When I started meditating, I lost my motivation to exercise. My desire to compete and "be the best" essentially disintegrated. Then I became a little diluted thinking all of life's answers could be found within sitting on a cushion. Sitting around introspectively isn't exactly the secret to fitness, but who cares, as we're just masses of …
Clarity about vagueness
Nowadays, writing for Living Vipassana seems to be more challenging than ever. The root of this challenge is that no idea sticks to me for a time long enough to catch them and seal them in black and white. I am sorting through the ideas, picking them up, building on them, starting the writing and …
Closer to Christianity
I was baptized, but I've never claimed to be Christian. It made more sense to seek out truth independently than inside the walls of a church. The "leap of faith" a Christian takes seemed more like an accepted veil of ignorance for personal comfort than a divine guide. I got so caught up with the …
Local Surprise
Stranger: Are you new to the area? Me: Yeah, I recently moved here from North Carolina. Stranger: What brings you to Claymont, DE? Me: You know that old Children's Home on Green Street that's been abandoned for 8 years? I'm helping the organization that's trying to turn it into a Meditation Center. Since moving to …
Jobs for Meditators
So what career allows someone to invest in the growth of people, take two week breaks periodically for meditation courses, provide enough income to support a family, and still permit enough time and resources to have a life? My best answer is to teach. I've enjoyed working with kids in the past, and with a …
Returning to Normal Life
My year of service at Dhamma Delaware is coming to a close with all my short term goals nearly accomplished. The new "urban" Vipassana Meditation Center has successfully completed five 10-day residential courses and new management is trained and ready for departure. This took a lot of hard work, but these are merely the prerequisites …
Uncertainty is relaxing
Having shifted all alone from my home few months back to ‘settle’ in another part of the globe, I am facing my deepest vulnerabilities quite intimately. Snow covered landscape, minimal human interaction, and stretches of silence paused by grooves of deeper silence make a usual day here. I work in a laboratory, and only the …
Confusion and not knowing
Making plan and sticking to it. Being pro-active. Improving yourself continuously. Living by the expectations. Keeping the promises. These are mantras of success. The effectiveness of these rules is proven by the general consensus in placing high value on these qualities. However, it appears that there is another aspect of these collective ‘matter-of-fact’ rationality. There …
Doubt vs. Confidence vs. Over-Confidence
While doing mathematical problems in school days, I remember feeling over-confident in my abilities after correctly solving a few problems. This over-confidence lead to less alertness, and falling prey to making mistakes problem-after-problem. When starting new projects, doubt steals part of my presence. "Am I good enough?" "Will I ever get this done?" "What if my …
Deadlines
I’m listening to a man on the radio explain that it’s too late to limit the world to 2° C of global warming, the level identified by climate negotiators as the threshold beyond which the world faces “dangerous” consequences: acidification of oceans and extinction of many species in them, the gradual disappearance of island nations …
Living Vipassana 