As the surface layers of my mind have slowly been purified, living daily life has slowly become easier. The stark contrast between dhamma life and the life I lived prior to meditating made for a stormy transition. I’ve changed the way I eat, work, communicate, and exercise. I’ve changed who I spend time with and what I do with my time. Throughout this process I lacked the community to discuss these changes so I created this blog. Since there weren’t individuals where I live who I could talk to about meditation, I reached out to the internet community and it helped a tremendous amount. I found people from all over the world who could relate to my struggles and they inspired me to keep working and helped me feel less isolated.
It has taken some time, but I’ve developed a small local Vipassana community and I’ve become much more comfortable living a dhamma life among people who have never heard of dhamma. With a more stable mind, I want to spend more of my energy engaging my human community because that’s the level where deeper connections and friendships are built. I’m going to cut back to only writing one post a week, but I hope this blog continues to grow with new writers and commenters sharing their thoughts and experiences.
Let me know if you’re interested in writing for this blog. May you all continue to grow in dhamma. Time to meditate.
Living Vipassana 
how do I handle the zillion of ideas that prop up in my mind…?
I get the ‘breath concentration’
I get the ‘sensation observation’
just do not know how to process the constant ‘silly though invasions’
cannot ignore them …yet… don’t hate them nor love them, they are always there.
you have been a great inspiration to me, so PLEASE don’t give up now.
Hi Paul, thanks for writing! Just as the teachers say, “Just keep practicing.” 🙂 I won’t stop writing, I just don’t know if I have 3 posts a week worth of stuff to say anymore. Hopefully some more old students will become interested in sharing. Good luck! I’m happy my writing has been helpful.
Ryan, your blog is very inspiring. Attending courses regularly and doing one’s daily sittings are not easy. And even when one manages to do that it’s difficult to stay centered in the external world. It’s wonderful to write and reflect and share. It’s a great help and I thank you for doing this.