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adventureman



Joined: 18 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 7:58 pm    Post subject: .. Reply with quote

..

Last edited by adventureman on Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:40 pm; edited 2 times in total
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eamo



Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Last year I worked in a hagwon in Apgujeong which shared the building with a Vipassana Meditation Center.

I didn't learn much about it except that one member was an exceptionally cute girl with excellent English.

Perhaps you could go there and get a taste of what it's all about.

PM for directions.
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manlyboy



Joined: 01 Aug 2004
Location: Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:49 pm    Post subject: Re: VIPASSANA MEDITATION Reply with quote

adventureman wrote:
and are also not allowed to speak for the entire time unless it during one of the scheduled question/feedback sessions you have with the trainers. Thanks


I've met many Americans in my time, lots of them good folks...very talkative though. Not a one of 'em struck me as ever being capable of keeping their trap shut for four hours straight. Wink
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captain kirk



Joined: 29 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sun Jul 10, 2005 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Back in Canada I knew a Buddhist nun and, being a pro meditator, had her views on Goenka's teachings. She was of the Tibetan school. But she was with the V group for a while.

Since you don't talk, and it's all about shutting up and sitting still and breathing, it's a structure for that. I think the custom is to give a donation at the end of the second retreat you take, but the first is free.

They have centers/retreats worldwide.

Before you go warm up gradually increasing your sitting time, to hours a day instead of minutes. So when the course comes and you're sitting cross-legged on a cushion for ten hours a day it's no shock.
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igotthisguitar



Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)

PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:59 am    Post subject: Re: VIPASSANA MEDITATION Reply with quote

adventureman wrote:
One guy raves about it to the point where he almost comes off as a little creppy/cultish.

I'd say it IS cultish. Not in a creepy kinda MOONIE way, but CULT-ure you must remember is by defintion comprised of a multitude of "cults".

SHAMATHA is a second popular form of Buddhist meditation. I never have clearly understood the difference. It's largely a matter of technique & focus i think.

adventureman wrote:
I really have high hopes that this course will have a postitive impact on me, as I feel like ive been in a slight bit of funk in terms of my spiritual and emotional development over the past year. But I'm also hoping it won't do my head in.

Well, good luck. You just sit with your thoughts. Most of us have very busy minds. Very neurotic really.

Posture is quite important too though. Body / mind synchronized ... hmmmm ... no longer like the wheel running out of kilter.

Lately i've been downloading audio ( mostly MP3 ) dharma files from the net. Trying to listen to at least one lecture a day.

Sadly, while i'm quite interested in the philosophy aspect of Buddhism, i'm a little too lazy when it comes to actually sitting.

Namaste.
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adventureman



Joined: 18 Feb 2003

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 8:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

..

Last edited by adventureman on Fri Oct 07, 2005 9:08 pm; edited 5 times in total
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Bulsajo



Joined: 16 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Details, details!
Did you fall asleep halfway through morning meditation and accidentally kill a cockroach, or what?
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cruisemonkey



Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Location: Hopefully, the same place as my luggage.

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Each to their own... but do you really need to go through that to develop self-discipline?
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pollyplummer



Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Location: McMinnvillve, Oregon

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seems like it might be easier to buy some rice and fruit and cook your own breakfast and meditate at home for four hours. That way you can get your text messages and answer any urgent calls or flip on the tv if the transcending isn't going so well... Razz
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Western Mass. in September should have been a nice setting anyway (especially if was in the Berkshires...)

There's no shortage of bluffers and cheaters among "spiritualists". Others offer sytems of meditation and yoga that are not practical - in this age - for most people.

Unfortunately, most people are too materially absorbed - or have been been turned off by cheating religion - to be seriously take to the spiritual path. For those who sincerely want to make progress, the supersoul (paramatma) expansion of God dwelling within will guide one to contact a qualified spiritual master. Everything is based on desire. Many people, tricked by their own minds or misled by others, actually desire to be cheated...

A bona fide spiritual master or guru sees himself as the servant of the servant of the servant (etc...) of God and is connected via an unbroken chain of disciplic succession going back 5000 years to the original spiritual master and speaker of Bhagavad-gita, Krishna.

Actually, Lord Buddha, although an incarnation of God or Vishnu, propagated a philosophical system that was intended to trick atheists (and materialistic religionists) into worshipping Him. Buddhism was subsequently defeated and virtually driven out of India by great acharyas who reestablished the Vedic principles of Bhagavad-gita.

There are have been many different translations (over 600) of Bhagavad-gita in English, but most all of them were done by academics who were not devotees of Krishna - or else by philosophers who wanted to present their own distinct views in their Gita commentaries.

Of all the yogis and swamis who journeyed West with their preaching (or business) missions, the most outstanding and devotionally qualified was His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada whose main qualification was to present Krishna's timeless message "as it is" - purely - without any adulteration or material motivation.

Those who are wise - or just curious - or in search of relief from material distress... - can check out these transcendental books at www.krishna.com
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igotthisguitar



Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)

PostPosted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 12:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bulsajo wrote:
Details, details!
Did you fall asleep halfway through morning meditation and accidentally kill a *beep*, or what?


Yah, c'mon Adventureman, you got us dying here waiting in suspense to know what "went wrong". Sounds like you may have had a something of the weird "cultish" experience you were worried about. Paid some good $$$ too eh ?

Hmmmmmm ... well y'know it has often been said we learn more through our suffering & the world's weirdness than bliss & smoothness Wink
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 2:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Maybe "they" (...the alien-cultists ...) have since kidnapped him, and he's on his way to another planet ... another universe ... Shocked
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Babayaga



Joined: 28 May 2005

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 3:17 pm    Post subject: Re: VIPASSANA MEDITATION Reply with quote

adventureman wrote:
The schedule looks REALLY challenging. A typical day includes waking up at 5:30, simple breakfast of rice and fruit, meditating four hours, lunch, mediatate another four hours...you get the idea. You are completely segregated by sex and are also not allowed to speak for the entire time unless it during one of the scheduled question/feedback sessions you have with the trainers. Also no intoxicants, or killing of living creature of any sort. The key is to learn how to develop self-discipline.

I really have high hopes that this course will have a postitive impact on me, as I feel like ive been in a slight bit of funk in terms of my spiritual and emotional development over the past year. But I'm also hoping it won't do my head in.

Any input or advice would be very much appreciated!
Thanks



Actually,sounds like a great way to develop mental discipline and concentration and to analyze yourself and your actions! (I'm not kidding!). Quite often we're so distracted by TV,phone calls,various urgent matters,that we don't get to understand/learn about ourselves. As one author once said:"In this hectic world people become doers,not thinkers!"
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Rteacher



Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 4:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

...But it depends on the quality of the meditation - if you meditate on "nothing" or nonsense ... you'll end up doing "nothing" or nonsense (while some shady "yogi" or "master" usually profits from it...) Chanting the Hare Krishna mantra is the easiest, most powerful and most practical meditation - and it's free...

(Of course, when I was more seriously into it I'd get up by 3:30 every morning, congregationally chant and dance in the temple at 4:30, meditate privately on beads for a couple hours... then return to the temple at 7:00 for "greeting the dieties" (to the "Govindam" tune produced by George Harrison) and Srimad Bhagavatam class followed by more chanting and dancing till breakfast at 8:30...Then, most devotees would go out to distribute transcendental literature all day - or stay back to do various services around the temple - After dinner, most devotees would congregate again for the evening program featuring Bhagavad-gita class and heavy-duty chanting and dancing with Indian drums, hand cymbols and gongs... It was certainly "different," but it was enjoying on a higher level - and without the drugs most of us had previously been into...)


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desultude



Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Location: Dangling my toes in the Persian Gulf

PostPosted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Actually, Lord Buddha, although an incarnation of God or Vishnu, propagated a philosophical system that was intended to trick atheists (and materialistic religionists) into worshipping Him. Buddhism was subsequently defeated and virtually driven out of India by great acharyas who reestablished the Vedic principles of Bhagavad-gita.


I am so surprised that you would say this about Buddhism. First, because it is so antagonistic, and second, because it does not ring true to what I know about Buddha and Buddhism. I didn't realize that there was this antagonism about Buddhism.

As I have said before, one thing I really admire about Buddhism is that it does not proselytize or criticize, and does not consider itself a religion, let alone one with a God. Guru worship is not a part of Buddhism, neither is one or many Gods that much be celebrated and fed.

I don't know much about Hinduism, but what you have been saying points to some key differences from Buddhism- one being tolerance, and the other god/idol worship.

Buddha is our own (potentially) enlightened self, not an external god. Siddhartha Gatama Buddha is the teacher who first achieved and passed on the principles of enlightenment in Buddhism.

Let's all chill and respect each other's spiritual quests. And, as the OP has found out, beware the charlatans.
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