Vipassana: 10 Insights from 100 hours of meditation in 10 days

Background

I had an unusual start to this New Year, where instead of sleeping at 4 am on Jan 1st morning, I woke up at 4 am to fly to Mumbai for my 10-day Vipassana Meditation course. It had been on my bucket list for a while, and somehow the stars aligned. While the lessons from this exercise will linger on, the profound impact it has had on me since, motivated me to write this piece, with the intent to educate and inspire more of us to try this practice.

I'll start with the punchline:

What I realized was that the main source of my suffering is in the patterns of my own mind. When I desire something and it doesn't happen, my mind reacts and creates suffering. Similar reaction when undesirable things happen. Suffering then, is not a condition induced by the outside world. It is merely a reaction created by my own mind. Thus, I can choose not to react, and not suffer. ????

The key question is how to do this consistently. Read on.

Introduction

In an era where our gadgets feel like our body's extension and our minds resemble exploding browser tabs, stress, and anxiety have become stubborn guests who never leave. Enter Vipassana, an ancient remedy to our modern-day suffering.

Imagine giving your brain a spa retreat, but instead of mud baths and massages, you experience mental resilience and clarity.

What is Vipassana Meditation?

Tracing its roots back over 2,500 years, Vipassana, which means 'to see things as they are', is not your average 'sit-and-breathe' meditation. It's more like a deep-sea dive into the ocean of your psyche. Based on Buddhist teachings, this technique is the path to ultimate peace and freedom, freedom to be in harmony with nature and fellow humans.

It is not tied to any religious ideologies and welcomes students from all religions and backgrounds.

To make it accessible to everyone, there are zero fees, and the program is funded purely by donations.

Principles of Vipassana Meditation:

1. Mindfulness and Awareness: It's about being in the 'now', minus the judgment. A study by Harvard University found that people spend 47% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they're doing, often worrying or ruminating. Vipassana teaches how to deeply connect with your body and stay in the present.

2. Impermanence (Anicca - A-ni-ch-ya): Just like the beauty of a sunset or the hot lava from an erupting volcano, nothing lasts forever. This principle teaches us the grace of letting go, fostering emotional stability as we learn to appreciate the transient nature of all things.

3. Moral Conduct (Sila): The term "Sila" encompasses a set of moral guidelines or precepts, such as honesty, that practitioners are encouraged to follow in their daily lives. By doing so, you are priming your mind to practice meditation and set yourself up for greater success.

4. Meditative State (Samadhi): is a term used in various Eastern spiritual and philosophical traditions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, to describe a state of deep meditative absorption, concentration, and one-pointedness. It is the tool through which we can train our minds to fully understand the impermanent nature of reality.

5. Equanimity through wisdom (Pa??a): the continuous practice of Samadhi leads to the experiential wisdom that since everything is impermanent, one can choose not to be constantly reactive.

My Experience and Insights:

1/ Human suffering is universal, and so is the antidote

Our suffering, defined as the state of unhappiness when something goes against our wishes, has been a bug in humans for a long time. Our constant cravings and aversions have led to an unbalanced mind that struggles to keep equanimity for longer. Result? Conflict, stress, anger, and constant anxiety, which is increasingly affecting our quality of life.

While there are many external tools from therapy to drugs, which give some relief, yet, a large population remains untreated or experiences a yo-yo effect over time.

Could it be that we already have what it takes to feel better? How about our breath and sensations?

2/ The only way out, is in

It was apparent that the only way to effectively deal with the roller coaster of life is to go inwards and build the resiliency that keeps you calm and balanced even amidst a storm. Many wise people in history have realized and shared this, I was just slow to catch up ??

Vipassana offered a fundamental understanding of our body's response to external stimuli, which further triggers undesirable behaviors, eventually becoming a vicious cycle.

The only way to break the cycle is to decouple your mental response from the changes in your body. Regular practice of the Vipassana Meditation technique will build awareness and train you to respond with equanimity rather than craving or aversion.

3/ I’m not enough. You are not enough. It is not enough.

Most of our suffering stems from one or more of these beliefs. The hedonic treadmill promises happiness at the next milestone, only to get normalized quickly, creating a craving for the next one, and the next. In the process, we continue to suffer. Lasting happiness, peace, and joy cannot be attained through external means - more money, more things, and more titles, but can only be realized through internal peace.

Does that mean one shouldn't be ambitious? After all, human progress has also been a byproduct of never feeling enough.

You can still strive to do more, but not tie your identity to that "more". You are not what you do, what you own, what you build, etc.

4/ Mental Clarity can be manufactured

I had been sitting on a decision for months, ping-ponging, from one side to another. Suddenly, after being forced into an environment with minimal external stimuli, a serene natural habitat, and lots of time to go within, I experienced mental clarity that I hadn't in a long time. It's as if, the fog magically cleared and I could see everything and from multiple dimensions.

Slow down to move fast, and move decisively.

5/ Law of Impermanence (Anicca: Pronounced as A-ni-ch-ya)

This is the most fundamental building block of the Vipassana Meditation. It implies that nothing is permanent and is always changing. We learn that experientially through the sensations in the body, which constantly arise and pass away.

An intimate awareness of these sensations enables one to not react to external stimuli, fully embracing their nature of impermanence. A deeply profound and useful human heuristic.

6/ Ego is a vanity vessel, which can be dissolved through service to others

Ego as a key driver of suffering, came up a few times in the discourses. The ego evolved to give us an identity to help us stay safe but has instead become a source of selfish behavior which leads to zero-sum games.

So long as you are working for your ego, there will be suffering, and you can only begin to free yourself by having a service mindset.

7/ We have a thought factory; left unchecked, it can be wasteful and harmful

One of the key benefits of this 10-day meditation was that I became intimately familiar with my repeated thought patterns. The nature of the "monkey mind" was on clear display; The difference? I was able to observe this time vs. being on autopilot when this has happened subconsciously.

Studies show that the human brain generates about 70,000 thoughts a day, and I bet most of them are not useful. We are either thinking about the past, the future, or just randomly jumping from one to another.

Every thought adds to the cognitive load and burns real energy. So the more time we spend ruminating, worrying, etc., the less energy we have to be creative and productive.

Why is this a big deal? The brain is 2% of the body weight and burns 20% of the energy. So the question is - are you a responsible resource allocator?

The good news is you can train your mind to be present and focus on positive and constructive thoughts, by being fully aware and by applying real-time filters before further processing. Here's a simple framework that may help.

8/ Don't accept unwanted gifts of misery

One of the stories shared in the course was of Gautam Buddha, where someone once showered him with abuses and insults, and Buddha told him, I refuse to accept your gift of misery, and thus, relinquishing the need to react.

Stoicism has a similar quote by Marcus Aurelias:

Choose not to be harmed—and you won't feel harmed.? Don't feel harmed—and you haven't been.

When unwanted events happen in your life, you have a choice. You are not a victim, but rather in control of whom you allow to hurt you.

9/ Schedule everything to eliminate decision fatigue and drive consistency

Enough experts have spoken about the power of building habits and systems that are aligned with our goals. Given our goal was to build a strong foundation of a new meditation technique in just 10 days, the management ensured there was a strict schedule and defined lifestyle. No deliberation, no decision fatigue. You know what to do from the time you wake up, till you go to sleep.

Looking to build new habits and be consistent in the new year?

Try scheduling everything from the time you wake up to your sleep, and then just diligently follow. Going to the gym or meditation then is not a decision, but just something you do on autopilot.

10/ Adhi??hāna (meaning: strong determination / resolute will)

If that's not enough, then there is Adhi??hāna. This is a foundational principle of practicing Vipassana and is the magical power of determination. Practicing long hours of meditation was tough and all the physical and psychological discomforts tested my determination. Can't say that I always succeeded, but certainly got stronger as the days progressed.

In the end, it was clear to me that no matter how difficult the path, Adhi??hāna, is what one needs to keep walking.

Call to Action:

If any of the above appeals to you, then I invite you to go on this journey, experiment, and enroll at the nearest center around you. Here's the link to the Dhamma Website with all the information you need.

If you have any questions or would like to connect with the community on this topic, then please join this discord channel where I will personally answer any questions you may have.

May all beings be happy!