How I Switched Off the Pain: Vipassana (film)

Hard Is Easy (documentary, 1/26/20); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Vipassana documentary

Vipassana means "insight" in the exclusively Buddhist language Pali. It is a form of meditation and associated attention practices that produce intuitive direct-knowledge of reality. It is the path of purification, the path to freedom the Buddha taught on top of extraordinary serenity (samadhi, the ecstatic meditative absorptions). Serenity is calm concentration that temporarily purifies the mind/heart, whereas insight meditation produces knowledge, wisdom, and enlightenment, which are permanent liberation and freedom from all suffering.

How was the free 10-day retreat?

(Hard Is Easy) I'm not a woo woo person, but 10 days of complete silence in an insight (vipassana) meditation retreat was a life-altering experience for me.

In this video I tell the full story from how I got myself to sit still for about 120 hours to brain science and psychology of the mind to, of course, the things that were super weird or seemed like it at first.

The goal is not to make anyone try vipassana nor is it the opposite. It took me about four years to finally get myself to try it. And despite my mind-opening experiences, vipassana is a very personal journey. It is probably not for everyone.

I tried many types of meditation before. Unfortunately, most of them were surrounded by spiritual woobee doobee [hogwash, nonsense]. And I got no real benefits from them apart from relaxation.

The vipassana technique (taught by U Ba Khin and his student S. N. Goenka) gave me a glimpse into my deep brain and deeply programmed behavioral patterns.

The group makes it bearable. Everyone's in.

Being more mindful of our crazy minds is the road to a happier life. Many great people use this mindfulness practice.

Colin O'Brady is an endurance athlete who crossed the landmass of Antarctica alone and unsupported. Yuval Noah Harari is a famous historian who wrote Sapiens. Both claim that they could not have achieved what they did without the help of vipassana meditation.

Here's another fun fact: The Buddha was NOT teaching Buddhism. [He taught the efficacy of karma and in his day was known as a Karmavadin, a "Teacher of Karma." He said he taught the Dharma, the liberating Truth, the path to direct realization so that no one thereafter needs a teacher to know what's true.

In fact, the Buddha or "Enlightened One," the former Prince Siddhartha Gautama, was more of a body-and-mind scientist, who did many experiments on himself to rediscover the path when there was no one in the world who knew it. Today, people know it. Find one of those teachers.

What the Buddha always said was, "Don't believe me, Experience everything for yourself and draw your own conclusions." The buddhas merely point the way. Be happy.