I can only imagine the amount of suffering on a battle field; there are scars, both physical and mental, that would last a lifetime. As I ponder the depth of pure love, I believe it has the strength to cleanse these old wounds. Maybe in an extraordinary person, the ability to love may even be …
Author: Ryan Shelton
While my job description is to lead the science department and teach physics at Padua Academy in Wilmington, DE, my calling is to prepare teenagers to lead their communities towards a vibrant and healthy future. This purpose has lead to the creation of Loving Lives Delaware.
Before becoming a teacher, I explored many careers and had many adventures in search of the best way to make a difference in the world. I hiked over 1700 miles, traveled to 5 continents, managed a bakery, started a meditation center, counseled troubled teens, attended Duke, UNC, and Harvard, protected forests as a wildland firefighter, volunteered thousands of hours with Americorps, rafted the Grand Canyon, and SCUBA dived on the Great Barrier Reef.
My next adventure is starting a family with my beautiful wife in our Wilmington home. I'm sure there will be many mistakes along the way, but I hope we're able to create a loving household that's a beacon of support and clarity for others in our community. Thank you for all of your support throughout our journey.
Patience
Life is so mysterious. One part of my mind wants answers, and wants them now. I know there are answers to these riddles, and I imagine being much more content once I figure them out. Instead, what I usually find is another riddle. Often, I discover that forced solutions end up being the wrong solutions. …
How Should I Love Now?
I'm starting to realize that there is not one simple answer to the question of how to be a loving person. My current state of mind has a large influence on what it means for me to be loving in this current moment. If I'm agitated or angry, it's probably better for me to take …
Watching Sports with Equanimity
I've always been a big college basketball fan which makes March Madness, the college basketball tournament, one of the most celebrated times of year. My family competes every year to see who can guess the most winners which always brings extra excitement. This year I sat a three day course just before the tournament started so the …
The Missing Link
Making the commitment to complete a 10-day meditation course is a major commitment. Making the jump from completing a 10-day course at a meditation center to integrating a daily practice with life is even harder. This dhamma lifestyle is very different from my pre-Vipassana life, and that transition can be overwhelming. The reality is, sitting two hours …
Update
Thank you Sanket and Guido for sharing their stories with Living Vipassana! They have both chosen to move on to other things, but maybe they will return in the future. Living Vipassana has reached two milestones of 30,000 hits and 300 Facebook followers which is amazing to me as this blog started as my personal journal just 18 …
Peace, Love, and Happiness
I've been trying to bring focus and understanding to my new dhamma life for quite some time. Whenever I try to explain why I meditate I seem to struggle over my words, searching for the language that will resonate for a non meditator, and I rarely succeed in conveying what Vipassana is all about. These …
Vote With Your Time
People often talk about voting with your money. When you buy organic food, you support that industry, and when you buy fast food, you support that industry. This makes sense to me, but a bigger issue that I hear far less frequently is how we vote with our time. People seem to feel that they …
Young Meditators will Flock to Urban Centers
In my experience, establishing a daily practice is harder than sitting a 10-day course. A big part of this challenge comes from trying to follow a different path from everyone else. There is a tremendous amount of support that comes from having even one other meditator to sit with regularly. The idea of having an …
Continue reading Young Meditators will Flock to Urban Centers
It’s Mostly a Biology Thing
My initial connection to Vipassana was probably similar to most people. When I hear about meditation and the teachings of the Buddha my first connection is to religion, and if I want to use New Age jargon, I connect it to spirituality. The problem is, once this practice is linked to religion it encounters the conflict …
Living Vipassana 