Vipassana

It means to see things as they really are. It is a very popular meditation technique which is based upon focusing upon your breath.

This technique was designed thousands of years ago and then rediscovered 2500 years ago by Guatama Buddha 500 years before Christ. Many people believe that the idea of Christian brotherhood and getting away from an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth came from Jesus studying with Buddhist monks sometime between ages 12 to 30.

My 19 year old daughter decided to do a 10 day Vipassana meditation in Oregon with a group of people led by an experienced teacher and staff. She said it was the single most amazing experience of her life. So was doing this to honor herself turning 20 and in her eyes becoming a more full fledged adult.

Though I have had friends years ago that did the ten day Vipassana retreat I have not done this. However, I have received the Dzog Chen initiation from a Tibetan Lama I met in Rewalsar, India where Padmasambhava taught Princess Mandrava and did many amazing things there. Dzog Chen in some ways is like Vipassana in the way it heals a person and everyone around them both internally and externally.

My daughter said that she was told that this Vipaasana is designed to heal just like lancing a boil and removing the pus. It is a way of releasing all the pain one has experienced in ones life and then moving on as an adult rather than living in ones adapted child forever. Because until one can release the pains of life one cannot move on psychologically or physically in ones life in any useful way. This doesn't mean it is easy, however.

Sitting still meditating while focusing only on ones breath allows every imaginable thing both good and bad to fly past on. On top of this during the 10 days no sexual contact is allowed, no books, no radio and no tv. So this puts many people into a state which I might call sensory deprivation. In this state one might hallucinate very wonderful or very terrible things. However, in the end one will know themselves better than they ever did before in every way. Also, no drugs of any kind unless they are prescribed by a doctor to keep a person alive are allowed.

My daughter said most people made it through with only a few who were already having serious personal problems before they did this dropped out. The teachers said it is very important to finish this process in order for the healing to complete before one leaves the retreat.

Because of the nature of the meditation it does not conflict with the precepts of any religion that I know of. In other words it could be useful to you whether you believe in any religion or no religion at all. It is simply a technique to free oneself from all ones pains and to grow up more fully in the way one looks at both themselves and all life around them.

My daughter was amazed at how much it changed her and made her see things in much more adult like healthy ways.