Pragmatic Dharma - Insight Meditation (Vipassana)

In the upcoming Friday, June 27, I (Bruno) will offer a lesson in the practice of Insight Meditation. Here is an intro.

Most meditation practices in Buddhism can be organized into three categories: Insight (Vipassana), Concentration (Samatha), and Heart practices (Metta).

Insight Meditation is called Vipassana in Pali (the language spoken in the Buddha's time, 2500 years ago), a word which roughly translates as "seeing clearly". The purpose of the practice is to train in seeing clearly what is happening our subjective experience: What is it made of? What is it not made of? How does it unfold?

This ability to see clearly what is happening is a skill, which can be trained over time, like any other skill. And as a skill it has a lot of depth: you really can get a lot better at it, as you would, for example, if you trained in playing a musical instrument, computer programming, surfing, lifting weights, etc.

In Buddhism, the skill of seeing clearly is used in order to understand Dukkha, which is sometimes translated as suffering, unease, or stress, and which refers to human being's constitutional, persistent, deeply-rooted, and yet sometimes very subtle, sense of dissatisfaction with one's present-moment experience. The other two practices, Samatha and Metta, also play a big role in the quest to understand Dukkha. But we won't go over them in this day.

In this meetup, I will offer instructions, a guided meditation session, and feedback. I will also explain what you can expect to happen, over years of practice, if you train in this skill.