How to Reach Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai, India

All are most welcome to visit the Global Vipassana Pagoda, to immensely benefit from practicing Vipassana - and experience the true work and purpose of human life.

Vipassana is for all (*1).

Visiting the Global Pagoda is free of charge. No entry fee. No charges for the tour guide. 

Timings: 9.00 am to 7.00 pm.
Open all days, including Sunday.
(Ferry Timings: Every 15 minutes from Gorai Jetty. Last ferry to Global Pagoda leaves at 5.25 pm)

* Drinking water, clean wash-room facilities available in the Global Pagoda premises.
* The Food Plaza serves quality vegetarian food at economical prices. Catering for large groups of visitors can be booked at 022-3374 7536.
* Non-commercial photography is permitted - with the understanding that there can be no copyright to any image of the Global Vipassana Pagoda. Visuals are to be made freely available to all for non-commercial use. (* For any clarification, please contact Global Vipassana Foundation, Mumbai, India, Telephone: 91 - 22 - 33747501; Email: pr@globalpagoda.org)

Global Vipassana Pagoda

* Vipassana students - those having completed a 10-day Vipassana course in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin - are welcome to meditate in the Dhamma Hall of the Global Pagoda.

Reaching Global Vipassana Pagoda by Road from Mumbai City / Domestic Airport / International Airport / Railway Stations in Mumbai
  

Pre-paid taxi services are available at the Mumbai domestic and international airports. Ask  for "Global Vipassana Pagoda" or "Essel World". The Global Pagoda is adjacent to Esselworld Park in Gorai island.

From Bhayandar suburban railway station , Western Railway line (third station after Borivali, from Churchgate station), exit on the western (left) side of station, and take Mira-Bhayandar Muncipal Transport (MBMT) Bus No 4  to Global Vipassana Pagoda, Gorai.(This is considered the more convenient, economical option, as the bus goes right up to the main Myanmar Gate entrance to the Global Vipassana Pagoda.)  

From Borivali Railway station:
A major station in the Western Railway, Mumbai, Borivili is also well connected by Maharashtra State Transport Buses from Thane, Navi Mumbai & Mumbai cities. Please exit from the western side of the station (from Churchgate, the exit is on the left). You can walk to Chandavarkar Road (towards the pedestrian skywalk) which is perpendicular to the railway line on the North End of the station. Shared auto-rickshaws (tuk-tuks) are available., or please take BEST Bus no. 294 and 247 to Gorai Creek (Also known as Gorai ‘Khadi’ in local language). Shared auto rickshaw to Gorai Creek fare is approx Rs 10 (with three other passengers), and can be about three times that amount for single hire.
The Gorai jetty for the ferry to Global Pagoda is about five-ten minutes ride from Borivili  station (3.8 kms).

Other Bus Numbers to Gorai: From Kurla railway station (West) - 309 L; From Mulund station (West) - 460 L;From Ghatkopar Bus Depot - 488 L (please re-confirm before boarding bus)
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Inside the Global Pagoda dome. An architectural wonder as the world's largest stone structure without supporting pillars. This unique Dhamma hall can seat over 8,000 Vipassana students, in group meditation sittings and one-day refresher courses.




Driving to Global Vipassana Pagoda from Thane / Nashik / Igatpuri / Pune / Navi Mumbai
Reach State Highway 42 / Ghodbunder Road from NH3 (Agra Road) / Old Agra Road / Eastern Express Highway.

• Keep going on Ghodbunder Road till you reach NH8, Mumbai Ahmedabad Highway.
• At the Ghodbunder Junction (Sai Palace Hotel), take a left turn towards Mumbai city.
• Keep going straight till you reach the Mira-Bhayandar crossing (Shivaji Statue).
• Take a right turn towards Mira-Bhayandar.
• Keep going straight till you reach Golden Nest Circle. At the Golden Nest Circle, take a left turn and stay on the main road.
• Keep going straight till you take a hard right turn at the end of the road. This point will come after Maxus Mall, which comes on your right. After the hard right turn, take a left at the T point junction.
• Keep following directions to Esselworld or Global Vipassana Pagoda from this point forward.
• When you reach the Esselworld Parking Lot, go ahead a few metres and take a right turn towards Esselworld. Tell the guard at the security post that you want to go to the Pagoda.
• Keep going straight till you reach the Helipad. At the Helipad, take a right turn to the Global Pagoda Road through the Sanchi Arch.
• The Pagoda is about 22 km from the Ghodbunder Junction.

Vipassana students meditating inside the Global Pagoda dome

* Please click here for more detailed directions and maps

* Google Map Road directions to Global Vipassana Pagoda, from your location in Mumbai 

Have a happy, most beneficial visit to the Global Pagoda - and a life filled with pure happiness.

For more details, assistance:

Global Vipassana Pagoda
Telephone: 91 22 33747501 (30 lines)
Email: pr@globalpagoda.org

Pagoda Address:
Global Vipassana Pagoda
Next to Esselworld, Gorai Village,
Borivali (West), Mumbai 400091

Postal address:
Head Office Global Vipassana Foundation
2nd Floor, Green House, Green Street, Fort
Mumbai – 400 023
Telephone: +91 22 22665926 / 22664039; Fax: +91 22 22664607
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Dhamma Pattana Vipassana Centre
Inside Global Vipassana Pagoda Campus
Next to Esselworld, Gorai Village,
Borivali (West), Mumbai 400091
Tel: [91] (22) 3374 7519; Fax: [91] (22) 3374 7518
Email: info@pattana.dhamma.org

* Online application for 10-day Vipassana courses
* Dhamma reasons why no fees are charged for Vipassana courses - including for boarding and lodging

 * Rare opportunities to earn and share merits participating in Global Vipassana Pagoda projects

*(1) Buddha: Super Scientist of Peace. Part-1 of Most Compassionate, Most Revered Sayagyi U Goenka's address to the United Nations, New York, 2002.

Universal Impact of Vipassana:Training to be in Reality of Present Moment

From Sayagyi U Goenka's article ‘Munificent Nature of Dhamma’  first published in 1985.

A human being is a social being. One's contribution to make the social fabric more peaceful and harmonious is true yardstick of being a useful member of society. The basis of any healthy, harmonious society is always the healthy and harmonious individuals who populate it.

A disturbed person starts disturbing others by spreading his tension and disharmony. We can only share what we have. So, obviously, a society or country can be peaceful and harmonious only with individuals living in peace and harmony. Vipassana is a unique, secular, practical method to attain an island of inner peace in one’s world.

Vipassana is the objective process of self-observation, of experiencing truths within. This has nothing to do with any particular sect. Sects and dogmas create barriers and divisions between people. Vipassana removes barriers. 

We see this inspiring unifying nature of Vipassana in a meditation hall of any Vipassana centre. In Dhamma Giri, for instance, hundreds of people from various religions, as well as religious leaders, sit meditating together peacefully under the same roof, silently observing universal truths within. In fact, Vipassana meditators belonging to various religions say: “Why, this is our religion in practice!”

With Vipassana practice, we experience the true essence of all religions: how to live without harming oneself and others. Vipassana uproots feelings of superiority, inferiority from different sections of society. It eradicates impurities in the mind and thereby eradicates unhealthy complexes. Vipassana meditation is equanimity to awareness of truth of what is happening within, as it is, this moment.

Vipassana meditators from various communities, religions, languages, social-economic background, in the inner dome Dhamma Hall of the Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai, India.

Practicing Vipassana develops the faculty of insight to see things as they really are, without conditioning of the mind. The conditioning of the mind – accumulated bias of our past experiences - becomes a big barrier to seeing things in their true nature. To be liberated from ignorance and suffering, we have to break free from past conditioning of the mind; shatter blind emotional, intellectual attachment to dogmas and doctrines. Instead, experiential wisdom becomes the pure guiding light in life.

A life in reality is living in the present moment. To be free from irritation towards others, feelings of hate, greed, illusions, envy, passion, fear, anger and any other negativity - it is necessary to live in the present moment. Let go the past moment. Be strong, let go.

Philosophical beliefs, delusions and emotional devotion have no role in this. Living in the present moment means to be totally aware of whatever is being experienced at this very moment. Those moments that have passed are no longer real; there can only be memory of those moments. Similarly, moments yet to come are not real, as we can only have hopes or fears about them.

Pleasant, unpleasant memories, hopes and fears take us away from the present moment. A life with a wildly wandering mind is a life of delusion - it creates difficulties and defiles the mind. Vipassana trains us to live in reality of the present, and removes dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration etc to anything that has happened. [Whenever needed, we consciously direct the mind to the past - to learn from experiences, or direct the mind when planning ahead. Vipassana halts its uncontrolled wandering.]

The Buddha re-discovered Vipassana and became fully enlightened. He did not say he invented Vipassana. He said this is a timeless path, but long lost to humanity. Like other sammasambuddhas (fully enlightened beings) eons before him, Gotama the Buddha re-discovered and shared the path to experience depth of truth of this moment. 

A student of Vipassana develops faculty to be aware, with equanimity, of what one experiences this moment - at level of bodily sensations. Everything arises to pass away. This is no more a mere intellectual understanding. With Vipassana, this becomes experienced wisdom. Earlier there was blind reaction of suffering when the pleasant changed to the unpleasant. Now there is equanimity to what is happening now. 

What is happening now? The Vipassana practitioner realizes the life-changing truth: our craving or aversion, happiness or unhappiness is not to outside situations and people - but to pleasant or unpleasant sensations arising in the body when sense organs come in contact with objects of the world.  

The apparent truth is that we react to someone who did something we liked or disliked. The actual truth is that we react to bodily sensations that arise instantly with every thought, or other sensory contact such as vision, words, taste, touch, fragrance. Sensations may have arisen this moment due to other reasons - atmospheric conditions, a disease or ailment, sitting for long time, accumulated impurities in the mind manifesting themselves as sensations. 

Whatever the sensation for whatever reason, the Vipassana meditator uses every experience of sensations as a tool to develop equanimity, and eradicate the past habit pattern of craving or aversion.

Instead of the earlier habit of instant blind reactions, losing balance of mind, getting annoyed with criticism or puffed up with praise, Vipassana training enables one to merely observe with equanimity the bio-chemical flow of impermanent sensations. Nothing lasts forever. With equanimity, we respond better to changing situations in life - with more clarity and wisdom. 

The practice of mindful equanimity eradicates deep-rooted conditioning of past blind reactions. With gradual eradication of past conditioning (sankaras), we gradually become free from attachment and lust for sensual pleasures, painful memories of the past, anxieties about the future. No more worries of, "Oh, what will happen to me?" 

The mind becomes peaceful and pure, with equanimity to sensations. We become more focused, developing penetrating insight to go to the depth of any problem - and find a more beneficial solution. The purer mind develops ego-less compassion for others. In personal and professional life, quality of life becomes better.

The practice of Vipassana is beneficial for one and all, irrespective of caste, community, nationality, language or religion. The Buddha did not start a religion. He never asked anyone to bow down before his image, make offerings, or merely chant verses of his teachings. He taught the secular method of Vipassana to eradicate impurities in the mind. Using this Vipassana soap to clean the mind, we progressively experience the same benefits the Buddha experienced. 

Only with the actual practice of the Buddha's teaching, any expression of respect and gratitude to the Buddha becomes true respect and gratitude. This gratitude, based on experiencing the practical benefits of Buddha’s teaching, does not become a blind belief or a sectarian dogma. It becomes a factor of enlightenment. This experiential gratitude makes the mind tender – a necessity in the process of purification in Vipassana practice.

The object of Vipassana meditation is not the Buddha; it is the faculty to experience the subtlest of bodily sensations. Why so? The root level of the mind, where conditioning takes place, is 24/7 -  every living moment - directly in touch with bodily sensations, not to happenings in the outside world. With equanimity to sensations, we change the habit pattern of the mind from blind reaction to positive, well-considered action.

By objectively observing the arising, passing sensations, we are in tune with the universe this moment – everything in it is changing, in constant flow and flux, impermanent vibrations arising, passing away with great rapidity. Only the observed, no more observer....

Vipassana practice can be accepted and practiced by all. Which religion objects to a natural method to remove impurities in the mind? Each Vipassana meditator becomes a scientist exploring the truth within: objectively observing oneself, studying true nature of one’s mind and body, how mind and body interact, influence each other every moment.

Awareness and equanimity to changing bio-chemical flow of subtlest sensations is the universal way to eradicate mental defilements. Whether to suffer or not is a choice we make each moment. Vipassana enables us to make the right choice of being with pure reality, this moment. Such a state of mind is free from fetters, from moment to moment. Such a person not only lives a happy and peaceful life, but becomes an instrument for enhancing happiness and peace of others.

May the munificent, benevolent, universal nature of Vipassana reach all, and lead to peace, happiness and liberation of each individual.

May all beings be happy.

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* Online application for Vipassana courses

* How to Reach Global Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai, India

*Boundless Benefits of Dana

Serve in Vipassana without Expectations

Message from the Principal Teacher of Vipassana Sayagyi U Goenka (1924 - 2013). Annual Dhamma Service meeting, Dhamma Giri, India, January 13, 1991

Dear Dhamma sons and Dhamma daughters:

We have undertaken very serious work. It is a very serious responsibility to serve others in Dhamma. If there is any impurity in our intentions, even a trace of desire that, "I must get something in return for all this service that I am giving," then our whole purpose will be lost. People who expect some material gain for the teaching of Dhamma can never teach Vipassana; they are totally unfit. 

On the other hand, there are those who understand they are not serving people in Dhamma for any material gain, and yet there will be some expectation of getting respect from others. "Well look, I am doing such a good service. I am giving such an invaluable jewel of Vipassana, so I have every right to be respected." If even a trace of expecting appreciation or recognition, respect from others remains, understand that one is not yet fit to serve others. First serve oneself - that is, first dissolve one's ego - and only then one is fit to serve others in Dhamma. 

The Enlightened One exhorted all those he sent for Dhamma service:

Caratha bhikkhave cārikam—Go forth, O monks

 Go forth for what?

Bahujana-hitāya—for the good of many; bahujana-sukhaya—for the happiness of many;

lokānu-kampāya—out of compassion for all beings.

Beginning of Vipassana journey in this life. Meditation Hall, Dhamma Thali, (Jaipur), Rajasthan, India.

There is suffering all around us, rich or poor, young or old. More people should come out of their suffering. That is the aim of sharing Vipassana - to serve others. Your gain is automatically involved. To reach the final stage of full enlightenment you have to develop your paramīs, and everything that you do for the good of others helps to develop your pāramīs.

If someone thinks even for a moment, "Let more and more people start calling themselves Buddhists, let there be a strong Buddhist sect, let people who are in the courtyard of other sects come into my courtyard so I have a larger number of followers," then one has not understood Buddha, has not understood Vipassana. The Buddha's teachings are universal; he did not start a sect or a religion in his name.

An incident in the Buddha's life: he went to a place where he gave a discourse to large numbers of recluses and followers of a particular sect. They were hesitant, thinking, "This fellow may convert us away from our sect."

The Buddha explained, "I have not come here to gather students for myself. I am not interested in making you my disciples. Don’t become frightened of that. I am not here to break your relationship with your teachers; may that continue. You have received something from your teachers, and you have respect for them as you should have. You give donations to these teachers; keep on giving to them. I am not here to stop you from achieving your goal of coming out of suffering and reaching full liberation. Whatever I will teach you to practice will help you to reach that goal. Give me seven days of your life, just try this."  

This should be our attitude in sharing the Buddha's teaching of Vipassana: "Just try this universal, non-sectarian practice to remove impurities in the mind, to change the habit pattern of generating negativity. We are not interested in converting you from this or that religion. Give just ten days of your life to learn Vipassana, and after that if you find it good, accept it. Otherwise, leave it." Then we are not expecting anything in return. We are just on the giving end. 

My teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin used to say, "I am on the giving end, never on the receiving end. If people want to take, they take. If they don’t want to take, they don’t take. With all my compassion, I just humbly give."

This should be the ego-less attitude of everyone who takes the most beneficial responsibility of giving Dhamma service. We are simply giving, without any kind of expectation. 

There is only only one motive—compassion, with the wish that more people benefit from practicing Vipassana in its purity. We benefited when we sat Vipassana courses through the Dhamma service of many others. May others too benefit from our Dhamma service.

And if people do not benefit, what can we do? We serve, but sometimes there may be some who do not work correctly and do not get the benefits. Again compassion, again give Dhamma service, that’s all.  

Never become disappointed when people do not work properly and do not get what they should. If we become irritated with students, then it shows we have expectations, attachment to one's efforts. It shows ego arising.

When ego arises, the Dhamma service becomes impure. Nobody benefits from Dhamma service given with ego or wrong volition.

Of course we wish that all benefit from practicing Vipassana, this universal path taught by the Buddha, and so we do our best. We keep practicing Vipassana, give Dhamma service - without expecting anything. Certainly this gives its own good result. 

Initial difficulties are bound to occur [remember the difficulties, confusion in one's own first Vipassana course!], because beginners have their own mental conditioning. So a new student may see things through coloured lenses. I too was initially hesitant in taking my first Vipassana course in Burma, thinking, "I am a staunch Hindu, a leader of the Hindu community here, and these people might convert me to Buddhism." However, all such fears vanished when I actually took my first Vipassana course.

Later, when Sayagyi U Ba Khin instructed me to take the priceless jewel of Vipassana to the Dhamma land of its origin, I faced a lot of suspicion when I first started teaching Vipassana in India. Some thought, "Look, this person’s motive certainly is to convert people." If one has a sectarian mind one will always see everything as sectarian. There are people in this country who come and establish hospitals, schools and different social institutes, and then after a few years of service they start to convert the people who come there to their religion.

Since such things have happened, people started feeling, "Look! This fellow has come from Burma and says he is here to serve people. Yes, people get peace and happiness, they come out of drugs or alcohol or other problems. This is wonderful. But his ultimate aim is to convert everybody to Buddhism."

Well, one smiles. If this was really the intention, one would become agitated, thinking, "Look, my clever scheme has been discovered. Now how will I be successful?" But if the mind is pure one feels, "Let people talk. If not today, they will understand tomorrow." The pure teaching of Vipassana spreads only in this way.

Similarly in Western countries, there is some initial hesitation about accepting Vipassana. Some think, "Look, a foreign religion is coming to our country." The initial doubt is there. But our intentions are purely to serve, to share with people an universal practice to purify the mind, and be happy. And if this aim is not polluted, success will eventually come.

A time is bound to come for the wider sharing of Vipassana - despite initial difficulties, provided the practice of Vipassana is kept pure, and the intention of those giving Dhamma service is pure. The volition is very important. We are merely vehicles of Dhamma, and if the volition of the vehicle is good more people will benefit. But if somebody plays an ego game in the name of Dhamma service, naturally Dhamma will drive this person away.

Pure Vipassana is bound to benefit millions around the world. The time has ripened. There is so much suffering all around. In the name of religion and sects, people are fighting with each other, killing each other. People keep getting agitated about "my religion, my religion," without understanding at the actual level what their religion is. A universal, practical remedy such as Vipassana is the need of the day. Anger and hatred can be conquered only with metta, not by reacting with anger.

Animosity, violence and suffering increase when people do not experience the actual benefits of living a wholesome life - just as every religion teaches. People correctly practicing Vipassana experience the actual benefits of their own religion. This inner peace makes this a much better world. In spite of all the darkness, there is this light of Dhamma, this small, growing light of Vipassana. This pure light of Vipassana is bound to glow brighter in oneself, and around the world.

Just as it is essential to have schools, colleges, hospitals, gymnasiums etc, similarly a time is bound to come when there will be a Vipassana centre in every village in the world. More people worldwide will start understanding the necessity of Vipassana practice, to keep the mind healthy and free from impurities. As we learn physical exercise by going to a gymnasium, we learn this mental exercise of Vipassana at a meditation centre. This has nothing to do with any cult, or any sect. Vipassana is an exercise to keep the mind healthy, wholesome and pure so that we live a good life - and share the benefits of Vipassana with others. This is the purpose of Dhamma service.

If the aim of serving others without expectation remains clear, and the practice of Vipassana is kept very pure, the suffering within and all around is bound to be dispelled, eradicated. Real peace will come, real harmony, happiness - within oneself, and in one's world. 

May all enjoy real peace, real harmony, real happiness.

May all beings be happy. May you be happy.

For the Benefit of Many

 Stairway to the upper cells for meditation in the Pagoda, Dhamma Giri, Igatpuri, India.
May all beings be happy, be liberated from all suffering. 

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* Online application for Vipassana courses

* How to ReachGlobal Vipassana Pagoda, Mumbai, India

Change Habit Pattern at Deepest Level of Mind

Q: Can you describe in practical terms what is happening in the body and in the mind, how this law of cause and effect works, and how this change can help us?

  

Principal Teacher of Vipassana Sayagyi U Goenka:  The Buddha said that understanding the Dhamma (truth, law of nature) is understanding the law of cause and effect. You have to realize this truth within yourself. In a ten-day Vipassana course you have the opportunity to learn how to do this. 

This investigation of truth pertaining to mind and matter is not merely for curiosity, but to change habit pattern at deepest level of the mind. As you proceed, you realize how the mind influences matter, and how matter influences the mind.

  

Every moment, within the framework of the body, masses of subatomic particles (kalapas) arise and pass away. How do they arise? The cause becomes clear as you investigate the reality as it is, without influence from any past conditioning or philosophical beliefs: the material input, the food that you have taken, becomes a cause for these kalapas to arise. You also find that kalapas arise and pass away due to the climatic atmosphere around you. 

You also begin to understand the formation of the mind-matter structure: how matter helps matter to arise and dissolve. Similarly, you experience how mind helps matter to arise and dissolve. You will also notice that at times matter arises from the mental conditioning of the past, that is, the accumulated sankharas (mental conditioning) of the past. 

By practice of Vipassana, this starts to become clear. In a ten day Vipassana course you do not become perfect in this understanding but a beginning is made. You learn to observe: at this moment, what type of mind has arisen and what is the content of this mind?

You experience how when the mind is full of passion, subatomic particles of a particular type arise within this material structure; there is a biochemical secretion that starts flowing throughout the body with the stream of the blood or otherwise. This type of biochemical flow, which starts because a mind full of passion has arisen, is called kamasava (sensual flow).

    

Now, like a very objective scientist, you proceed further, simply observing the truth as it is, observing how the law of nature works. When this secretion of kamasava starts, since it is the biochemical flow produced by passion, it influences the next moment of the mind with more passion. 

Thus this kamasava turns into a craving of passion at the mental level, which again stimulates kamasava, a flow of passion at the physical level. One starts influencing the other, starts stimulating the other, and the passion keeps on multiplying for minutes together, at times for hours together. The behavior pattern of the mind of generating passion is strengthened because of the repeated generation of passion.

    

Impurity of fear, anger, hatred, and craving - every type of impurity that comes in the mind simultaneously generates an asava (biochemical flow) in the body. And this asava keeps stimulating that particular negativity, that particular impurity, resulting in a vicious cycle of suffering. 

You may call yourself a Hindu, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Jain, or a Christian - it makes no difference - the process is such, the law is such, that it is applicable to one and all. There is no discrimination.

   

But mere understanding at the intellectual level will not help to break this cycle, and may even create difficulties. Your beliefs from a particular tradition may look quite logical, yet these beliefs will create obstacles for you. 

The intellect has its own limitation. You cannot realize the ultimate truth merely at the intellectual level. 

The ultimate truth is limitless, infinite, while the intellect is finite. It is only through experience that we are able to realize that which is limitless, infinite. 

Even those who have accepted this law of nature intellectually are not able to change the behavior pattern of their minds. As a result, they are far away from realization of the ultimate truth.

   

The behavior pattern is at the depth of the mind. What is called the "unconscious mind" is actually not unconscious; at all times it remains in contact with this body. And along with this contact of the body a sensation keeps arising, because every chemical that flows in your body generates a particular type of sensation. 

You feel a sensation - pleasant, painful, whatever it is - and with the feeling of this sensation, you keep reacting. At the depth of your mind you keep reacting with craving, with aversion....and the process of multiplication continues. You cannot stop it because there is such a big barrier between the conscious and the unconscious mind - or rather between the surface of the mind and the depth of the mind. 

When you practice Vipassana you break this barrier. Without Vipassana the barrier remains, barrier of ignorance of what is happening within.

   

At the conscious level of the mind, at the intellectual level of the mind, one may accept the entire theory of Dhamma, of truth, of law, of nature. But still one keeps rolling in misery because one does not realize what is happening at the depth of the mind. 

Sensations are there in your body every moment. Every contact (with the outside world) results in a sensation. Every thought, a memory, a desire arises with a sensation, a biochemical flow. The deepest part of the mind is continuously in contact with these bodily sensations, not with objects of the outside world. This isn't a philosophy, it is the actual truth which can be verified by one and all.

     

The surface level of the mind keeps itself busy with outside objects, or it remains involved with games of intellect, imagination, or emotion. This is the paritta citta - the small, surface level of the mind. Therefore you do not feel what is happening deep inside, and you do not feel how you are reacting to what is happening at the deeper level of the mind.

     

With Vipassana practice, when that barrier is broken, one starts feeling sensations throughout the body, not merely at the surface but also deep inside because throughout the entire physical structure, wherever there is life, there is sensation. 

And by observing these sensations with equanimity you start realizing the characteristic of arising and passing, the impermanence in everything. With this experiential understanding you start to change the habit pattern of the mind.

     

Say, for example, you are feeling a particular sensation which may be due to the food you have eaten, which may be due to the atmosphere around you, which may be due to your present mental actions, or which may be due to your old mental reactions that are giving their fruit. Whatever it may be, a sensation is there, and you are trained to observe it with equanimity and not to react to it; but yet you keep on reacting because of the old habit pattern. 

You sit for one hour of Vipassana meditation, and initially you may get only a few moments when you do not react, but those few moments are wonderful moments. You have started changing the habit pattern of your mind by observing sensation and understanding its nature of impermanence. This stops the blind habit pattern of reacting to the sensation and multiplying the vicious cycle of misery. 

Initially in an hour you get a few seconds, or a few minutes of not reacting to sensations. But eventually, by patient, persistent practice, you reach a stage where throughout the hour you do not react at all. At the deepest level you do not react at all. A deep change is coming in the old habit pattern. 

The vicious cycle is broken: your mind was reacting to the chemical process which was manifesting itself as a sensation, and as a result, for hours together, your mind was flooded with a particular impurity, a particular defilement. Now it gets a break for a few moments, a few seconds, a few minutes. As the old habit of blind reaction becomes weaker, your behavior pattern is changing. You are coming out of your suffering.

   

Again, this is not to be blindly believed simply because the Fully Enlightened said so. It is not to be believed because your teacher say so, nor is it to be believed because your intellect says so. You have to experience it yourself.

People regularly practicing Vipassana - i.e. observing with equanimity the impermanence of the biochemical flow of sensations - experience a change for the better in their behavior, in their attitude, dealings with others and in their lives.

May all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated.

(From Vipassana Research Institute)

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* Metta - the practical way to overcome anger, hatred

* Online application for Vipassana courses