Buddha emphasized the importance of the Mind – mind motivates and body responds, through physical and verbal actions. Therefore there is need for training and taming the mind. Lord Buddha taught us how to train and tame the mind on his sermon on Satipa  Œna or mindfulness.
One should train the mind to be aware or mindful of every activity in our daily life so as to enable us to judge, (reflect) morally what is good or bad, right or wrong for ourselves and others. It teaches us self-management and control. Awareness must be the guardian, at all times, at the "doors" of our six sense organs-eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. Reactive with the "external world" objects and environment give rise to consciousness inside our mind, such as eye consciousness, ear conscious-ness, nose consciousness, touch (feeling) consciousness, etc. which in turn give rise to actions and deeds ( Kamma ).
The consciousness and sensations – that arise and disappear – are impermanent and changeable. They may be either good, bad or neutral. If it is good, you like it (desire or lobha arises); if it is bad aversion (anger or dosa arises); and if it is neutral, one is indifferent (upekkhŒ arises). So with awareness ( sati ), wisdom (pa––Œ) and motivation ( cetanŒ ), one can avoid evil deeds and perform wholesome deeds, and keep our minds clean and pure, thus following Buddha’s teachings in practice. There could, therefore, be a motto, To have knowledge that a deed is evil gives an opportunity to avoid it ; not to have that knowledge would only result in clinging to it and being attached to it. We would therefore be suffering as a result of our ignorance.
Now, how do we develop and cultivate mindfulness and wisdom? How do we purify our minds? Buddha’s last advice was, strive on with mindfulness. In accord-ance to Lord Buddha’s last advice we could develop and cultivate mindfulness through meditation. There are basically two types of meditation. One is samatha and the other is vipassanŒ (insight) meditat-ion. The former promotes concentration and the latter mindfulness. They are inter-dependent. However, it is useful to know the difference between the two in terms of purpose, method and benefits. Samatha means one – pointed concentration to realize SamŒdhi, one of the five factors of enlightenment. The method is to con-centrate on a single object, usually the in – breath and out – breath at the tip of the nostril. The scriptures indicate thirty objects of samatha meditation. It results in mental calmness and tranquility. The purpose is to lead eventually to a state of absorption called JhŒna, blissfulness in Pali. It is similar to zan in Myanmar, chan in Chinese and zen in Japanese. Some form of samatha meditation is used as a tool for psychotherapy treatment and stress mana-gement clinics by doctors and psycholo-gists today. Psychology is a growing science of the mind and Buddhism has a scientific base.
VipassanŒ or insight meditation aims at attaining wisdom and right understanding (sammŒ di  hi – one of the eightfold path) of the nature of mental and physical pheno-mena as they arise in our minds (known in Pali as NŒma) and the body (Rèpa). Mind and matter are further subdivided into five khandhŒs or aggregates. In practicing vipassanŒ a meditator is in fact treading the Noble Eightfold Path – the crux of Buddhism-encompassing the three stages of S´la, SamŒdhi and Pa––Œ.
After attaining deep concentration (samŒdhi) one continues to meditate on the in-breathing and out - breathing as well as on thoughts and sensations as they arise and disappear. Eventually one comes to realize the four basic insight knowledge of (1) the inter – dependent nature of NŒma and Rèpa; (2) the cause and effect relation-ship or conditional nature of NŒma and Rèpa; (3) the three characteristics of NŒma and Rèpa, namely impermanence, suffering and non-self nature of indivi-duality ( annica, dukkha and anatta ) and (4) the rising and disappearance of mental and physical phenomena of NŒma and Rèpa.
I have always thought that vipassanΠmeditation was associated only with Bud-dhists. It was only recently that I came to know that vipassanΠmeditation is not the monopoly of Buddhists and that vipassanΠmeditation is open to all. It is not confined to any religion. Anyone can practice vipa-ssanΠmeditation and acquire the same results of peace and harmony. VipassanΠis a universal technique, a pract-ical tool enabling one to live according to the law of nature or Dhamma, and enjoy the fruits of Dhamma.
VipassanΠmeditation undertaken by non-Buddhist lay men surprised me. But when I learnt that even non-Buddhists priests and nuns practised vipassanΠmeditation I was even more surprised. The accounts of their experience with vipassanΠmeditation give a convincing meaning to what vipassanΠmeditation is and just how much it has benefited them. We may gather what vipassanΠmeditation has been for them from the following extracts of their experiences.
" I am a religious priest with a degree in psychology from Rome and Ph.D from Loyola University of Chicago. My doctor-al thesis was " The Implications of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Progra-mme for Counselling Psychology ". In a course in Comparative Mysticism at Loyola, I was asked to present TM in the class. My background in psycho-therapy, comparative mysticism, TM and my pers-onal life in a religious order was a tremend-ous asset during my VipassanΠdays in the VipassanΠInternational Academy. I seem to have touched something I was looking for over the years. "
A non-Buddhist Sister has this to say about her experience with VipassanŒ.
" The ten days of VipassanΠchanged my life and gave it a new dimension. While doing work of integrating culture with religion, certain conflicts arose within me. I found myself doing certain actions which I believed to be good for the community at large, but deep inside left me uncon-vinced. The penetrating insight of VipassanΠhelped me to get to the root of such conflicts and resolve them. The result was I could do my work with greater harmony within. There was a sense of peace that was not there before. VipassanΠhad helped me break the walls, the barriers that separated me from knowing my inner self. My experience with VipassanΠis that this is the actual technique, the scientific, practical path using which one can get to know oneself better and live a happier more beneficial life.
VipassanŒ helps us develop morality, mastery of the mind, purity of the mind. It helps one to develop great compassion and love for one’s fellow beings. I find that the universality of VipassanŒ has a strong appeal. After all, VipassanŒ is directly experiencing the laws of nature and this applicable to all humanity, regardless of the particular faith one chooses to follow. VipassanŒ helped me develop a quiet, inner strength that removed the emptiness within, the emptiness most of us feel from time to time. "
Other priests and nuns who have done VipassanΠalso say that it has enriched their lives. Such is the universal appeal of VipassanΠcutting across various beliefs, nations and cultures. VipassanΠafter all, is the art of living, of becoming a better human being beneficial for oneself and for others.
Yet another non-Buddhist senior nun comes up with an interesting experience after attending a VipassanΠcourse. Below is a short extract from her experience.
" In this age of economic development in the world, the responsibilities of people are increasing. The changes in social and economic patterns are rapidly increasing the tensions in the minds of people associ-ated with these changes. This mental tens-ion takes a heavy toll on the physical health of the people. To escape from this state of mental tension many youngsters have become alcoholics or drug addicts. If only they could find peace-mental equilibrium and self discipline. VipassanŒ helps one to regain mental peace. As a consequence of this intensive concentration (vipassanŒ) the mind becomes clearer, purer, the attent-ion becomes so sharp that it reaches the subconscious, makes us discover the cause of our sentiments of anger, hatred, bitter-ness, envy; the cause of all that is in us that is a source of evil. It helps us to look at all these things in a detached way, as if they are happening outside us; and having analyzed them, they slowly lose their acuteness and disappear. Having our minds on the alert, VipassanŒ helps us to control our thoughts or our sentiments of envy, hatred, bitterness, lust and replace them with senti-ments of love and compassion. VipassanŒ helps us to keep peace and equanimity and to radiate them around us. It helps us to be detached, to be free in a kind of holy indifference which leads us to perfect liberation."
Apart from the above three extracts of non-Buddhists finding meaning in Vipass-anΠmeditation and realizing the benefits of meditation there are many more other experiences telling us of the training and taming of the mind through meditation to make the mind purer.
There are seven benefits of VipassanΠmeditation which are as follows :-
(1) Purification of the mind (free of defilements),
(2) Overcoming sorrow and worry (through mindfulness of reality ),
(3) Overcoming of lamentation,
(4) Cessation of physical suffering,
(5) Cessation of mental suffering,
(6) Attainment of enlightenment,
(7) Attainment of Nirvana (Deliverance from the rounds of rebirths ).
A meditator realizing and understanding the basic truths of insight knowledge as mentioned above, can reach the stage of CuÂa Sotapanna or the lower stage of entering the "stream", can hope for a better existence in the future and be assured never to be reborn in the four woeful states of hell or the animal realm.
Judging from the experiences of friends and relatives, meditators come out of VipassanŒ retreat with achieving absolute faith-saddhŒ-in the three Gems, the Bud-dha, the Dharma and the San . gha. With further meditation, a meditator can hope to be a reformed and cultured, with attitud-es of sharing and caring, full of love and compassion. Furthermore, a meditator will be acquiring habits which are less prone to extreme violence, anger, greed, jealousy and conceit and will have developed an ability to view things objectively towards life - a truly Middle Way. One will be able to endure with patience and fortitude, mental disturbances such as sorrow, fear, anxiety, worry and depressions because one comes out from VipassanŒ retreats with greater moral strength and under-standing of one’s own mind - one realizes that the mind matters most in facing the vicissitudes of life with confidence.