Vipassana, Vipassanā: 11 definitions
Introduction:
Vipassana means something in Buddhism, Pali. If you want to know the exact meaning, history, etymology or English translation of this term then check out the descriptions on this page. Add your comment or reference to a book if you want to contribute to this summary article.
In Buddhism
Theravada (major branch of Buddhism)
Clear intuitive insight into physical and mental phenomena as they arise and disappear, seeing them for what they actually are - in and of themselves - in terms of the three characteristics (see ti lakkhana) and in terms of stress, its origin, its disbanding, and the way leading to its disbanding (see ariya sacca).F (Observation from moment to moment, multiplied). Direct vision into reality developed by the mere fact to turn ones attention to that which is perceived, the way it is perceived.
Buddha does teach that the training into the developement of the direct vision into reality (vipassana bhavana) is the unique path leading to nibbana, as this is the only way to directly contemplate phenomena at time of their appearance, and consequently, to achieve a right knowledge of reality.
See also: vipassana
insight;
Aversion (vipassanā):—(from existence), contemplation of: s. vipassanā (VI . 5)
'insight', is the intuitive light flashing forth and exposing the truth of the impermanency, the suffering and the impersonal and unsubstantial nature of all corporeal and mental phenomena of existence. It is insight-wisdom (vipassanā-paññā) that is the decisive liberating factor in Buddhism, though it has to be developed along with the 2 other trainings in morality and concentration. The culmination of insight practice (s. visuddhi VI) leads directly to the stages of holiness (s. visuddhi VII).
Insight is not the result of a mere intellectual understanding, but is won through direct meditative observation of one's own bodily and mental processes. In the commentaries and the Vis.M., the sequence in developing insight-meditation is given as follows:
- 1. discernment of the corporeal (rūpa),
- 2. of the mental (nāma),
- 3. contemplation of both (nāmarūpa; i.e. of their pair wise occurrence in actual events, and their interdependence),
- 4. both viewed as conditioned (application of the dependent origination, paticcasamuppāda),
- 5. application of the 3 characteristics (impermanency, etc.) to mind-and-body-cum-conditions.
The stages of gradually growing insight are described in the 9insight- knowledge (vipassanā-ñāna), constituting the 6th stage of purification: beginning with the 'knowledge of rise and fall' and ending with the 'adaptation to Truth'. For details, see visuddhi VI and Vis.M. XXI.
Eighteen chief kinds of insight-knowledge (or principal insights, mahā-vipassanā) are listed and described in Vis.M. XXII, 113:
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(1) contemplation of impermanence (aniccānupassanā),
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(2) of suffering (dukkhānupassanā),
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(3) of no self (anattānupnupassanā),
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(4) of aversion (nibbidānupassanā).
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(5) of detachment (virāgānupassanā),
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(6) of extinction (nirodhānupassanā),
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(7) of abandoning (patinissaggānupassanā),
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(8) of waning (khayānupassanā),
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(9) of vanishing (vayānupassanā),
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(10) of change (viparināmānupassanā),
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(11) of the unconditioned (or signless, animittānupassanā),
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(12) of desirelessness (apanihitānupassanā),
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(13) of emptiness (suññatāupassanā),
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(14) insight into phenomena which is higher wisdom (adhipaññā-dhamma-vipassanā),
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(15) knowledge and vision according to reality (yathā-bhūta-ñānadassana),
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(16) contemplation of misery (or danger, ādīnavānupassanā),
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(17) reflecting contemplation (patisankhānupassanā),
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(18) contemplation of turning away (vivattanānupassanā).
Through these 18, the adverse ideas and views are overcome, for which reason this way of overcoming is called 'overcoming by the opposite' (tadanga-pahāna, overcoming this factor by that). Thus
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(1) dispels the idea of permanence.
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(2) the idea of happiness,
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(3) the idea of self,
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(4) lust,
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(5) greed,
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(6) origination,
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(7) grasping,
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(8) the idea of compactness,
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(9) karma-accumulation,
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(10) the idea of lastingness,
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(11) the conditions,
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(12) delight,
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(13) adherence,
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(14) grasping and adherence to the idea of substance,
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(15) attachment and adherence,
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(17) thoughtlessness,
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(18) dispels entanglement and clinging.
Insight may be either mundane (lokiya) or supermundane (lokuttara). Supermundane insight is of 3 kinds:
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(1) joined with one of the 4 supermundane paths,
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(2) joined with one of the fruitions of these paths,
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(3) regarding the extinction, or rather suspension, of consciousness (s. nirodha-samāpatti).
See samatha-vipassanā, visuddhi, III-VII.
Literature:
- Manual of Insight, by Ledi Sayadaw (WHEEL 31/32).
- Practical Insight Meditation, Progress of Insight, both by Mahāsi Sayadaw (BPS).
- The Experience of Insight, by Joseph Goldstein (BPS).
Theravāda is a major branch of Buddhism having the the Pali canon (tipitaka) as their canonical literature, which includes the vinaya-pitaka (monastic rules), the sutta-pitaka (Buddhist sermons) and the abhidhamma-pitaka (philosophy and psychology).
General definition (in Buddhism)
Vipassana:—Insight into the character of impermanence and the actual nature of the universe.
Languages of India and abroad
Pali-English dictionary
vipassanā : (f.) insight.
Vipassanā, (f.) (fr. vi+passati; BSk. vipaśyanā, e.g. Divy 44, 95, 264 etc. ) inward vision, insight, intuition, introspection D. III, 213, 273; S. IV, 195, 360; V, 52 (samatha+); A. I, 61 (id.), 95; II, 140, 157 (samatha+); IV, 360; V, 99, 131; Ps. I, 28, 57 sq. 181; II, 92 sq.; Pug. 25; J. I, 106; Dhs. 55, 1356; Nett 7, 42 sq. 50, 82, 88 sq. 125 sq. 160, 191; Miln. 16; Vism. 2 (with jhāna etc.), 289 (+samādhi), 628 sq. (the 18 mahā°); PvA. 14 (samāhita-citta°), 167; VvA. 77; Sdhp. 457, 466.
1) vipassana (ဝိပဿန) [(ti) (တိ)]—
[vipassana+tta．-bhāvappadhāna．]
[ဝိပဿန+တ္တ။ တစ်နည်း-ဘာဝပ္ပဓာန။]
2) vipassana (ဝိပဿန) [(ti) (တိ)]—
[vi+disa+yu．aniccādivasena vividhena ākārena passatīti vipassanā．abhi,ṭṭha,1．95,192．(na) vipagyana-saṃ．]
[ဝိ+ဒိသ+ယု။ အနိစ္စာဒိဝသေန ဝိဝိဓေန အာကာရေန ပဿတီတိ ဝိပဿနာ။ အဘိ၊ ဋ္ဌ၊ ၁။ ၉၅၊၁၉၂။ (န) ဝိပဂျန-သံ။]
[Pali to Burmese]
1) vipassana—
(Burmese text): (၁) ဝိပဿနာရှုတတ်သော၊ သူ။ (န) (၂) အထူးသဖြင့် ရှုခြင်း။
(Auto-Translation): (1) A person who can see vipassana. (2) Particularly seeing.
2) vipassana—
(Burmese text): အထူးသဖြင့်-ကြည့်ရှုဖူးမျှော်-ထိုက်-သင့်-သည်၏အဖြစ်။
(Auto-Translation): Especially - to have watched - it is fitting.
Vipassanā (in Pali) can be associated with the following Chinese terms:
1) 毘婆奢那 [pí pó shē nà]: “vipaśyanā”.
2) 毘缽舍那 [pí bō shě nà]: “analytical meditation”.
3) 觀 [guān]: “meditative insight”.
4) 通達空 [tōng dá kōng]: “entering into emptiness”.
Pali is the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism and contains much of the Buddha’s speech. Closeley related to Sanskrit, both languages are used interchangeably between religions.
See also (Relevant definitions)
Partial matches: Tta, Yu, Yu, Ao, Vipassana, Vi, Disha.
Starts with (+29): Vipassana Bhavana, Vipassana citta, Vipassana magga, Vipassana Sutta, Vipassana Yanika, Vipassanaacikkhanavidhi, Vipassanabahula, Vipassanabala, Vipassanabbhantara, Vipassanabhimukha, Vipassanabhinihara, Vipassanabhiniharanakala, Vipassanabhinivesa, Vipassanabhirati, Vipassanabhisamaya, Vipassanabhiyoga, Vipassanabhumi, Vipassanabojjhanga, Vipassanabyapara, Vipassanacara.
Full-text (+504): Vipassananana, Vipassanupakkilesa, Naya Vipassana, Vipassana-kammatthana, Vipassananga, Vipassanakatha, Vipassanadhura, Adhipanna Dhamma Vipassana, Vipassanupaga, Vipassananiyama, Vipassanavudha, Vipassanabojjhanga, Vipassanabbhantara, Vipassanadhamma, Vipassanamaya, Vipassanabhinihara, Vipassanagata, Vipassanakicca, Vipassanamissaka, Vipassananissita.
Relevant text
Search found 101 books and stories containing Vipassana, Vi-disa-yu, Vipassanā, Vipassana-tta; (plurals include: Vipassanas, yus, Vipassanās, ttas). You can also click to the full overview containing English textual excerpts. Below are direct links for the most relevant articles:
Dhyana in the Buddhist Literature (by Truong Thi Thuy La)
4.3 (c): A Model for Clinical Application < [Chapter 4 - The Practice of Dhyāna]
2.3: Mindfulness (b): Body Contemplation < [Chapter 2 - The Dhyāna as depicted in Hinayāna Literature]
2.2: (2a) Meaning of the term “Vipassanā” < [Chapter 2 - The Dhyāna as depicted in Hinayāna Literature]
How to develop the Excellent Wisdom in Subhasutta (by Phramaha Anuchon Khammee (Sasanakitti))
Part 5.3 - S.N. Goenka’s Vipassana Meditation Method < [Chapter 3 - Divisions of the Excellent Wisdom in Theravada Buddhism]
Part 4 - Wisdom development by four Satipaṭṭhānas < [Chapter 4 - How to develop the Excellent Wisdom as appeared in Subhasutta]
Part 3 - Review related documents and researches < [Chapter 1 - Introduction]
Teaching Transnational Buddhist Meditation with Vipassanā (Neiguan 內觀) and... < [Volume 12, Issue 3 (2021)]
Transcending Gender < [Volume 9, Issue 4 (2018)]
Equality of Access? Chinese Women Practicing Chan and Transnational... < [Volume 13, Issue 1 (2022)]
Introducing Buddhist Abhidhamma (by Kyaw Min, U)
Chapter 7 - Vipassana Meditation < [Part 2 - Meditation]
Chapter 6 - Right Understanding < [Part 2 - Meditation]
Chapter 13 - ānā-pāna, or Mindfulness of Breathing < [Book II]
Yoga-sutras (Ancient and Modern Interpretations) (by Makarand Gopal Newalkar)
Part 1 - Misery and its eradication—Basis of various philosophies < [Conclusion]
Siddhis—Supernormal powers < [Book III - Vibhūti-pāda]
Research done in the Field of Yoga (Introduction) < [Relevant research]
Maha Buddhavamsa—The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw)
(10) Tenth Pāramī: The Perfection of Equanimity (upekkhā-pāramī) < [Chapter 6 - On Pāramitā]
Part 10 - Mahāvajira Insight Knowledge (Vipassanā-ñāṇa) < [Chapter 7 - The Attainment of Buddhahood]
Part 12 - The Seven Purifications of a Buddha < [Chapter 7 - The Attainment of Buddhahood]