Vipassana movement
The Vipassanā movement, also called (in the United States) the Insight Meditation Movement and American vipassana movement, refers to a branch of Theravāda Buddhism from that developed in Burma, which promotes "bare insight" (sukha-vipassana) to attain stream entry and preserve the Buddhist teachings.[1] This movement gained widespread popularity since the 1950s, and to its western derivatives which were popularised since the 1970s, giving rise to the more dhyana-oriented mindfulness movement.[web 1]
The Burmese vipassana movement has its roots in the 19th century, when Theravada Buddhism came to be influenced by western modernism,[2] and some monks tried to restore the Buddhist practice of meditation. Based on the commentaries, Ledi Sayadaw popularized vipassana meditation for lay people, teaching samatha and stressing the practice of satipatthana to acquire vipassana (insight) into the three marks of existence as the main means to attain the beginning of awakening and become a stream-enterer.[web 1]
It was highly popularized in the 20th century in traditional Theravada countries by Mahasi Sayadaw, who introduced the "New Burmese Satipatthana Method". It also gained a large following in the west, due to westerners who learned vipassana from Mahasi Sayadaw, S. N. Goenka, and other Burmese teachers. Some also studied with Thai Buddhist teachers, who are more critical of the commentarial tradition, and stress the joined practice of samatha and vipassana.[web 1]
The 'American vipassanā movement' includes contemporary American Buddhist teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Gil Fronsdal, Sharon Salzberg, Ruth Denison and Jack Kornfield.
Most of these teachers combine the strict Burmese approach with the Thai approach, and also other Buddhist and non-Buddhist ideas and practices, due to their broader training and their critical approach of the Buddhist sources.[3]
- Further reading
Notes
- Print references
- ↑ Erik Braun (5 July 2018), The Insight Revolution
- ↑ McMahan 2008.
- ↑ Shankman 2008.
- Web references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Erik Braun (2014), Meditation en Masse. How colonialism sparked the global Vipassana movement, tricycle
Sources
- McMahan, David L. (2008), The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780195183276
- Shankman, Richard (2008), The Experience of Samadhi. An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation, Shambhala
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