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Monitoring Emotion Through Body Sensation: A Review of Awareness in Goenka’s Vipassana

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Abstract

Awareness is one of the two most important abilities cultivated in Goenka’s Vipassana meditation, which refers to sensitivity to subtle bodily sensations and the associated psychological processes. This sensitivity and its derived function of monitoring emotion are not of notable concern in modern mindfulness-based psychotherapies. Evidence supports that Vipassana meditation truly enhances sensitivity to bodily sensations, but further study is required to assess the awareness of psychological processes. The value of monitoring mental processing has been widely accepted in psychology, as has enhanced sensitivity along with the potential dangers to mental health. Implications for practice and future studies are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was completed when Professor Oei was a visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P.R. China.

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  1. School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, XinJieKouWai St., HaiDian District, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Xianglong Zeng & Xiangping Liu

  2. School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Tian P. S. Oei

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  1. Xianglong Zeng
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  2. Tian P. S. Oei
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Correspondence to Xiangping Liu.

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Zeng, X., Oei, T.P.S. & Liu, X. Monitoring Emotion Through Body Sensation: A Review of Awareness in Goenka’s Vipassana. J Relig Health 53, 1693–1705 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-013-9754-6

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