Vipassana

Vipassana is a word in an ancient language called Pali, which is closely related to Sanskrit. Sanskrit is the ancient Indian language which stands in relation to the modern languages of India as Latin does to French, Italian, Spanish etc. Basically Pali is a simplified form of Sanskrit. The early writings detailing the Buddha’s teaching were written in Pali and are called the Tipitaka (Pali) or Tripitaka (Sanskrit), meaning the Three Baskets, three collections of volumes.

Vipassana meditation is called Vipashyana by people in the Zen or Tibetan traditions, because they use Sanskrit terms rather than Pali ones. Dharma, which is familiar to most Westerners, is a Sanskrit term; the Pali term is Dhamma.

The Pali verb vipass means to see , particularly to see clearly, with some connotations similar to the English word discern. So the English equivalent of Vipassana is naturally Insight Meditation. Its defining characteristics are mindfulness, clarity and equanimity.

Regarding the pronunciation ofVi-pas-sa-na : there are two accents – one is on the pas, the secondary accent is on the last syllable na, which has a long ah sound.

It should be made clear that the Buddha never referred to Vipassana meditation. He spoke of two qualities, Samatha (or concentration) and Vipassana (or insight), which are promoted by meditation. We have Burmese meditation teachers to thank for designing meditations in the 20^th Century, specifically to develop insight into impermanence, based upon the teachings of the Buddha.

For an description of the Vipassana meditation experience, go to the main meditation page.