What is Vipassana

(First Published 3-Feb-14)

What is Vippassana?  So was the question that a dear old friend asked me over dinner one night with his family. I was in Doha, Qatar, on my way to Hong Kong from Istanbul and had stopped over.

I never did get the chance to give an answer, one that is simple but yet complete and succinct. The conversation veered off in various directions, from an analysis of self and non-self to others.

And soon it was 7.30 AM the next day, and l was in an airside bus making its way to the aircraft. It was a long ride as the airport was under renovation. I am on the last bus that has few  in it. 

I see form, forms of people but I stop short at just seeing. I see a color that catches my eye but I consciously stop short of looking further. I gaze around but my sight returns to the color. I consciously look further and find I am looking at a pair of shorts. I see a man but I don't go looking further. I see children. I look further and notice they are so carefree. 

I now observe people's faces. I now consciously observe that some are drawn taught, some scowled, some with furrow brow, one in particular on whose forehead an ant could take a hundred steps, all betraying the tension that lay beneath. I see the worried look of a woman biting her lip. Some seem relaxed but the eyes run deep with thoughts stitched over time waiting to burst out at their seams at the moment of choosing, or so it would seem. 

All of them, except the children, seem confined within the walls of their thoughts, and that set the boundaries of their reality. 

They  are indeed prisoners of their consciousness held hostage within, by thoughts, by habits, by experiences, by knowledge, by views, by customs, by rituals, by observances, by cast, by creed, by profession, by vocation, the daily chores or perhaps by just nothing that one usually frets over. 

I begin to discriminate further but with awareness, a discriminatory awareness, but guarded so as to not stray in to feelings -of good or bad, so l remain neutral and indifferent, I am mindful of thoughts of likes and dislikes but none occur. 

I seem to be having a good day. I am able to put together subjects and objects without adding my own prejudices. I am aware of what looms before me and goes away. I do not participate. I let go. 

I am aware of the uselessness of  such arising thoughts for they are transitory and empty. Nothing seem to bother me today, whatever underlying tendencies or mental imprints that lay beneath me seem to lie dormant, impotent, perhaps as they are unconditioned by thought, of past or of present or future. 

I am aware that without the hook or barb of lust, aversion or attachment arising from dislike and like, and a mind of anger or hatred that would find fault with what I see, there appears little power within me to catch or impale these mental arising. I see but only just see. I hear but only just. I am mindful today and I seem to have clarity in comprehension. My concentration is unwavering and I have an acute, a heightened sense of awareness, bare awareness. 

My reflection is vipassana. In the Pali, the word conveys the meaning, simply.  Vipassana etymologically, is derived from the verb vipassati. Passana is the active noun for things that pass. Vi is the diversity, from the word vividham – that is to see, to penetrate an object in many ways. Did I see things today in the true sense of the word, no, maybe not completely, but what I saw was what I saw just as what I saw. It would convey the level of wisdom that I possess in discerning things. Of course this depends greatly on the state of mind at that moment. It is so that I am not of this mind all the time.  

Seeing things for what they are is known as yatha bhuta and seeing things with panna or wisdom is Gnana Dassana. 

Vipassana in fact is the revelation to one of the true nature of reality - of the impermanence, of suffering, of the unsubstantial nature of all things  – of physical and mental 

If you want to see things for what they are you have to see it without the influence of your self, see it without a self nature, see it for its impermanence as a mere arising and passing of mind, and in that sense, of its uselessness to influence further. The most useful understanding of impermanence is lost when it is masked by its often-used definition - impermanence of matter rather than of mind. When we are relaxed and calm we can clearly see that the mind is a series of moments of arising and passing. This is the nature of consciousness – a series of transitory mind moments.

Vipassana should not be mistaken for an intellectual understanding of the core teachings. It is far from it. It is one’s actualization of the understanding, usually only possible through meditative practice that aid this process unless some flash of intuitive light arises from within to expose the true nature of reality. 

Some of us may have experienced such occurrences in various degrees at various levels of wisdom. They can be of mundane (lokiya or of the worldly) or super mundane (lokuttara). So I would not rush to draw any conclusions on the various insights that I have had.

There are several ways in which one can develop insight. Certain texts such as the Visuddhimaga specify five sequential practices. The stages of gradually growing insight are described in nine insight knowledge stages starting from just rise and fall to adaptation. There are 18 insight knowledge or principal insights, from contemplation of impermanence, yathabhutha gnana dhassana, to reflecting contemplation and to contemplation of turning away. Through these 18 principal insights, it is said, that we are able to overcome of worldly view of all things.  

As always it is very easy to get the true sense of the meaning of any term by examining the word carefully. The Pali language is devoid of the tenses that you would find in English. It is a highly inflected language where every basic word that has the root meaning can be inflected by one or more affixes (usually suffixes) to modify the meaning Nouns are inflected for gender and case such as vocative, accusative and so on, (eight of them). Verbal inflections convey information such as number, tense and mood. It is a language that is very well suited to see for our selves how all things pass.