Vipassana Quotes

The advantages of developing absorption concentration are not only that it provides a stable and receptive state of mind for the practice of insight meditation. The experience of absorption is one of intense pleasure and happiness, brought about by purely mental means, which thereby automatically eclipses any pleasure arising in dependence on material objects. Thus absorption functions as a powerful antidote to sensual desires by divesting them of their former attraction. ~ Analayo

The Buddha never taught a sectarian religion; he taught Dhamma - the way to liberation - which is universal. ~ S. N. Goenka

If you don't have the treasure of Noble truth, you are still poor even if you have loads of money and wealth. Because external wealth are belongs to this world. You have to leave them here. ~ Suman Jyoty Bhante

The study of modern mindfulness meditation and emotional intelligence is deeply rooted in the ancient Vipassana meditation techniques. ~ Amit Ray

Zen is for poets, Tibetan is for artists, and Vipassana is for psychologists. ~ Robert Wright

I had benefited so much from Vipassana, I felt it was important for many more people to be able to share the experience. ~ Subhash Chandra

when people ask me what I believe now, I don't want to weigh them down with "I'm a Unitarian Universalist Neo-Pagan scientific pantheist humanist who practices Buddhist insight meditation (Vipassana)," even though that's the truth. Sometimes, however, I have the personal need to privately unpack these labels which usually blend seamlessly in my daily life in order to get a better sense of who I am and where I'm going on this spiritual journey. ~ John Halstead

Vipassana: looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct, piercing all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing. ~ Henepola Gunaratana

My friend Joseph Goldstein, one of the finest vipassana teachers I know, likens this shift in awareness to the experience of being fully immersed in a film and then suddenly realizing that you are sitting in a theater watching a mere play of light on a wall. ~ Sam Harris

Vipassan meditation is the best way to unlearn old habits of basal ganglia and amygdala, and strengthen the neocortex of the brain. ~ Amit Ray

Vipassana is the art of living. Not the art of escaping. ~ S. N. Goenka

Work diligently. Diligently. Work patiently and persistently. Patiently and persistently. And you're bound to be successful. Bound to be successful. ~ S. N. Goenka

When you do good, let it be good in line with nature. Don't latch onto the thought that you're good. If you get attached to the idea that you're good, it will give rise to lots of other attachments. ~ Suman Jyoty Bhante

Peace and negativity cannot coexist just as light and darkness cannot coexist. ~ S. N. Goenka

By the second day, the song lyrics had faded, but in their place came darker irritations. Gradually, I started to become aware of a young man sitting just behind me and to the left. I had noticed him when he first entered the mediation hall, and had felt a flash of annoyance at the time: something about him, especially his beard, had struck me as too calculatedly dishevelled, as if he were trying to make a statement. Now his audible breathing was starting to irritate me, too. It seemed studied, unnatural, somehow theatrical. My irritation slowly intensified - a reaction that struck me as entirely reasonable and proportionate at the time. It was all beginning to feel like a personal attack. How much contempt must the bearded meditator have for me, I seethed silently, deliberately to decide to ruin the serenity of my meditation by behaving so obnoxiously? Experienced retreat-goers, it turns out, have a term for this phenomenon. The call it 'vipassana vendetta'. In the stillness tiny irritations become magnified into full-blown hate campaigns; the mind is so conditioned to attaching to storylines that it seizes upon whatever's available. Being on retreat had temporarily separated me from all the real causes of distress in my life, and so, apparently, I was inventing new ones. As I shuffled to my narrow bed that evening, I was still smarting about the loud-breathing man. I did let go of the vendetta eventually - but only because I'd fallen into an exhausted and dreamless sleep ~ Oliver Burkeman

Vipassana taught me how to maintain equanimity in all situations of life. ~ Subhash Chandra

Combining these two ancient teachings (yoga and vipassana) in a seamless manner, which will bring maximum benefits to the meditators, is not at all a challenge. It is just removal of some mental blocks. Ideally speaking, this combination should be done based on scientific, clinical and neurobiological studies and the combined structure should be made brick by brick, layer by layer in a flawless manner as a homogeneous composition. ~ Amit Ray

Systematic yoga and vipassana opens the "Dasham Duar" the mystical tenth spiritual gateway located at the top of the skull. ~ Amit Ray

Yoga and Vipassana are the two most time tested ancient techniques for keeping the body, mind and spirit in harmony and in sync. There is no contradiction between yoga and vipassana. They are complementary to each other. ~ Amit Ray

Meditation gives clear understanding about body and brain interface with consciousness ~ Amit Ray

Vipassana meditation is an ongoing creative purification process. Observation of the moment-to-moment experience cleanses the mental layers, one after another. ~ Amit Ray

I didn't really understand that Vipassana is a relatively new form of Buddhism that was based on the storage of pain. So the idea is that every time you don't scream, that's your Buddhist side. ~ Laurie Anderson

Vipassana proponents always stress that if you are insulted by someone and get angry, the result is not the abuser's fault. It is your fault because you choose to react. ~ Ashwin Sanghi