Doing Body, Doing Mind, Doing Self

Sitting is a common ‘technique of the body’. Everybody sits. There is also sitting of a particular kind, that goes by the name of vipassana meditation (or, just vipassana). The sitting happens somewhere: in isolated retreats of silence and in the middle of everyday noise. It happens in a geographical location: in Myanmar and India, North America and Israel, South America, Africa, Australia and also in Europe, in the city of Amsterdam. Amsterdam is the place where my research happened. My aim was to contribute to the anthropology of body and body practices by producing knowledge on vipassana meditation, by not conflating it with other ‘eastern’ techniques such as yoga. My objective was to follow vipassana, the sitting meditation, by exploring everyday practices, lived experiences and perceived effects of vipassana among its practitioners. The fieldwork was driven by the following research questions: a) How is vipassana done? b) What is vipassana? What does it become? c) What is it to sit in vipassana? What are the experiences? d) What are the effects of practicing vipassana? e) How are these effects linked to the practice?