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When we practice samatha and vipassanawell, practicing samatha and vipassana can be seamless; but they dont have to follow one another a series of events start to occur through practice:

1) Our concentration becomes unwavering,

2) We develop clarity and insight,

3) With the power of our focused concentration we might exhibit some special abilities. Personally, I develop a very strong sense of intuition; or bear a strong inkling towards an ambition that seemingly fosters greater good: well, specifically meaning, I get inspired to inspire others in mindfulness.

4) Our eternal and looming queries about everythingour lives, the universe etc.get answered automatically, or that we stop beating and haranguing ourselves to go seek out answers of questions that go in similar line.

5) We somehow develop wisdom and therefore courage.

6) I, for instance, constantly find myself mulling few questions: How are you coming to terms with your own life? What does it mean?

7) Your physical and mental sense of awareness heightens. They sharpen, so to speak.

We seek enlightenment through meditation. But what is enlightenment? Enlightenment is nothing; its understanding that there is no understanding; and its about understanding nothing and being nothing; its about going nowhere and being no one. Yet its about being alive and fullalive and full and breathing in/through this mortal body, through this mind, through the open, expansive, spacious, timeless, deathless and all-invincible mind, all the while remaining joyous and free. Enlightenment is about entertaining a sense of aliveness and fullness in and through ones mind and body and body and mind, understanding emptiness of it all (and understanding emptiness), and yet welcoming the concomitant fullness. That is what enlightenment is all about. Simply life. Simply life is simply enlightenment. Embrace life. Embrace Buddhas teaching on mindfulness meditation.

Finally, lets recap about the steps of vipassana meditation:

1) First, start by observing your breath.

2) Then start noting whatever arises nonjudgmentally and gently.

3) Then perform counting of your chosen object of meditationlike one, two for the inbreath and the outbreath.

4) Watch and observe your thoughts, emotions and discursions of your mind. Watch good thoughts; and watch bad thoughts. But do not get involved and engaged. Just watch. Observe. They are mere neural activities; those thoughts will disappear if you sit stillin body, in mind.

5) Consider difficultiesin meditation practice or in lifeas your teachers; those difficulties will help strengthen your skills in meditation. Alleviate obstructions in meditation like sleepiness, boredom and sluggishness. And how do you do that? You dispel difficulties in meditation by remembering that just the way its difficult to learn good and valuable skills, learning to meditate is not easy. It entails some effort on your part. You need to remain mindful and watchful: of your tendency to slip into laziness. You also need to check your own tendency to slip into negativity and pessimism.

6) In vipassana, you try to observe the non-self in you which is your awareness. It is timeless and empty, yet all-encompassing and all-powerful.

7) Let your meditation practiceor your breaththe in-breath and the out-breath guide you to work through any physical, emotional and mental pain: both in your present and your past.

8) Understand this: that your mind is expansive, open and already fulfilled. There is not even an iota of difficulty and anxiety there. Rest there. That is your abode. That is the practice of meditation: of vipassana.

9) Practicing vipassana meditation is also about practicing and understanding the nature of your mind. And the way your mind worked. Your mind is the seat of your happiness and pain.

10) When your mind is still, you can foster amazing power. You might develop the capacity to remember your past life, or your future life; you might see supernatural events like seeing visions of Buddha himself. But thatgaining such powersisnt the goal of meditation. Transcend such capacity or powers and try to be silent and calm.

11) Whatever arises in your consciousness, note them and label them. If you experience distraction, say distraction, if you notice overactivity of mind, say overactivity of mind, if you react with anger, say reacting with anger. With practice, you will be silent and your meditation practice will be better. Sometimes, it takes years of practice to arrive to this avenue. So, in the practice of vipassana meditation, note and label events from both your body and mind.

Vipassana meditation should come to you easy. Why? Because youre a human-and how rare and precious a human birth is!and you can acknowledge and understand your own life processes and your own motivations and inspirations, and you can observe and study the activities of your own mind; your own comings and goingsyoure in a way living a vipassana-inspired life when youre living mindfully alone (your mind is so powerful!). What do I mean? When you develop mindfulness, you develop openness and clarity; when you develop openness and clarity, you develop concentration and Insight.

When youre not thinking anything; when youre quiet and not exactly asleep and when youre also not meditating, your lifeyour entire lifewill flash right before your eyes. That is a vipassana moment: the non-thinking activelybut your life flashing right before your eyes .

This article was first published as a component of my online course on Udemy titled Principles and Practice of Mindfulness Leadership: Coaching Insights and Inspirations from Buddhism. Learn the actual practice of Mindfulness Meditation!

Visit link:
The Practice of Vipassana - Thrive Global