Good evening,
My sleepy friend.
Tonight,
As we fall asleep,
I'm going to share with you my experience with Vipassana meditation.
I'll share a bit about its historical context,
What it is,
How you practice it,
And some of my own journey with it.
But before I do.
.
.
Make sure you're totally ready for bed.
The lights are off.
You're nice and relaxed.
And you're in that mental space and energy.
To start to let go of the day.
So,
What is Vipassana?
Vipassana actually means to see things as they really are.
No matter what kind of meditation you're doing.
It should always be about seeing things as they really are.
Of Vipassana,
They say,
Started with the Buddha himself.
It was one of his core teachings.
Over 2,
500 years ago.
And it had some foundations.
And these foundations.
Were basically broken into three specific insights.
One was the insight of impermanence.
That everything in life is impermanent.
And that word in Pali.
The original language of the Buddha was Anicca.
A second insight.
Had to do with the origin of suffering.
And that word is dukkha.
And the third insight.
Had to do with.
What the Buddha would refer to as anatta.
Or the non-self.
At when we look deeply.
We don't find an individual.
So we've got these three core insights.
That come from the Buddha,
That come from Vipassana.
Now,
When we practice Vipassana,
Usually we actually do it sitting up.
But for tonight,
It's okay that we do it as we fall asleep.
And Vipassana has more than one part to it.
More than one technique?
But at its core.
Vipassana is really.
.
.
About focusing on observing.
The sensations in the breath and in the body.
That direct perception of what we experience here in this moment.
So as you're falling asleep.
You can notice your breath.
A relaxed inhale.
Filling up your lungs and your belly.
And that gentle exhale.
Releasing any energy.
And at your own pace again and again,
Breathing in slowly and deeply.
And exhaling.
Relaxing,
And releasing.
One of the main teachers that brought Vipassana into the world.
Was a man by the name of SN Goenka.
Who studied this technique.
In Burma.
And Vipassana was kept very strictly in its original form,
Or so they say,
Over the centuries in Burma.
And going gut.
Who is a wealthy businessman.
Had chronic pain.
And he traveled all over the world.
Met with many doctors.
To try and heal that chronic pain.
But nothing seemed to work.
Until he tried vipassana.
And so he claimed that it healed him.
And he began practicing deeply and then eventually building many schools.
Many centers and teaching thousands of students.
The core of Vipassana retreats,
There are more than one type,
But the one that you might hear about is the 10-day Vipassana retreat.
Many people will tell you that it's quite difficult.
You meditate from morning to night.
You don't eat very much,
And you sit still.
Hour after hour.
And I could tell you from my own experience.
That that is true.
Yeah.
I've done a number of vipassana retreats,
Some in India,
Some in the United States,
And you do sit from early morning before the sun rises to late in the evening.
And yes,
There are breaks.
If it's your first retreat,
You get two meals a day.
And if it's your second retreat or more,
You get one meal a day and some tea essentially in the afternoon.
And the point of that,
Is so you can focus on your meditation.
And also you're not expending a lot of energy because you're sitting still.
So you're not burning a lot of calories,
So you need a bit less food.
So in the Vipassana retreats.
Which,
To be honest,
I would dread going to,
But I also loved them and got so much value out of them.
But in the retreats.
Usually during the first few days.
It would be very difficult.
My body would hurt sitting up.
I would get bored.
Distracted,
Tired.
Annoy.
I would want to give up.
But I would keep going because I knew.
That things would shift.
And many people will describe the same experience that the first number of days.
Are very difficult.
And then eventually,
If you keep sitting,
Keep meditating.
Something shifts.
And for me,
It always would.
I don't want to give you too much detail.
Because it's important that if you do it one day,
You have your own experience and you don't over-reference me or anyone else.
And think,
Oh,
But David said this is what you're supposed to experience on this day.
And on that day.
So in some sense,
It's better to go in with a little bit less information.
That being said.
.
.
It's hard work.
So I would go and sit hour after hour.
And they do play recordings of Goenka,
Who is now deceased,
And he guides you.
And you do various meditations,
But mostly watching the breath and experiencing.
The sensations of the body.
So,
Even right now,
With me as you're falling asleep,
Allowing your breath to move in.
And out of your body at your own pace.
You can notice the sensations.
Inside your body.
Notice that you're a living organism,
A living being.
You can feel your body from head to toe.
The tingling of life.
Notice that there's always movement in the body.
You may be gentle.
But as you breathe,
As your heart beats.
There is a rhythm.
Everything in life has a rhythm.
And as you fall asleep tonight.
There is a rhythm.
I remember in Vipassana.
There were moments where I was so stuck.
And I thought,
Oh,
This is the worst meditation I've ever had.
But then I kept sitting still.
Just observing my sensations.
Observing my thoughts and feelings.
And then eventually something would shift.
And that frustration.
Would begin to dissipate.
And I would find a deep sense of stillness and inner peace.
And it's hard to describe.
But if you can sit or lay down with uncomfortable feelings and just remain still and observant.
They will shift.
And that is one of the core insights of Vipassana.
The insight of change and impermanence.
Happy turns to sad and sad to happy.
Frustrated to peace.
And peace to frustrated.
The mind and the emotions fluctuate and move.
Where you get to watch as an observer and be still.
And just notice that for yourself.
When you meditate for a long time.
Over time.
Sometimes you'll also have very deep insights.
For example,
I remember once sitting with a heavy heart.
But I sat and I sat,
And then all of the sudden,
Just like when a storm breaks and the sun shines through.
I could feel an opening in my heart.
A deep and immense connection to every living being.
A very profound and,
Let's say,
Universal form of love.
It had no attachment,
It had no agenda.
It didn't need reciprocity of any kind.
I might just call it universal love.
And it lasted hours,
Maybe even days.
Echoed into a few days.
There were other experiences where I would be ruminating thought after thought after thought.
You know that experience well if you're a human being.
But then sitting and meditating.
Observing and being still.
Eventually,
There would be a gap.
Where there would be no thought.
And as you're falling asleep,
You might notice those gaps right now.
And just like clouds that pass in the sky.
Thoughts come and thoughts go.
But there are gaps in between them and you can notice them.
And allow that stillness in those gaps.
To invite you into a deep sleep.
Now,
One part that I didn't mention yet about Vipassana.
Is that when you go on a retreat?
That it's silent.
So for 10 days.
There is no talking at all.
Some people think that's the hardest part.
But in my experience,
It's actually one of the easier parts.
You get used to it quite quickly.
Just allowing yourself to be with yourself for 10 days.
Can be a really profound experience.
And the retreats are also purely donation-based.
So there's no stress about money if you can't afford one.
So for 10 days,
You're silent.
You're still.
You're meditating with yourself.
You're observing your breath and your body.
And you oscillate.
From resistance to peace.
When you complete a Vipassana retreat.
You almost always come out transformed in some way.
There is more stillness,
Mindfulness.
Attention in the moment.
And you can handle.
The fluctuations of life.
In a more relaxed manner.
As you let go of the day and drift off into sleep.
You just allow yourself to notice whatever you notice.
The more you can see things clearly,
The more you can sleep peacefully.
We can be awake with clarity and we can be asleep with clarity.
Feel yourself into the rhythm of the night.
So let's go a bit deeper into the sensations of the body.
Into the core of Vipassana.
As you fall asleep.
See if you can start to just gently scan the sensations of your body.
Just noticing the sensations on your skin.
Almost an oscillation of energy.
See if you can experience the outer layer of your body.
And though at first glance it might seem still.
There's an oscillation,
There's an energy.
Maybe we can call it a vibration.
And it's a gentle vibration.
But it's the vibration of life in your body.
Notice that it has its own intelligence.
You don't have to label it.
You don't have to control it.
You're just observing.
Another core tenant of vipassana is equanimity.
Another word we could use.
Is neutrality.
And that means you have no judgment on a sensation.
You don't need to label.
Any sensation.
So there doesn't need to be a filter.
Between your witnessing presence.
And the sensations in your body.
Imagine that you had no language.
And all he could do was observe.
You observe your chest and your belly rising and falling as you breathe.
You observed the hair moving.
In and out of your body.
Through your nostrils,
Through your mouth.
You observe any sensation.
In and around your body.
And there's no worry about falling asleep.
No judgment.
So we use that equanimity.
That neutrality to watch.
And notice.
We notice the change.
The fluctuation.
Of movement.
Of sensation.
Without any labeling.
And everything happens in this moment.
There is no other moment.
They say that this was one of the core meditation techniques.
Taught by the Buddha.
Just being a neutral observer.
Being mindful of any and all sensations.
Any movement of feeling.
Any movement of thought.
As you drift away into sleep.
You do it mindfully.
Thank you.
Notice the gentle stillness.
Of the night.
The purity of this moment.
Allow yourself to drift off into a deep,
Peaceful sleep.
Good night.
And I'll see you on the other side.
