Vipassana Meditation

jzono1 said:
I can vouch for the book myself. It's direct, well-written and pretty much perfect.

I think the ebook section on that site was smaller last time I visited, not really sure. I also read "The Noble Eightfold Path
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K-gal said:
Who will be the Teacher/Leader?

Will it be a 4 day Silent retreat?

I'm grinning thinking about you going. I don't know if/what I expected when I went on mine - but it was a total surprise.
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I don't know much details. It is a 10 day course and this is what the web page says: "Nordic Vipassana Centre. Dhamma Sobhana. Offering courses in Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khi."

I know more or less what the practice is like, but I do expect to be surprised by what I find.
 
Free Mind said:
What's a vipassana retreat? =o
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[MENTION=3379]Free Mind[/MENTION]

Vipassana Meditation is commonly called Insight Meditation here in the West.

I attended a 4 day silent retreat last year in the spring out in the middle of no where in central TX. It was completely silent which meant No talking...No eye contact... from 9pm Thursday night till after lunch on Sunday afternoon. I roomed with 2 other women in bunk beds in a building full of women who were also bunking with others. There was a men's quarters where they were doing the same thing. We had a cook who volunteered to cook 3 meals a day for us the entire time. We signed up for various duties to take care of during the whole time such as: wiping down the kitchen tables after meals, cleaning up the washing dishes area after a meal, ringing the bell for meditations, sweeping sidewalks, and so on.

It almost resembles living like monks.

We started each day with a meditation, yoga, then breakfast, sitting meditation, walking meditation, talk/teaching. Repeat for lunch/dinner etc.

Our teacher was a wonderful, compassionate, gregarious, insightful man (honestly now that I think on it he must have been an INFJ) named Howard Cohn. http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/82/

Being silent for 72 straight hours was eye opening for me alone - much less what it's like to sit in meditation or walk in meditation for days. No phones. No TV. No internet. No noise at all....

Our setting was in the middle of 40 acres of pasture filled with TX wildflowers including bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush. Very pretty. http://macenter.org/

I was transformed.

One day when I move to Washington state I plan to drive down to Spirit Rock and sit with Jack Kornfield. He is my - what should I call him - my meditation Crush! :wink:
http://www.spiritrock.org/

I highly recommend a silent retreat.
 
[MENTION=2578]K-gal[/MENTION]

Wow, I'd love to do that. =o Thanks for the information, I saved it all for later use. :hug:
 
mooseman said:
I don't know much details. It is a 10 day course and this is what the web page says: "Nordic Vipassana Centre. Dhamma Sobhana. Offering courses in Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khi."

I know more or less what the practice is like, but I do expect to be surprised by what I find.
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Our meditation group Co-leader went to one of those in Dallas about a month ago. He couldn't finish the full 10 days due to some medical issues. But what he did attend he thought was very beneficial for him.
The tradition was not exactly the same method of Insight meditation that we do. He told us the method taught increased his awareness and gave him new points of view. He also said the majority of students were younger and very dedicated to becoming enlightened. I became excited to hear that.

I wish you success in making it through. :nod:
 
K-gal said:
If I may be nosy - is this Emotional Pain or Physical Pain?

I saw the Dhamma Brothers movie and I cried because the Prison System wouldn't really recognize the profound changes the men had and were going through. Why would they? If you rehabilitate all of the prisoners - then what would the prison employees do for work? Here in the states - how would the private owners of said prisons keep on making money from the citizen's taxes? Oh. sorry...I'm up on my soapbox. I'll get down.:pout:

What's one thing you gained by reading the book on the Eightfold Path?
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Physical pain. Some of it with physical reasons, some of it is just psychosomatic pain with emotional roots. Don't worry about being nosy with me, I have thick skin.

Everytime I see any sort of documentary about the prison systems around the world I'm reminded about how far along we have come here in Norway; We're near the right end of the rehabilitation-punishment scale.

I can't really point to anything specific I gained from it. It's basically just a well-written introduction to the eightfold path. I gained knowledge, and it reinforced my deep respect for Buddhism as a religion and a way of life.
 
I'll give it a read. :]
 
I don't know about others but it has been more beneficial beginning with Samatha(tranquility) meditation before engaging in Vipassana(insight) meditation.

Samatha helps you calm your mind, and forces you to focus on reality as how it is, without perceptual biases and interpretations. As a result of having a clear mind, insight comes out more accurate and focused. Furthermore, during insight meditation, many emotions and suppressed feelings may come into the surface, with samatha in your wing, it lets you become less detached from those emotions and lets you see clearly into the nature of the self.

I recommend the book, "The Practice of Tranquility and Insight" by Khenchen Thrangu which goes into a lot of detail into the process of first learning samatha, then vipassana and in the last stage to combine both practices for maximum benefits.
 
I practice Hatha yoga occasionally. While the spiritual values it's associated with aren't for me, I love it. It's a feeling of freedom and tranquility in the most entrapping and painful places.

Here's a video I found if anyone's interested.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHIs7_iMl8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiHIs7_iMl8[/ame]
 
mooseman said:
:-)

Not yet. My plan is to do it later in the fall this year. I will be happy tell you all about it then and compare experiences.

(Last week I was only away at a mini vaction and went Lindy Hopping at Herr
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K-gal said:
You did THIS???!!!!! WOWWW. I am totally impressed. Was it fun? I love that kind of music and I'd love to learn how to dance that way. Only an hour away. What fortune for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSJZQoAOQE
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Precisely that! All the craziness, the lovely people, the isolation from civilization, dancing with some girl from Singapore at 3:30 in the morning... I can't even begin to explain how awesome it is. I think you should find yourself a Lindy Hop class. :)
 
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