Today I made the decision to return to blogging regularly here on Living Vipassana, as one way to help keep my Vipassana meditation practice central to my life -- sitting regularly being the primary way, of course! There. Is. No. Substitute. For. Sitting. I also just enjoy expressing myself through writing, and this feels like …
Author: Maria D'Souza
NYC Old Student Talk
Hi All! I thought I'd share the following, which I posted last night in the Goenka Vipassana group on the Insight Timer app: This morning I had the good fortune to attend a group sitting in New York City with many, many fellow old students and to hear an old student talk given by Dr. …
Announcement: Dr. Paul Fleischman to Give Talks in NYC, April 13th and 14th
Hi, Living Vipassana readers. With permission from the New York Vipassana Association (NYVA) organizers, I wanted to share information about two upcoming talks to be given next month in New York City by Dr. Paul Fleischman. Here are the Eventbrite links with details about both talks: “Meditating in Troubled Times”— Open to the public. Friday, …
Continue reading Announcement: Dr. Paul Fleischman to Give Talks in NYC, April 13th and 14th
Geriatrics and Right Livelihood
This week, Ryan and I brainstormed about our family "mission statement." I find that it's helpful to be very clear on what my values and goals are and to re-visit them frequently, to help me stay focused on what's truly important. This helps me avoid getting sidetracked by things that seem valuable on the surface, …
Dhamma Friends Ski Trip
This past weekend, we went on a ski trip with some friends in the Pocono Mountains, and it was so much fun!! Well, we didn’t end up skiing due to balmy temperatures and ongoing rain, but I’m still calling it a ski trip :). There were 4 couples on the trip, including 5 serious meditators …
My Vipassana Catholicism
I come from a devout Catholic heritage and navigating my spiritual/religious identity over the years has been a rich and complex journey. One of the more interesting turns was my discovery a few years ago that my Vipassana meditation practice actually enabled me to understand, appreciate and connect with Catholicism in a whole new way. …
“Don’t use your meditation practice to harm yourself, only use it to help yourself.”
Do you know about Dr. Paul Fleischman's recent Old Student talks? The title of this blog post is a quote from one such talk, available for streaming audio or download by old students on the website pariyatti.org. You can link to the talks here. I am not always 100% successful at accomplishing my twice daily …
Is This the Path?
When my practice starts to feel stale, or rote, or like a chore, it’s time to ask myself again—is this the path I want to walk? I need to dig deep and remind myself why my Vipassana meditation practice is so important to me, to tap into the inspiration I need to continue devoting 2 …
Re-establishing my daily practice
I am now several weeks into re-establishing my consistent practice of meditating 2 hours a day. Mostly, this was a personal decision motivated by my desire to re-center myself in Dhamma, but there is a bit of added motivation in the form of guidelines that old students accepted to sit a Satipatthana Sutta course should …
Away with snarkiness
I’ve been thinking about a comment on a blog I came across recently (okay, it's Rivers Cuomo's website...see my last post, lol :). Anyway, the comment was in response to a post by Cuomo about the benefits of Vipassana meditation in his life. Inexplicably, the commenter felt the need to suggest his own meditation practice …
Living Vipassana 