A global pandemic. Awareness of systemic racism. Calls for justice. Calls for order. How can a high school teacher support and encourage students as they’re receiving messages of division and marginalization during a social quarantine? I’m not sure, but I’m going to try to share some positive thoughts on inclusivity, unity, and hope and see …
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.
Insight Myanmar Podcast
https://insightmyanmar.org/podcasts If you're looking for helpful and interesting dhamma podcasts, Insight Myanmar is worth checking out.
The Rigidity of the Tradition: Part 2
Written by Dan Kaminsky In the last post on the tradition’s rigidity I mainly focused on the technique itself. Here I’d like to discuss the tradition’s view of exploration. In my experience the tradition implicitly and explicitly discourages exploration of other meditation or spiritual paths. Implicit Messaging Implicitly the messaging happens in a few ways. …
Vipassana Purifies Intention, Intellect Solves Problems
Despite the intellectual disagreements I've shared with various aspects of the Goenka organization over the past 3 months, the aspect of Vipassana that I want the world to recognize and celebrate is its ability to purify one's intentions. Our world is obsessed with "how" to accomplish goals. How do I make money? How do I …
Continue reading Vipassana Purifies Intention, Intellect Solves Problems
Outside the Circle of Universality: Part 2
Written by Dan Kaminsky In the last post I began by talking about questions I had about vibrations. This post will elaborate more on other concepts that feel to me to be contradictory to the mission of a universal tradition. EnlightenmentEnlightenment has the possibility to be sectarian in the same way heaven and hell is. …
Outside the Circle of Universality: Part 1
Written by Dan Kaminsky In my first post on this blog, I mentioned a number of concepts that don’t feel to be universal to me. I only mentioned these concepts in passing so I would like to expand on them in the next two posts. In this post I will discuss Vibrations, and in the …
Reflections 1 Year After Leaving Long Term Service
Written by Dan Kaminsky I sat my first course back in 2010. I was 21 years old, about to graduate college, and rather confused about my next steps in life. It proved to be immensely helpful. I continued to sit courses and by my fourth course I decided to make dhamma one of the central …
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Whose House Is It?
Written by Dan Kaminsky In a recent blog post in which I was writing with critical inquisitiveness about practices done at centers, among the many thought provoking responses to come in was the idea that when you are going to a center, you are entering into someone else’s domain and because of that should do …
Is Dhamma Fragile?
You know the story: 2500 years ago the Buddha brought the complete path of Dhamma to India. Over the centuries, these teachings became polluted until they were lost in most parts of the world. Only in Burma was the complete teaching preserved in writing and practice. After 2500 years, the teachings were professed to return …
The Rigidity of the Tradition: Part 1
Written by Dan Kaminsky There is this fear that the meditation technique will get watered down or changed by people looking to make it easier or more pleasant, and the essence of the technique will be lost. This fear then leads to some of the rigidities around exploration that are in existence. This fear is …
Living Vipassana 