Before being introduced to Vipassana life was about feeling the best and strongest positive sensations I could. I liked the sugar in a banana so upgraded to a candy bar and eventually was eating triple chocolate brownie blast ice cream. I like the adrenaline of jumping off a swing set so I upgraded to cliff jumping and …
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.
The Missing Piece
I've been in many conversations about the logic of various religions. We would put each set of religious beliefs up against the scientific method and each other. Logic says that there must be one right way and many wrong ways. In the beginning I viewed Vipassana in the same discussion. I would try to explain …
Money and Sex
written by Sanjeev Prasher from Amritsar, India I observe that vipassana students generally shy away from discussing or accepting the truth about these two things- 'Money and Sex'. I have been practicing vipassana for the last 10 years and observe that our interest decreases in sex as we make progress on this path. It also …
Meditator Ego
After taking a 10-day course I felt like I had just been introduced to the right way to live life. As I started to meditate regularly I started to identify a separation between myself and all of the non-meditators around me. I felt like I was walking on the right path, the path to liberation, …
Can I Be Happy If Others Are Sad?
The world is so big. Our problems are all tangled together. It's easy to get overwhelmed. Where do we start? What should we do? I've always come back to the idea that I need to help myself first before I can help others, but where is the limit? How much do I need to have …
Win Them Over
How do you get people to change without using force, fear, guilt, bribery, or some other negative action? In many social situation one person, whether it's your boss, parent, teacher, landlord, or social leader, carries the social power so we do what they say. Meditators have all of these social tacts taken away from them because …
Excitement Does Not Work
I'm the wrong person to ask how to introduce others to meditation. I've successfully introduced a handful of people to Anapana and have yet to convince someone to sit a full 10-day course. Part of the reason is because in the past I would convince people to participate by getting them excited. If I could get their adrenaline pumping …
Belief Leads To Focus
It's hard to believe in something better. Life gets muddy, confusing, complex, nasty, harsh, and overwhelming over and over again. When I was an overlogical kid I understood one thing: that life is finite. I figured, there's no way to know what happens after I die and once I'm old I'm going to be unable …
Companionship And Truth
Two things that I've discovered are necessary for long-term happiness are living with companionship and truth. The tricky part is you can't always have both. Living the life of a meditator, especially in the early stages, brings this challenge to the forefront. Almost everyone who sits a 10-day course know they've experienced a deep truth, …
The Foggy Path
Trusting dhamma is tricky because sometimes it's illogical. Many times life has presented me with a foggy path meaning that I can't see clearly what's ahead of me. I can see the next step which is safe and logical, but the 3rd or 4th steps are completely blind. To make things more confusing, if I …
Living Vipassana 