President Ram Nath Kovind recently laid the foundation stone for the second Dhammalaya meditation centre, at the Vipassana Global Pagoda in Gorai, Mumbai.

The first Dhammalaya has been functioning in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, since 1995.

During the event, President Kovind also spoke about the positive effects of Vipassana meditation on our body and mind, and thereby on the entire society, a report by IANS informed.

That meditation helps us build concentration, while purifying our mind, might be known to all. But do you know what Vipassana meditation exactly is?

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Vipassana--the oldest Buddhist meditation practice

Vipassana, roughly translated as ''Insight'' meditation, is known to be the oldest of Buddhist meditation practice, wrote Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, a Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka, in one of his articles on tricycle.org.

According to Gunaratana, this method of meditation comes directly from Satipatthana Sutta (Foundations of Mindfulness), which is said to have been taught by Buddha himself.

Vipassana is a codified system of training one's mind and entails a set of exercises that are dedicated towards making one more and more aware of his or her life experiences. The objective of this form of meditation is to learn to see the ''truth of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of phenomena,'' wrote Gunaratana.

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The journey of self-exploration

Vipassana is a gentle-yet-thorough technique of meditation. According to dhamma.org, it is an observation-based, self-exploratory jounrey that focuses on deep interconnection between the mind and body, which is realised through disciplined attention to the physical sensations.

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Gunaratana also talked about the kind of attitude with which one should approach the practise of Vipassana. ''Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudices and stereotypes. I want to understand the true nature of life. I want to know what this experience of being alive really is. I want to apprehend the true and deepest qualities of life, and I don’t want to just accept somebody else’s explanation. I want to see it for myself,'' he wrote.

How to practise Vipassana

Ideally, one should practise Vipassana at a very quite place.

The meditator should sit quiety and peacefully with legs crossed, as mentioned by lionsroar.com. One should sit straight while meditating since an arched back would soon induce pain.

It is very important for one to relax and let the body be at ease while meditating.

Once the body feels like it has settled, the meditator should try focusing on his or her object. According to Gunaratana, breathing should be chosen as the primary object of meditation. ''A useful object of meditation should be one that promotes mindfulness. It should be portable, easily available, and cheap. It should also be something that will not embroil us in those states of mind from which we are trying to free ourselves, such as greed, anger, and delusion,'' explained the monk in his article.