Vipassana means to see things as they truly are. I have no idea how things truly are, but this is my description of one effect of my practice.
Typically, when your mind focuses on something, many thoughts and emotions will come to mind. Some small detail throws you into a passion or a rage, and another may bury you in a conversation with yourself about who you think you are, or where the world is going to. Or where you are going for dinner.
Meditation, vipassana in particular, trains the mind to focus on what is. It doesn't fight the flood of thoughts. They are too, after all. The practice is to let them be, just as it is to let everything else be. And to allow the emotions that come up out of the flood. To watch them come and go, come and go. Arising. Passing away.
When you've adapted to the intense focus of the practice, your mind can meld with whatever you experience. Like driving 60mph, or listening to rain, it's intense, intricate, captivating. Wonder is the timeless and open state of experiencing an object with little to no filtration, or judgement, by the mind. The interface of the experience and consciousness is primary; the reactions of the mind are secondary. The only thing going through the mind is the experience, punctuated by "This is what I am experiencing now... now... now..."
To experience wonder, suspend reaction. To suspend reaction, practice.
Typically, when your mind focuses on something, many thoughts and emotions will come to mind. Some small detail throws you into a passion or a rage, and another may bury you in a conversation with yourself about who you think you are, or where the world is going to. Or where you are going for dinner.
Meditation, vipassana in particular, trains the mind to focus on what is. It doesn't fight the flood of thoughts. They are too, after all. The practice is to let them be, just as it is to let everything else be. And to allow the emotions that come up out of the flood. To watch them come and go, come and go. Arising. Passing away.
When you've adapted to the intense focus of the practice, your mind can meld with whatever you experience. Like driving 60mph, or listening to rain, it's intense, intricate, captivating. Wonder is the timeless and open state of experiencing an object with little to no filtration, or judgement, by the mind. The interface of the experience and consciousness is primary; the reactions of the mind are secondary. The only thing going through the mind is the experience, punctuated by "This is what I am experiencing now... now... now..."
To experience wonder, suspend reaction. To suspend reaction, practice.
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