Vipassana movement
Encyclopedia
The Vipassana movement refers to a number of branches of modern Theravāda
Buddhism, for example in the various traditions of Sri Lanka
, Burma, Laos
and Thailand
including contemporary American Buddhist teachers such as Joseph Goldstein
, Tara Brach
, Gil Fronsdal
, Sharon Salzberg
, and Jack Kornfield
(who were inspired by Theravāda teachers Mahasi Sayadaw
, Ajahn Chah Subhatto
, and Dipa Ma
), as well as nonsectarian derivatives from those traditions such as the movement led by S. N. Goenka
(with his co-teacher wife Illaichi Devi) who studied with teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin
. The tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin is continued today in the International Meditation Centres led by his main disciple Mother Saymagyi
.
and vipassanā
meditation consistent with Buddhist meditation
as taught by the Buddha
. According to S. N. Goenka, they are essentially non-sectarian in character and have universal application. One need not convert to Buddhism
to practice these styles of meditation. Meditation centers teaching the vipassanā popularized by S. N. Goenka exist now in India, Asia, North and South America, Europe, Australia, Middle East and Africa.
Mahasati Meditation
is an example of these practices. In the tradition of S.N.Goenka, Vipassanā practice focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind.
The modern Indian teacher Dipa Ma
(trained in Burma) was one of the first female asian masters to be invited to teach in America. As a widowed, single mother, Dipa Ma was a householder (non-monastic) who exemplified liberation and taught vipassana as not only a retreat practice but also a lifestyle. Her message to women and men was you don't have to leave your family to reach high states of spiritual understanding, and she taught a radical inclusiveness. She encouraged women who were mothers of young children to practice vipassana through the daily activities of mothering. She once said to Joseph Goldstein that "Women have an advantage over men because they have more supple minds... It may be difficult for men to understand this, because they are men." When asked if there was any hope for men, she replied "The Buddha was a man, and Jesus was a man. So there is hope for you."
Dipa Ma's Metta (Lovingkindness) meditation instruction was a core component to be practiced after each vipassana sit. It involves five stages, the first of which was the mastery of self-compassion
in mind and heart, then continuing to the other stages. The prayer of the first stage, given in English is as follows:
Let me be free of enemies
Let me be free of dangers
Let me be free of mental anxieties
Let me pass my time with good body and happy mind.
Indian teacher Ilaichidevi Goenka, wife of the Burmese-trained S.N. Goenka and mother of six children, began practicing adhittan vipassana when her youngest child was four years old,http://www.udaya.dhamma.org/ebook/Sayagyi_U_Ba_Khin_Journal/Interview_with_Mataji.html eventually joining her husband on the teaching platform as co-teacher to thousands of students at retreat centers and prison
s /Prisoners do Vipassana
meditation
and never again commit crime nor come back to prison, see: Doing Time, Doing Vipassana/ all over India as well as internationally. "Mataji" as she is lovingly referred to by her students, also leads chants with her husband.
Indian Shambhavi Chopra, a former textiles designer and divorced mother of two who is now co-director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies, writes of her 10 day vipassana meditation training at a retreat center in Germany in her book Yogini: The Enlightened Woman, and encourages students to explore vipassana practice and mastery as a devotion to the Divine Mother of all.
, a reformist Inspector General of India's prisons, learned of the success of vipassanā in a jail in Jaipur
, Rajasthan
. A ten-day retreat involved officials and inmates alike was then tried in India's largest prison Tihar Jail
near New Delhi. This program was said to have dramatically changed the behavior of inmates and jailers alike. Inmates who completed the ten-day course were less violent and had a lower recidivism
rate than other inmates. This project was documented in the documentary film, Doing Time, Doing Vipassana.
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
Buddhism, for example in the various traditions of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Burma, Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
and Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
including contemporary American Buddhist teachers such as Joseph Goldstein
Joseph Goldstein
Joseph Goldstein is one of the first American vipassana teachers , co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg, contemporary author of numerous popular books on Buddhism , resident guiding teacher at IMS, and leader of retreats worldwide on insight and...
, Tara Brach
Tara Brach
Tara Brach is a American psychologist and expert on Buddhist meditation. She is also the founder and senior teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, a spiritual community that teaches and practices Vipassana meditation. This group's Wednesday night meeting in Bethesda, Maryland,...
, Gil Fronsdal
Gil Fronsdal
Gil Fronsdal is a Buddhist who has practiced Soto Zen and Vipassana since 1975, and is currently a Buddhist teacher who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Gil was trained as a Vipassana teacher by Jack Kornfield and is part of the Vipassana teachers' collective at Spirit Rock Meditation Center...
, Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg
Sharon Salzberg is a New York Times Best selling author and influential teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in West. She co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, in 1974...
, and Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield is a teacher in the vipassana movement of American Theravada Buddhism. He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, including as a student of the Thai monk Ajahn Chah...
(who were inspired by Theravāda teachers Mahasi Sayadaw
Mahasi Sayadaw
The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw U Sobhana was a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master who had a significant impact on the teaching of Vipassana meditation in the West and throughout Asia...
, Ajahn Chah Subhatto
Ajahn Chah
Venerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition....
, and Dipa Ma
Dipa Ma
Dipa Ma was born Nani Bala Barua in a small village named Chittagong in East Bengal , moving to join her husband in Burma when she was 16...
), as well as nonsectarian derivatives from those traditions such as the movement led by S. N. Goenka
S. N. Goenka
Satya Narayan Goenka is a leading lay teacher of Vipassanā meditation and a student of U Ba Khin. He has trained more than 800 assistant teachers and each year more than 100,000 people attend Goenka sponsored Vipassana courses....
(with his co-teacher wife Illaichi Devi) who studied with teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin
U Ba Khin
Saya Gyi U Ba Khin was the first Accountant General of the Union of Burma. He is principally known as a leading twentieth century authority on Vipassana meditation. -Life and works:...
. The tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin is continued today in the International Meditation Centres led by his main disciple Mother Saymagyi
Mother Sayamagyi
Mya Thwin, known as Mother Sayamagyi is a Theravada Buddhist teacher who has established centers for vipassana meditation around the world. She is a senior disciple of Ba Khin, a vipassana master, and fulfilled his aspiration to teach Buddhist meditation in the west.-Life and works:Mya Thwin was...
.
Meditation techniques
The various movements espouse similar meditation techniques. Teachers with the vipassana movement teach forms of samathaSamatha
Samatha , śamatha "calm abiding," comprises a suite, type or style of Buddhist meditation or concentration practices designed to enhance sustained voluntary attention, and culminates in an attention that can be sustained effortlessly for hours on end...
and vipassanā
Vipassana
Vipassanā or vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi . Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha...
meditation consistent with Buddhist meditation
Buddhist meditation
Buddhist meditation refers to the meditative practices associated with the religion and philosophy of Buddhism.Core meditation techniques have been preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through teacher-student transmissions. Buddhists pursue meditation as part of...
as taught by the Buddha
Gautama Buddha
Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...
. According to S. N. Goenka, they are essentially non-sectarian in character and have universal application. One need not convert to Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
to practice these styles of meditation. Meditation centers teaching the vipassanā popularized by S. N. Goenka exist now in India, Asia, North and South America, Europe, Australia, Middle East and Africa.
Mahasati Meditation
Mahasati Meditation
Also known as Dynamic meditation, Mahasati Meditation is a form of mindfulness meditation. It is a technique developed by the late Thai Buddhist reformist, Luangpor Teean Jittasubho. Mahasati Meditation uses movement of the body to generate self-awareness and is a powerful tool for self-realization...
is an example of these practices. In the tradition of S.N.Goenka, Vipassanā practice focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind.
Famous masters
- Ledi SayadawLedi SayadawThe Venerable Ledi Sayadaw U Ñanadhaja was an influential Theravada Buddhist monk. He was recognized from a young age as being developed in both the theory and practice of Buddhism and so was revered as being both scholarly and saintly...
(1846–1923) Burmese monk and meditation master - Mohnyin Sayadaw (1873–1964)
- Sunlun Sayadaw (1878–1952)
- Ajahn Naeb (1897–1983)
- Taungpulu Sayadaw (1897–1986)
- Sayagyi U Ba KhinU Ba KhinSaya Gyi U Ba Khin was the first Accountant General of the Union of Burma. He is principally known as a leading twentieth century authority on Vipassana meditation. -Life and works:...
(1899–1971) Burmese lay meditation master - Mogok Sayadaw (Venerable Sayadawgyi U Wimala)Mogok Sayadaw (Venerable Sayadawgyi U Wimala)Mogok Sayadaw U Vimala was a renowned Theravada Buddhist monk and vipassana meditation master.-Early life:He was born Maung Hla Baw to Daw Shwe Ake and U Aung Tun in a small village close to Amarapura in Mandalay Province, Burma on 27 December 1899. Hla Baw began his education at 4, and enrolled...
("Mogok Sayadaw PayarGyi") (1900–1962) Burmese monk and meditation master - Mahasi SayadawMahasi SayadawThe Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw U Sobhana was a Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and meditation master who had a significant impact on the teaching of Vipassana meditation in the West and throughout Asia...
(1904–1982) Burmese monk and meditation master - Ajahn Buddhadasa (1906–1993)
- Luangpor Teean Jittasubho (1911–1988)
- Nani Bala Barua Dipa MaDipa MaDipa Ma was born Nani Bala Barua in a small village named Chittagong in East Bengal , moving to join her husband in Burma when she was 16...
(1911–1989) Indian meditation master teacher, mother, trained in Burma - Ajahn Dhammadharo (1913–2005)
- Ajahn Chah SubhattoAjahn ChahVenerable Ajahn Chah Subhaddo was an influential teacher of the Buddhadhamma and a founder of two major monasteries in the Thai Forest Tradition....
(1918–1992) Thai forest monk and meditation master - Sayadaw U Silananda (1927–2005) Burmese monk and meditation master
Notable living teachers
- Ajahn SumedhoAjahn SumedhoLuang Por Ajahn Sumedho is the senior Western representative of the Thai forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. He was abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery just north of London from its consecration in 1984 until his retirement in 2010...
- Ajahn Amaro
- Ajahn Sobin S. NamtoAjahn Sobin S. NamtoAchan Sobin S. Namto is a Buddhist monk who has taught Vipassana meditation and Buddhist psychology in Southeast Asia and North America for over 50 years.- Biography :...
- S. N. GoenkaS. N. GoenkaSatya Narayan Goenka is a leading lay teacher of Vipassanā meditation and a student of U Ba Khin. He has trained more than 800 assistant teachers and each year more than 100,000 people attend Goenka sponsored Vipassana courses....
- Henepola GunaratanaHenepola GunaratanaHenepola Gunaratana is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist monk. He is often affectionately known as Bhante G.Bhante is a title which literally means venerable sir in Pāli...
("Bhante G") - Bhikkhu BodhiBhikkhu BodhiBhikkhu Bodhi , born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York/New Jersey area...
- Christopher TitmussChristopher TitmussChristopher Titmuss, is a former Theravada Buddhist monk, an Insight Meditation meditation instructor and an author of books on Dharma who resides in Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom. He was a journalist before becoming a monk, spending six years in Thailand and India from 1970 to 1976...
- Gil FronsdalGil FronsdalGil Fronsdal is a Buddhist who has practiced Soto Zen and Vipassana since 1975, and is currently a Buddhist teacher who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Gil was trained as a Vipassana teacher by Jack Kornfield and is part of the Vipassana teachers' collective at Spirit Rock Meditation Center...
- Tara BrachTara BrachTara Brach is a American psychologist and expert on Buddhist meditation. She is also the founder and senior teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, a spiritual community that teaches and practices Vipassana meditation. This group's Wednesday night meeting in Bethesda, Maryland,...
- Jack KornfieldJack KornfieldJack Kornfield is a teacher in the vipassana movement of American Theravada Buddhism. He trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma and India, including as a student of the Thai monk Ajahn Chah...
- John Earl ColemanJohn Earl ColemanJohn Earl Coleman is an important teacher of Vipassana meditation, a kind of meditation of Theravada Buddhism. He was born in 1933 in a mining town of Pennsylvania, US. After attending his studies, he served the Army. He went to Korea during the war. After his coming back to USA, he started to...
- Joseph GoldsteinJoseph GoldsteinJoseph Goldstein is one of the first American vipassana teachers , co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg, contemporary author of numerous popular books on Buddhism , resident guiding teacher at IMS, and leader of retreats worldwide on insight and...
- Larry RosenbergLarry RosenbergLarry Rosenberg is an American Buddhist teacher who founded the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also a resident teacher there. Rosenberg was a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago and Harvard Medical School...
- Luangpor ThongLuangpor ThongCommonly referred to as Luangpor Thong, Luangpor Thong Abhakaro is a Buddhist monk and teacher of Mahasati Meditation —a meditation method developed by his teacher, Luangpor Teean Jittasubho...
- Rodney Smith
- Mother SayamagyiMother SayamagyiMya Thwin, known as Mother Sayamagyi is a Theravada Buddhist teacher who has established centers for vipassana meditation around the world. She is a senior disciple of Ba Khin, a vipassana master, and fulfilled his aspiration to teach Buddhist meditation in the west.-Life and works:Mya Thwin was...
- Sayadaw U PanditaSayadaw U PanditaThe Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita is one of the foremost living masters of Vipassana meditation. He trained in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition. A successor to the late Mahāsi Sayādaw, he has taught many of the Western teachers and students of the Mahāsi style of Vipassana meditation...
- Sharon SalzbergSharon SalzbergSharon Salzberg is a New York Times Best selling author and influential teacher of Buddhist meditation practices in West. She co-founded the Insight Meditation Society at Barre, Massachusetts with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein, in 1974...
- Shinzen YoungShinzen Youngis an American meditation teacher. He leads residential meditation retreats for students interested in learning the Vipassana tradition of Buddhism. Although Vipassana is traditionally a Theravada technique, Shinzen was originally ordained in Japan as a monk in the Shingon tradition...
- Sujin BoriharnwanaketSujin BoriharnwanaketPopular woman Vipassana and Abhidhamma teacher .Numerous books and articles published in Thai and English.On March 6 2007 given an Outstanding Woman in Buddhism award in Bangkok at the United Nations office.-Books in English:...
- Noah LevineNoah LevineNoah Levine is an American Buddhist teacher and the author of the books Dharma Punx: A Memoir and Against the Stream. As a counselor known for his philosophical alignment with Buddhism and punk ideology, he identifies his Buddhist beliefs and practices with both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions...
- Matthew FlicksteinMatthew FlicksteinMatthew Flickstein is a teacher of insight meditation. He was formerly a psychotherapist, and at one time was ordained as a Buddhist monk in the Theravada tradition.Flickstein’s primary teacher has been the Venerable Bhante Henepola Gunaratana....
- Frits Koster
- Sayadaw U Kundala
- Sayadaw U Rajinda
- Sayadaw U Pandita , Junior
- Sayadaw U Lakkhana
- Sayadaw U Janaka
- Sayadaw U Jatila
Prominent women
Women have been quite prominent as teachers in the Vipassana movement. Though the formal Theravāda vipassana tradition has been maintained by an almost exclusively male monastic tradition, nuns and non-monastic female adepts have played important roles, despite being completely absent or only noted in the background of the historical record. These teachers and practitioners expand the framework of vipassana to incorporate the immanence of the female body and its innate opportunities for enlightenment through the cycles of its physiology and the emotions of marriage, childlessness, childbearing, child loss, and widowhood.http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/02/yogini-sarah-powers-shiva-rea-and-lama-tsultrim-allione-speak-about-the-path-of-women-teaching-yoga-and-buddhism/The modern Indian teacher Dipa Ma
Dipa Ma
Dipa Ma was born Nani Bala Barua in a small village named Chittagong in East Bengal , moving to join her husband in Burma when she was 16...
(trained in Burma) was one of the first female asian masters to be invited to teach in America. As a widowed, single mother, Dipa Ma was a householder (non-monastic) who exemplified liberation and taught vipassana as not only a retreat practice but also a lifestyle. Her message to women and men was you don't have to leave your family to reach high states of spiritual understanding, and she taught a radical inclusiveness. She encouraged women who were mothers of young children to practice vipassana through the daily activities of mothering. She once said to Joseph Goldstein that "Women have an advantage over men because they have more supple minds... It may be difficult for men to understand this, because they are men." When asked if there was any hope for men, she replied "The Buddha was a man, and Jesus was a man. So there is hope for you."
Dipa Ma's Metta (Lovingkindness) meditation instruction was a core component to be practiced after each vipassana sit. It involves five stages, the first of which was the mastery of self-compassion
Self-compassion
Self-compassion is extending compassion to one's self in instances of perceived inadequacy, failure, or general suffering. Neff has defined self-compassion as being composed of three main components - self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness....
in mind and heart, then continuing to the other stages. The prayer of the first stage, given in English is as follows:
Let me be free of enemies
Let me be free of dangers
Let me be free of mental anxieties
Let me pass my time with good body and happy mind.
Indian teacher Ilaichidevi Goenka, wife of the Burmese-trained S.N. Goenka and mother of six children, began practicing adhittan vipassana when her youngest child was four years old,http://www.udaya.dhamma.org/ebook/Sayagyi_U_Ba_Khin_Journal/Interview_with_Mataji.html eventually joining her husband on the teaching platform as co-teacher to thousands of students at retreat centers and prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s /Prisoners do Vipassana
Vipassana
Vipassanā or vipaśyanā in the Buddhist tradition means insight into the true nature of reality. A regular practitioner of Vipassana is known as a Vipassi . Vipassana is one of the world's most ancient techniques of meditation, the inception of which is attributed to Gautama Buddha...
meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
and never again commit crime nor come back to prison, see: Doing Time, Doing Vipassana/ all over India as well as internationally. "Mataji" as she is lovingly referred to by her students, also leads chants with her husband.
Indian Shambhavi Chopra, a former textiles designer and divorced mother of two who is now co-director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies, writes of her 10 day vipassana meditation training at a retreat center in Germany in her book Yogini: The Enlightened Woman, and encourages students to explore vipassana practice and mastery as a devotion to the Divine Mother of all.
Vipassanā in prisons
Vipassanā movement traditions have offered meditation programs in some prisons. One notable example was in 1993 when Kiran BediKiran Bedi
Kiran Bedi is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service officer. Bedi joined the police service in 1972 and became the first woman officer in the IPS. Bedi held the post of Director General at the Bureau of Police Research and Development before she voluntarily retired from...
, a reformist Inspector General of India's prisons, learned of the success of vipassanā in a jail in Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
, Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
. A ten-day retreat involved officials and inmates alike was then tried in India's largest prison Tihar Jail
Tihar Jail
Tihar Prisons , also called Tihar Jail and Tihar Ashram , is the largest complex of prisons in South Asia. It is located at Tihar village, approximately 7 km from Chanakya Puri, to the west of New Delhi, India. The surrounding area is called Hari Nagar.The prison is maintained as a...
near New Delhi. This program was said to have dramatically changed the behavior of inmates and jailers alike. Inmates who completed the ten-day course were less violent and had a lower recidivism
Recidivism
Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been treated or trained to extinguish that behavior...
rate than other inmates. This project was documented in the documentary film, Doing Time, Doing Vipassana.
Further reading
- Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation. Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield (2001< Reissue) Shambhala. ISBN 157062805X
- Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana. (2002) Marshall Glickman. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 1582900434.
- Journey to the Center: A Meditation Workbook. Matthew Flickstein and Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. (1998) Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-141-6.
- In this Very Life Sayadaw U Pandita, In this Very Life