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corboy Date Added: 06/19/2002 Posts: 3512 Re: Goenka/ Vipassana
Vipassana is mistakenly taught as just a mere method. It arises straight from the world view of Thervedan Buddhism. And in Buddhadharma it is postulated that everything arises from a chain of causation. There is no Prime Mover, no Absolute/Atman and no Creator who existed before creation itself. Unfortunately, too many instructors will package vipassana as though it is 'just a method' because that gets more bodies in the room. With a good instructor who has honorable intentions and seeks only to support students on the patho of insight, with no desire for personal gain, vipassana retreats can be great. It is also of the utmost importance that persons doing the retreats be stable. No one should go off their prescription medications if these are needed. Persons who find more emotion surging up than they can handle should feel able to leave without feeling they have failed. I have done one ten day retreat of this type and can report how tender and open one does become. I can also report that one teacher tried to use the retreat to serve the needs of his own personality. If a leader has that kind of difficulty, any method, including vipassana, can be perverted into a means of serving the ego cravings of the instructor or worse, be used to recruit students to join some commercial venture that the leader hints to be useful. Am glad to report that in the Benedictine Catholic and Eastern Christian traditions there are also methods of meditation that are contemplative but that are grounded in the Nicene Creed that God is Trinity - a stance entirely alien to Buddhadharma, including the Theravedan Buddhism from which the vipassnana meditation originated.
Hi corboy, I was thinking of PMing you on this very subject, but having come across this post on another thread I guess there's no need to.
So here's my question can Vipassana/Mindfulness meditation leave someone "tender and open" if learned and practised on one's own?
I took a Vipassana class many years ago and can't remember anything about the class or the group offering it. (I stopped doing it shortly after because I didn't have the patience.) It's only in the last several weeks that I've started a Mindfulness practise on my own using books from the library for ideas.
I feel the need to protect myself after having been much too open in the past. This is why I'm now feeling cautious about any form of meditation or self-hypnosis, including the Silva Method or creative visualization. Is it safe to do any of these on my own?