This type of meditation helps you to gain insight, contemplation, and ground yourself. This type of meditation dates back to the 6th century in Buddhism. The practitioner of this type of meditation must not kill, steal, steer clear of sexual misconduct, watch what you say, and do not use any intoxicants.
Morality, Mindfulness of Breathing, and Reflection
Vipassanā meditation uses sati (mindfulness) and samatha (calm), developed through practices such as anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing), combined with the contemplation of impermanence as observed in the bodily and mental changes, to gain insight into the true nature of this reality.
Practice begins with the preparatory stage, the practice of sila, morality, and giving up worldly thoughts and desires. Jeff Wilson notes that morality is a quintessential element of Buddhist practice, and is also emphasized by the first generation of post-war western teachers. Yet, in the contemporary mindfulness movement, morality as an element of practice has been mostly discarded, ‘mystifying’ the origins of mindfulness.
The practitioner then engages in anapanasati, mindfulness of breathing, which is described in the Satipatthana Sutta as going into the forest and sitting beneath a tree and then simply watching the breath. If the breath is long, to notice that the breath is long, if the breath is short, to notice that the breath is short. In the “New Burmese Method,” the practitioner pays attention to any arising mental or physical phenomenon, engaging in vitarka, noting or naming physical and mental phenomena (“breathing, breathing”), without engaging the phenomenon with further conceptual thinking. By noticing the arising of physical and mental phenomena, the meditator becomes aware of how sense impressions arise from the contact between the senses and physical and mental phenomena, as described in the five skandhas and paṭiccasamuppāda. According to Sayadaw U Pandita, awareness and observation of these sensations are de-coupled from any kind of physical response, which is intended to recondition one’s impulsive responses to stimuli, becoming less likely to physically or emotionally overreact to the happenings of the world.
The practitioner also becomes aware of the perpetual changes involved in breathing, and the arising and passing away of mindfulness. This noticing is accompanied by reflections on causation and other Buddhist teachings, leading to insight into dukkha, anatta, and anicca. When the three characteristics have been comprehended, reflection subdues, and the process of noticing accelerates, noting phenomena in general, without necessarily naming them.
Most of the information is courtesy of Wikipedia.