One of the biggest obstacles to developing an effective meditation practice is our tendency to live totally in our heads. Most modern cultures, and especially Western culture, inculcate the value of reason and rationality above all else, creating the dominance of the cranial brain. While this may have given us certain distinct advantages in the …
Category: Personal Experiences
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, …
The Divided Path
My life has long been about answering the question: what should I be doing? Whatever this experience is, how should I approach it? As a meditator and a medical student, I find myself being pulled hard in two seemingly different directions. When I get my mind in the right place to excel at medicine, I …
The Power-up Meditation
Sometimes I have these meditations when I’m tired then miraculously regenerate my energy, as though I've just had a full night’s sleep! My whole body will start to feel cocooned, sometimes a foot or a hand feels curled up in a weird way or in a different place than it really is. I continue to scan the …
Vipassana: a garden in the desert
Living Vipassana! What a wonderful aspiration! Over the past year, I’ve found serious challenges to my own intentions to live that life, but just recently I’ve re-affirmed the value of that aspiration and the practice itself. I’m happy to have the opportunity to share this with others who may benefit from my experiences. ______ As …
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 …
Superhumans, Sensations, and Supposed To
I’ve been doing Vipassana for just under a month now and it has changed my life. The most dramatic experiences occurred while I was at the meditation centre and in the first week or so after leaving; I felt like I had tapped into my superhuman side….for a bit. As an assistant teacher assured me …
Just Being Me
I've repeatedly heard about a particular obstacle from several people after their first meditation course and I want to express my perspective on the subject. The concern is a fear that meditation will drive them away from something they love, like dancing, cheeseburgers, music, or sex, because of this understanding that serious meditators don't pursue these …
Awareness and Equanimity (Anicca/Impermanence)
Written by Dipanshu Mansingka from Hyderabad, India In 1998 I did a 30 day course, about 2 years before that I had done a 20 day course. After that I did not had a chance to do a long course again, rather doing 10 day course itself had not been very regular. Later I realized …
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Living Vipassana 