Hi all!
I am curious as to what others think about the usefulness of memory sports in Vipassana.
The memory athelets are those who try to memorize random sets of data (images, numbers, names, etc.) in small amounts of time (e.g. 30 images, 52 cards, etc. under one minute, for instance, see link below).
https://memoryleague.com/
I am curious as to how this training can be useful in Vipassana.
I know it is not Vipassana per se. Perhaps it is a form of Samatha training, since the objects you memorize are concepts.
However, the kind of Samatha you train in memory sports is very similar to the kind of samatha you need for vipassana (e.g. momentary, clear, analytical and precise attention on objects). It's also a very good way to improve your perceptual bandwith for processing more information. There is also a clearly defined and achievable goal, e.g. how many things you can memorize under how many seconds, which is a great boost to your motivation.
My experience has been that I typically do some amount of memory training, like playing the memory game in the above link before my sit. When I do sit, I immediately notice that my perceptual field is brighter, and insights (impermanence, dukkha and no-self) are seen more clearly. It seems that after memory training, my mental system is primed to process more information and when I aim the system to the typical objects of vipassana like the 4 foundations, the system just starts to process the information and produce insights.
Could this be a form of Samatha-Vipassana? I am curious as to hear the upside and also the downside to do vipassana in this, admittedly, nonstandard way.