Vipassana

Ninth May 2001, the time two o’clock in the afternoon. I was at Igatpuri, a small town in Maharashtra, over hundred kilometres from Mumbai on the road to Nasik. I was heading for my first ten-day Vipassana meditation program a couple of kilometres away at Dhamma Giri, the world headquarters of Vipassana Research Centre. As I got down from the Maharashtra State Transport bus, the blistering heat threw up hot gusts of dust in my eyes. I was nearly blinded. I wondered how my trip is going to help me remove the cobwebs in my eyes, as I had read somewhere on the Net about what Vipassana does.

By now I knew Vipassana cerebrally. I had yet not experienced it. And I was full of apprehension and fear. I know it was a meditation technique discovered over two and a half millenniums ago by Gautama, the Buddha. His life mission was to help people see reality clearly and, thereby, transcend human suffering.

I got down from the bus and reached out for the nearest chai shop. As if to meet heat with heat I sipped the hot chai pleasurably. I also puffed longingly on a cigarette. That was my last cigarette ever!

I soon reached the centre. After the initial registration, my intellectual mind again tried to assert. I went to the nearby bookstall to buy a book. I was mildly discouraged to buy anything now. The man at the counter suggested that I read them after the experience of meditation at the end of ten days. I went to my room disappointed.

The next ten days were truly amazing. During that time it seemed as if I experienced all the facets of life in condensed timeframe. Joy, suffering, exaltation, equanimity, compassion, gratitude, anger, and the most unexpected surprises and insights visited me sitting in that upright posture, listening to the clear, authoritative and compassionate voice of Acharya Satyanarayan Goenka over the PA system. Throughout, he prodded the meditators to experience the sensations without aversion or craving and observe the transient nature of the sensations that pass through the body.

Vipassana in its most pristine form had been preserved only in certain unknown places such as some remote monasteries in Myanmar. It had been lost to India. Shri Satyanarayan Goenka brought it back to India and headquartered his operations in Igatpuri. Today there are hundreds of centres in hundreds of countries offering thousand of courses each year helping millions of meditators all over the planet.

Vipassana teaches us the importance of taking control of our minds. It is a simple technique that teaches one to concentrate on one’s breadth and observe the body sensations. Through some strange alchemy, our body becomes a medium or a means to generate awareness: a form of insightful understanding of ourselves and the context in which we live. Through awareness one gathers a deeper meaning of life (of oneself and other sentient beings). This deeper meaning or wisdom makes living a celebration for all moments.

All the courses all over the world come free. Boarding and lodging too are free. The idea is that one goes in as a Bikku (Pali for mendicant) and receives whatever one gets without any vain expectations. The programs run on voluntary contributions from the meditators. There are so many cases wherein the beneficiaries were led to be able to make the contributions. Possibly Goenkaji would simply say about these cases, “Dhamma (Pali word for Dharma) works.”

During the ten days simple, wholesome vegetarian food is served. Complete silence is observed. Men and women stay in separate living quarters and for most meditators (at least at Igatpuri) a single room is provided. Vipassana is non-sectarian and it has nothing to do with Buddhism. Buddha simply offered a technique to fellow humans to help them transcend suffering. He sought no accolades. He sought no followers. There are suttas to say that he even asked those who came to him to simply follow the meditation technique and eventually return to those Gurus they were serving at the moment.

With its intense grounding in reality, Vipassana is about living our lives fully with whatever personal, professional and other responsibilities we are destined to fulfil. It is about experiencing the range of human potential we all are privy to if only we open our eyes. It is about living a life of integrity and fulfilment.

On a personal note, and not coincidently, my wife tells me that I am a far better person today than I used to be. What better testimony to Vipassana when credit comes from the most exigent of all quarters! I constantly feel a sense of gratitude to family and friends who have been supporting me go through life with increasing awareness every new day.

Please visit this wonderful site
http://www.dhamma.org