ABSTRACT
Vipassana is the in-depth and unmediated investigation of the mind-and-matter phenomenon. Rather than an investigation in the intellectual sense of the word, however, this is a direct experiential investigation in which certain aspects of the mind are trained to objectively examine themselves as well as other, interacting, aspects of the so-called self. The analytical aspect breaks the mind-and-matter phenomenon down into the various functions operating it: consciousness, perception, sensation, reaction, and matter (the physical or corporeal element, the body). Vipassana meditation aims to elucidate and reveals the following two intersections: the one between sensation and the mind's tendentious reaction to it, and the one in which the present moment of consciousness is informed by past conditionings, on the one hand, and informs the becoming of future moments, on the other. Each moment of consciousness, and, therefore, each mental action, is a juncture between the past that feeds it and the future that it, in turn, feeds.
