What is Vipassana Meditation?

Vipassana means insight in Buddha's Pali language - I am headed to a ten day silent Vipassana Retreat today. Meditating ten hours per day with 2 hours of Discourse by the teacher in the evening. See the post below about "Pariyatta".
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Jeanne Duvall-Orr: Just back from a sattipattana course... I thought about you and Jeanne throughout the course... and thinking about students around the world... all doing the same practice and timetable. This was a powerful course... HubB said it was his best yet. My heart is overflowing with joy. Much metta.
Ron Alexander: Hey dear Jeanne, this ten dayer was a big eye-opener for me. This time I got into the subtle senses which I did not even experience the first time. Also, I really enjoyed and learned so much more from Goenkiji! Several old-time Vipassana st...udents from India were there, and very supportive and invited us to come to their one dayer in Atlanta where two of them live. The third trip (3 dayer in between) placed me solidly on the Dhamma Path - looking forward to more, and staying regularly in meditation adding 5 minute Metta ending. Congratulations to you and your HubB - tell him hello. Bhavatu Sahha Melange!? May All Beings Be Happy and free.
Ray Loewenau: If it's a Goinka retreat, my wife and I are going in two weeks in Illinois.
Ron Alexander: Yes Ray, it is Goenkaji's - my fav. meditation teacher! Just got back - bootcamp - worn out yet well worthit! It is the Art of Life - The Dhamma (Darhma) Path - after 3 silent retreats of this meditation - I am on the Path finally. Now if I can regularly meditate 2 hours per day, I can stay on it. One hour fairly easy, however 2 hours have been hard so far. Ironically, with the longer hours eventually life gets much easier! Metta - May All Beings Be Happy and Free!Ray Loewenau: Ron, I consider myself on the path doing one half hour most days. If you can do an hour a day, I wouldn't waste any time beating yourself up. If you are not attached to any one form of meditation, my teacher has phone retreats at nominal costs on a regular basis. He teaches meditation on the subjective self which includes thoughts (both auditory and visual), in addition to feeling. His teaching has allowed me to cease thinking as soon as I sit, so the object of meditation becomes feeling by default. www.shinzen.org if you're interested.Shinzen Young The Science of Meditation in Action
www.shinzen.org
The Science of Meditation in Action. The basic theory of vipassana meditation, a...lso known as mindfulness or insight meditation. Articles and tapes from Shinzen Young.
Ron Alexander: Gratitude, Ray, however, once (or twice or more...) you experience I think you will not care for any other meditation?? Are you still going with your wife! I am glad Jeanne Porter Ashley went with me, being on a path with a loved one makes life much sweeter - more loving and peaceful. Equanamity is a Major Key - the Middle Road! Hope you and your wife are feeling Happy, Free & Peaceful! ron
Ray Loewenau: Ron, I attended a Goinka meditation in California 10 or so years ago. I prefer Shinzen's style because I never get bored with watching my "self" arise whichever sense it chooses to arise in. Although Shinzen teaches Vipassana, his teacher is a 103 year old Zen teacher, the same one that Leonard Cohen studied with. I tend to doubt that Shinzen would even think of himself as a Buddhist anymore although he spent many years in a Zen monastery in japan. He is eclectic in that he encourages his students to go to any retreat available and to use that teachers technique when there.
Ray Loewenau: Yes, Seishen and I are going together.
Ray Loewenau: Ron, what city was your retreat at? Also, Seishin is concerned with strictness. She would appreciate any comments you might have about that. I told her that she would be allowed fruit at dinner, but I may only be allowed tea because it is my second Goinka retreat.
Ron Alexander: Great & gratitude, Ray! here is a quote on equanimity you may like:
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity. Carl Jung
Ray Loewenau: As Ram Dass said, "It's all grist for the mill."
Jeanne Porter Ashley: Ray, our place is in jesup, Georgia...the idea is to be living the life of a monk or nun on someone else's charity...that is why no payment or donations until the end of the 10 days. This period is to take you further inside...no eye contact...no talking...and, to give you a start on the technique of mind-body awareness...they are not...were not horribly strict...one must understand what is being signed up for...food was great! Big breakfast and lunch...5PM is the evening tea break and there is fruit and tea and rice/soy/cow milk. Honestly, after meditating and not being active all day - it was too, too hot to walk - we meditated and napped ll day and were not hungry in the PM. I can only speak for my experience...they are there to help each succeed...only real no-no is the breaking of the Noble Silence..I was called to the teacher for smiling at someone, acknowledgement of someone outside of myself, disturbing a fellow meditator. Oh, well, once a rebel... Any other questions, I'll be happy to answer. Metta
Ray Loewenau: Jeanne, thank you for the information. It sounds wonderful. I go on a one week retreat a couple of times a year with my teacher. My only complaint with his retreats is that the noble silence is less than pristine. My recollection when I went on a Goinka retreat ten years ago was that the food was excellent. Fruit and rice for dinner is a feast compared to what we had then.
Ron Alexander: Thanks for answering Jeanne. Ray, as an "Old Student", since you had one ten day course, you can only have something to drink in the evening meal. They make a delicious unsweetened lemonade for us, and you can drink tea or juice. I did not miss the meal, and feel much healthier now. As for discipline, I did not care for it until in the 80's I realized the root word is "disciple"! I word a baseball hat to help keep my eyes down and into myself, and it worked very well. in loving kindness, ro
Ray Loewenau:
“Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”David Jay Brown
Ron Alexander: Isn't insight Grand? Sometimes, it can be painful, however growth comes from Truth! During my just finished ten day retreat, I got in touch with much samskara, however the good news is that it was not nearly as much as my first ten day silent Meditation Retreat! Metta, thanks for sharing Ray! & will share the synchronistic quote!


Marcel Proust
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In Vipassana Meditation Training - Goenka teaches that we are responsible for our own salvation:
By oneself the evil is done, by oneself the evil is undone, no one can purify another. The Buddha from the DHAMMAPADA

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us." Marcel Proust
When? "Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it. Why? Because it is all we ever have." Pema Chödrön
How? Goenka's approach embodies the essence of the teaching of the Buddha. 1. Sila - Having good morales. 2. Samhadi - developing concentration through the breath (anapanna). 3. Pinna - developing a pure mind mainly by Vipassana (Insight) Meditation. This is not Buddhism - as the Buddha was basically meditation teacher! He learned how to move from suffering to Liberation (Nibbana = Nirvana) - a Pure Mind!
‎"But in fact the universe exists for each of us when we experience it with body and mind. It is never elsewhere., it is always here and now. By exploring the here and now of ourselves we can explore the world. Unless we can investigate the world within we can never know reality--we will only know our beliefs about it, or our intellectual conceptions of it. By observing ourselves, however, we can come to know reality directly, and learn to deal with it in a positive, creative way." Williiam Hart in VIPASSANA MEDITATION




anne Porter Ashley: "Parayatti": roughly meaning the intellectual background or theoretical understanding of the teachings of the Buddha....Vipassana Research Institute Ron Alexander: Thanks Jeanne for your research - I love the "intellectual & theoretical" however I know Vipassana emphasizes the EXPERENTIAL - learning by actually meditating The Buddha's Way! Jeannie Zuchini: The Pariyatti Bookstore and VRI are advancing the intellectual understanding of the evolution of consciousness... which seems to be a major theme these days. I agree that experiential learning is necessary to full understanding... but the i...ntellect can be the field that grows the interest and urge... and brings the new understandings to a pragmatic level. Seems it all works together... It is prolly not a cosmic accident that the current consciousness explosion included Goenka

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Brother David Steindl-Ras

Travis E. Duke: If you can't find it when you clean the toliet or do the dishes...you might never see it...Ron Alexander: At Vipassana Meditation, we "older" (returning) students are put in charge of cleaning the showers and toilets. Quite humbling serving the new students, and grateful for the experience.