The school year is starting; It’s time for us teachers to inspire another class of high school students! So what is the inspiring message for this year’s students? Let’s survive the pandemic together with masks and social distancing! Now that it’s abundantly clear that racism exists, let me explain why we continue to protect and …
Category: Personal Experiences
Returning to School
I'm scared. I’m scared to return to work as a high school teacher with COVID looming, but there is something deeper. I’m scared to leave the safe bubble of my home where I’ve been hiding with my family since March because everything beyond these walls feels like chaos. I’m ready and willing to make sacrifices …
Making Connections for Future Generations
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 …
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 …
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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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Honoring the Ask
Greetings fellow Vipassanators, I'm writing this post in collaboration with my partner Hannah Joy. Throughout our Vipassana journeys, we both have been inspired to deepen our practice via the sit-serve program and leadership roles within the organization. During our experiences, we too have encountered some challenges and have come to develop some of the same …
