What is Vipassana Meditation?

I am sharing this for the benefit of people. Till date thousands of people have learnt Vipassana as it is being taught, but none has attained enlightenment. My intelligence and rationality questions, why so and unless we find out the reason it is not working, how can we move forward.

Vipassana has not enlightened anyone in last 2500 years since Buddha left Earth and even though Mr.Goenka says in his discourse time and again that Vipassana spread from India to neighboring countries and in Burma a few dedicated people kept the Vipassana practice alive as it was originally taught, this does not seem to be true.

And it also needs to be noted that even Mr.S.N.Goenka, after practicing Vipassana (as he teaches) has failed to attain enlightenment even after 40 years of practice! I am not against anyone, it is simply a fact.

Buddha practiced AnaPana Meditation in a different way. It is not about observing sensations on face, rather it is about observing breath as it enters, moves within the body and finally exits.

Given below is an an expert from Vigyan Bhairava Tantra – Osho’s book of secrets which defines 112 Tantric techniques used by rishis since thousands of years and explains each one in complete detail.

“… After breath comes in — that is, down — and just before turning out — that is, going up — THE BENEFICENCE. Be aware between these two points, and the happening. When your breath comes in, observe. For a single moment, or a thousandth part of a moment, there is no breathing — before it turns up, before it turns outward. One breath comes in; then there is a certain point and breathing stops. Then the breathing goes out. When the breath goes out, then again for a single moment, or a part of a moment, breathing stops. Then breathing comes in. Before the breath is turning in or turning out, there is a moment when you are not breathing. In that moment the happening is possible, because when you are not breathing you are not in the world.

Understand this: when you are not breathing you are dead; you ARE still, but dead. But the moment is of such a short duration that you never observe it. For tantra, each outgoing breath is a death and each new breath is a rebirth. Breath coming in is rebirth; breath going out is death. The outgoing breath is synonymous with death; the incoming breath is synonymous with life. So with each breath you are dying and being reborn. The gap between the two is of a very short duration, but keen, sincere observation and attention will make you feel the gap. If you can feel the gap, Shiva says, THE BENEFICENCE. Then nothing else is needed. You are blessed, you have known; the thing has happened. You are not to train the breath. Leave it just as it is.

Why such a simple technique? It looks so simple. Such a simple technique to know the truth? To know the truth means to know that which is neither born nor dies, to know that eternal element which is always.

You can know the breath going out, you can know the breath coming in, but you never know the gap between the two. Try it. Suddenly you will get the point — and you can get it; it is already there. Nothing is to be added to you or to your structure, it is already there. Everything is already there except a certain awareness. So how to do this? First, become
aware of the breath coming in. Watch it. Forget everything, just watch breath coming in — the very passage. When the breath touches your nostrils, feel it there. Then let the breath move in. Move with the breath fully consciously. When you are going down, down, down with the breath, do not miss the breath. Do not go ahead and do not follow behind, just go with it.

Remember this: do not go ahead, do not follow it like a shadow; be simultaneous with it. Breath and consciousness should become one. The breath goes in — you go in. Only then will it be possible to get the point which is between two breaths. It will not be easy. Move in with the breath, then move out with the breath: in-out, in-out. Buddha tried particularly to use this method, so this method has become a Buddhist method. In Buddhist terminology it is known as Anapanasati Yoga. And Buddha’s enlightenment was based on this technique — only this. – Osho ( from The Book of Secrets)

Now, I know this from my personal experience during my first Vipassana Course while doing the real Anapana Meditation (not as taught in vipassana), I was so much concentrated on observing breath going in and out ( in totality) that at night i could hear things far away even while appearing to be asleep, my solar plexus region vibrated with sound of rain drops falling on the dormitory roof. It was strange for me. I could not  understand what was happening to me. It was later when i decided to research on the matter, I came across Tantra and chakras and got the answers.

I am not saying that Vipassana does not work, but it never took me to the level of real Anapana Meditation technique. The whole philosophy is not required to do this simple technique. Philosophies only add to your mind and intellect, doing nothing in terms of experience. The real Anapana Meditation Technique is enough by itself.

For people who are really curious to know what other techniques are available please read  Osho’s Book of Secrets. Remember, everyone is different and different people can make of different techniques depending on what they find convenient to do. This Book is available on Amazon where you can buy online.

The true purpose of Vipassana is Enlightenment. Removing anxiety, mind traumas and body pains is a small benefit comparatively. But for hundreds of years not one person has gained enlightenment. Perhaps something or rather someone is missing!

On the first day of Vipassana, S.N.Goenka refers to the breath as a “bridge” during the evening discourse and the statements which seem to be picked from the Osho’s Book of secrets. Given below is expert from this book..

“Whether happy or unhappy, young or old, successful or unsuccessful — whatsoever you are, it is irrelevant — one thing is certain: between these two points of birth and death you must breathe. Breathing will be a continuous flow; no gap is possible. If even for a single moment you forget to breathe, you will be no more.

That is why YOU are not required to breathe, because then it would be difficult. Someone might forget to breathe for a single moment, and then nothing could be done. So, really, YOU are not breathing, because YOU are not needed. You are fast asleep, and breathing goes on; you are unconscious, and breathing goes on; you are in a deep coma, and breathing goes on.

YOU are not required; breathing is something which goes on in spite of you. It is one of the constant factors in your personality — that is the first thing. It is something which is very essential and basic to life — that is the second thing. You cannot be alive without breath. So breath and life have become synonymous. Breathing is the mechanism of life, and life is deeply related with breathing. That is why in India we call it PRANA. We have given one word for both — PRANA means the vitality, the aliveness. Your life is your breath.

Thirdly, your breath is a bridge between you and your body. Constantly, breath is bridging you to your body, connecting you, relating you to your body. Not only is the breath a bridge to your body, it is also a bridge between you and the universe. The body is just the universe which has come to you,which is nearer to you. Your body is part of the universe. Everything in the body is part of the universe — every particle, every cell. It is the nearest approach to the universe. Breath is the bridge.”  Book of Secrets (Vigyan Bhairava Tantra) by Osho

It seems like S.N.Goenka had read it and used the same words in his discourse, without referring to the original source – Vigyan Bhairava Tantra.

On Day 8, during the discourse he says refers to Durga’s name and says that the process is “Durgam” and very few attain to it. Yet it is true that at the time of Buddha more than a 500 disciples attained enlightenment. In last 2500 years not one person has attained nirvana?? What if an enlightened master is needed for the process?

” The master is nothing but a certainty. His presence makes it absolutely certain that there is much more within you than you ever dreamt of. His eyes give you a glimpse of your own possibility. His silence provokes a silence in you and his authority triggers a process in you.

Why do you need a master? Because you already have the truth within you, why can’t you just relax and become conscious of it?

The problem is that for ages your consciousness has been wandering all over the world. It has forgotten the way to come home.

It has been a long, long time since you left home and now you don’t know whether you have a home or whether you ever had a home.

Your remembrance of home seems to be as if you have seen it in a movie or in a dream, or you have read about it somewhere. It is a faraway echo in the valleys; it does not give you a certainty.

Hence, the need of a master. The master is nothing but a certainty. His presence makes it absolutely certain that there is much more within you than you ever dreamt of. His eyes give you a glimpse of your own possibility. His silence provokes a silence in you and his authority triggers a process in you.” Osho

Here is another reference..

” Real religion is never in the scriptures. And a real religious seeker does not go in search of scriptures, he goes in search of a master, a living master. That is one of the basic tenets of Kabir’s understanding:satguru, the living master. Go and search for a living master! If you can come in contact with a living master then dead scriptures will become alive again. They become alive only via the living master; there is no other way because the living master is the only scripture.

When the living master touches the Bhagavadgita it will become alive. When he touches the gospel, the gospel will become alive. When he recites the Koran, the Koran will again become alive. He will give his own life to these words, they will start throbbing. But you cannot directly find religion in the scriptures.So religion is not in the tradition and religion is not in the scriptures and religion is not in the rituals. Rituals are formalities. Unless you are in communion with a living master, rituals are a dead weight. They will burden you, they will dry you, they will kill you, and you will be lost in infinite formalities.

With a living master, a new ritual is born. It comes out of the contact, it has a context to it, a living reference to it. It is not learned by dead tradition being transferred from one generation to another. You live it, and through living it, you learn it.When you come to a living master, deep down something in you wants to bow down. It is not that you are going to do a certain formality; if you are doing it, it is meaningless. But something really deep in your spirit, deep in your center, wants to bow down. Then bowing to a master is no longer ritualistic. It is alive, it is meaningful, it is not an empty gesture. But you can just go on bowing down to anybody because you have been taught to bow down, then it is useless.” Osho

Vipassana without Buddha is a dead technique. Of course you can use it for removing anxiety, mind traumas and body pains, but you need a real enlightened master for enlightenment.

Vipassana is based on Buddha’s understanding that the body sensations are nothing but aversions of the mind and unless these are completely removed, one can not reach the highest state of enlightenment.

The surface of the mind – the part we use in day to day life connects through our senses and reacts to them tagging them as good or bad, craving for the good sensations and avoiding the bad sensations happening at the level of the body which happen at the deepest levels of the subconscious mind. This subconscious mind is not available to us in daily life, but as it keeps these aversions stored as sensations deep inside, it affects us in every way – like how we think, behave and reach to people and situations.

The method of Vipassana Meditation as explained by S.N.Goenka during the discourses is to keep the mind in the present moment with complete awareness of all the sensations happening within the body. By witnessing the sensations and watching then with equanimity as they come and go, we can become aware of the constant change happening within ourselves and also around us. By remaining equanimous to sensations we are able to reach our sub conscious mind and by not reaching to them in any way, we reduce their ability to affect us.

As the aversions – good and bad are uprooted from within the deepest corners of the sub conscious mind, one experiences true bliss and in further stages enlightenment is possible too. In Vipassana we have to follow Sheel, Samadhi and Pragya, which are the basic guidelines to get the best results from this meditation.

However, Vipassana is an intellect oriented meditation. It won’t work for heart oriented people. For many of you who feel more from the heart, this mind and intellect based meditation will prove difficult to follow. For such people Bhakti is the real way.

Vipassana is not the only meditation method. There are 112 meditation techniques listed in Vigyana Bhairava Tantra – an ancient text more than 5000 years old.

Here is what the enlightened master Osho said about these Tantra techniques..

“Mind IS the doubt. It is not that the mind doubts, mind is the doubt! Unless the mind dissolves, doubts cannot be cleared. Shiva will answer. His answers are techniques — the oldest, most ancient techniques. But you can call them the latest also because nothing can be added to them. They are complete — one hundred and twelve techniques.

They have taken in all the possibilities, all the ways of cleaning the mind, transcending the mind. Not a single method could be added to Shiva’s one hundred and twelve methods. And this book, VIGYANA BHAIRAVA TANTRA, is five thousand years old. Nothing can be added; there is no possibility to add anything. It is exhaustive, complete. It is the most ancient and yet the latest, yet the newest. Old like old hills — the methods seem eternal — and they are new like a dewdrop before the sun, because they are so fresh.

These one hundred and twelve methods of meditation constitute the whole science of transforming mind. We will enter them one by one. We will try to comprehend first intellectually. But use your intellect only as an instrument, not as a master. Use it as an instrument to understand something, but do not go on creating barriers with it. When we will be talking about these techniques, just put aside your past knowledge, your knowing, whatsoever information you have collected. Put them aside — they are just dust gathered on the road. Encounter these methods with a fresh mind — with alertness, of course, but not with argumentation. And do not create the fallacy that an argumentative mind is an alert mind. It is not, because the moment you move into arguments you have lost the awareness, you have lost the alertness. Then you are not here. These methods do not belong to any religion. Remember, they are not Hindu, just as the theory of relativity is not Jewish because Einstein conceived it. And radio and television are not Christian. No one says, “Why are you using electricity? This is Christian, because a Christian mind conceived it.” Science does not belong to races and religions — and tantra is a science. So remember, this is not Hindu at all.

These techniques were conceived by Hindus, but these techniques are not Hindu. That is why these techniques will not mention any religious ritual. No temple is needed. You are quite enough of a temple yourself. You are the lab; the whole experiment is to go on within you. No belief is needed. This is not religion, this is science. No belief is needed. It is not required to believe in the Koran or the Vedas or in Buddha or in Mahavira. No, no belief is needed. Only a daringness to experiment is enough, courage to experiment is enough; that is the beauty. A Mohammedan can practice and he will reach to the deeper meanings of the Koran. A Hindu can practice and he will for the first time know what the Vedas are. And a Jain can practice and a Buddhist can practice; they need not leave their religion. Tantra will fulfill them, wherever they are. Tantra will be helpful, whatsoever their chosen path.” Osho

A dedicated practitioner is all that is required to follow any technique that suits their ability.

No matter how S.N.Goenka downplays devotion and devotees and their ways, it remains a fact that there are many more ways to reach enlightenment. Bhakti is another way too.

In the words of Sri Ramakrishna on the path of devotion..

“If a man acquires the firm knowledge that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory, then his mind merges in samadhi.But in the Kaliyuga the life of a man depends entirely on food. How can he have the consciousness that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory?

In the Kaliyuga it is difficult to have the feeling, ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the twenty-four cosmic principles; I am beyond pleasure and pain, I am above disease and grief, old age and death.’

One cannot get rid of this identification with the body; therefore the path of bhakti is best for the people of the Kaliyuga. It is an easy path. In order to realize God one must be completely free from worldliness and direct all of one’s mind to Him.

“When one has such love and attachment for God, one doesn’t feel the attraction of maya to wife, children, relatives, and friends.

“One cannot see God if one has even the slightest trace of worldliness.

Match-sticks, if damp, won’t strike fire though you rub a thousand of them against the match-box. You only waste a heap of sticks. The mind soaked in worldliness is such a damp match-stick. Once Sri Radha said to her friends that she saw Krishna everywhere – both within and without. The friends answered: ‘Why, we don’t see Him at all. Are you delirious?’ Radha said, ‘Friends, paint your eves with the collyrium of divine love, and then you will see Him.’

“If the devotee but once feels this attachment and ecstatic love for God, this mature devotion and longing, then he sees God in both His aspects, with form and without form.”