Written by Louve Rauwers | Juin 2020

The benefits of meditation?

Vipassana meditation – Part2

In this article, I’m going to reveal my journey about one of the oldest meditation techniques from India. I’m going to tell you my experiences of 4 retreats of 10 days each in a Vipassana center created by S.N. Goenka and four years of self-practice.

Photograph: Ksenia Gaillard.

Everybody heard about meditation and the benefits of it. The process of closing your eyes and deciding to face simply what is there, stop fighting against the pain or whatever comes to you, request a lot of courage. The process is slow and deep but the reward is worth it.

Step by step, you get new insights, knowledge, more understanding and clarity, more healing and peace. It is hard work which requires a strong determination and discipline for a lifetime.

Why do I meditate everyday?

In the 10 day retreat, you won’t master meditation yet, but an important step is made towards mastery.

You learn to observe your mind and the content of it, through the sensations of your body. You will realise how much thoughts are present in your mind and the tendency of your thoughts.

Vipassana center, Sri Lanka, july 2016.

What is the most important, is, right after the course, to keep cultivating this habit of practising everyday.Along my meditation journey, I could experience many positive side effects. 

I can tell you, when I have to wake-up one hour earlier in the morning or when I’m very tired and I have to sit for one hour before going to sleep, I’m definitely not jumping from excitement to do my one hour practice…

But even though I do it because I know what it brings into my life. I know all the decisions I make throughout the day, the clarity and the peace I need, this meditation practice can bring it to me.

For example, important elements that meditation can bring me are: clarity and peace. These are essential elements for me, to make the right decisions throughout the day.

The mind becomes calmer and more clear, like a lake after a storm. The lake becomes calm and all the dust in the water goes to the bottom bit by bit. The water becomes more clean so you can see clearly through the water again. 

As a yoga teacher and meditator, I learned that the body sensations are the only thing that tells you the truth without lying, never. The body is extremely intelligent and much more than your brain.
To give an example: can your brain understand what your liver is doing right now and why? It would be surprising …

Since I observe 2 hours a day all the sensations  in my body, I’m very aware of what is happening inside me. The sensations in your body are not there by chance. They exist and it is a real gift to recognize it, to learn from it and to make yourself free from it.

Photograph: Ksenia Gaillard.

What are the benefits?

It helps to develop: consciousness, equanimity, peace of mind, physical and mental health, increase our energy,ability to take decisions, ability to handle hard situation, deep understanding, develop inner strength, face the reality, keep a positive mindset, heal addictions, remove stress, help to live in the present moment, improve efficiency, you will get more energy and you will need less sleep, it help to not react to unpleasant situation, increase the focus, decrease the ego, illusions and all believes system disappear bit by bit… And many others.

At an advanced stage, every moment becomes full of peace, understanding, love, beauty and joy. 

The difficulties of life are still there but we don’t approach them the same way. Instead of letting our suffering drive us, with a proper understanding of what suffering is and the acceptance of it, we can start to drive ourselves and create the life we want.

When facing issues difficulties, instead of reacting to our emotions blindly and without any control, we stay calm and we have enough clarity to take action with awareness and wisdom. 

These meditation techniques teach us how to observe the emotions and not react to it when it arises to not create even more suffering.

Emotions are like clouds in the sky, constantly coming, moving, changing and going away. We are the blue sky behind, naturally bright and pure. Being aware of this is like being aware of our own nature. It is the way to liberation and to come out of suffering.

What is the final goal of meditation?

S N Goenka with his wife at a conference on values in education – good governance through Vipassana meditation.

Some people with psychedelic drugs experienced similar things to those they encountered in meditation. But there are 2 main problems with psychedelics. The first one is that it is a form of dependence on an outside agency. 

Vipassana teaches you how to become your own master and makes you able to experience reality as it is and not depending on anything. 

The second problem is that drugs are not safe for mental and physical health. Many people lose their mental balance. 

Vipassana brings more balance and is completely safe at all levels. 

“You have to work for your liberation. You have to find out where the bondage is, and then you have to come out of that bondage. This is Vipassana.  It enables one to directly experience the real cause of bondage, the real cause of misery, and enables one to be gradually liberated from all miseries. So liberation comes from the practice of Vipassana.”

The purpose is to get final liberation called “enlightenment” which is a concept still difficult to understand at this stage.

I believe meditation is made for everybody. Everybody can learn it, apply it and get the benefits out of it. 

Is it essential to participate in a 10 day retreat to use the Vipassana meditation method?

Sri Lanka, july 2016.

The first 3 days of the course, the teacher will ask you to learn how to concentrate on the tiny part just right below your nostrils using your breath.

The next step is simply to observe sensations throughout the body. The way is to scan the entire body from the top of the head until the toes. Observing sensations in your body will bring you at the deepest level of the mind and remove all miseries and conditioning from the very roots. 

The meditators must develop awareness and equanimity together to be able to progress on the path. We have to develop awareness of even the most subtles sensations throughout the body and maintain equanimity towards them. Equanimity is about observing without creating any craving or aversion. 

With this practice, the meditators can notice very fast that all the sensations are constantly changing and nothing is permanent. Once it is understood, it is a lot easier to not react and let it go. Easy to say, but the more it is applied, the easier it becomes.

I feel a lot of freedom to decide what my reaction is, rather than being the puppet of  my emotions raising all day long. Practising Vipassana doesn’t mean everything is easy every time.

True mental balance is based on full awareness of problems and awareness of all levels of reality. I have to say, this method brings a lot of peace in my life. Even when I have to face hard situations, I know I have a very powerful tool that I can use for free and without the need of anybody or anything. I see now emotions as teachers, very severe sometimes but this point of view helps me a lot to remain equanimous towards them.

How to create a strong meditation habit?

The 10 days course is mandatory to understand the method to be able to apply it yourself. 

After making this step, a regular practice is required. 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening is recommended by the teachers. You can also make smaller steps at the beginning.

For example, the first 6 months of my practice, I started with 1 hour in the morning only. It was very hard and sometimes I really didn’t have time or I was very tired but even if I was too tired, I still did it everyday to make it a strong habit.

Sometimes I didn’t even have a place to do it while I was travelling but because in my mind, it was my priority, 95% of the time, I always made sure to find a space and time for my practice.

In a simple sentence, I can say Vipassana is the observation of the reality within oneself. 

Vipassana is not a course of 10 days only, then it’s over. It’s a lifelong journey with many difficulties and wonders along the way. 

The Buddha found this technique 2500 years ago and it served an uncountable number of people through the ages. 

This technique is a real gift. We are very lucky to not have to search for an old man hidden somewhere in a cave in the Himalayas. 

There are 199 Vipassana centers and 137 organized retreats in non-center all around the world accessible for the rich and the poor.

There are many other things to say about it. I tried to give you some insights of what I learned, but the only way to understand what I tried to transmit with words, is to experience it yourself. 

Vipassana website: https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/courses/search

Find the “part 1” of this article on Louveyogastudio.com

Bibliographie:

• William Hart, «L’art de vivre: la méditation Vipassana enseignée par S.N. Goenka, 1987-05. ”

• Site officiel de Vipassana: https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/index.

• A Store-House of Answers par MS N. Goenka, disponible sur https://www.vridhamma.org/A-store-house-of-answers-by-Shri-S-N-Goenka#Cause&Effect.