Vipassana Meditation: an introduction to insight meditation practice | Patrick Kearney

Treasure Mountain Podcast

In some recent episodes of Treasure Mountain Podcast we’ve heard about the importance of samatha - or stillness, tranquillity - meditation. But what about vipassana - insight meditation? The vipassana meditation movement has had a huge impact upon meditation practice in both East and West, and has shaped modern understandings of what meditation is about and for. So what is vipassana meditation? What is its heritage? What is its basis within Buddhism? And how does it work?

To answer these questions and more we have as our guest today Patrick Kearney.

Patrick has practised mindfulness meditation since 1977. At that time there was little or no Buddhist meditation training available in Australia, so he spent years travelling in Asia and the USA working with teachers from different Buddhist traditions to learn the craft of meditation practice. Most of his training has been in the insight meditation lineage of Mahāsī Sayādaw of Burma, which included several years as a Buddhist monk. His main teachers were Sayādaw U Paṇḍita and John Hale. He has also trained in the Diamond Sangha lineage of Zen where his teachers have been Robert Aitken Rōshi and Paul Maloney Rōshi.

Patrick has been a full-time teacher of mindfulness meditation for over 20 years. He conducts residential and online retreats, workshops and seminars. He has studied early Buddhism at post-graduate levels and has a particular interest in the original teachings of the Buddha, before the invention of “Buddhism.” This allows him to bring the radical insights of the Buddha to our contemporary situation. He sees meditation as a physical practice that reconnects us with the felt world of our senses, allowing us to live our lives directly rather than through the cling-wrap of our habitual thinking.

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Links related to this episode:

• Patrick Kearney website

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