How Vipassana meditation helps in daily life
Innumerable electromagnetic and biochemical reactions are occurring constantly throughout our body, we are not aware of, due to this, sensations arises and passes away every moment, but we have no knowledge of them.
Our conscious mind cannot experience this but our subconscious mind is constantly in touch with those sensations, and so this subconscious mind keeps reacting to these sensations. Whenever pleasant sensations occur, our mind generates craving for it, whenever unpleasant sensations occur, this mind generates aversion for it.
Even while reading this blog, in your subconscious mind, this process is occurring constantly, but your conscious mind feels like everything is normal and everything is in your control.
What is Vipassana?
It’s a meditation technique discovered by Buddha about 2500 years ago through which he achieved enlightenment. The technique was preserved over the centuries in its original form in Burma from where it has spread to many countries as taught by late teacher S.N. Goenka. You may think this is for people who are on the path of spirituality or enlightenment. That’s far from the truth. You don’t have to be a monk to practice Vipassana or have any inclination for spirituality. Any householder can learn to practice this technique and discover the art of living a happier and peaceful life.
I bought a couple of books on the technique. When I read them, I realized you CANNOT learn Vipassana from books. In fact, you cannot learn any meditation technique from books. It can only be experienced in real life and learned through practice because it gives you the tools you will need for personal development in every stage of life.
Vipassana is not an intellectual game. It’s about experiencing the universal truth within you. Other self-help/personal development gurus give you the rules of living a productive life. But none of them shows the path to become a moral person.
You understand that anger is bad, but how to actually prevent it from happening is a mystery. Even after I read tons of books on personal development I could never implement and execute those good habits in my life.
Now that you have a basic understanding of Vipassana, let me explain how it benefits you:
- Easier to accept changes in life: No one likes change but change is inevitable. Once you practice Vipassana, you will truly experience the fact that change is constant. Fighting change is as pointless as fighting your breath. Just like your breath is always there, change is always taking place. Permanence is an illusion because everything is impermanent – the things we buy, relationships, our bodies, our time here on earth and earth itself is impermanent. Nothing will last forever. Once you truly accept this you will learn to see things the way they truly are – constantly changing. You will learn to remain calm and unruffled in the face of unexpected changes in life.
- Increased efficiency, productivity and creativity: Vipassana opens up your mind and allows you to make the most of your full potential. You will become more efficient as your mind is freed from the useless chatter, more focused as you learn to be in the present moment, more creative as you open up to a higher level of consciousness. Your capacity to work increases. You will solve problems, make decisions more quickly.
- Better at relationships: People tend to believe if this person changes a little bit, my life would be so much better. If he/she does this or that, I will be at peace. The husband wants the wife to change, wife wants the husband to change, mother-in-law wants the daughter-in-law to change, the father wants the son to change, son wants the father to change but we rarely think I need to change. Blinded to our flaws, we think we are perfect and blame everything on the situations outside or other people for our difficulties. However, we have no control over other people or external factors. In fact, it is near impossible to change other people. We have full control over ourselves though and with a better attitude to life and people in general, it is possible to inspire a change in others. Vipassana will really help you look inward and see how you’re creating misery for yourself and then come out of it. You will become more tolerant, calmer, kinder to other people which will benefit every relationship you have.
- Free from the fear of uncertainty: This one used to plague me and make me react in the most unpredictable ways. No one likes uncertainty. It creates a fear in us and fear should not drive our decisions in life. Vipassana teaches you that whatever happens is because of your karma. If you start sowing seeds of positive thoughts, kindness, hard work that is how your future will be. You don’t have much control over your future so there is no point in worrying about what may or may not happen. You only have control over now, this moment. So what you do at this moment, matters the most. Another way we try to tackle uncertainty is by having goals – 1, 3 or 5-year goals. Creating goals is completely fine. Everyone should do it. But then, we become so attached to it that if the goal is not successfully achieved, we become miserable. Generate negativity, thinking, “I am no good, I am lazy, incompetent, I will never achieve anything in life.” Such thoughts do not help you or anyone else. Vipassana teaches you perseverance. If you did not achieve your goal, you should keep trying until you do. Get creative, find other solutions and make it happen. It may also happen that you realize you no longer want what you wanted 5 years ago and allow life to happen, to takes its course which may be even better than what you planned. In either scenario, through vipassana you learn to go with the flow, to not fight the changes and let things that are meant to happen, happen without generating negativity.
- Live a happier life: In life, sometimes things we wish would happen don’t and the things we don’t want to happen, do. This is a part of life. Even the most powerful person in the world will come across situations that are beyond his/her control and get upset by it. When you practice Vipassana, you truly accept the concept of impermanence. Every situation is impermanent. Everything changes. You learn to be patient, to not be affected by such situations, to not get frustrated or irritated by them. You learn to just observe instead of getting your emotions all tangled up in situations that sooner or later will change.
- Manage chronic pains/illnesses: Scientifically, it is proven, meditation helps reduce chronic pain by 57%. Stress is known to cause a number of different diseases in the gut, nutritional deficiencies and even psychological illnesses like migraines, anxiety, depression. Many people carry chronic pains for life which can only be managed through painkillers. The Indian Journal of Anaesthesia, a peer-reviewed medical journal has published in this research paper, when you practice mindful meditation (Vipassana) you learn to not react and simply observe any and all sensations in the body. Observing without reacting alters your behaviour pattern in different life situations, thus allowing you to eventually conquer chronic pains to a great extent.
- Live in the moment: You can live in the past which has already passed or you can live in the future over which you have no control or you can live in the present moment before it passes away too. In most moments of everyday life, we are either thinking about the past, craving to relive the good times, which is impossible or worried or planning for the future, which you cannot predict, missing out on this very moment. Yes, you have some great memories in the past, but this moment could be great too if only you lived in it. You are letting go of the opportunity you have at this moment. Vipassana helps you to free your mind from the clutches of the past and future and teaches you to truly enjoy this moment.
Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? The whole thing runs on donations and is managed by volunteers. It’s a non-profit organization established so everyone can get access to and learn this meditation technique.
Once people find out it’s for free, they begin to question its authenticity? Doubting the purpose behind its widespread acceptance. Is this a cult? Or a religion? Will they brainwash me into doing things I don’t want to do etc. Vipassana has nothing to do with religion. There are no rites, no rituals, no dogmas or books to be followed. Its plain and simple meditation.
In Vipassana, there is no blind devotion, no religion, and no extremism. There is nothing mystical about it either. It is very easy to understand and entirely based on science, logic and rationale. Vipassana is not a cult, you will not be ordered to follow a leader or read scriptures. It is all about learning the meditation technique in an ideal environment.
Today, our lives are changing so fast, we can barely keep up with it. So, you may now be wondering how will you find 10 days from such a busy life. Let me make it simple for you. If you were to live an average of 75 years, you would have about 27,300 days. 10 days from that is 0.037%. Less than 0.05% of your time is required to learn this technique. Consider it an investment in yourself that will positively affect the people you love, your work life, your hobbies and the larger community as well.
It's worth the time invested!
