Answers By Mr. S. N. Goenka: Health

-How to come out of inferiority / superiority complexes?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: This is what Vipassana does. Every complex is an impurity of the mind. As that impurity comes to the surface, you observe it at the level of body sensations. It passes away. It arises again. Again you observe. Again it passes away. Like this, these complexes weaken and ultimately do not rise again. Just observe. Suppression or expression is harmful. Vipassana helps one come out of all complexes.

-Does Vipassana heal the physical body?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Yes, as a by-product. Many psychosomatic diseases naturally disappear when mental tensions are dissolved. If the mind is agitated, physical diseases are bound to develop. When the mind becomes calm and pure, automatically they will go away. But if you take the curing of a physical disease as your goal in practicing Vipassana, instead of the purification of your mind, you achieve neither one nor the other. I have found that people who join a course with the aim of curing a physical illness have their attention fixed only on their disease throughout the course: ‘today, is it better? No, not better…Today is it improving? No, not improving!’ All the ten days they waste in this way. But if the intention is to purify the mind, then many diseases automatically go away as a result of meditation.

-A friend of mine has cancer and I was telling her about this technique. I was wondering if this was something she could use to help cure her?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: It can help her mind to face the problem. Many cases of cancer have been helped very much by this technique in the sense that there is no more pain from cancer, and one can face the misery. Some people have even died from cancer practicing Vipassana and they have died very peacefully without any misery. In some—very few—cases the cancer has been cured, but one should not come with the idea of curing it. The technique is to purify the mind.

I understand that. I noticed that when I have a sore throat and I start to meditate, then I can get rid of my sore throat or headache.

Mr. S. N. Goenka: It happens—in many ways, in different ways. Physically one gets benefited, but that is just a by-product. The main thing is how to get benefited at the mental level.

(Courtesy: International Vipassana Newsletter, June 1987 issue)

-You say that we should not come to Vipassana to cure a disease. However, we see that many ailing people have found benefit. Why do you discourage this?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: We don’t discourage people from coming out of their illness. But the goal should be very clear: Vipassana is to purify the mind so that the mind is free from all illnesses. If the goal is only to come out of a certain disease, your motivation is wrong and you won’t work properly; all the time your attention will be towards your illness. When your attention is not on the object on which you should be working, you can’t benefit. You will attain neither this nor that.

The aim is to come out of all the illnesses of life which make us unhappy. Yes, when the mind is purified, all psychosomatic diseases will have to go, they can’t remain, but we don’t say that physical diseases will also be cured. Some may indeed be cured, but the goal is to purify the mind. 

-Can a mentally retarded person gain control over himself by Vipassana?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: It depends. If one cannot understand what is being taught, then there is no magic, no miracle in the technique. It is a mental exercise. Just as you do different physical exercises, so you do this mental exercise. One should be at least intelligent enough to understand what the exercise is, and then to practise it. There are some who have been helped, but we can’t say that everyone will be helped. 

-How to deal with insomnia?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Vipassana will help you. When people can’t sleep properly, if they lie down and observe respiration or sensations, they can get sound sleep. Practice. Try, and you will find that it is very helpful.

-For the past ten to twelve years, I haven’t been able to sleep properly.

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Vipassana will solve this problem, depending on how properly you work. If you come to Vipassana with the sole aim of getting sound sleep, then it’s better you don’t come! You should come to Vipassana to come out of the impurities of your mind. There is a great disturbance because there is so much negativity in the mind, so much worry. All these worries, negativities and impurities will start getting eradicated by Vipassana, and you will start getting very sound sleep.

-I am emotional, sensitive and always full of anxiety. Can these be overcome by Vipassana?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Certainly. This is the purpose of Vipassana—to liberate you from all the miseries. Anxiety and worry are the biggest miseries, and they are there because of certain impurities deep within you, which will come on the surface and pass away. Of course it takes time. There is no magic involved, no miracle involved, no gurudom involved. No guru will put his hand on your head and make you a liberated person—nothing doing. Somebody will just show you the Path. You have to work out your own liberation. Walk on the Path.

-I am always full of anxiety. Can Vipassana help me?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: Certainly. This is the purpose of Vipassana – to liberate you from all miseries. Anxiety and worry are the biggest miseries, and they are there because of certain impurities deep within you. With practice of Vipassana, these impurities will come on the surface and gradually pass away. Of course, it takes time. There is no magic, no miracle, no gurudom involved. Somebody will just show you the correct Path. You have to walk on the Path, work out your own liberation from all miseries.

-What is depression? Is it an external, or an internal, problem?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: All problems are internal. There are no external problems. If you go deep inside and discover the cause of your misery, you will find that every cause lies within yourself, not outside. Remove that cause, and you will be free from misery.

Source: https://www.vridhamma.org