How to Apply Vipassana in Student Life
- by S. N. Goenka
(The following is a talk by Goenkaji to students from Symbiosis Centre of Management and HRD (SCMHRD) and Symbiosis Centre of Information Technology (SCIT) on mettā day of their ten-day course at Dhamma Giri from 18 to 29 September 2002. It has been adapted for the Newsletter.)
Here are a few words to help you understand how to apply the wonderful technique that you have learnt here in your day-to-day life. If you can”t apply it in your day-to-day life, it is futile to spend ten days in a course like this. This is not a rite or a ritual; it is an art of living. One learns how to live peacefully and harmoniously within and how to help others to live in peace and harmony. How can we use this technique for this purpose
As students, you are very fortunate that the leaders of your institute have understood the efficacy of this wonderful technique and have given you an opportunity to learn it. This technique will help you not only in your student life but also after completing your studies. You may become an executive or a chief executive officer or the owner of a particular business.
Now, as a student, it is possible that some of you may get very nervous. You have studied your text and have understood your lessons well. But during examinations, you become nervous and forget everything and can”t give the right answers. You may get very low marks or even fail the exam. With this technique, the nervousness will be reduced. Whenever you find that you are getting nervous, be aware of your respiration for just a few seconds with open eyes. Just for a few seconds, maybe for a few minutes, be aware of respiration. Your mind will calm down and the nervousness will go away. If you are taking an examination, you will give the right answers and get good results.
Again, one often becomes nervous in stressful situations such as meetings with seniors. You are unable to face the situation properly because you are so nervous. This technique will help you to calm the mind. You will be able to face all such situations successfully because a calm and tranquil mind is a very strong mind.
When your mind is agitated and confused, the capacity to understand the subject decreases. The teacher is teaching a particular subject or you are reading a book but your mind is so confused and clouded that you can”t understand it properly. You keep reading it again and again but you are still not able to understand.
Whenever you find that the mind is very agitated, practise Anapana for a few minutes or observe sensations for a few minutes. This will calm the agitated mind and you will find that your capacity to understand the subject will increase.
In the same way, when you are dealing with any situation and if the mind is very wild, very agitated, you can”t take proper decisions. By practising this technique, you will find that you are able to take proper decisions because you know how to calm the mind.
There is another problem that arises quite naturally at this age. Passion arises, lust arises. This lust may overpower you and you may become a slave of this particular impurity. You may try to suppress it but the more you suppress it, the more agitated the mind becomes. Or you may express it by taking a wrong action and then you feel guilty, "Oh, I should not have done that, that was wrong." Again, you become miserable.
When you practise Vipassana regularly, you will find that everything that arises in the mind is accompanied by a sensation on the body. This was a great discovery of this great super-scientist. People wrongly think of the Buddha as the founder of a religion. He had nothing to do with conventional religion. He was a super-scientist who studied the interaction of mind and matte…
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