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The vipassana mindfulness meditators I know have mellow lives. They work hard, take care of their loved ones, keep fit, pay their bills and return my texts. They’re sober, honest and take responsibility for their actions. Most of them are well educated, kind and open-minded. They have a moral value system that prevents them from doing and saying things that cause mental, physical and social anxiety. Showing kindness and compassion to themselves and others just seems to be their style.

When the Buddha taught vipassana thousands of years ago…[i]t wasn’t about shaving your head, wearing ochre robes and eating cruciferous vegetables. He simply said that the calmer your life, the quieter your mind and the more wisdom you’ll gain from your meditation.Michael Hoffman, Sober Buddha Counseling

Harmonious Lifestyle

When the Buddha taught vipassana thousands of years ago, he admonished his students to live in ways that created harmony. Only a calm mind and body could learn to sit still and develop the hardcore concentration skills necessary to practice effective meditation. He wasn’t preaching a stern moral lifestyle. It wasn’t about shaving your head, wearing ochre robes and eating cruciferous vegetables. He simply said that the calmer your life, the quieter your mind and the more wisdom you’ll gain from your meditation. Just imagine what the Buddha would think if he could witness our modern lifestyles with cell phones, traffic, caffeine jolts and workaholism!

Concentration

So you live as calm a lifestyle as you possibly can. You do honest work. You say constructive things to others. You take care of your health. Your ethics reflect kindness and compassion. When it’s time to sit still, concentrate and practice your vipassana, you do it without much distraction. This is when your spiritual mind starts to wake up and you gain insight into the impermanent, fleeting nature of all those thoughts and feelings that used to drive you to distraction and kept you stressed out all the time trying to fix them.

Wisdom

You watch vivid memories arise and pass away. Some you’re fond of and some definitely not. You experience a pleasant sensation, and you love it, but you don’t grasp at it. Disturbing thoughts rise up, and as you simply observe them, they pass away, too. Instead of running on the hamster wheel of craving and aversion, you gain the great wisdom of equanimity. You don’t overreact. You start to enjoy the flow of energy that fills your meditative space when you learn to observe the arising and passing away of thoughts and feelings.

When you develop a disciplined, consistent meditative practice, you find yourself much more alert, patient and focused on what needs to be done each day. You stop your frantic multitasking and simply handle one indicated detail of daily living after the other. People notice you’ve mellowed out. You’re more approachable, friendlier and easier to be around. Meditate long enough, learn to observe thoughts and feelings with insight wisdom about their fleeting nature and you tap into the flow of the whole universe reflected right here and now in your own life. You become a nice person.

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