What I took Away from Vipassana

[Elizabeth Feisst]

Hi All

I completed 3 10 day Vipassana meditation retreats in Pomona, Queensland Australia 1999-2001 before I emigrated to Isle of Man in 2003.

What I took away mainly from these experiences is the power of observation and the ability it gives one to shift circumstances, situations and feelings through allowance and acceptance of all being as it is in the Now Moment. For through observation, change is inevitable...and for the better!

I have never been one for accepting anything as a "fait accompli" and tend usually to adapt any so called "system" to suite my own way...apologies S.N.Goenka...but that is who IAM. ... { Psssttt.... I never did really enjoy SN Goenka's lectures in the evenings of each course. Instead I tended to go off into my own space of silence and meditation once again...one can never get too much of that space!}

I now tend to not defer to anyOne outside of Self.....yet having said that I do honour all that Vipassana has contributed to my present state of Being....and for that I am eternally grateful.

In Love, Joy & Freedom

Elizabethx

[Ron Alexander]

Dear Elizabeth, as I wrote you personally, I really enjoy your words about what I call "channeling yourSelf" and generally agree with them. The difference for me is that I really enjoyed Goenka's Discourses each day, and purchased a book about them, so I feel like I still have much to learn from Goenkiji, Vipassana, "older old students", his assistant teachers, and that includes You too, my dear. thanks for starting this "disscussing" (I wish we had "dialogues" instead.) One Love, ron

[Jeanne]

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” ~Buddha

I also don't hear Goenka's discourse... but then I could tune out a rock band in my basement... and have done so. I did listen on the first 10-day course... I was all ears, but after hearing it at least once... I fade away. But I do love Goenka and everything he has done. I know of no other who has established an organization as he has.

Now that you've done 3 10-day courses, you are eligible to do sattipattanas. They're different than the 10-day courses... the 20 and more day courses don't have any discourses. The discourses are for the benefit of the beginner to understand the process they are experiencing.

We use a CD at home with his voice leading a sit... it helps put us in the mode. His voice that was so odd to me in the beginning... now assists and comforts.

[Dr. Sohiniben Shukla]

Dear Elizabeth,
You can read or hear lectures of Rajanish-"OSHO", for Vipassana Meditation and you will like the approach.
Sohiniben.

[Elizabeth Feisst]

Hi All, thanks for your input.....Onederful how we all get differences from each experience we choose in life. This is attributed to our uniqueness of course.

I am no longer a V purist! I knew when I left my last Vipassana 10 dayer it would be the last I felt required to attend. Like Frank, I tend to Be life "My Way" and over the past few years my own individual Vipassana meditation "sits" I have blended with conscious connected breathing I learnt way back in the 80s and they have become meditation "lie downs" which I do most nights when I don't sleep (ascension has one not sleeping most nights anyway!).

Ron while I said I don't defer to anyOne outside mySelf these days I do read material here and there (especially presently while locating resource material for my own ning forum) and watch videos...but usually the response these days is like a "ok, that's interesting" rather than a deep resonance of such as I used to get....I rarely read books these days however.

Nor am I a "group" person now, preferring by far my own company these days. Living a quiet life in retirement on my own, by the sea with no dependencies and few attachments and material possessions, life is simply sweet.

Vipassana I have much to thank for as.it has contributed much to My Beingness.

From the One Heart
Elizabeth

[Ron Alexander]

Dr. Sohiniben Shukla said:

Dear Elizabeth,
You can read or hear lectures of Rajanish-"OSHO", for Vipassana Meditation and you will like the approach.
Sohiniben.

I am not disputing you Dear Sohinigben, however has Osho transformed from the Tantric Yogi, Mercedes raconteur, to Vipassana Meditation. In the 70's I really got alot out of his writing, but the Tantric groups, who he inspired, were more about sensuality than "sensations". I tangentially got involved with Tantra in Florida, Costa Rica, and more in California. I believe in the core principles, but most of the Rajanish-Osho trained teachers that I ran into - in workshops and lessons were definitely not in "Sila" - moral conduct. "Sila provides a basis for the development of samadhi - concentration of mind; and purification of the of the mind is achieved through panna - the wisdom of thought."

I do believe in letting go of old judgements, and possibly it was the students corrupting the teaching of Osho, or that he has become enlightened since those Oregon Mercedes Riding Tantric Political Paranoid days? One Love, ron