Vipassana Meditation and the Scientific World View

'One of the important factors by which Acharya Goenkaji re-kindled Vipassana mediation in the second half of the Twentieth Century was his emphasis on the similarities between the world views of Vipassana and science. For many Vipassana students around the world, this emphasis facilitated their openness to giving meditation a fair trial. For me, as for thousands of others, Goenkaji’s skillful reframing of Vipassana into contemporary language and concepts opened a door, without which I would not have stepped out onto the Path. In honor of Goenkaji’s educational mission, which has spanned the planet, I would like to create a brief but serious portrait of the scientific world-view as it unfurled in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries. Once it is clearly presented, the scientific portrayal of reality can be easily understood to clarify such Pali terms as “Anicca,” “Anattā,” “Kamma,” and “Dhamma.” Science today not only clarifies some intellectual aspects of Vipassana, but it also adds momentum to the psychological and moral implications of meditation practice. '

—Paul R. Fleischman M.D.