Vipassana has the Ability to Quiet Our Chatter Box Mind

  

“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance. Vipassana meditation is an ongoing creative purification process. Observation of the moment-to-moment experience cleanses the mental layers, one after another.” It is a Pali word that means to see 

 

Imagine all you do is observe the rhythm of your breath. Having the enormous capacity to rewire your brain, you are a mute observer of your breath’s rhythmic dance. More than this, there is an extraordinary force which takes root in this simple yet profound act of mindful witnessing. 

 

There is a gentle rise and fall of your breath which has an extraordinary ability to rewire the neural pathways in your brain, which results in a profound inner transformation. 

 

It is in this dance of kindness that you can heal wounds and the dance of wounds weaves the fabric of understanding. One of the most ancient meditation techniques, this technique was revived by Satya Narayan Goenka who is known as the foremost lay professor of Vipassana. Vipassana originally comes from the Rig Veda. 

It was later rediscovered by Gautama the Buddha, 2500 years ago.     

 

Born in Burma (now Myanmar) to an Indian business family, Goenka hails from a conservative Hindu household, with his parents from the Marwari ethnic group. Although he initially was a successful businessman it was due to his experience of severe and debilitating migraines which led Goenka to pursue some sort of medical relief and learn Vipassana from a Vipassana teacher – Sayagi U Ba Khin who was known as the first Accountant general of the Union of Burma. 

 

He was also known as the founder of the International Meditation Centre in Yangon, Myanmar. Goenka trained under him for 14 years and was authorised to teach Vipassana in 1971.   

 

Leaving his family business to his family and moving to India, it was soon that he opened the first Vipassana Center at Kusum Nagar in Hyderabad. Seven years later he opened his first meditation centre Dhamma Giri in Igatpuri near Nashik, Maharashtra.

While he started to teach meditation on his own in 1982, he later started training assistant teachers. In 1985, he opened the Vipassana Research Institute at Dhamma Giri. Right from the beginning he taught 10-day intensive meditation retreats and by 1988 he had already taught numerous people inclusive of several thousands of Westerners. 

 

Following the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin, Vipassana courses are taught at 380 locations in 94 countries; out of which 241 are permanent Vipassana meditation centres. Some of these centres are found in Argentina, Hong Kong, Greece, Poland, Russia, Isreal, Iran, Malaysia, Iran, France, Germany, Brazil, Cambodia, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal,  New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and 78 centres in India.

 

In 2000, Goenka laid the foundation of the 325-foot-high Global Vipassana Pagoda near Gorai Beach, Mumbai. In addition to this, Goenka has been able to bring Vipassana meditation into prisons, from India to other countries. 

This organisation estimates that as many as 10,000 prisoners, as well as many members of the police and military, have attended the 10-day courses.

 

Doing Time Doing Vipassana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkxSyv5R1sg

 

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a 1997 documentary about the introduction of S. N. Goenka's 10-day Vipassana classes at Tihar Jail in 1993 by the then Inspector General of Prisons in New Delhi, Kiran Bedi.

 

Bedi had her guards trained in Vipassana first, and then she had Goenka give his initial class to 1,000 prisoners. 

 

The Dhamma Brothers is a documentary film released in 2007 about a prison Vipassana meditation program at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. The film concentrates on four inmates, all convicted of murder. It also includes interviews with guards, prison officials, and local residents, and includes re-enactments of the inmates' crimes.

 

The Dhamma Brothers

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Cot3fDkN8

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The day begins with a 4 AM clock ringing and then gathering in a hall at 4.30 AM to pray till 6.30 AM. We broke for breakfast at 6.30 AM for a short period of from 6.30 AM till 7.15 AM. While we were told to focus mainly on our breath, it was the most difficult thing to do as our minds wandered in all sorts of directions. By the fourth day, I was at my wit's end as not only could I sit in such a prolonged position for hours at the end but in silence! The challenge began picking up after that as our attention narrowed down to just the breath above our upper lip and how well we could inhale and exhale. With a marathon of meditation beginning at 8 AM and ending at 11 AM for lunch, it was certainly challenging to think of any other thing!

 

Lunch lasted for 45 minutes from 11 AM to 11.45 AM. We began meditation again at 1 AM and till 5 PM we could take a short 30 minutes break for tea. (5 PM till 5.30 PM). Again my 6 PM to 7PM we had another hour-long group meditation, after which he broke for our English Teachers Discourse which was an extremely interesting summary of what had been taught during the day. (7 PM- 8.15 PM) Again we got together for our group meditation from 8.15 - 9 PM. This was then followed by any questions to be addressed in the group hall.    

All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone. — Blaise Pascal