It's extremely easy to react negatively to adverse situations and blame others for our circumstances, but the anger we project on others only makes situations worse. If we want to live in a loving environment, we need to love the people around us. We need to love their negative qualities, their poor decisions, and all …
Category: Personal Experiences
Connecting the Dots
While I've experienced the benefits of meditation with my own experience, it bothers me that I can't figure out the connections. When I'm meditating 2 hours a day, my life trends upward. If my wife or I start missing our sittings, our lives just go in circles and we become agitated by the details of …
Confidence is Complicated
Learning Vipassana caused me to stop evaluating my life based on my accomplishments in the world and to start looking inside. While my resume looked pretty good, I discovered that I was carrying an abundance of anger, sadness, and fear. My confidence dissipated as I reflected on the misery I brought to the people around me …
Becoming a Householder
Another chapter in my Vipassana journey is beginning as some previous chapters are coming to a close. This past year has not been about Vipassana. From 2010 to 2015, embracing and understanding Vipassana were at the core of my life mission. After completing a year of service at Dhamma Delaware in the summer of 2015, …
Meet My Wife
Start again! I started this blog in 2012 to share my journey through the tumultuous beginnings of my Vipassana adventure. Establishing a daily practice of 2 hours a day was one of the most difficult challenges of my life, but the silver lining and my biggest support throughout this journey has been my now wife, …
Rocky, But Beneficial
I just completed my third 10-day Vipassana course a couple of days ago. It’s hard to believe that I’m a legitimate old student now—I remember regarding the old students with great awe during my first course three years ago. And yet, I am still such a fledgling on the path. I still looked with awe …
Deliberately NOT sitting
Today I'm deliberately NOT going to sit. I think it will be a good idea. I will start my daily sits again tomorrow, but today I won't. Why? Well, since I've made this claim to myself, I've already started to 'want' to sit. My thoughts are intent on getting my daily sits in, but I …
Understand what you’re doing
It took me a while to understand what I was doing. Then, it came to me. What I was doing was understanding what I was doing. For a while, I was in the process of learning what to do. This was with my life, in a sense, but also more focused on the pursuit of …
Liveliness and Livelihood
I have been having trouble deciding what to do with my life. Most people think that we should find a career that is something we love to do, so that we can make a livelihood while enjoying ourselves. This can be useful to look at, but life is more than just what we do for …
10 Minutes a Day
What does it take to bring meditation into your life? How much effort is required to change your life patterns? More and more people are becoming aware of the benefits of meditation, but how do they start a meditation practice? How much time must they invest before they experience the benefits? Our lives are like freight trains. …
Living Vipassana 