Vipassana Meditation
Here is a brief description of Vipassana Meditation. If you would like to know more about it, please join the meditation sesson.
About Vipassana Meditation
The Vipassana meditation was discovered by Buddha about 2500 years ago. By doing Vipassana meditation, the "foulness" of mind will disappear, and in the end, you will be able to understand pure consciousness.
So, what is the meaning of Vipassana meditation? Let's disassemble this word. Vipassana can be divided into Vi + passana. "Vi" means "another point of view" and "Passana" means "as it is". That's why Vipassana means "to look at the genuine reality, from another point of view."
So, what does it mean “to look at the genuine reality, from another point of view.”? It means that there is another way of looking at what we perceive as reality. "The other view" is a view that literally tells us the genuine reality. This ability to see the change in reality, is called 「prajna」.
We are in contact with a lot of information, people and things in our daily lives. This contact has a great influence on our mind. For example, our mind undergoes changes when we encounter information, people or things that we feel desirable, and our mind changes as we encounter information, people or things that we dislike in reverse.
In this way, the mind keeps changing by the contact with the outside world. When our mind changes, it sways. When our mind is swayed, a lot of "foulness" accumulated in it since we were born emerge just like bubbles rising up to the surface of the water. The "foulness" is a thing such like greed, anger, anxiety, doubt and so on. Many people suffer from this.
Vipassana meditation prevents the mind from being swayed against external contact by continuing to observe the change of reality at this moment, as it is. You can also protect and get rid of anger and greed that arise from memories and thoughts of the past that already exists in the mind.
Then, the "foulness" that you kept in your mind will be cleaned up more and more. In the end, there will be no "foulness" in the mind at all, and you will be able to understand pure consciousness. There is no anger or greed anymore when you are in pure consciousness. You will be able to walk the right path, walk through life without being swayed, and live a more effective life.
Vipassana and meditation
Since the meaning passes only by "Vipassana", it is not called Vipassana meditation. However, in order to make it easy to be understood by the general public, the term "Vipassana meditation" is widely used. In the first place, meditation has the meaning of "have an eye on the inner self." The word "Vipassana" already contains the meaning of this meditation.
Therefore, meditation is not only sitting cross-legged, closing your eyes and staying still. Meditation is something that can always be done, and advanced practitioners of Vipassana meditation are doing Vipassana meditation all the time. Conversely, if you do not always do Vipassana meditation, the purification of your mind does not progress much. This is because the world is full of "foulness".
For instance, it is just like always picking up trash. Though in this case, you are not picking up trash in your room, but you are picking up trash to store it in your room. You are collecting trash proactively and storing it in your mind. The Vipassana meditation throws away all the rubbish accumulated in the mind and cleans it. As a clean room is fresh, clean mind brings inner peace.
Vipassana Meditation and Mindfulness
Recently, mindfulness is prevalent in Europe and America. Mindfulness originated from Vipassana meditation and is widely introduced to the general public. Though, actually they are not the same. Famous companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. are actively implementing mindfulness and because of that the employees can calm down their minds.
Why isn't Vipassana meditation spreading?
Vipassana meditation that can clean up our mind was found by Buddha, but the current situation is that it has not spread worldwide yet. Even in a traditional Buddhist country, there are quite a few people who practice Vipassana meditation correctly. In addition, practice is essential for understanding Vipassana meditation properly, and understanding this can be difficult for some people. Therefore, if the teacher does not pay close attention to all the practitioners, they may not be able to understand the meditation fully.
In addition, the current situation is that meditation (Samatha meditation etc.) which improves our inner concentration is more popular than Vipassana meditation which gets rid of the "foulness" of our mind. We may be able to increase our productivity by enhancing our concentration or have a strange experience, but the "foulness" of our mind cannot be eliminated. For example, if we use brooms to sweep the dust to the corners of our rooms, the rooms will not be clean unless we remove the dust with dustpan. Even if the middle of the rooms are clean, dust is accumulated in the corners, and someday the dust might be scatter all over the rooms by wind.
At the same time, in inner concentrated meditation (Samatha meditation etc.), the surface of mind will get clean, but actually, the "foulness" is still there and has not been eradicated. Looking at the current situation of the world, we believe that what is needed in the present world is Vipassana meditation to eliminate "foulness" in our mind. By conveying Vipassana meditation correctly, we hope that people all over the world will have peaceful minds.