“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” says an old Zen story. This is simply the Zen way of saying, in dramatic and obscure form, that whoever you may meet along the way whom you think to be Buddha is really just your own delusion and should be annihilated. But I have …
Dhamma Muscles
There are times when I'm just not strong enough to be the person I want to be. Maybe there's a bully I want to confront or social standard I want to hold myself to and I just can't bring myself to do it. In the past when this happened I felt like a failure because …
Vipassana the difference between Knowing the path and walking the path
In my last post, I talked about the difference between knowing the walking the path. Today, I would like to explore it further. For example, As a neophyte Vipassana meditator, I used to wonder - I know what is anger, I know a great deal of the disastrous effects of anger, yet when the situation …
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Be Present, It Will Change
As a child, I was taught that if I wanted something to be different I needed to change it, and if I didn't do anything things would just stay the same. These lessons still seem to be true but there is a problem. I don't know what's best for me. I can identify a problem, …
The Internal Therapist
So much is spent on self-help books. More is spent on prescription medications that are meant to treat emotions (?!). And still MORE is spent on lengthy therapeutic sessions with mental health professionals. And yet here, within the body human, lies the greatest and most effective therapist in the -- hmmmmm -- in the...well, in …
If I don’t Need it Throw it out!
As a meditator I just love throwing stuff out! I get much more joy out of organizing disorderly things for some reason. Most of my life I’d felt stressed for time, and I couldn't put my creative thoughts on a schedule. If an insight came to mind in the middle of the night or when …
A Deeper Happiness
I was a happy person before being introduced to Vipassana. I learned Vipassana at a tumultuous time in my life. From one perspective Vipassana caused me to fester in my miseries. Difficult memories and emotions would come up and I would simply be sitting with them. These difficult states would linger throughout my day and from …
From a Child’s Eye
As I reflect upon my Vipassana journey I've noticed how far I've deviated from my infant mind. While hanging out with my 15-month-old friend I'm amazed at how freely and energetically she engages unknown environments. As long as her parents are around, she feels optimistic about facing anything. I want to reconnect with this optimistic …
Knowing the path and walking the path…
Recently I came across a different form of writing – Abstract writing. Some profound, short aphorisms have the power to transform the thinking. Although these parables are short, they are condensed with insights. So, I thought of writing some parables myself. So,here is the first parables in this series of writing. Some of them are …
Love My Body
I've always pushed my body hard. I interpreted "mind over matter" to mean that I could just ignore my body when it was hurting as long as my mind was strong enough to push on. I constantly pushed my limits and was amazed when I accomplished feats like backpacking 35 miles in one day or …
Living Vipassana 