vipassanā meditation = void state?
a few days prior to this day, i posted a small publication (this one), about a mysterious and somehow unknown to the loablr and voidblr community meditation technique called vipassanā and since some of you were curious about it, i wanted to make a proper post about this technique.
let's begin at the very beginning… what is vipassanā (or “to see things as they really are”)?
in short, vipassanā, whose literal meaning is "super-seeing," though it is more often translated as "insight" or "clear-seeing," is one of india's most ancient meditation techniques, rediscovered some 2500 years ago by gotama the buddha, carried and developed through the long course of history, then revived and globalized in the twentieth century into the form we know it today. to practice vipassanā is to move toward a deep mindfulness and acceptance, one that lets you see reality as it truly is and it asks nothing extraordinary of you, no special conditions, no complicated techniques, only your attention and a willingness to observe. and although the technique has buddhist roots, it can be practiced by people of all beliefs.
how does one perform vipassanā meditation?
i. find a quiet place, sit or lay down in a stable, comfortable position, in my opinion sitting in a lotus like position or lying in shavasana (“the corpse pose”) are the best of them, close your eyes and commit to the session for at least twenty minutes, ten is not quite enough i think.
ii. stay as still as you can and let small discomforts pass through you without moving.
iii. anchor your attention on your breathing, on its smaller portions, the nostrils, the lungs, finding the beginning, the middle and the end of each breath, visualizing the rise and fall of your abdomen.
!!! don't force silence upon yourself, thoughts will arise naturally, when your attention wanders, don't shame yourself, don't call it a failure, only notice that the distraction occurred, ah, i've drifted from my breath, then gently return awareness to it and the present, which is constantly changing !!!
a small tip for focus: count your breathing in your mind. inhale and repeat the number one for as long as the inhale lasts, exhale and count two for as long as the exhale lasts and so on.
and now, "focus on your breathing," "observe your thoughts," "ignore symptoms," "stay motionless," so on and so on…. isn't this an exact mirror of what everyone so often tell everyone to do in order to reach that tempting state of pure consciousness?! yes or no? come to your own conclusion with it, but i think it very much is and i use this as my main technique for getting into the void when i don't naturally wake there after falling asleep and kinda combine it with WBTB, yoga nidra and some of the void state techniques from ancient teachings that my dear friend @vanillebirkin shared in her lovely posts that inspired me to write this “essay” in the first place. love love love love you, helene!!!
