Vipassana is a gentle technique, but it also is very thorough. It Is an ancient and codified system of training your mind, a set of exercises dedicated to the purpose of becoming more aware of your own life experience. It develops attentive listening, mindful seeing and careful testing. We learn to smell acutely, touch fully, and really pay attention to changes taking place in all these experiences. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.

Vipassana meditation is a process of retraining your mind. The state that you are aiming for is one in which you are totally aware of everything that is happening in your own perceptual universe, exactly the way it happens, exactly when it is happening, a totally, unbroken awareness in present time. This is an incredibly high goal, not to be reached all at once. It takes much practice, so we take small steps. We start by becoming totally aware of one small unit of time, just one single inhalation. When you succeed you are on your way to a whole new experience of life.

Dhammapada, an ancient Buddhist text, says, "What you are now is the result of what you were.
What you will be tomorrow will be the result of what you are now. The consequences of an evil mind will follow you like the cart follows the ox that pulls it. The consequences of a purified mind will follow you like your own shadow. No one can do more for you than your own purified mind - no parent, no relative, no friend, no one. A well-disciplined mind brings happiness."