Kejriwal skips ED summons for Vipassana: 10 things you need to know about the meditation practice

1. What is Vipassana?

Vipassana, literally “super-seeing” or “seeing things as they really are” in Pali, is an ancient meditation technique, derived from the teachings of the Buddha. It “is the essence of what he practiced and taught during his forty-five year ministry,” Vipassana Research Institute’s website says.

2. What is the goal behind this technique?

In simple terms, Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through the process of self-observation. The idea is to “Know Thyself”, not just at an intellectual or emotional level, but “to experience the truth about yourself, within yourself, at the experiential level,” VRI’s website says. This, its practitioners believe, helps achieve true “peace of mind”, and thus lead a “happy, useful life.”

3. When, and how, did Vipassana originate?

“Vipassana is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices… coming directly from the Satipatthana Sutta, a discourse attributed to the Buddha himself,” renowned Buddhist scholar BH Gunaratna wrote for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Buddha is said to have “rediscovered” an even older practice of meditation, roughly 2500 years ago. Since then, it has been handed down, to the present day, by an unbroken chain of teachers belonging to the Theravada tradition, the oldest extant school of Buddhism.

4. How did it ‘re-emerge’ in modern times?

Roughly five centuries after Buddha’s death, the tradition of Vipassana disappeared from India. In fact, as the Theravada tradition became less popular amongst the masses, the practice of Vipassana was preserved for over two millennia only among a lineage of monks in Burma (now Myanmar). It is here that the tradition was re-introduced to the masses in the 19th century by the highly influential monk Ledi Sayadaw. It was then further spread across the world by Sayadaw’s disciples in the 20th century.

5. How did Vipassana ‘return’ to India?

SN Goenka (1924-2013) brought Vipassana back to India in 1969. Born in Burma to an Indian business family, Goenka took recourse to Vipassana in 1955, after suffering from debilitating migraines. He was authorised to teach by Sayagyi U Ba Khin, after training under him for 14 years. He held his first ever 10-day Vipassana course from July 3-13, 1969. As his popularity rose — among both Indians and Westerners — in 1976, he would open his first meditation centre, Dhamma Giri, in Igatpuri, near Nashik, Maharashtra. Today there are over 380 Vipassana centres, spread across all six continents, that carry on Goenka’s legacy.

6. How exactly does the popular 10-day course work?

The most popular course, which Arvind Kejriwal will be taking, is a 10-day residential course conducted at Vipassana centres, during which students are meant to have zero contact with the outside world. Moreover, students must refrain from reading and writing, any sensual entertainment, and intoxicants, and observe “noble silence” by not communicating with fellow students (though they are allowed and encouraged to ask questions to teachers). A strict Code of Discipline must be followed at all times.

7. Does one have to be a Buddhist to learn Vipassana?

Importantly, one does not have to be a Buddist to join a course and there is no religious practice involved. “As in the Buddha’s enlightenment, a student simply goes deep inside himself, disintegrating the apparent reality until in the depths he can penetrate even beyond subatomic particles into the absolute. There is no dependence on books, theories, or intellectual games in Vipassana,” VRI’s website explains.

8. What are the 3 steps to the training?

First is the practice of sila or morality. This involves abstaining from actions which cause harm — killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and the use of intoxicants. Second is Anapana meditation, focussing attention on one’s breath. This helps gaining control over one’s unruly mind, and is practised for the first three-and-a-half days. Third is the actual practice of Vipassana, where one “penetrates one’s entire physical and mental structure with the clarity of panna (wisdom, insight).”

9. What does a typical day look like?

Days start at 4 am and end at 9.30 pm. They include several rounds of meditation, interactions with the teacher, discourses on Vipassana. Breaks are provided for meals, though one is supposed to abstain from eating after mid-day (at most, some tea or fruit may be consumed in the evening).

10. Do you have to pay to take a course?

No. Courses are run solely on a donation basis. Only people who have attended at least one course are allowed to donate as per their ability and volition. Such donations are the only source of funding for Vipassana courses.