Don't Worry, Be Happy

Dhamma Thali Vipassana Center, Jaipur

There are many experiences of this trip that will stand out as being life-changing. Just being out here in the world, experiencing ways of life so different than at home, has changed my views on so many things. As part of this opening to new experiences, Darin + I decided to enroll in a Vipassana meditation course here in India. I've done a little meditation before, and always experienced a relaxing of pent-up stress + anxiety, but certainly no major insights as my busy mind raced from thought to thought with a rapidity that always caught me by surprise. I was told that with much practice I would learn to calm my mind and eventually realize deep peace. But I never did practice.

Jump to the present. We enroll in this course. It's 10-days of total silence and strict discipline - Up at 4:00AM, meditate a total of 14 hours, limited meals with only a light snack after noon, to bed by 9:PM. Doesn't sound like fun, does it? Well, it didn't to me either and I looked forward to our starting day with a mixture of anxiety, dread and curiosity. Would I be able to hack it?

A month prior to arriving at the center, we'd picked up a book called the Power of Now . Little did I know what a helpful tool this would prove to be to get me in the right mind frame. The basic premise of the book is that all we have is the present. That is truly the only thing we have control of in our lives. The past is gone, and the future is uncertain. Still, all of us agonize over and over about what we could've done differently, how great things were or will be, and basically torment ourselves over what we have no control over. This book tries to teach how live in the Now, and make decisions in the Now, to break out of the cycle of past + future and free you from those miseries. Vipassana takes things a big step further and teaches you how to actually make yourself present and be aware of the unconscious mind so that you can break out of those harmful thought patterns.

How do you achieve this? By working really hard - "patiently + persistently" as teacher Goenka would often remind us. The concept is actually so simple (and obvious in hindsight) that it's a wonder I've never been told this before. First, you must learn to intimately observe yourself, beginning with the breath. Once you start to do this, your mind becomes much clearer, allowing you to then become aware of bodily sensations that arise. This is vitally important because of the nature of the mind. Most our thinking can be divided into two categories - past + future. And these two, into two more - craving + aversion. We want what we don't have. We don't want what we have, and so on. This puts us in a state of constant dissatisfaction with what is - the Now. This is when the related feelings of anger, fear + desire pop up. The big trick is to how to stop them. Typical meditation techniques teach you to curb these sensations + emotions, but not how to get at the root of eradicating them. The only way to stop this is through Vipassana.

Vipassana literally means to see things a they really are. Through it the scientific laws that operate one's thoughts, feelings, judgements and sensations become clear. Through direct experience, the nature of how one grows or regresses, how one produces suffering or frees oneself from suffering is understood. Vipassana teaches you to observe sensations throughout the body, understanding their nature, and developing equanimity by learning not to react to them. For example, when you become more aware you begin to detect when anger is arising - the quickening of the pulse, and breath - and you gain time to react and calm yourself down before exploding.

Goenka sums this up very succinctly in his "Art of Living" -

Everyone seeks peace and harmony, because this is what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, irritation, disharmony. And when we suffer from these miseries, we don't keep them to ourselves; we often distribute them to others as well. Unhappiness permeates the atmosphere around someone who is miserable, and those who come in contact with such a person also become affected. Certainly this is not a skillful way to live.

We ought to live at peace with ourselves, and at peace with others. After all, human beings are social beings, having to live in society and deal with each other. But how are we to live peacefully? How are we to remain harmonious within, and maintain peace and harmony around us, so that others can also live peacefully and harmoniously?

Now, one way to solve this problem is to arrange that nothing unwanted happens in life, that everything keeps on happening exactly as we desire. Either we must develop the power, or somebody else who will come to our aid must have the power, to see that unwanted things do not happen and that everything we want happens. But this is impossible. There is no one in the world whose desires are always fulfilled, in whose life everything happens according to his or her wishes, without anything unwanted happening. Things constantly occur that are contrary to our desires and wishes. So the question arises: how can we stop reacting blindly when confronted with things that we don't like? How can we stop creating tension and remain peaceful and harmonious?

Whenever negativity arises in the mind, just observe it, face it. As soon as you start to observe a mental impurity, it begins to lose its strength and slowly withers away. A good solution; it avoids both extremes—suppression and expression. Burying the negativity in the unconscious will not eradicate it, and allowing it to manifest as unwholesome physical or vocal actions will only create more problems. But if you just observe, then the defilement passes away and you are free of it.


When I mentioned getting yourself out of misery, you might say "But I'm not miserable". Well, neither am I in the obvious sense. On the surface, I consider myself very happy. I smile and laugh alot. Hell, I'm on the trip of a lifetime - how can I possibly be suffering?! But deep down inside, we all suffer in our own ways. Whether it's constant worry, stress, doubt, obsession, whatever. These things create an underlying current of negativity that affects everything in our lives. We just accept it as normal because it's always been there and we all suffer the same affliction. And we don't contain our misery within ourselves, we share it. Consider how many times throughout the day you complain about something or suffer through someone else's complaints.

Another beauty of this teaching is that it's non-sectarian. There's no chanting to Buddha or any God. There are no offerings or rituals to perform, and you can sit however you like. Best of all - it works! Does this mean I'm going to become a new age hippie now, preaching to my friends and becoming a hermit in the woods? Not hardly. What it does mean is that I'm striving to be a better, truly happy + fulfilled person. I believe in Vipassana. In just 10-days I experienced some of the magic of "seeing things as they really are" firsthand. One point that Goenka repeatedly makes throughout the course is not to accept these teachings on faith. Though this technique is thousands of years old and has proven effective for many, one shouldn't follow it blindly. "Try it and see for yourself". If you're curious, start with the book. If the message resonates with you, and you really are open to change, I highly recommend signing up for the course. There's a center right in California as well as many others around the globe.

Be Happy!