Vipassana is one of the oldest Buddhist meditation practice found in Satipatthana Sutta, a discourse given by Gautama Buddha. The main principle of this technique is based on observing the physical sensations in the body practiced in static asanas or dynamic walking meditations. I have done Vipassana retreats in Goenka centers where the focus is on static meditations, but there are many centers that combine static and dynamic meditations. The common thing to all Vipassana centers is that students are placed in an isolated controlled environment for a certain period of time. Usually the retreats last 10 days for a beginner meditator while more experienced meditators can undertake 30 or 40 days long Vipassana retreats. During this time period the students are not allowed to speak, read, listen to music — essentially all major interactions with the outside worlds are limited. This limitation, as I learnt, is necessary to cultivate mindfulness via: i) developing the concentration and ii) purifying the mind.
Mechanics of Vipassana Meditation
To understand the mechanics of a Vipassana meditation it might be useful to turn to the fundamental yogic principles that describe how the energy flows in the body. The classical yoga scriptures speak of seven major chakras (energy centers) located along the spine. These energy centers correspond to our major crossings of nerve canals. Commonly diagrams, such as the one below, schematically show colorization of different chakras to indicate the wavelength frequency progression consistent with the physics of electromagnetic energy (wavelength emitting red color has a lower frequency range and wavelength emitting purple color has the higher range).
In addition to these chakras, ancient yogis counted around 70,000 energy meridians in the body called ‘nadis’ (from Sanskit word nad meaning “channel”) through which life energy (‘prana’) flows. The major three nadis running along the spine and crossing the energy centers are called Ida, Pingala and Sushumna:
Ida — left channel that represents yin passive energy. Originates in root chakra and ends up in the left nostril.
Pingala — right channel that represents yang active. Originates in root chakra and ends up in the right nostril.
Sushumna — central channel running along the spine.
Furthermore, Vedas mention 5 different types of energies present in the body called ‘vayus’. The structure and functioning of these vayus reveals how and in what direction the energy flows in the body. Every vayu has a specific function, but we will only look at two vayus that play a major role in the meditation practice called Udana and Apana vayus.
- Udana Vayu- the higher vibrational energy in the body directed up from the head, helps with creativity and intuition.
- Apana Vayu — the lower vibrational energy in the body directed down from lower chakras resulting in heavier more grounding type of energy.
Most yoga and meditation practices engage the movement of prana, our the innate life force, in a way that the Apana vayu, the downward-flowing energy, is cleansed or converted into higher vibrational energy.
A human body, being a great tool for energy transformation, allows the energy should flow up the spine freely (and balanced between ida and pingala) converting any lower vibrational energy we receive from the physical world into a more subtle creative type of energy. Yet, often this is not the case because of our existing thinking patterns, results of our past actions and society interactions, and suppressed emotions that create tension in the body, which in turn results in blocks that prevent energy from flowing freely. This blocked energy may lead to a lower level of awareness and inability to access innate human abilities such as creativity and intuition.
Another consequence of accumulated Apana vayu and tension is physical pain. It is common that during the first several days of Vipassana retreat students go through acute pain in their legs and other body parts where the tension had accumulated. However, usually Apana vayu and tension weaken and the physical pain (at least some of it) goes away by the end of the retreat.
Raising Consciousness
Vedic scriptures define our level of consciousness by where in the energy body we have the main accumulation of energy. For instance, if there is a major energy block in the solar plexus, most of the energy, unable to raise higher, will be accumulated there. As a result, through this chakra most of the energy will be released on the interactions with the outside world. These interactions will define the level of one’s perception of the universe and the level of consciousness overall. If the energy freely travel up the sushumna channel, the level of consciousness should rise as a result, and the perception of the world might should become subtler.
In addition to presenting the technique of meditation and teaching how to develop concentration, the experience at the Vipassana retreat center aims to maximize the factors that contribute to the accumulation of free energy in the body. Then, through an ascetic practice and static asanas, this accumulated energy could be pushed upwards cleaning any blockages along the way.
Mind Purification
The brain overloaded with information suffers from deteriorating ability to concentrate and is unable to process all this incoming information.
Vedas describe information processing similar to the process of food consumption. Just as the food we eat is digested by ‘stomach fire’, the same way the information accumulated during the day is digested by energy fire during sleep. When we overeat or eat badly, the undigested food might begin to rot in the intestines and/or get stored in fat. The same way unprocessed information gets accumulated in our mental body. Consequently, we get this ‘secret storage’ of information and memory which we can not perceive directly with our physical sight as opposed to the extra pounds of weight. Yet, we carry this storage on a subconscious level and it plays an important role in impacting our behavioural and thinking patterns and leads to certain automatic reactions or triggers. This is especially evident when the level of awareness, as a result of tiredness or other factors, decreases. The only way to see this secret storage and to let it go is the same way we let go the extra pounds —prolonged fasting. Only in this case it is information fasting.
During the Vipassana retreat, the students go through this information fasting by limiting their incoming information. As no new things are poured in, the old information and suppressed emotions can finally come to the surface and be released. This is a deep purification process that usually starts on day four or five of the retreat. And since our energy and physical bodies are strongly connected, as soon certain certain thinking patterns and memories are released, different tensions in the physical body also start to disappear gradually taking pain and some of the health issues with them.
Another important source of information we put into our body is food. We often do not perceive the direct causality between the quality of food we consume and its effect on our well-being. And yet it greatly affects our physical state, mental state, our emotions and thoughts. Throughout the history of humankind across different cultures, preparing food was a sacred ritual that was given a lot of consideration and importance. In our modern society, it is common that people don’t know where the food came from, how it was grown, and who prepared it. This is why food is often given a lot of emphasis in Vipassana centers. I have been to several centers and have volunteered to cook as well. From my experience, the food served to students is fresh, light and vegetarian. Also, the volunteers cooking the food undergo a special compassion (‘meta’) practice. The food intake is limited: the last meal is at 11am (at 5pm beginner meditators also get some fruits) and thus most of the energy usually spent on digestion becomes available to be employed in the meditation practice.
Other Benefits of Vipassana Retreat Experience
Besides developing concentration and mind purification, there are other important benefits of the vipassana experience. I’ve listed a few below, but certainly these benefits are not limited to this list.
- Ability to control our brain activity. This is closely linked to the strength of our concentration. When we start observing the brain, we might notice that it is usually somewhere in the past analyzing previous actions or in the future planning next actions — but never in the present moment. The brain fluctuates between two states: craving and aversion, and while this is normal and in some sense it is one of the primary functions of the brain, the problems arise when we loose control and the brain starts controlling us. This leads to our decision making process being dictates by two main emotions: fear and desire. In this way life may become very reactive, flowing on autopilot with limited awareness. Extended meditation can help us spot when the brain is tricking us with those aversion and craving impulses, and we get essentially take back the control over our reactions.
- Even if one is able to meditate at home for extended periods of time, it is not the same as meditating in a room with hundreds of students. This collective meditation creates a wave of concentration that carries everyone with it, allowing to go deeper and to make a jump to the next level of practice.
- During the Vipassana retreat you can meet the real you. The shamans sometimes call this ‘ facing your shadow’. While it may not be the most pleasant experience — we do indeed live in a world where we need very strong egos to survive and strong egos usually result in some sort of negative traits and actions — it is a necessary step on the path of healing and self discovery. Meditation allows us to see the impact of our interactions on a deeper level revealing some of our unpleasant sides. In ancient Eastern monasteries there was an interesting practice, where a newly initiated monk was placed in a cave to meditate for several weeks. The experience of complete solitude was so harsh that older monks would lock the cave not allowing the new monk to get out until he faced all of his internal demons. The same happens during the Vipassana retreat — without any external distraction the students are left alone with themselves for extended period of time.
- Change yourself and you will change the world around you. When we transform our own energy and our personal negative traits, we change the energy of people connected to us. When we come to Vipassana center to meditate, we not only develop and purify ourselves, but also our family, coworkers and friends. Another side to this is that most confrontations and difficult situations in our daily lives occur to help us see our internal impurities or our ‘sharp edges’. When we release and heal these impurities during the meditation practice, the difficult lessons may no longer be needed and certain life situations and patterns change.
Preparation for Vipassana Retreat
Beginner’s Vipassana retreat is only 10 days and most of this time is spent on getting adjusted to the center’s environment, dealing with acute physical pain and trying to calm the brain chatter. Often only the last few days are in fact spent on effective deep meditation practice. However, there are certain things we can do beforehand to make the ten days of the retreat more effective.
Asanas
Practicing hatha yoga or any type of yoga asanas could help open up the hips, decrease tension and stretch leg muscles preparing the body for static meditation poses.
In classical yoga teachings, the best asana for meditation is called Padmasana (‘lotus pose’). It is considered to be the most effective pose for blocking Apana vayu from flowing in the legs and for keeping the spine straight and stable.
Yet, most of us are not Himalayan yogis, so here are some of of the easier asana variations:
- Siddhasana (cross legged, stack heels on top of each other)
- Sukhasana (easy crossed legged position)
- Ardha Padmasana (cross legged, half lotus)
- Vajrasana (sitting on the heels)
TIP: If you are in a crossed legged position and your knees do not touch the floor, this is an indication that soon you might experience severe leg and knee pain. To avoid this pain, it helps to put some cushions underneath the knees to lift them up to a comfortable level. Generally, there is an abundance of props at the Vipassana centers which students can use. It is a fine line between tolerating light discomfort in the process of transforming Apana vayu and not able to meditate due to focusing on the excruciating pain.
It may also be effective to do shatkarmas (yogic cleansing practices) such as shankha prakshalana to cleanse the lower energy centers and the whole digestive tract before the retreat. The modern replacement of this cleanse is colonic hydrotheraphy. Other effective cleanses are kunjala and jala neti.
May Vipassana help you find inner peace, joy and a stable meditation practice.
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