About Insight Meditation

Many of the retreats at Sunyata teach Insight Meditation, also known as "Vipassana." This form of meditation is rooted in the 2500 year-old Buddhist tradition and has a deep and immediate relevance to our lives today. It connects us with our capacity to be present in each moment with an open-hearted attention to every experience, whether inner or outer. From this quality of being fully present, we can come to directly understand our feelings, reactions, tensions, burdens, and so become more aware of what it is like to be a human being.
The aim is to understand reality directly, unmediated by words and theories and speculation. When we practice this in-the-moment awareness, our hearts and minds can awaken to a depth of peace and clarity which liberates us from the power of fear, craving, negativity and confusion. This leads to wisdom, inner peace, acceptance of ourselves and others, and compassion.