vipassana because of that!”

That is why Vipassana doesn't end after a course: it is a life-long learning and Vipassana students are supposed to practice Vipassana every morning and evening for one hour each.

Pagoda - single meditation cells

How can I picture a Vipassana course?

A Vipassana course normally takes 10 days. There are also longer – up to 90 days – or shorter – 1 day - once but they can only be attended when finished a 10 day course first. And for the beginning it is enough of a challenge. The evening before the course starts you get introduced to all the rules and the day structure. After starting the course there is no leaving the course earlier. You need to stay until the last day is completed and you need to obey five principles:

• I will not kill
• I will not lie
• I will not have any sexual activity
• I will not steal
• I will not take any intoxicants

Additionally everybody is supposed to obtain noble silence. This includes not only physically contact and talking verbally to anybody but also no communication in any kind of way – mimic, gestures – to anybody. There reason is that everybody is supposed to focus completely on themselves and that is only possible in complete quietness.

As Goenka says, “A chattering mind can't meditate!”.

You need to completely surrender yourself to the technique of Vipassana and your teacher even if you have doubts, you need to follow the rules for these 10 days. You are supposed to give all your music, reading and writing materials to the office, not supposed to practice any other rituals (prayer, chanting, Reiki, Yoga) during this time, wear, modest clothing, no outside contacts and no possession of religious symbols, crystals or Talisman. The women and the men sleeping quarters as well as the meditation, discourse and dinning halls and the walking paths are completely separated. So that it will not disturb.

The daily schedule is quite strict and everybody is always supposed to be at least five minutes early in the meditation hall. The time schedule is the following for the first till the ninth day:

4 am wake up bell
4:30 -6 : 30 Meditation
6:30 – 8:00 breakfast
8:00 – 9:00 Group meditation
9:00 – 11:00 Meditation
11:00 – 13:00 Lunch and break
12:00 – 12:30 Possibility of question time
13:00 – 14:30 Meditation
14:30 – 15:30 Group Meditation
15:30 – 17:00 Meditation and Group-sitting
17:00 – 18:00 Tea break
18:00 – 19:00 Group Meditation
19:00 – 20:30 Discourse
20:30 – 21:00 Meditation
21:00 – 21:30 Question Time

A reminder which you can find everywhere

As you can see there is no dinner provided – only tea and a small snack. During the group meditation nobody is supposed to leave the meditation hall. The other meditation times can be done in the major meditation hall or in single meditation cells – called pagoda. The discourse in the evening gives a theoretical background of Vipassana, summarizes what happened each day and gives instructions for the following day. If somebody has further question they can use the question time to directly talk to the assistant teacher about it. And the tenth day differs. After the group meditation in the morning the noble silence will be broken and everybody is allowed to talk again, to collect their values, phones, writing materials and everything else what needed to be given to the office. Then after lunch there are some movies screened and in the evening meditation and discourse again. The course ends on the 11th day in the morning after meditation and breakfast.

It is amazing to get to know the people you spend the last 10 days in silent with.

You can try to explain Vipassana but Vipassana is all about experiencing it for yourself. We would just suggest you to try it out yourself! The next Vipassana center might not be so far away!