When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappears.
S. N. Goenka
The Vipassanā movement, also called the Insight Meditation Movement and American vipassana movement.
Vipassana is a classical Buddhist meditation. It can be practiced by anyone, as there is nothing inherently religious about it. Vipassana does not involve any esoteric techniques and the only thing required is to see reality the way it manifests itself at any given moment. In the Pali language, the word vipasyana means seeing things clearly, which is the essence of the Vipassana practice.
Yuval Noah Harari, is an Israeli public intellectual, historian and a professor in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the author of the popular science bestseller “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” (2014) practices it for many years now. He says “I practice it to see reality more clearly. To be able to see what is reality, what is happening right here, right now. I am not doing any kind of religions exercise, to get in touch with that force or this force… It is the least dogmatic thing I ever encountered in life. It says just observe what is happening right now, without trying to impose any story on it, without trying to change it anyway.”
The core principle of Vipassana is not to expect anything and accept everything. Experiences come and go. This principle is called ‘Equanimity’. It requires you not to crave pleasant experiences, and not try to avoid the unpleasant ones. You should only notice experiences, from an impartial observer’s perspective. Be it a negative experience, or a positive one, all experiences share a common quality – they arise, and then they pass away.
The experiences that you notice can be your body sensations, feelings or thoughts.
There are different ways of how Vipassana can be practiced. Currently the most popular is S. N. Goenka’s tradition. Besides Goenka’s Vipassana, there is also another modern way of practicing it, instructed by Shinzen Young in his audiobook “Five Classic Meditations”.
While Goenka’s version of Vipassana is more profound and can bring more significant results, Shinzen Young’s Vipassana is effective on a day to day basis. Even a few minutes of practice can give positive results. You can download application to practice it from here: https://vipassana.app/about Or just use different videos on YouTube (npr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfNhzZsRwfU).
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1_YhlXiuxE
