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. …
Category: Personal Experiences
When opinion is no more a tool to decide
Inside our head we carry an in-built measuring scale. This scale is no less unique than the finger prints or irises. However this scale is not something which we are genetically endowed with but it is something we develop. The entire stimulus received and all the reactions generated in one’s existence so far are working …
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 …
Maintenance as Love (Part 2)
Maintenance is the work of keeping something in proper condition. There is a difference between attaining a condition and maintaining that condition. Goals involving attainment are usually accompanied by a sense of urgency, enthusiasm, and the promise of a relatively quick payoff. Maybe the goal is to create a fancy garden in an abandoned courtyard, …
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 …
Making myself available
I prefer to believe that I am quite efficient at cooking. For last seven years or so I have been preparing my meal. Washing the vegetables, chopping them finely, frying at right temperature, knowing things like exactly how many pinches of spices would make the dish taste perfect or how many minutes of boiling would be optimum usually …
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 …
Maintenance as Love (Part 1)
“People don’t visit me anymore,” my grandmother says over the phone. “I guess they’re all too busy.” Loneliness has made her voice more tender than usual. I start feeling the urge to leap over her pain by changing the subject to something lighter, brighter, more superficial. But when she stops to apologize for talking about …
Living Vipassana 