Vipassana movement

Part of a series on
Buddhism
Glossary Index Outline
History Timeline The Buddha Pre-sectarian Buddhism Councils Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Decline in the Indian subcontinent Later Buddhists Buddhist modernism
Dharma Concepts Four Noble Truths Noble Eightfold Path Dharma wheel Five Aggregates Impermanence Suffering Not-self Dependent Origination Middle Way Emptiness Morality Karma Rebirth Saṃsāra Cosmology
Buddhist texts Buddhavacana Early Texts Tripiṭaka Mahayana Sutras Pāli Canon Sanskrit literature Tibetan canon Chinese canon Post-canon
Practices Three Jewels Buddhist Paths to liberation Five precepts Perfections Meditation Philosophical reasoning Devotional practices Merit making Recollections Mindfulness Wisdom Sublime abidings Aids to Enlightenment Monasticism Lay life Buddhist chant Pilgrimage Vegetarianism
Nirvāṇa Awakening Four Stages Arhat Pratyekabuddha Bodhisattva Buddha
Traditions Theravāda Pāli Mahāyāna Hinayana Chinese Vajrayāna Tibetan Navayana Newar
Buddhism by country Bhutan Brazil Cambodia China India Indonesia Japan Korea Laos Malaysia Mongolia Myanmar Russia Singapore US Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Tibet Vietnam
Religion portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Western Buddhism
Statue of the Buddha in the Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco
Main articles Western Buddhism Buddhist modernism Buddhism in the United States Buddhism in Europe Historical Greco-Buddhism Buddhism and the Roman world Greco-Buddhist monasticism
Tibetan dissemination 14th Dalai Lama In the United States Chögyam Trungpa In England Geshe Kelsang Gyatso In Germany Lama Anagarika Govinda
Theravada dissemination Thai Forest Tradition Vipassana movement In England Anagarika Dharmapala Sangharakshita Ajahn Chah In Germany Nyanatiloka Nyanaponika Thera In the United States Thanissaro Bhikkhu Joseph Goldstein Jack Kornfield
Zen dissemination Zen in the United States Modern Chinese Chán Hsuan Hua Sheng-yen Hsing Yun Rinzai Zen D. T. Suzuki Sokei-an Soto Zen Shunryū Suzuki Sanbo Kyodan Haku'un Yasutani White Plum Asanga Taizan Maezumi Korean Seon Seung Sahn Vietnamese Thiền Thích Nhất Hạnh Listing of Zen Buddhists
Pure Land dissemination In the UK Three Wheels Temple In the USA Buddhist Churches of America Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii In Canada Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temples of Canada
Exchange Buddhism and Christianity Buddhism and Gnosticism Buddhism and psychology Buddhism and Western Philosophy Buddhism and Pyrrhonism
General Buddhism Buddhism Outline of Buddhism Traditions Theravada Mahayana Vajrayana Navayana Asian countries Indian Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism Chinese Buddhism Japanese Buddhism Korean Buddhism Listing of Buddhist topics
v t e

The Vipassanā movement, also called (in the United States) the Insight Meditation Movement and American Vipassana movement, refers to a branch of modern Burmese Theravāda Buddhism that promotes "bare insight" (sukha-Vipassana) to attain stream entry and preserve the Buddhist teachings,^[1] which gained widespread popularity since the 1950s, and to its western derivatives which have been 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 greatly 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, Shinzen Young 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 to the Buddhist sources.^[3] And while the New Burmese Method is strictly based on the Theravāda Abhidhamma and the Visuddhimagga, western teachers tend to base their practice also on personal experience and on the suttas, which they approach in a more textual-critical way.

A recent development, according to some western non-monastic scholars, is the understanding that jhana, as described in the nikayas, is not a form of concentration-meditation, but a training in heightened awareness and equanimity, which forms the culmination of the Buddhist path.^[4][5]

Cite error: There are <ref group=web> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=web}} template (see the help page).