From the Seat of Stillness: A Vipassana Practitioner’s Reflection
From the Seat of Stillness: A Vipassana Practitioner’s Reflection
Pay close attention to sensations in all activities.
When washing up, stay with the direct experience.
Feel the water on your skin.
Notice the temperature.
Sense the shifting textures.
The silkiness of the soap.
Remain with it.
No labels arise.
Neither pleasant nor unpleasant.
Neither good nor bad.
Just sensation, precisely as it is.
When eating, anchor the awareness.
Stay with the moment the food touches the lips,
the tongue receiving texture,
the taste as it flickers across the palate.
No craving arises.
No resistance appears.
Just sensation, clear and transient.
When walking, let the world speak through the body.
Feel the breeze caress the arms,
the sun warming the skin,
the sweat rising on the brow,
the gentle weight of each step pressing into the earth.
This too is life, expressing itself through sensation.
When working, return again and again to presence.
Notice the breath.
Become aware of posture.
Observe the body in motion,
and stay steady in your inner stillness.
When driving, you remain a meditator.
Hands on the steering wheel.
The hum of the road.
Air grazing the skin.
Even here be awake.
Even now attend to what is.
And when resting, do not let presence fade.
In the quiet of your home,
let the body become your guide.
Feel the stillness.
Feel the breath.
And when distress arises, when fear or sorrow,
anxiety or grief come knocking, return to the body.
Notice the shift in breath,
the warmth or trembling in the hands,
the irregular dance of the heart.
Do not fuse with the emotion.
Do not chase it or push it away.
You are not the storm.
You are the one who sees.
Each time you observe sensation with equanimity,
you dissolve the old habit of reaction.
The mind no longer clings,
no longer resists.
It simply sees.
It simply knows.
With patient continuity, this habit of reactivity fades.
You are no longer moved by every pull of desire
nor shaken by every tremor of aversion.
You remain balanced, watchful, and free.
Here, in the present,
there is no story.
No memory.
No projection.
Only now.
Only awareness.
And in this space,
there is no duality.
There is peace.
There is clarity.
There is liberation.
This is Vipassana.
To observe what is—directly, truthfully, without distortion.
To meet each moment with wisdom rather than reflex.
To walk the middle path,
undisturbed by extremes.
To remain rooted in truth even as the world shifts.
When you lose yourself in thought or get
swept away by emotion, the practice is simple:
Return.
Begin again.
Nothing is lost.
The Buddha pointed toward the root of
of suffering as craving and aversion.
To be free, we must let go.
Observe.
Accept.
And in that acceptance, we begin to see.
Keep returning to sensation.
Patiently.
Softly.
One breath, one moment, one footstep at a time.
Awareness of sensation is the foundation.
It is the path.
It is the way.
And from this stillness,
true happiness arises—
not fleeting,
not dependent,
but stable, radiant, and real.
Be happy.