---
title: "The Tradition — Sīla, Samādhi, Paññā and the Sources of the Course"
description: "The Theravāda order of training behind Vipassana.life — conduct, concentration, insight — its textual sources, the Four Protections, and what has been adapted for home practice and why."
url: https://vipassana.life/about/tradition/
lang: en
author: Ocean DYNN
site: Vipassana.Life
modified: 2026-09-23
---

# The tradition

The course is built on the threefold training of the Theravāda path: sīla (ethical conduct), samādhi (concentration) and paññā (insight). The order is not decoration. Each supports the next.

## Sīla — conduct

The five precepts: not killing, not stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, no intoxicants. Traditionally they come first because concentration does not settle in a mind that is acting against itself.

## Samādhi — concentration

Ānāpānasati, mindfulness of breathing, is the concentration practice of the whole course and the sole practice of Parts 1 and 2. The source is the Ānāpānasati Sutta (Majjhima Nikāya 118).

## Paññā — insight

Vipassanā: the observation of sensation, feeling and mind as they arise and pass, revealing the three characteristics — anicca (impermanence), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) and anattā (non-self). Parts 3 and 4.

## The four foundations

The Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (Dīgha Nikāya 22) sets out mindfulness of body, feelings, mind and dhammas. Part 5 follows it, with the emphasis on daily life.

## The Four Protections

Recollection of the Buddha, mettā (loving-kindness), contemplation of the body's unattractiveness, and mindfulness of death — the four protective meditations taught in the Pa-Auk tradition. They appear in Part 4.

## What has been adapted, and why

- Sitting times are the traditional windows (04:30–07:00, 18:00–21:00), but a gentler schedule is allowed where the traditional one is not sustainable. Consistency matters more than the exact hour.
- Sittings are fifteen minutes in Part 1 rather than an hour, because at home there is no schedule carrying you: the habit has to settle first, and only then can the sittings grow longer.
- The next sitting opens when the previous one is complete; that replaces the retreat bell.
- The Detox edition of Part 1 is an optional overlay and is not part of the Theravāda training the course describes.

A residential retreat under a teacher remains the fuller form of this training, and the course says so plainly.

## Watch

[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKOyz_YTMCk)[Chanting at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery, Myanmar](https://vipassana.life/videos/DKOyz_YTMCk/)

[Open the course →](https://vipassana.life/)