chief resident at Yale University School of Medicine, has been honored with the American Psychiatric Association's Oskar Pfister Award, and is widely published on the subjects of psychiatry, religion and meditation -- began a lecture series at Emory before a diverse crowd of students, scientist and meditators. In his lecture, The Scientific World-View and Vipassana Meditation, Fleischman outlined the "basic science of meditation -- that is, taking meditation to the deepest substrate of our world of science ." Fleischman's lecture focused exclusively on Vipassana meditation, a thousands-of-years-old form of meditation which focuses on impartial observation of bodily sensations.
According to Fleischman, "during the 20th century, revolutions in physics and biology transformed our vision of the world and of ourselves, creating increased insight into the scientific basis for Vipassana meditation practice."
His lecture, divided into three parts, gave a basic description of Vipassana meditation, provided a background in theoretical science ranging from information theory to cosmology, and finally delivered a fusion of concepts culminating in a description of the science of Vipassana.
As Fleischman described it, "Vipassana is that meditation which is defined as meditation on the sensations of one's own body. Vipassana is not allegiance to a religion. If you meditate on the sensations of your own body, it is completely non-sectarian. You don't have to believe in anything beforehand, all you have to do is observe the sensations of your own body."

It was this objective, non-sectarian, and, most importantly, pragmatic nature of Vipassana which attracted Fleishman to the school of meditation. While at times conflated with Buddhism or other ideological belief systems, Vipassana meditation -- which was taught by the Buddha more than 2,500 years ago and spread throughout nearly all of India -- is a form of guided observation, focusing exclusively on the sensations of the body. The technique is taught in highly structured, immersive residential courses of "sustained, focused, relatively unrelenting meditation for 10 days." As students are guided through ever deeper levels of awareness, the Vipassana technique exposes concepts of impermanence and eternal flux on an experiential level.

"When you observe the sensations of your body systematically, continuously in a guided manner ... you become aware of sensations that you were never previously aware of ..." said Fleischman; " ... every human being who meditates on the sensations of their body will come upon a particular phenomena, of the multiplicity, the subtlety, and the infinitesimal duration of every sensation."

Vipassana meditators have experienced these phenomena for generations, yet Fleishman's lecture sought to bring the insights of contemporary science into this ancient tradition.



"I am here ... to give an intelligent explanation of how I understand Vipassana, given the fact that I've spent my life in a scientific discipline with a scientific worldview," he said.

"I spent my life trying to create a language ... to make a seamless explanation of meditation and the scientific worldview, which were otherwise seen as antithetical."

Fleischman's goal to create a scientific language for the discussion of Vipassana has a direct link to the desires of his teacher, S.N. Goenka. Currently the premiere teacher of Vipassana, Mr. Goenka has taught hundreds of thousands of people the Vipassana meditation technique and has played an instrumental role in the internationalization of Vipassana. A Indian businessman born in Burma, Mr. Goenka discovered Vipassana in the tradition of a Burmese Vipassana master teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin. Mr. Goenka trained with U Ba Kin for fourteen years before settling in India, where he has helped to re-establish the tradition of Vipassana.

"Vipassana as we know it in the world today ... is heavily dependent on Mr. Goenka's enormous effort from approximately 1970 to the present to spread Vipassana across the world," Fleischman explained. "Mr. Goenka had two very strong volitions. One was to keep Vipassana pure, to not change it -- to spread around the world the actual, authentic ancient tradition as he had learned it without adding anything or taking away anything.”

"The second volition that Mr. Goenka had was that Vipassana should be understood by the modern world in terms of science. He wanted our scientific 20th century revolutions to provide a language for understanding Vipassana and he wanted it clear that Vipassana was compatible with and definitely not antithetical to the modern worldview."

To this end, Fleischman provided a scientific framework for the discussion of Vipassana. Drawing on cosmology, quantum physics and the theoretical origins of the universe, Fleischman posited a link between the nature of the universe and the bodily phenomena exposed through Vipassana. The experiential revelation of impermanence -- of the constant arising and passing of sensation -- which Vipassana brings is, in Fleischman's model, our own window into the nature of the universe itself. What experienced meditators may recognize as the sensation of impermanence Fleischman sees as a link to the constantly shifting nature of the cosmos.

"The first thing we need to understand is that we are products of the universe and that we’re products of the atomic phenomena by which the universe has been formed and continues to form," he asserted. "When we look at a person who introspects not cognitively, but sensorially ... this person is in contact with those hydrogen atoms that are oscillating in the thermal jostling that accompanies all matter. This oscillation is occurring in our body."

Fleischman largely framed his discussion of cosmology and theoretical physics within the realm of information theory, a comparatively modern school of scientific thought which he posited has brought about the "biggest change in cosmology and the understanding of our bodies and the universe." Much broader in scope than circuit boards or machine code, information theory is a branch of applied mathematics focused on the quantification of information.

"Information, in information theory, means a constraint that moves things to the left or right or that selects between the number zero and the number one. That is, information is a choice-making division between two alternatives," explained Fleischman, going on to discuss the impact which this scientific perspective has had on cosmology.


"According to information theory, gravity is the information that is guiding the formation of the cosmos into galaxies, stars, planets, super novas -- all that is done on one piece of information and that information is 'Come together, right now.'"

Information, then, becomes the controlling force of the universe. Every aspect of the universe, from the most spectacular act of celestial creation to the slightest swerve of an electron, is governed by informatic laws -- be they anything from gravity to electromagnetism to the Pauli Exclusion Principle. A Vipassana meditator's experience of impermanence, then, becomes a microcosmic experience of the universe's impermanence -- the information which guides its incessant re-creation.

In Fleischman's words, "a person who is attuning their attention to their body is in touch with the informatic basis of the universe as it is contained in, organizes and systematically creates our body."

While we may be governed by simple laws at the atomic level, our bodies are an infinitely complex biological system. As Fleischman pointed out, "there are more cell divisions than we can imagine or understand going on in our bodies all the time, and those cell divisions are happening at every single moment of our lives." Yet this phenomenon, too, is bound by informatic law. The bits and pieces of information bound in our DNA, hormone levels, brain chemistry and innumerable other components of our bodies dictate development and guide our growth as we are continuously and unceasingly re-created.”

It was with this understanding of the informatic basis of both the cosmos and our own physical frames that Fleischman's synthesis of science and Vipassana was unveiled.

"The scientific basis of meditation is that we are products of a living, dynamic, incessantly self-transforming, informatically-based universe that is alive inside of us," he said.

"The universe is constantly informing us and manufacturing us. Even our mind, which we tend to experience as a personal possession, is actually a mind that is downloading the mind of the universe."

And yet despite this inexorable adherence to universal law, Fleischman's message was not one of determinism. For while we must be informed by the universe, we also have the capacity to add information via our choices.

"Each choice that a living being makes, that choice adds information to the universe, because in the universe, information is a series of choices ... a human being is making a choice and that choice is shaping the universe by moving small, little discrete pieces of information," said Fleischman. "Meditation is a process of not only recognizing that we are a part of the universe ... but it’s also a process of recognizing that we're constantly choosing -- constantly re-shaping our Karma, you could say, or constantly participating in the informatic nature of life.”

This state of constant, dynamic awareness -- a life in constant harmony with all beings irrespective of life's vicissitudes -- is a critical component to the practice of Vipassana. While the term Vipassana is used predominantly to refer to a form of meditation, there is more to the practice than what happens on the cushion. Vipassana means "to see things as they really are" and it has been described by Goenka as "an art of living." As a form of meditation, Vipassana can take one to the depths of his or her own mind. As an art of living, Vipassana can open a pathway to a life of peace, harmony and compassion.

"When one meditates, one meditates on the a simple awareness of the arising and passing of all the sensations. But when one stops meditating, one lives dynamically. Meditation is ... an exhortation to a dynamic way of life -- a dynamic way of life in which choice is present at every moment," said Fleischman. "The awakening of the awareness of our universal nature and our connection to all other beings is intrinsically coded into us, and once we stop being busy, once we observe, we find that a powerful force."

Fleischman's lecture featured series four stops in the southeastern United States. His lecture in Atlanta was organized by the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies on behalf of the Southeast Vipassana Association. In addition to Emory, Fleischman spoke at the University of North Carolina Asheville, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at the Morris Center in Savannah, Ga. The southern United States is served by the Southeast Vipassana Center, which is located in southern Georgia outside the City of Jesup and offers 10-day courses in Vipassana meditation. More information on the center can be found on-line at www.patapa.dhamma.org  and information on worldwide course schedules can be found at www.dhamma.org.