Vipassana meditation is a practice associated with the Theravada branch of Buddhism found in Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Laos. In the West its best-known teacher is SN Goenka. He translates vipassana as ‘seeing things as they really are’. According to Goenka, although the Buddha taught vipassana as a way of living, it was rediscovered rather than invented by him.

The aim of vipassana is the development of a balanced mind full of love and compassion – freed from self-delusion and internally generated suffering. Such a mind would be capable of supporting the four divine states described by the Buddha and aspired to by followers of his teaching. The Buddha called these divine states metta, karuna, mudita and upekkha. These Pali words are usually translated as: loving kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity. Thai Massage is traditionally offered with the aim of manifesting these divine states in action.

A modern therapeutic equivalent is, perhaps, ‘unconditional positive regard’, a term forever identified with Carl Rogers, even if coined by Stanley Standal (Rogers 1992, p. 283). Rogers, a significant figure in the development of ‘client-centred’ psychotherapy, describes unconditional positive regard as ‘an outgoing positive feeling, without reservations, without evaluations’. According to Rogers, research shows that the more a therapist is able to experience this state in relation to the client, the more successful is the therapy likely to be for the client (Rogers 1992, p. 62).

If unconditional positive regard is the aim, vipassana is the process. As a meditation practice it is best learned in a dedicated retreat or monastery and under the guidance of a suitably trained teacher. In the Buddhist tradition, the starting point in the training of a teacher (lama) is total retreat from the world for three years, three months and three days.

As a way of living, however, vipassana is of great value in therapeutic practice. In common with many meditation practices, vipassana begins with the effort of drawing the mind more deeply into relationship with the body. We find this aim not only in sitting meditation but also in the practice of yoga, tai chi, qigong and many martial arts. This understanding is not limited to the East. It is well recognised in the meditative traditions of Christianity. Father Thomas Keating, a Cistercian Monk and advocate of ‘centring prayer’, suggests that:

Our body is always in the present while our mind tends to wander, flitting from thoughts of the past to projections into the future. If we can draw our attention away from the passage of thoughts into the sensation of our body we will be more present. In the therapeutic relationship our patient will not only perceive this but will benefit from it too.

In his book Focusing, Eugene Gendlin discusses the significance of sensation in relation to the practice of psychotherapy. In the 1970s Gendlin and colleagues at the University of Chicago conducted research into the effectiveness of psychotherapy in making a positive difference in the patient’s life. They were surprised to discover that they could predict therapeutic outcome by observing the way in which patients organised and related to their experience. The patients who gained most benefit from the therapeutic encounter did something internal that less successful patients did not (Gendlin 1981).

Gendlin went on to demonstrate that this ‘something internal’ could be taught. He calls the process ‘focusing’ and describes the stages involved in his book. The process of focusing is designed to help the patient align an unresolved memory or thought with a ‘felt sense’ in the body. Gendlin discovered that, when a patient achieved this alignment, the thought or memory resolved.

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