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 …
Whose House Is It?
Written by Dan Kaminsky In a recent blog post in which I was writing with critical inquisitiveness about practices done at centers, among the many thought provoking responses to come in was the idea that when you are going to a center, you are entering into someone else’s domain and because of that should do …
Is Dhamma Fragile?
You know the story: 2500 years ago the Buddha brought the complete path of Dhamma to India. Over the centuries, these teachings became polluted until they were lost in most parts of the world. Only in Burma was the complete teaching preserved in writing and practice. After 2500 years, the teachings were professed to return …
The Rigidity of the Tradition: Part 1
Written by Dan Kaminsky There is this fear that the meditation technique will get watered down or changed by people looking to make it easier or more pleasant, and the essence of the technique will be lost. This fear then leads to some of the rigidities around exploration that are in existence. This fear is …
Does Theory Matter?
Goenka shares a lot of theory in the 10-day discourses on topics like reincarnation, sankaras, metta, and liberation. He also shares that believing the theory isn't important as long as you follow the practice of sila, samadhi, and panna. Goenka wants students to learn the benefits of practicing vipassana through their own experience, and since …
Alternative Views on Sankhara’s and the Process of Purification: Part 2
Written by Dan Kaminsky My experience with meditation causes me to question Goenka’s explanation of Sankhara’s and the process of purification (discussed in part one of this post). In this post, I want to discuss the intellectual challenges I have with Goenka’s theory on Sankhara’s. On the intellectual level, two main things about Goenka’s model …
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America Needs Dhamma
I've recently written about a number of item within the Goenka organization that I disagree with. Some people have received these disagreements as attacks or attempts to discredit the organization, but I think our regular readers are discovering that I'm a friend trying to help the organization grow. Dhamma has some important lessons to teach …
Alternative Views on Sankhara’s and the Process of Purification: Part 1
Written by Dan Kaminsky I recently listened to Daniel Ingram’s four hour long interview on the Monk on a Motorbike podcast. If you are able to, I recommend it, as it challenges many basic operating assumptions present in the Goenka tradition, especially those around Sankhara’s and how the mind is purified through Vipassana meditation. Ingram …
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