Vipassana: Meditation For Ruling The Mind

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

If you learn Vipassana you will create a new mind of compassion to all and it will be able to see everything as it is. In the language of Vipassana, it is called equanimity. However, the old mind might continue to live on. It won’t relent the old habits easily; it might come back again and again, and over power the new mind Vipassana has created in you. So, if you don’t continuously practice Vipassana, the old mind will rule over you again. That is why you need to practice Vipassana relentlessly so that your old mind will not comeback again and again.

Nature has created our mind of compassion and love to all. This is a law of nature. However, humans have developed anger, ill will and so on of all negative senses going against the nature. Vipassana is to take you back to follow the law of nature that in ‘pali’ language Buddha called it ‘dhamma’.

Learning Vipassana, humans will learn to live naturally. It will be peacefully taking you to the natural life and let you live in an eternal peace. Then you will forget anger, desire and ill will. You become a perfect human in other word a Buddha. In this state of mind, love alone will be on your mind no matter what other people will do to you and to others. Rule of nature becomes the rule of law in your mind.

Practicing Vipassana, you will burn out anger, ill will, animosity, hatred and so on, and create love and compassion to all living beings. Practicing Vipassana is to watch reality in a way that will keep your mind steady and balanced. Reacting angrily to the things that come to your mind means becoming miserable. So practicing Vipassana means learning to not reacting anything whether it is pleasant or unpleasant sensations.

When anger arises on your mind. just watch it doing nothing. You will see how breathing has increased, tension on the mind, and heat in the body has risen, too. Keep watching all these things will help you to get out of the anger slowly.

Don’t divert your attention from the misery rather watch it. Diverting attention from misery will not release you from the misery but will give you a brief relief from it as it remains deep on your mind, and come up at any time spontaneously.

Change yourselves rather than attempting to change others. Changing others is next to impossible. You cannot resolve your problems trying to correct others. So, you will be better off realizing it and keeping yourselves equanimity to others’ doings. Don’t react to others’ activities but keep equanimity of your mind. Watch not only the anger coming up but also any pleasant thinks, too that will burn your mind.

Going to a church or temple or any shrine is for purifying mind and body. However, people forget to do so simply following the rites and rituals only. You can remove the impurities from the surface of mind but it is hard to do so from the deepest mind because it is in constant touch with the body sensations. The deepest mind is called unconscious mind. However it is never unconscious as it always feels the sensations on the body.

Your mind is always for meeting your cravings and avoiding aversions at the deepest level. So, you will be always unconsciously working on craving and aversion. You need to train your mind at the deepest level to avoid such things but it is not so easy. You give in to your thinking and ultimately become the slave of your mind. However, if you practice Vipassana perpetually you will come out of craving and aversion. You surely can purify the deep-seated mind.

Watching everything as it is a very difficult thing to do but you will achieve your goal of coming out of misery when you become able to watch everything as it is in your life. Watch yourselves to keep you on the right track of life. Reaction to anything occurring in your mind is the main cause of misery in the life. So, keep your mind clean if you want to be free from misery.

Sharing your misery with others will not relieve you from misery rather you will make others unhappy, too. In doing so, not only you become unhappy you make others, too miserable. So, stop creating negative feelings and live peacefully.

Old habits come back to you and take you to old habits if you cannot learn to be the master of your mind. Being the maser of your mind is the shortest route of coming out of misery. So, don’t be under the control of anybody but of yourselves.

If you practice Vipassana it will help you to make right decisions. If you learn Vipassana you will help society to keep peace and harmony. Vipassana is the study of mind and matter, and their interactions.

None can make you miserable if you don’t want to be. Every problem is in you and your own creation. Do whatever is good to you and others, too to avoid any problem in your life. Don’t hate anybody rather love everybody that will bring you peace and happiness and solve your problems if any you have.

Dhamma is the rule of law governed by the law of nature. If you go against it then you will be miserable. However, people have forgotten the real meaning of dhamma. If you follow the moral conduct then you are a dharmmic person but you cannot be dharmmic simply performing the rituals of one religion or another. So, understanding of dharma is needed. Once, you understand dhamma you would be able to practice it. Follow dhamma to keep your mind clean and free from negative thinking. Keep aside everything what your faith or tradition says but try to find out the truth of real dhamma. You cannot live a good life doing bad things.

If you break the law of any country the government will bring you to justice but it might take some time. However, nature punishes you immediately if you break the natural law. As soon as you generate feelings on your mind you become miserable. If you harass others means you are harassing yourselves.

Don’t get addicted to anything. You generate tremendous desire for anything before you physically committing it. You will amass a huge wealth if you desire so but the money you earn comes from the society. So, you return it some portions of it to the society. Similarly, you commit crimes developing tremendous desire for such things. You create havoc in the society you live in. So, if you don’t harm anybody and live in peace you are helping everybody to live in peace.

Attachment to anything and to your body is the main cause of misery. Then, our mind becomes my soul and me.

Learning Vipassana starts off with the practice of watching breathing. This practice is called ‘annapan’. Simply watch you’re breathing in and breathing out. Don’t control breathing but watch it as it is naturally coming in and going out of nostrils. Watching everything as it is called equanimity. Easy to understand it but it is very difficult to practice it as the mind is always moving from one thing to another not staying under your control. So, your mind moves away from the nostrils you need to bring it back to nostrils again and again. Accept the reality of the mind flying away from you. Don’t be angry at it but accept the reality.

Continue watching your mind; see the mind has gone away. The mind does not stay on in the present. It either goes to the past or to the future. So, you bring it back to the present at your nostrils. It might be a great task for you to do.

After learning how to watch everything as it is, then you learn Vipassana meditation. Vipassana means watching anything arising in or going out of your body not reacting to those things. If you practice it with dedication you can reach even Nirvana but the teachers of Vipassana advise you not to try without an authorized teacher. Don’t try it by yourselves, as it is a simple technique but very difficult one to practice. It is for learning what is deep on your mind. So, take a 10-day Vipassana retreat and learn it from a teacher.

May 22, 2011