Mindfulness Vipassana Meditation Practice of Mindfulness Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw

The Theravada, the original branch of Buddhism, has been teaching the “Satipatthana-Vipassana Penetrating Vision meditation”, also known as the practice of Mindfulness or Mindfulness, for centuries. In the West, we think we know this method because MBCT and MBSR, very fashionable in our countries for more than twenty years, are inspired by it, but it is always interesting to return to the fundamentals transmitted by masters like here the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw (see box), and to note that we ignore or misunderstand many aspects of it. It should be noted that his method is characterized by the preference given to the observation of the movements of the abdomen over the classic concentration on the breath at the level of the nostrils (anapanasati). And that he opened up meditation to lay people, men and women. Hence the interest of this book, which offers readers the opportunity to advance step by step on this path which, for most of us, still remains to be cleared.

During the process of Vipassana, we become from moment to moment our own laboratory and a field of experiences, where unfolds an infinity of sensations, perceptions, movements...

By simplifying, which will necessarily be reductive, we can say that Vipassana explains and encourages us to see little by little things, events, objects, movements of the mind, etc., in a factual way and as a powerful scanner would do. . It is the learning of a succession of experiences scrutinized through concentration and consciousness, and noted down precisely mentally. During this process, we become from moment to moment our own laboratory and a field of experiences, where an infinity of sensations, perceptions, movements unfolds... Gradually, relying on concentration, attention, and by dint of constancy and regularity, we manage to cut the illusions of everyday life at their roots and to access reality, one and whole.

If Vipassana meditation seems simple on paper, it is actually complex, because it is based on an infinity of details and methods that this book translates from English to French by a practitioner and teacher of the method, Christian Galliou , makes it accessible to as many people as possible