The Vipassana Package! Analysis of the components of Vipassana!

Vipassana is a way of meditation that is claimed to be a pure descent from Buddha. Centers for it have mushroomed in several countries over the past few decades. But there has not been enough good studies conducted on its effectiveness and safety in general setup. The people who started it and propagated it did not belong to the scientific field. They do not know what science is and yet keep repeating that it is a science. 

How it is a science? They themselves have no idea of it. The pupils of Vipassana are equally ignorant and just repeat the same words that the website of the Vipassana center in Igatpuri has mentioned. They often utter the words: science, non-sectarian, meditation, calmness, compassion, kindness, humility, detachment, non-reaction without themselves understanding these words or for that matter applying it in their daily lives!!! And true to their teacher, these disciples keep inviting people to come and witness and experience the course!!! 

Vipassana center in Igatpuri (Source: Dhamma)

Vipassana course is a 10-day free course of following components:

1. The course is in the special campus away from home and work. 

2. Students have to be at the center most of which are away from human habitation and in the midst of Nature. The main center in Igatpuri in Maharashtra in India has lovely nature around it. 

3. There is only natural soundscape around. Anthropogenic noise is to the minimum. The students cannot talk to each other. They have to avoid eye contact with each other. This is dubbed Noble Silence!!!  They can only talk to the instructors and that too only to solve questions or doubts or as regards accommodation or food. 

4. People cannot read or write in the campus. They have to keep away their electronic gadgets and mobiles for the 10 days of stay at the 'resort'. 

Sansar se bhaage phirte ho

5.  The students have no work at the center except sit and meditate. There is no exercise or hard work at the place. 

6. Food is kept to less than the minimum recommended fir a person in a day. It is only breakfast, lunch, with something in evening. There is no dinner or supper and the last food to go into the stomach is at 5 pm in the evening. That means that leas food goes in and there are long hours of fasting period in a day. 

7. The day starts at 4 am before dawn break and ends at 9.30 pm. The lights would go off at that time and everyone has to retire to bed. The daily routines are fixed with no changes. 

For this to be explained as a science, one needs to know the utility of each component of the Vipassana 'package'. 

The loyal disciples attending such courses claim mental and emotional refreshment after the course. But mere being away from the mundane life of daily routines itself can refresh people. Besides, one is away from the factors that trigger emotional and mental issues in a person whether it is from the home or workplace. Also,  people are surrounded by Nature with natural sounds such as that of birds, wind, leaves, water and the like. By observing Noble Silence, anthropogenic noise is minimized. Thus,  an acoustic environment conducive for clear thinking is created. All these one can get in any natural retreat and can unwind flexibly and properly there. Why the need of Vipassana? 

How 'no eye contact' helps has not been known and also not studied!!! If people start doing it in public life, it would make things difficult for proper communication. 

At the center, there are no writing or reading or electronic gadgets allowed. We all know that these are news media and many of the news of this Era itself are annoying and irritating. They induce anger and sadness in us and are best avoided. So being away from itself can cut down this cause of annoyance for a person. 

Meditation has been studied but the findings of the studies are not consistent but variable. Also how fasting helps an individual is not clear. Besides, long hours of fasting can hamper clear thinking and also damage gastric mucosa. 

And after these 10 days, the students would return to the same world with its multitude of problems. How the course really helps them and the society in the long run has not been studied into. 

In a nutshell,  we can say that the Vipassana package lacks scientific basis. Whatever benefits they claim can be reproduced in any natural retreat. The reasons people go for it could be: curiosity, exploration, just an experience, to prove some point to someone, to test their endurance, for fun, because it is free, and such reasons. There might be very few who come there for its claimed benefits.  Whether there are any benefits for self and society are yet to be proved. 

Start charging for the course and let us see how many come for it??? There would be a drastic fall in numbers expected since actual 'true' believers in it are a handful.