Deadly? Diary of a Buddhist Yogi: retreat

• What is Buddhist "mindfulness," Ven. Analayo?
• Beware: Wrong mindfulness can be bad (Psych Today)
• 10-day silent meditation retreat experience 🧘‍♀️
• Two people have died after attending ‘vipassana’ retreats with intense 11-hour meditation in silence
• 5 mind-blowing vipassana meditation facts that will change the brain forever
• Vipassana Walking Meditation at Wat Pa Tam Wua, Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Diary of a Buddhist Yogi: Vipassana Meditation Retreat

Diary of a Buddhist Yogi (Kindle Edition)

Author Dhammaloka ("Dharma-world" or "Dharma-light or white") Viriya ("energy") knows that liberation (vimutti, moksha, vimokkha) from the cycle of rebirth (samsara) comes from the Awakening (bodhi-ification) of the (ennobling = enlightening) Truths.

To be awakened, one needs to practice mindfulness-meditation (satipatthana) by relinquishing attachment to the six senses, which will eradicate the clinging to all [of their attendant] phenomena, before the Dhamma (Truth, Teaching, Doctrine) eventually reveals itself to the practitioner.

Once the practitioner catches a glimpse of the Dhamma, the Ultimate Truth, through direct knowing-and-seeing, the practitioner will know there is no more falling back into the mire of this mundane world.

The Buddha pointed out the way to end of all suffering through mindfulness (sati) practice, and many practitioners since the Buddha’s time have reached that bliss and release from practicing in accordance with it.

• Who is S. N. Goenka, and what course did he set up at countless meditation centers?
• What to expect at a Ten-Day Silent Goenka Retreat #vipassana
• Vipassana (bare awareness) meditation anytime anywhere, starting with the breath right here right now
• 10 days as a lay-monk | vipassana meditation | Dhamma Khetta, Hyderabad, India (Goenka course, dhamma.org)
• Julia shares her first vipassana (insight) meditation retreat | Wellbeing Journeys

However, in the author’s observation, although practitioners in this age find the practice fulfilling, they do not experience the awakening moment and therefore do not see the fruition as they hope to.

• What are the challenges of an intensive insight meditation (vipassana) retreat?
• What enables a practitioner to experience bliss (piti) from meditation?
• What does the practitioner experience when the Dhamma finally appears as direct knowledge and vision?
• Vipassanā ("special seeing") Meditators’ Questions

Find out in this book, which is the first-hand experience of a yogi ("practitioner") who went through the trials and tribulations of a vipassana ("insight") meditation retreat at a forest monastery to see for himself the ultimate truths of

1. non-self (that all phenomena are impersonal),
2. disappointment (that all phenomena are unsatisfactory and unable to fulfill),
3. impermanence (that all phenomena are constantly hurtling toward destruction).

Directly knowing-and-seeing these Three Universal Truths produces a life-changing experience.

• NOTE: Not all vipassana meditation retreats are affiliated with Indian S. N. Goenka (dhamma.org). Burmese monk U Ba Khin's star student and businessman just popularized it worldwide with a free, volunteer-based, 10-day structure.

You can do "mindfulness" wrong? - Yes.

WISDOM QUARTERLY COMMENTARY

There are dangers in this Wheel?

The Buddha in the usual list we call the Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Eightfold Path called one of those factors samma-sati not sati. What's the difference? One might think one is being mindful, but is it what the Buddha or the noble ones call "right" mindfulness? (If there's a right, that implies there's a wrong way to go about it or fool oneself that one is doing it at all). If "mindfulness" only meant awareness, then I'm being "aware" (conscious) right now, right? Yes! Am I being mindful? Probably not. There's a difference, a big difference. Retreat leaders and personal teachers should talk about it more and stop taking it for granted that one will just figure it out or that it is so patently obvious that it needs no defining or delimiting. It does, at least for over-thinkers. Sure, there are some people who will just take to it like guppies or ducklets to water. (They've likely extensively and successfully practiced in past lives).

• Wrong mindfulness can be bad (Psychology Today)

We don't know what we're doing, but we got a groupon

Therefore, the most important thing before embarking on a vipassana retreat (whether it's Goenka-based or not), know that it is being defined as satipatthana. That means the fourfold setting up of mindfulness, which is explained in great detail in two sutras (Pali canon discourses or suttas). However, and this is the maddening part, almost nothing is said to define mindfulness (Buddhist sati). That is the most important thing to know, but it gets taken for granted. Or very weak definitions are offered, such as defining it as "awareness." We are aware right now, and more than 99% of us are not being mindful about it. For an extensive definition, see the academic work of Western Theravada professor-monk Ven. Analayo.

The Buddhist version of "mindfulness" called sati, as we understand it, is "bare awareness" with detachment, looking on, dispassionate watching. Sounds easy, but it is very hard because it goes against our deeply ingrained habits and traits. Usually when we are aware of anything, we taint that awareness with the Three Poisons of the heart/mind: liking, disliking, indifference (from the roots of all bad karma poorly translated as "greed, hatred, and delusion."

Three Poisons mutually supported wheel hub

Look up lobha, dosa, and moha. And what becomes apparent is that Pali and Sanskrit terms have wide valence, a range of meaning for a single word. "Greed" or lobha does not mean our idea of greediness. It means liking, preferring, welcoming, grasping, attaching, and getting clingy about pleasant phenomena. "Hatred" or dosa does not mean intense fury or anger; it means disliking, having an aversion to, fearing, avoiding, repressing... It is our customary reaction to any and everything we find unpleasant.

Then there's "delusion" or moha, the worst one, the most embedded one, the hardest one to see. It refers to all the wrong views we hold, consciously and unconsciously, distortions of reality, perversions (seeing what is unpleasant as pleasant, what is repulsive as attractive, what is transient as lasting), confusion, not knowing, not understanding, not fathoming, not knowing, not seeing. This is practically our whole existence, if we think about it, but it might be summarized as failing to notice the Three Characteristics of Existence in all things -- that they are ultimately radically impermanent, eventually disappointing (unable to ever fulfill us), and (no matter how impossible it is to conceive, believe, fathom, or accept) altogether impersonal.

I think I get it, Lisa. - Beginner's luck, Bart!

So to be mindful (to see clearly, which is to practice vipassana) is to look on, watch everything without giving in to the unconscious pull of these old habits. Just watch. Just notice. Just maintain attention. Note how when something is pleasing, greed for it arises. When something is displeasing, aversion with regard to it arises. When something is neutral, dull, confusing, hard to grasp, or boring, delusion arises, which is to say we space out, fall asleep, wander to something more interesting, even if it is a very unpleasant memory. Better than boredom. We do everything but be here now when this is the only real place there is to be. There's only now. The past is done. The future will take care of itself. But all our power is here, now. Let's attend to it. Let's finally see it for what it has always been so as to be liberated by the truth. The truth will set us free. What truth? The Truth, sometimes summarized as the Four Noble (Ennobling = Enlightening) Truths, the ultimate (paramattha) Truth, the true nature of existence (personally penetrating the Three Marks of Existence already mentioned). Need a list? There are the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment (the bodhipakkhiyādhammā). That Truth sets one free here and now, immediately.

But there's something every and anyone who embarks on Buddhist meditation needs to know beyond a good grasp of the meaning of "mindfulness" (sati). And that is that one will meet Five Hindrances whenever one tries to sit still or rest the mind or walk and move about with constant attention to the here and now, which does not involve "thinking" about the here-and-now, just watching it dispassionately.

How Siddhartha reached enlightenment? Details all wrong but nice point @DroppingInPodcast

The Five Hindrances one will meet in meditation (and their antidotes)

This is stupid! It doesn't work! Buddha was wrong!

The historical Buddha taught that there are Five Hindrances (pañca nīvaraṇa, Pali pañca nīvaraṇāni), mental factors that hinder, obstruct, derail progress in meditation and ruin daily life [1].

The Theravada Buddhist tradition identifies these factors as specific obstacles to "meditation," which is defined as jhāna (eight stages of stillness, unification, samadhi, concentration, coherence, superconsciousness) in practice.

Contemporary insight meditation teachers identify the Five Hindrances as obstacles to mindfulness meditation and obstacles to samma-samadhi ("right concentration," though "concentration" is problematic because we have many assumptions about what that means). "Stillness" is better, when the heart/mind has settled out, is silent, lucid, observant, directly knowing-and-seeing. But concentration is sometimes useful because ekaggata (singlepointedness or one-pointedness) is a factor of jhana.

The Five Hindrance are part of two types of obstructions (Sanskrit āvaraṇa, i.e., obstacles to insight, realization, awakening, buddhahood), afflictive obstructions (Sanskrit kleśā-avaraṇa, which include the Five Hindrances) and cognitive obstructions (jñeyā-avaraṇa, which bodhisattvas are trying to uproot) [2].

The classic list of Five Hindrances is [3, 4, 5, 6]

1. craving, desire, lust (kāmacchanda): seeking pleasure through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and tactile sensation
2. aversion, ill-will, annoyance, anger (vyāpāda, byāpāda): feelings of hostility, resentment, hate, bitterness
3. sloth-and-torpor (thīna-middha): mental-and-bodily lassitude, laziness, weakness, lack of energy to strive, half-hearted action with little or no effort, attention, concentration
4. restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to allow the mind/heart to calm down, relax, become tranquil (passaddhi), serene, unflappable, steady, restful, undistracted, attentive, and focused, diligent, vigilant, energetic
5. Skeptical doubt (vicikiccha): lack of confidence, conviction, faith, trust that one has understood the instructions, the path, or one's abilities to successfully proceed. More

The antidotes are called the Five Factors of Absorptions, the jhana-anga (limbs or factors). By the way, right mindfulness immediately dispels delusion instantaneously.

• 10 days of silence, self-reflection, and inner peace at the Dhamma Laddha Vipassana Meditation Centre in Leh, Ladakh, Buddhist India, Himalayas, near Tibet. #Vipassana
• Five-day Vipassana Meditation Retreat in Umbria, Italy
• 55 years of Dhamma - First Vipassana Retreat - Dhamma Arunachala (3/7/24-13/7/24)
• Meditation Center in India #Dhamma Giri Vipassana Meditation Center, Igatpuri

• Vipassana: How Buddhist meditation helped me heal from trauma and loss
• Insight meditation in India | Dhamma Sota Vipassana Center in Delhi, India
• I cried intensely during my last sit at a 10-day Silent Vipassana Retreat
• 💵💰💴But how much does this experience COST? They are all FREE 10-day courses. What you need to know #free #dana #bydonation

Bring your beloved truck to the retreat

Or psycho girlfriend might try something crazy like (pushing it off cliff to convert to ad campaign)

• Dhammaloka Viriya (diary); Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (commentary), Ashley Wells (editor) and Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) selection of video shorts, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha or Goenka's Vipassana?

(Buddha's Wisdom) GOENKA: The man who removed Buddhism from Buddhism?

Do it yourself at home the U Ba Khin way

The Goenka Method (of U Ba Khin) provides some practical advice for practicing systematic mindfulness (sati) of the body, one of the four crucial elements in the setting up of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana), a practice necessary for "insight" (vipassana). Is it the only method? No. Is it the most effective method? Who can say, as it varies from individual to individual. Is it an effective method? Without sufficient stillness, calm, samadhi, absorption (jhana), it seems to Wisdom Quarterly that it is not. The claim is that practicing vipassana can produce its own mild forms of "access concentration" without needed full absorption. This will at best be a very weak and sketchy foundation of sila and samma-samadhi, virtue and "right samadhi." Samadhi is crucial and cannot be skipped over with the ideal of "dry insight" being enough for this decadent age.

Who is this Goenka guy?

Let go. Stop clinging. Be free right now.

S. N. Goenka (Satya Narayana, Satyanārāyaṇa Gōyaṅkā, Burmese ဦးဂိုအင်ကာ) lived from Jan. 30, 1924–Sept. 29, 2013. He was an Indian Burmese businessman and teacher of Buddhist insight (vipassanā) meditation.

Born in neighboring Burma to an Indian family, he learned vipassana from Sayagyi U Ba Khin (Int'l Meditation Centre, Rangoon).

• Be Cheerful and Laugh a Little
• Practicing Insight On Your Own
• Fundamentals of Vipassanā Meditation (Mahasi Sayadaw method)

It's never too early or too late to practice.

Goenka-jii (an honorific added out of great respect) retired from business in 1962, during a period of business nationalization by the military junta in Burma, then moved to India in 1969 to start teaching vipassana meditation.

His teachings are secular and therefore stay away from anything that might appear to be rites or rituals and instead emphasize that Buddha's path to liberation, which was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific (rational) in character.

This led to vipassana meditation appealing to people of all religions as well as no religion, theists, nontheists, atheists, and agnostics, from all parts of the world, East and West.

• Vipassana, in the Burmese Theravada Buddhist tradition, is derived from the Abhidhamma (as taught by the Buddha to the monk he declared "foremost in wisdom" Ven. Śāriputra [27, 28]).
• Although some Burmese teachers hold that vipassana and Abhidhamma study are inseparable [29], Goenka invited students to consider the theoretical aspects of these Teachings (pariyatti), advising them that the most important aspect of the technique is its practice (paṭipatti), contrasting mere book learning from experiential learning.
• Students are free to accept the theoretical background or reject any part they find objectionable.
• Goenka reported the words of the Buddha as follows [30]: "Filled with these compassionate and loving thoughts, [the Buddha] proclaimed: Apārutā tesaṃ amatassa dvārā Ye sotavanto pamuñcantu saddhaṃ "Open are the gates of the deathless state to those with ears [to hear] who renounce their lack of [confidence]," that is to say:
• "Open are the gates of Nirvana so that people who hear and practice will be able to overcome all doubt," which is one of the Five Mental Hindrances.

Free 10-day course

I thought I'd join a 10-day course, get enlightened, then go get my nails done. Boy, was I wrong.

.

Four Foundations begin with the body breathing

Mr. Goenka became an influential teacher and played an important role in establishing non-commercial vipassana meditation centers globally where vipassana meditation is taught as a free 10-day residential program with no charges for food, lodging, or meditation instruction, with centers funded by voluntary donations from "old" (past and present) meditators.

• How could it possibly be free? It is non-commercial. The rule is that only "old" students (who have completed at least one course) are allowed to donate. "New" students (who have not yet completed at least one course) are not allowed to donate. Donations are accepted after the completion of a course, which everyone qualifies to donate to at the end of each course, so there's never really a time when centers are open to donations and not accepting them. As soon as they are open to accepting dana (donations, gifts, charity), everyone present who just completed the course can give. Give what? Dāna

Goenka was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the government of India in 2012, an award bestowed for distinguished service of a high order.

• Sign up for free 10-day courses worldwide at dhamma.org
• The Vipassana or Insight Meditation Movement

Meeting Goenka-jii in person

The kalyana-mitta S.N. Goenka and his wife

(Wisdom Quarterly was fortunate enough to meet S. N. Goenka, 88, and his lovely wife when they were invited to the Dhammakaya Meditation Center in Azusa, Los Angeles, for a lunch in his honor and to receive an award for service to humanity, circa 2012. This was just as the Aztec Calendar was wrapping a cycle and the world was about to end, with few people noticing that a new cycle and new world would immediately be continuing. He seemed very kind, and not nearly as Dracula-like as one might think from hearing his droning, baritone Transylvanian/Indian accent on the standardized tapes played during all free 10-day courses). More

• Buddha's Wisdom (video); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Vipassana: liberation through insight

Is vipassana really Buddhist? The truth about the world's most popular meditation

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 IS VIPASSANA REALLY BUDDHIST? THE HIDDEN STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST PRACTICED KIND OF INSIGHT MEDITATION

Millions of people have practiced Buddhist vipassana meditation, but very few know what the word vipassanā originally meant, or how the modern movement transformed one of Buddhism's oldest insights into a global meditation phenomenon.

• The powerful, practical, and effective Pa Auk Sayadaw system to Buddhist liberation (stream entry and nirvana in this very life) by scholar-monk practitioner at Pa-Auk Forest Monastery (in Burma and around the world), the most Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw (aka Bhaddanta Āciṇṇa)
• What it’s like to spend a week at Pa-Auk Tawya Forest Monastery in Burma (Myanmar) | Meditation Magazine
• The American Monk student of Pa Auk Sayadaw

What is insight (vipassana) meditation actually for? This word doesn't mean "meditation" at all. And the practice millions know from Goenka's free 10-day silent retreats was born not in the Buddha's proto-India, but in [George Orwell's] colonial Burma, the day an empire stopped protecting the Theravada Dhamma.

This is the true story of insight meditation: what vipassanā really means, how it nearly vanished, and how a monk, a farmer, an accountant, and a businessman carried it to the modern world.

📿 DISCOVER:

• The original meaning of vipassanā and why it never simply meant "meditation"
• How the fall of the Burmese kingdom sparked the modern Vipassana Movement
• Why meditation was rare even among Buddhist monastics for nearly 1,000 years
• Why many Buddhist teachers say today's vipassana is both ancient and surprisingly modern
• The unlikely relay that saved insight practice: from Buddhist monk Ledi Sayadaw to a rice farmer to S.N. Goenka's flight home in 1969
• What today's vipassana retreats, the mindfulness movement, and scientific research gained... and what may have been left behind.

🙏 If this changed what viewers thought meditation was, subscribe. The next episode uncovers the other half the world forgot: the deep stillness of jhana ("meditative absorption" as samma-samadhi or "right stillness," "coherent unification of mind") the Buddha paired with insight.

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⏱️ TIMESTAMPS:

• 00:00 Day 4 — inside the silence
• 01:54 What vipassanā really means
• 04:33 The ice cube — what seeing actually means
• 09:43 The king is gone — Mandalay, 1885
• 15:09 The farmer, the accountant, and the businessman
• 18:48 How vipassanā conquered the West
• 23:28 The homecoming

#vipassana #vipassanameditation #insightmeditation #buddhism #meditation #buddhistwisdom #mindfulness #theravada #buddhisthistory #goenka #Buddha

📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING: (affiliate links)

• Primary Buddhist Texts
• Saṃyutta Nikāya (SN 22.59) — Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta ("The Discourse on Not-Self")
• Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta ("The Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse," Majjhima Nikāya, MN 10)
• Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta ("The Greater Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse," Dīgha Nikāya, DN 22)
• Ānāpānasati Sutta ("Discourse on Mindfulness of In-and-Out Breathing," Majjhima Nikāya, MN 118)
• Selected passages from the Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification) by Buddhaghosa

Historical and Scholarly Resources

• Erik Braun — The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw amzn.to/4h8DnaQ
• Robert Sharf on meditation in monastic history; Robert Buswell on the lapse of vipassanā practice
• Bhikkhu Anālayo — works on Satipaṭṭhāna and early Buddhist meditation amzn.to/4bDh1KT
• Rupert Gethin — The Foundations of Buddhism amzn.to/4wGpXr3
• Bhikkhu Bodhi — translations of the Pāli canon amzn.to/4w4iJNB
• Prof. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. — writings on modern Buddhism
• Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche — teachings on Tibetan Buddhist meditation and lhaktong (vipaśyanā)
• Thich Nhat Hanh (Vietnamese Zen) — teachings on mindfulness, concentration, and insight amzn.to/4w6ILjx

Modern Scientific References

• Jon Kabat-Zinn — Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) amzn.to/4yooPKg
• Research on mindfulness, attention regulation, stress reduction, and contemplative neuroscience

#vipassana How this was made: Made with AI. Sounds or visuals were altered or fully generated. Learn more

Vipassana not what you think (Rinpoche)

(Perfect Teacher) Vipassana (Buddhist "insight meditation") is not what you think, explains Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Who is this teacher?

What makes you not a Buddhist?

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche (Tibetan རྫོང་གསར་འཇམ་དབྱངས་མཁྱེན་བརྩེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།, born June 18, 1961) [1] is also known as Khyentse Norbu. He is a Tibetan Vajrayana lama, filmmaker, and writer who was born in Bhutan, high in the Himalayas.

His five major films are The Cup (1999), Travellers and Magicians (2003), Vara: A Blessing (2013), Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (2017), and Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (2019).

(Tibetan Nuns) This Tibetan monastic mantra has not stopped for centuries

He is the author of several published books such as What Makes You Not a Buddhist (2007), Not For Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices (2012), The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (2016), Living is Dying (2020), and several non-fiction works on Tibetan Buddhism for free distribution such as

• Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti’s Madhyamaka with Commentary (2003) [2] and
• Buddha Nature: Mahayana-Uttaratantra-Shastra with Commentary (2007) [3].

The Cup (1999 film)

He has also written an autobiography in process entitled Mugwort Born. Many of his teachings are available on the Siddhartha's Intent YouTube channel [4].

He is the eldest son of Thinley Norbu and therefore the grandson of Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje. 

Khyentse Rinpoche has teachers from all four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism and is a follower and champion of the Rimé (non-sectarian) movement.

He considers Dilgo Khyentse as his main guru. He is also the primary custodian of the teachings of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. More

Don't drown in Samsara: Swimology

• Samsara is the endless swirling and cycling through the Ocean or Wheel of Rebirth and Suffering, which inundates us with various floods (ogha, a name for the four cankers).

The Vipassanā (Insight Meditation) organization of S.N. Goenka released a short, animated cartoon on YouTube, created around a story that Goenka tells during a discourse on his famous free 10-day silent Buddhist meditation retreats.

Whether one hears this story during a 10-day course or through this video, it is easy to get drawn in. Goenka-jii is a very engaging storyteller, and we can sense his audience of intensive meditators is with him when we hear them laughing along.

The narrative is simple enough: a learned professor traveling by ship provides daily lectures, which are attended by an old sailor. One day, after his talk, the professor asks if the sailor has studied geology. The sailor replies in the negative. The professor informs him that he has wasted one quarter of his life.

After his talks on the subsequent two days, he inquires about the sailor’s knowledge of “oceanology” (oceanography) and meteorology. With each negative response, the professor tells the old man he has wasted a quarter of his life, now up to three-quarters in total, because he hasn’t studied the science of the earth he lives on, the sea he sails on, or the weather around him.

The old sailor is in awe of the professor’s knowledge and erudition. He takes the criticism to heart, each time drooping his shoulders and feeling sorry for himself.

The next day the old sailor rushes in and asks the professor if he has every studied “swimology.”

The professor gruffly tells him he’s never even heard of it. The old sailor asks more simply: “Can you swim, sir?”

When the professor regrets to admit that he can't, the old sailor informs him that in that case, he has wasted his whole life, because the ship is sinking. Only those who can swim to shore will survive.

Life lesson

The Old Sailor (Evgeniy Monahov)

What to make of the story? Someone watching the animated version without benefit of having taken a 10-day insight meditation course may misunderstand it as merely a humorous anecdote, told for laughs.

But others hearing it in context may understand. In the context of a Buddhist meditation retreat can begin to see its underlying message. 

It becomes clear: The story highlights the value of what Goenka often refers to as “the practical aspect of Dhamma,” the Buddha's Dharma or Doctrine (Training).

It is inspiration to practice Dhamma seriously and starting today, not tomorrow when troubles are upon us.

There are likely many lessons to take from the story. We can apply it to the role of practice in daily life.

For some, it emphasizes the importance of time on the meditation cushion actually putting into practice what the Buddha taught over intellectual learning and academic pursuits, while for others it illustrates the importance of practicing Dhamma over everything else in life.

In either case, the story reinforces motivation in Goenka’s mission that prioritizes formal meditation practice.

This focus is not Goenka’s perspective, nor is it only Theravada training and the lineage. It is the Buddha's key message.

• We can count other people's cows or mind our own. What makes a better shepherd?

Interest in Buddhist insight meditation in the U.S. from the 1960s onwards, particularly the ancient Theravada tradition in Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand (Siam) is growing among Western students, who were mostly young hippies and are now seasoned practitioners.

The focus was largely on on-the-cushion meditative calm and insight. So Goenka is in good company to emphasize sitting practice. The precious Dhamma, the Buddha's Teaching preserved in the Pali language canon, that Goenka brought to the world has been one of the greatest catalysts for the spread of beneficial practice in non-Buddhist countries by non-Buddhists.

• Buddhism may not even be a religion (depending on how we define "religion") because it is a practice anyone can do and benefit from, benefiting all the more by adhering to one's own religion/identity. Dhamma is like learning to breathe, to be calm, to develop insight, to be mindful of one’s karma. Everyone benefits. This is as the Buddha wanted it to be: a benefit for ALL.

This is not to say that he and his organization are faultless, perfect, or the best that could have been. Both were a success, however, and they survive and are growing.

His swimology story is a springboard that can also illustrate how we might take this focus on practice to an extreme and go too far. Is there room for intellect, explanation, study, questioning? (This is the route of jnana yoga or wisdom-over-faith activities in a world that is all about blind faith).

If we could not question and study and think over, if instead we suppressed theoretical study and critical thought, we'd be doomed. Do we have such good teachers that we can trust completely to know better than us and guide us/tell us what's best? No.

The West is meant to question, meant to think, meant to follow the Kalama Sutra on independent thinking and contemplation.

Who can teach the Dhamma?

It’s refreshing to see a generous organization that teaches this ancient path of liberation. Ten day meditation courses are free.

• Take a free 10-day Goenka course (dhamma.org)

Goenka endeavored to reach a wider audience by using modern technology. As with any video production, a shift opens us up to an analysis of its imagery. Animators are required to make certain choices with a visual medium that does not arise in oral storytelling. CONT'D BELOW

How do I find a free course?

Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation (cultivation). It was taught in India more than 2,500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills (i.e., an Art of Living).

For those who are unfamiliar with Insight Meditation, an Introduction to Vipassana by Mr. Goenka, related videos, and Questions & Answers about Vipassana are available.

Courses

The technique is taught at 10-day residential courses, during which participants learn the basics of the method and practice sufficiently to experience its beneficial results.

There are no charges for the courses -- not even to cover the basic costs of food and accommodation. All expenses are met by donations from ("old students") people who, having completed a course and experienced the benefits, wish to give others the opportunity to also benefit. More: Vipassana Meditation

Complaining (continued)

In this particular case, there are some glaring issues in the animators’ choices. Foremost is the disappointing decision to make the erudite, apparently well-to-do professor pale-skinned, whereas the poor, uneducated sailor is dark-skinned.

At a time when our awareness (consciousness) of implicit bias, discrimination, stereotyping, and the inadvertent perpetuation of racism has been raised not only in the U.S. but around the world, moving some meditation traditions — though not all — to examine bias and privilege within their communities, the decision to assign skin color according to race is both oblivious and disheartening, to say the least.

Goenka, we want our money back! But the courses were free, and you could not even donate until you became an "old student" by completing one. (Oh, yeah, huh?)

Another questionable decision by the animators concerns the literal death of the academic, which is only inferred in the oral telling. But the animators chose to depict the water climbing up and engulfing the professor, drowning him as the sailor swims away. The macabre scene of a human, even a cartoonish one, realizing he will soon die — and then actually drowning — is disturbing to say the least. It doesn’t help that the sound dubbed in is of students laughing, as if they were watching. 

It’s in the background and seems downright creepy. At this point, those sympathetic to Goenka’s message might agree that the moral of the story (which, yes, includes death for those who do not learn and practice) could and should be achieved less morbidly. It’s a cartoon after all.

There’s the minor issue of misspelling “meteorology” as “meterology” in large letters on one of the plaques highlighting each of the professor’s “-ologies.” Though Goenka’s non-native English [which sounds Transylvanian during the course to our ears] makes pronunciation sounds like “meterology,” is that any reason to misspell? So few words go on an animation screen, allowing a simple spelling error to create an unnecessarily amateurish impression, whether it was due to an oversight or overzealous fealty to a teacher.

Finally, there is another issue to consider. When the sailor informs the professor about the sinking ship, in the oral version, Goenka gives no explicit indication of the sailor’s state of mind. Yet, he does say, “The next day, it was the turn of the old man,” which suggest some payback for the put-downs.

Was the old sailor feeling smug that the professor was finally going to get his after bearing with humility his insults (perhaps suggesting the working out of karma)?

Or was the old sailor genuinely concerned about the professor’s wellbeing? Maybe he was innocently (even humorously) informing him about a basic field of study he had missed in spite of the dire situation?

Goenka does not give any indication in the oral version, so assigning the old sailor a one-sided facial expression in this video version fleshes out the story’s meaning — especially since the animators had already gratuitously gone one step further than Goenka’s original by showing the actual death of the professor. (Do better, animators!) Or maybe we're overthinking it.

• Source: The Science of Swimology
• Goenka (Dhamma.org); Insight Myanmar edited by Wisdom Quarterly

40 Days in the Wilderness: Buddhist Retreat

Dhr. Seven, Kalyana Mitta based on BethUpton.com, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist retreats are the way of attainment for modern Americans with no time to ordain and play the role of monastic -- stressing and fussing, trying to follow endless rules and learning a foreign etiquette. One might sign up to many in search of a great and accomplished teacher.

That's no easy feat, to find a suitable teacher, to carve out the time in our busy lives, and to calm down to make the most of it instead of overdoing it and exhausting oneself, ending up only with frustration and confusion as to what was missing from one's practice.

Wisdom Quarterly made it possible to follow in my successful friend's footsteps to apply for a spot with a better teacher, a successful Western student of the Great Asian Teacher, who's not always easy to understand and has a limited number of ways of explaining things.

This Western teacher was able to find endless ways of explaining things, from the Buddha's examples to modern Western examples one could easily relate to.

So the wilderness was the desert in Southern California, springtime with everything in bloom, windy and cool most of the time, dry and flowering.

After I left Asia, I was still a nun in Europe.

The teacher was Londoner Beth Upton (formerly Sayalay Anutara, a ten precept nun in the forests of Burma).

The lesson was "simple but not easy," to balance my sense of urgency with contentment. Why would I want to reduce my urgency? My sense of urgency brings me to my mat. Ah, I learned, but it's my contentment that keeps me there.

Lesson 1: Let your sense of urgency bring you to the mat. Let your contentment keep you there.

The training was gradual. But, Beth, I'm in a hurry! I've only got a short time to make an end of all time, aka, samsara. "Nirvana is already here," I heard my Mahayana friends whispering in my head. It isn't, but it sure is good to see it that way, because then one is able to relax and exhale (let go).

Lesson 2: Sit up. Let go.

In yoga, it's called samadhi ("stillness") by sadhana ("daily practice")

Then the practice became joyful. I didn't know it was supposed to be joyful. "Love my object"? Who ever heard of such a thing. Did the Buddha say that? Show me the sutra. The "naturals" who take to meditation with the ease a fish takes to water or a bird to the sky know this without knowing. They just do it without all that mediation of thought, debate, doubt, skeptical inquiry, or arguing. Of course it's this way.

Lesson 3: Radically accept it. Love it.

I was meditating on my in-and-out breath. I had been for years. It's a drudge. It's work in exchange for liberation; I've been trying to buy my way out with the "penance" of suffering on the mat, the harder the better. This was all wrong. When I learned to love my object, I didn't need to whip and berate the mind (attention) to stay on it. Focus was easy, as if to say effortless. My mind wanted to go there as it got subtler and subtler.

Lesson 4: The meditation object must be an increasingly subtle one, leaving behind the coarser.

There's a sutra (MN 20, "The Removal of Distracting Thoughts") in which the Buddha gives the meditators pursuing the "higher mind" five pieces of advice on letting go of distractions.

1. Give attention to something what is wholesome to remove unwholesome thoughts.
2. Examine the danger of unwholesome thoughts (and then the mind naturally pulls away and averts them without extra effort).
3. Forget those thoughts and don't give any attention to them.
4. Give attention to stilling the thought-formation of those thoughts.
5. Constrain those thoughts by force. (DON'T do this except in extreme cases, as when one is about to commit a defeat offense or engage in really bad karma).

It's the fourth piece of advice that is the key here. Who knows what a thought-formation (sankhara) is? It's not important. What's important is the simile the Buddha gives on HOW to do this:

Coarse or subtle?

Perception gets subtler and subtler

"Just as a person walking quickly might consider, 'Why am I walking quickly? What if I walk slowly? ' and one might walk slowly. Then one might consider, 'Why am I walking slowly?' What if I stand?' and one would stand. Then one might consider, 'Why am I standing? What if I sit?' and one would sit. Then one might consider, 'Why am I sitting? What if I lie down?' and one would lie down. By doing so one would SUBSTITUTE for each coarser/grosser posture a subtler one.

"So, too, when a meditator gives attention to stilling the thought-formation of those thoughts...one's mind becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness [unity, one-pointedness], and stilled [concentrated, unified, made coherent]."

Lesson 5: Go more and more subtle by leaving the coarse behind.

If we listen sooner, we'll get there sooner.

Therefore, if one is trying to forget, ignore, overcome, or not allow to arise thoughts connected with craving, aversion, or delusion, one should give attention to still the thought-formation of those thoughts" in this way. It's great advice.

Let's replace the coarse with the subtle, the efforting with the ease, breathing in with breathing out, all the while paying attention to the subtle thing before us. This is the way of progress because increasingly subtle things will come up on the Path. And that's the desirable thing to have happen, seemingly effortlessly, not by laziness but by BALANCED effort or "right ease."

Lesson 6: Stay with the pointer or, to be exact, what it's pointing at.

Harry Nilson sings, "Me and My Arrow." What's his point? His point is his pointer, his arrow. In this case, I have my experienced teacher who points the way to what she herself has not only learned but personally experienced. She's the initial pointer.

Lesson 7: Stick with it to the final goal (nirvana in this very life) which, if Mahayana is correct, will be right here.

After that, my own nose is the pointer pointing at my meditation object -- my increasingly subtle breath brought on by my increasingly subtle mind able to remain with my object as it calms and slows and becomes almost imperceptible. Then it becomes light (the threefold nimitta). I ignore it, as instructed. It will strengthen and eventually replace my object (the in-and-out breath) with something even more subtle, all while I keep my attention on exactly the same place, that area right under my nose.

Me and My Arrow

Harry Nilson's original song from the animated 1977 film The Point

LYRICS

Me and my arrow

Straighter than narrow

Wherever we go everyone knows

It's me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Taking the high road

Wherever we go everyone knows

It's me and my arrow

And in the morning when I wake up

She may be gone

I don't know

And if we make up just to break up

I'll carry on

Oh yes I will

Me and my arrow

Do do do do do do do do

Straighter than narrow

Wherever we go everyone knows

It's me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Me and my arrow

Do do do do do do do do

Straighter than narrow

And wherever we go everyone knows

It's me and my arrow