My Unusual Vipassana Meditation Retreat in a Vipassana Centre

I have tried to explain a complex technique which is best understood only when learnt from an authorized Vipassana centre. By no means you should try to use it as Do-it yourself manual.

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I was used to accusing Nature/Almighty or anyone of my misfortunes, but Vipassana gave me the reasons of my sufferings. It provided the answers of queries that I sought for. It answered questions like why am I born and why am I here on earth. Why do I encounter bad and how to cope with it?

The spirit wanders from one existence to another without stopping. With a continuous supply of our actions “Karma” which will bear fruits in either the same existence or in the future, the stream of life goes on.

The cosmos and the nature of universe is infinitely precise, you cannot hide anything from it. You might have succeeded in cheating authorities, law and made fools of people around you but nothing can be hidden from it. If you think that you have managed to escape the law after committing a sin, you are wrong; your deeds will bear the fruits in this or future existences.

I remember and can recall my younger days in a school. I recall reading a chapter in my class-book in fourth or fifth standard. If I remember correctly it read Buddha at last found the solution to his miseries and a way to end miseries of millions of people that were to follow him in that life and later generations. 

He sat on the foot of the Bodhi tree, expressing the gratitude to the tree who had given him the cover and protection while he meditated and everyone else who had helped him in the difficult path of attaining “Nibbana” the enlightenment. There I sat in the classroom thinking, how a person can attain enlightenment by sitting cross-legged under a tree, how strange is this method - not engaging in any spiritual discourse, customs and traditions.

I just kept thinking about it with disbelief, there was no worshipping and no customs to be followed in this path, no mention of Bhakti that is very deeply installed in Hinduism. 

I was very skeptic about this event, how did Buddha ever get the freedom without blessings of any Guru, as there is a common belief in Hinduism that you should get recommendation, “krupa” of a Guru to attain “Moksha” – the Enlightenment.

I did not understand at that time the enlightened Buddha had the protection, blessing and support of the entire universe and the deities because he was the ever curious, the ultimate spiritual scientist who was on a mission to find out a solution to end the miseries of the world  in not only his current birth but many past births . Before he attained enlightenment he was known as “Bodhisatva”, afterwards as “Tathagat” – the Enlightened one.

Years afterwards, my chattering mind could find answers to many questions in this path of spirituality in a Vipassana centre. The technique is very action oriented. It is a technique to silence the chattering mind and involve it in a fruitful method of self contemplation. By meditating and sitting silently in solitude we are not vegetating, neither are we running away from the problems and vicissitudes of life, we are nurturing the mind and learning how to use the mind positively.

We are all the time feeding this body but always forgetting the supreme mind which also requires nourishments and healing. There is an intimate, very close connection between body and mind which is an amalgamation of the energy and the matter. To have a healthy mind, you should have a healthy body and vice-versa. 

Are mind and brain same?

Why do mind and body co-exist?

Can you see the mind or the thoughts? 

Where do you think does our mind reside?

Is it residing in the brain, is mind the brain? 

What is thoughts of the mind?

How can the mind think?

Buddha referred mind as “Chitta”, it definitely is not brain.

I must admit that I cannot give the answers to these questions precisely but I will try to explain these concepts. Most of the time we confuse mind with brain. Mind is not the physical aspect of brain. Mind is analogous to life and a tower of brilliance that manifests itself with the generation of thoughts. Thoughts are waves, energy patterns and very unique.

I can take my mind to any part of the body.

How is that you will ask?

I can take my mind to the various body parts through sensations. Wherever there is life in the body, I can feel through those sensations, I can sense them though my mind. Can my mind go beyond the body? Oh yes, my mind jumps in the space through thoughts. So you see the mind is very powerful, within second maybe faster than speed of light it jumps from one place to another.

 It is not easy to understand why mind is not brain. You will slowly start appreciating what mind is when you meditate. With regular practice of Vipassana you can start feeling sensations all over the body and remain equanimous. But you see the sharpness and the penetrating power of mind is still not unleashed. It is only when you reach the deepest state of "Bhanga" that you understand the ephemeral state of mind and matter.

External organs and some of the body system apparently seem as if they can be controlled through mind .Though mind can control many part of body like legs, arms, eyes, it cannot however control lungs, kidneys, blood circulation and many other vital functions of the body. Then who is in charge of the body, who controls it? Terrific question – the answer is nobody …… hard to digest?

Well, it is very clear that we cannot dictate many of the body functions, neither is the Almighty controlling all this. You can call it law of nature perhaps; if that helps.  If there is any supreme power, clearly it has more important things to do than keep watch on us.

You can call Vipassana meditation as India's most ancient meditation technique that was taught many years ago by Buddha. With the passage of time, it was lost to humanity, and was rediscovered by Gautama the Buddha a little more than 2500 years ago.

The word Vipassana suggests and literally means seeing/observing things, circumstances as they actually are. Without labeling things and without judging them with our incomplete wisdom which is mostly blurred with prejudices and biases accumulated for years in many births, we start observing things objectively. It is also analogous to a technique and a course of action to practice self- purification by self-observation. 

 In the ten days of Vipassana retreats, a person is taught how to discipline one’s mind. It is neither a ritual, nor a custom. In fact, the mind is taught to become free of the traditions, biases and prejudices to follow the free flow. Do not mistake it to a license of committing misdeeds or another course of rituals. A person undertaking the course begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate or focus his mind towards the incoming and outgoing natural breath. We are told not to tamper the breath, nor associate it with counting numbers or repeating any deity’s name. We have to just observe the natural rhythm of the breath and its pattern without giving it names or generalizing it. It is just pure, pristine breath that we need to focus in.

 With a sharpened awareness you proceed to observe the altering nature of body and mind and experience the prevailing fact of impermanence, suffering and ego-lessness. This truth-realization with a direct encounter of mind and body is the foundation of Vipassana, the method of purification. This complete path (called as Dhamma) is an art of living and way to circumvent common difficulties. It has absolutely nothing to do with any custom, tradition or sectarianism. In fact, it can be freely practiced by each and every person, at any time, in any location, without any conflict of belief, ethnicity, race, community or religion. This universal path of Vipassana, Dhamma as taught in a Vipassana centre has proven equally helpful to one and all.