VIPASSANA MEDITATION- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

My son at Cornell ( doing his ME in computer science )  is playing a meditative piece done by Ludovico Einaudi, the Italian , whose grandfather was the President Of Italy from 1948-55.

I am writing about Vipassana meditation .

Vipashayna is a Sanskrit word , and it is called Vipassana is Pali.


Vipashyana meditation was started on the banks of the river Sraswati by the vedic seers in 9000 BC. The Rig Veda written in 5000 BC talks about Vipashyana meditation.


It was Buddha ( the greatest Indian ever ) who re-discovered Vipassana . Buddha did not teach in Sanskrit, he taught in the local language . This is why more than 50% of the world hold him in great respect ( though Buddism is almost extinct in India , as Hindus believe in the immortality of DNA ). 


Buddha however was born as a Hindu, lived as a Hindu and died as a Hindu. 8 strands of his hair are preserved in Yangoon Burma inside the Shwedagon Pagode. This can be subjected to a DNA test to establish when he actually walked on this planet. Max Mueller had declared that he was born in 563 BC , to please the Vatican. If Vatican had their way they would have put it in AD.


Now getting back to the piano score-- Meditation is an exercise of the mind. What physical exercise is to the body, meditation is to the mind. Silencing the body is easy, but silencing the mind is difficult in this modern age. Silencing is about grace, harmony and tranquility. Exhaustion is NOT tranquility.


In the modern age people get stressed, and they need to still the mind--the chattering monkey, which remains entangled in the past and the imagined future, but never in the present.


Vipassana meditation is about holding your mind to the present.


It is the search for inner strength. It is NOT a drill. It has to be done with grace. Your mind cant keep going round and round in circles, etching a deep groove and make the subject deep rooted. Beware of the spiritually arrogant, such persons cant be proper Gurus.


A person stops thinking either when he is dead or when he has realised. When your ego powered mind is chattering like a monkey or the angry sea, you miss the truth. Truth can be communicated only in silence. For this deep silence you need to have harmony between the mind, body and soul.


The aim of every form of meditation is to still the mind, or you cant purify it and get rid of deep rooted negativities , which affect your health and even give you severe migraines. 


Vipassana is a surgical operation of your subconscious mind to remove and discard negativity / ego and improve tolerance, grace and kindness. 


An ideal candidate would be Donald Trump.


Vipassana uses the awareness of breath method. The meditator sees the cosmos as nothing but the tiniest packet of quantum energy. It makes you a watcher and a witness. Such a person cannot be an egoist. The art of observing is to help you feel separate from all that you are clinging to.


For a layman-- you are stressed when your hands feel cold, your heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension increases. The result is that your immune system goes for a toss and you get depressed or burnt out.. Depression is a weird feeling of loss .


Vipassana teaches you to look inwards, with awareness , withing yourself and know the true nature of all sensations, and loosen the stranglehold of habits and vices.. he scans his own body and sees where the stress and tension is. 


He just witnesses , he does not react. His mind does not control him, rather he controls his mind. It is a universal remedy for all universal ills.


Find a quiet place to sit for 15 minutes. place where you can sit comfortably, undisturbed, for at least 20 minutes. Background noises like the sound of a car horn or a ticking clock should not be considered hindrances, and in fact can be legitimate objects of mindfulness. Don't wear earplugs .  Wear loose clothing  and be bare feet. Sit with your back and head held straight. You may sit on the floor or in a chair. Keep your eyes closed. If you must move, notice how and why you are moving. 

Simply be mindful of in-and-out breathing. You may feel that your breathing is too short, too long, too gentle or too heavy. Do not try to control it. Stop judging. Just let it be, let it settle by itself as you watch.  It is the process of watching which is the meditation, not what you are watching. 

When you become distracted, gently refocus your attention on your breathing. Keep watching. Just breathe... As the abdomen rises, observe the motion from beginning to end with your mind. When the abdomen falls, do the same. That's it. Just keep watching the rising-falling movements. You don't have to do anything to them. Just know the movements without judging or describing them.  

Restrict your attention to what is occurring in the immediate present moment. Don't think about the past or future— don't think about anything at all. Let go of worries, concerns, and memories. Empty your mind of everything except the movements occurring right now. But don't think about the motions; just know them.

In insight meditation the aim is not to think, but only to know. 

As the abdomen expands, say the word "rising" in your mind. When it contracts, say "falling." Continue to note rising, falling, rising, falling, from one moment to the next. 

Ninety-percent of your attention should be on the actual movement instead of on the label. The aim in Vipassana is to know the object itself, not the word.  

The abdomen should not be visualized. You only have to know the movements. Be sure to breathe naturally; don't try to control the breath in any way. A mental note identifies the object in general but not in detail. For example, when a sound pulls your attention away, label it "hearing" instead of car horn," "voices" or "barking dog." 

If an unpleasant sensation arises, note "pain " or "feeling" instead of "knee pain" or "my back pain." Then return your attention to the primary object. When aware of a fragrance, say the mental note "smelling" for a moment or two. You don't have to identify the scent. 


The motto is: "Focus and forget it," or "know and let go."

Healing is NOT a physical process, rather it is mental. Mind can wipe mistakes off the DNA blueprint and destroy any disease that has disturbed the design. DNA's ability to repair itself is affected adversely when a person is in depression. Meditation experiences silence, and is devoid of drives, wishes, fears , thoughts and emotions. Afterwards when the mind returns to its usual level of consciousness, it has acquired some freedom to move.. 

Grace and peace are the hallmarks of a healthy non-delusional mind in a healthy body.. The happiness is stable.

Gurus of Vipassana meditation do not charge fees, unlike Reiki masters, who must charge as a rule.

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
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