Is there a Vipassana meditation in the Mahayana tradition?

@dmsp - "Mahayana is for practical Buddhists and Theravada is for rituals and ceremonies etc" this statement was misunderstood by you. I was also in that retreat, nobody said something like that. There was a question about how you compare different schools of Buddhism. Though it was not explained w.r.t. meditation aspects, the main difference between schools is the traditions and ceremonies you do. But the core teaching (4 Noble Truths, 8-fold Path, etc.) remains the same. By the way, you also can't say that all teachers in Mahayana/Theravada follow the same way of teaching.

The views of:

"I was brought up in the Theravada tradition and have little knowledge on Mahayana. Recently some of my friends participated in a Mahayana retreat and praised it highly. One of them even claimed that Mahayana is for practical Buddhists and Theravada is for rituals and ceremonies etc. So I got a bit curious about this and started searching on Mahayana. But I couldn't find the answer to my main question."

And:

"It seems to me the Mahayana is more about rituals and such:prayer wheels, manadala's, medicine bowls, prayer flags. Plus there are too many esoteric "secretive" teachings where one has to receive empowerment from a lama I guess. It's all good but I feel Theravada tradition contains the heart of Buddha's teachings"

These views are both understandable given the respective situations:

I live in a Theravada Buddhist country (Thailand), but is a practicing Mahayana Buddhist (Chinese of Chan lineage). The reason both perspectives - that the other side is more practical, can be observed is that, a Theravada Buddhist community is often very conservative, and as such can get completely out of touch with lay people. Monks for example often chant in Pali for a lay funeral service while doing very little to teach the lay people the Dharma. I have attended Thai funerals where people start zoning out while the monks chants in Pali, a language ordinary Thais do not understand. Some disrespectfully chatted away with their friends during service. Some even start browsing their phones! Your average Thai religious participation involve making some donations during special Buddhist festival dates. On the other hand, my personal practice involves weekly chanting service at the temple, as well as many social participation. Lay Buddhists chant along in Chinese Mahayana Buddhist texts, which are understandable to the Chinese audience.

One of the preoccupation of Mahayana Buddhism is the development of upāya - skillful means. That is, how to teach the difficult to understand Buddhadharma to the masses, as well as various students at different stage of the path. Employing various strategy such as rituals for participation, conceptual aids such as Pure Land Buddhist teachings, group chanting involving the lay people, the use of repetition of mantras. Many teachings are also simplified to be relevant to needs of the lay Buddhist. The Tibetans for example heavily use seemingly mystical rituals as well as magnificent art and architecture to inspire the interest and faith of the people. (Their art is one of the finest in the Buddhist world). Modern Buddhist organization even hold similar youth functions and camps similar to those done by Protestant Christianity to engage young people.

This is not to say that there aren't temples on both sides that do not reach out to people, nor that Theravada do not employ skillful means. The emphasis is just different, and in my personal opinion many Buddhists societies have grown way too lax and take the Dharma for granted. Some very successful modern oriented Thai temples such as the Dhammakaya even came under heavy criticism for being 'too big', 'unorthodox' or even downright accusatory 'cult-like'. From my understanding, their success boil down to: having large lay participation by holding big events, teaching meditation to lay people, and having monks who are highly disciplined and walking in a very mindful orderly manner. Unfortunately this practice is deemed 'strange and cult-like' by those who do not actually understand the Dharma and are used to un-orderly behavior from monks.

The base of the pillar of the answer to this is probably what is called "Silent Illumination" or Yuganaddha.

Silent illumination comes from the integrated practice of shamatha (calming the mind) and vipashyana (insightful contemplation) called yuganaddha (union), and was the hallmark of the Chinese Caodong school of Ch'an. It therefore means one is practicing with both a calm mind and "questioning observation."

The Caodong school is very interesting, and is the predecessor of the Soto Zen school. It is a very esoteric school, which is probably why it almost vanished, as its ways were not popular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caodong_school

So, since Zen is Mahayana, I believe this is where you should look.

It seems to me the Mahayana is more about rituals and such:prayer wheels, manadala's, medicine bowls, prayer flags. Plus there are too many esoteric "secretive" teachings where one has to receive empowerment from a lama I guess. It's all good but I feel Theravada tradition contains the heart of Buddha's teachings

In Mahayana the objects of vipashyana are not the three characteristics as they are in Theravada, however, they are shunyata, or emptiness. In Theravada vipassana one investigates impermanence, selflessness, and unsatisfactoriness of all phenomena. In Mahayana one investigates emptiness of all phenomena, which is a development of the three characteristics. There are different views of emptiness which disagree on details, but essentially are the same enough. Madhyamaka Prasangika view is generally considered the definitive view of emptiness. Also, the mind itself is also the object of investigation, and Mahayana has developed a very useful model of consciousness and the mind.

The Heart Sutra reveals a very useful vipashyana meditation: Investigate each skandha and discover its emptiness of identity. "Form is empty, emptiness is none other than form, Sensation is empty, emptiness is none other than sensation..." and so on.

Yes, it's called vipaśyanā and it's employed by several different schools.

Google "Mahamudra". Enjoy. I happen to follow a Karma Kagyu Tibetan Buddhism tradition of mahamudra. There are lots of flavors for lots of individual tastes but it's all the same. Good stuff. (Heck, even Hinduism's Advaita is good stuff.) Enjoy!