A friend shared this interesting interview with Eckhart Tolle recently, and it touches on Vipassana a little:
DC: How do you think about practices that "cultivate" presence?
ET: Well, at a certain stage practice may be helpful, but I don't teach practices. The power of presence doesn't really need it. Presence is teaching, stillness is teaching, so it would be unnecessary to have a practice. Of course, there may be certain people who haven't yet had an opening to presence and are not drawn to it; so for them practice may be initially helpful—until it becomes a hindrance. Every practice at some point will become a hindrance. No practice can ever take you there, to freedom, to liberation. That's important to realize. Every practice will have to be relinquished at some point; it's a question of knowing when that point has been reached. Some people get attached to their practice. They get good at it, but even becoming a good meditator can become a hindrance.
DC: How so?
ET: In a very subtle way, ego comes in. I sometimes see it when I look at meditator who have a lot of strong "doing" going on. It might be the sense "I'm going to get there" or "I'm there already, because I'm the best meditator." The ego is just waiting to identify with anything. Whether it's your misery or being a great meditator, it seeks some identification. Teaching a practice can also be a hindrance if it becomes one's identity. To be a spiritual teacher is a temporary function. I'm a spiritual teacher when somebody comes to me and some teaching happens, but the moment they leave I'm no longer a spiritual teacher. If I carry the identity of spiritual teacher, it will cause suffering. Another hindrance of practice is that it usually has steps, which require time to go through or time to become good at. Because it takes time, a practice can't really take you there. Only when time is removed—either it collapses or is removed through the power of a teaching—do you realized that you are already "there."
DC: What about Buddhist meditation practices?
ET: There are some Buddhist practices that are very simple, such as Zen, where you're just sitting and watching. It's perhaps no practice, and that's the best kind. Sometimes people ask me about vipassana saying, "Oh, when you talk about feeling the inner body, that reminds me of vipassana." Of course, it is the same principle—that is, inhabiting the body. So vipassana is fine until it becomes a technique that has many stages and that takes time to develop. That can be okay for people for a while, but then you have to leave the technique behind. if anybody reading this interview feels a reaction at this moment, that might be a sign that there's an ego identification with their practice, and it's time to let go. [Laughter]