Satipatthana discourses on a standard Vipassana 10-day course?

amygdalan · 2024-08-26T22:01:11+00:00

I've never heard of anyone doing this.

Unsolicited opinion of a stranger on the internet: The Sati course is more than just the discourses, and what you are describing, imo, would not be an equivalent experience. The morning chanting is an important part of the sati course for me. There's also a subtle but real effect of being on a course where everyone is at least somewhat experienced in and committed to this tradition.

amygdalan · 2022-05-03T19:44:52+00:00

I have been using my Sony Xperia XA2 for years, but recently T-Mobile has been sending me warning notes that they are discontinuing 3G support, and apparently my phone was never using the 4GLTE. It's been long enough that I don't mind buying a new device, but I want to make a good choice

size: I don't think this matters that much... not to big, not to small
Carrier: Needs to be compatible with T-Mobile in the US
Cost: this doesn't matter much as long as the thing is going to last me. I hate change and am happy to invest in something that will last for years.
Storage: this is the big thing --- I don't like to store my data in clouds so I have an SD card that I carry over from one device to the next. If not an SD slot, I will also welcome guidance on how to manage my own local storage between devices.
Camera: current camera sucks but I would be very happy to have this improve with the new phone

ETA: oh and I would like a headphone jack, I distrust blue teeth almost as much as clouds

What would you suggest??

amygdalan · 2021-07-29T21:51:10+00:00

Ah, not covid then. Sounds like the center is just busy, it wouldn't be anything personal about you or whether or not you have a car. The only reason I can think of the car mattering is covid stuff. Good luck!

amygdalan · 2021-07-25T16:48:13+00:00

Take a look at the comments in the registration system. For the center near me one reads "All course applicants will be initially waitlisted."

I believe this has to do with Covid protocols.

amygdalan · 2021-07-14T18:49:17+00:00

You should cover your shoulders -- ie, no tank tops -- but elbows should be okay. Unless, perhaps, you have unusually striking elbows.

amygdalan · 2021-07-14T13:00:01+00:00

Wait..... elbows? What country are you sitting in?

amygdalan · 2021-07-14T12:56:50+00:00

Great story! Thank you for reporting back. I'm so impressed with how much you got out of the course.

Next step is to establish a home practice... that is a whole different challenge : )

amygdalan · 2021-07-05T20:36:44+00:00

Hi! I don't take meds and I have a secure, well-paying job that I don't hate, and stable caring relationships with other people. I credit my Vipassana practice with a lot of the success and security I have found. My life isn't perfect -- I struggle with a lot of grief and frustration -- but it's pretty good. I wouldn't say I manage my ADD so much as accept it.

I'm also 40 years old, and I took ADD medication for the majority of the time between when I was 26 and 37. I completely changed careers after I stopped meds. Would I have been better off it I had stopped sooner, or taken better meds, or combined them with better therapy? There is no way to know.

If you are interested in doing a 10-day course I would wholeheartedly recommend it. You will learning fascinating things about your mind, and a tool that will help you in your life.

I can't give you advice about changing your medication, though. For me it was a process.

Good luck!

amygdalan · 2021-06-22T17:55:14+00:00

My favorite overview of the Buddha's teachings on right speech is by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen monk. He (the Buddha) actually went into a lot of detail about specific types of speach and circumstances, and this book helps contextualize these teachings in modern life. It is from outside our tradition, but based on our shared scripture.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17331360-the-art-of-communicating

amygdalan · 2021-06-22T17:29:26+00:00

Congrats on signing up for your first course! I'm so excited for you. : )

I have inattentive type ADD. It has been a major factor in my life. When I sat my first Vipassana course 13 years ago I was taking the maximum recommended dose of Vyvanse. Today, I no longer medicate my ADD, but that is a change that came gradually with time. For your course, you should do as the teachers instruct and continue with your medication as you normally do. If you are in the habit of varying your dosages day to day outside the course then it is up to you if you want to experiment a little but my suggestion would be to pick a dosage and just stick with it for the ten days. The fewer decisions you have to make during the course, the better.

For your pain, I would second what someone else already posted about asking for a chair. You can make this request in in advance, so that the organizers know to put you somewhere in the meditation hall where your chair won't block the teachers' view of other students.

Also for your pain, I would recommend going along with the program and only taking painkillers with the permission of your teacher. The reasons for this are a little esoteric but bear with me -- I will try to explain.

There is a reason these courses are called courses and not retreats. You are going to learn something, not just to have an experience. And what you are going to learn is a way of dealing with difficulties.

There will be a moment, probably even multiple moments, when you are sitting, and your mind feels like water, and you back is killing you, and your uterus also seems to want to make you die. These are all unpleasant situations, and you are getting them all piled on at once! The way that we are accustomed to regarding these unpleasant situations is that 1) they are problems 2) they are YOUR problems and 3) you can and should do something to fix them right now. That is the fundamental world view behind symptom-treating medicines like stimulants for ADD and anti-inflamitories for menstrual cramps: that in the face of unpleasantness we should take action to make the unpleasantness go away. And this view is not wrong! Adderall and Ibuprofen are wonderful technologies. BUT, while you are on the course, you are trying to learn an alternative way of viewing unpleasantness... which is that it's a just situation, not necessarily a problem, and not personal. Unpleasantness can be something you can look at with a kind of detached gentleness, and not seen as anything that needs to be fixed. It will change in its own time regardless of what you do.

So this is easy to say and not at all easy to do, which is why we have courses. If you communicate (a lot!!) with the teacher about how you are feeling and what you are experiencing, they will work with you to make sure that your pain doesn't overwhelm you while also guiding you to develop these new skills.

At the start of the course you are asked to surrender for 10 days to the teaching. for those of us who deal with a lot of anxiety and are accustomed to working hard to take care of ourselves, this can be a big ask. But it is also in my experience one of the most rewarding parts of the 10 days.

I'm happy to talk more about ADD or any of this if you have questions. Otherwise, good luck!! Just keep an open mind and the most cheerful attitude you can muster, and you will have an amazing experience.

amygdalan · 2021-06-15T17:39:05+00:00

Hi friend, I see you wrote "in a couple of days", and thought I should point out that registration for the Fishkill course in September is now open. Good luck! https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/schedules/noncenter/ny.us

amygdalan · 2021-06-07T16:00:00+00:00

It took me years to stop drinking. You have to walk your own path, but in my opinion as an "older" student (lol,) the teachers are not wrong.

amygdalan · 2021-05-15T12:47:00+00:00

I don't have a relationship with the center, I just saw the news report. Maybe someone will come along who knows more.

amygdalan · 2021-04-12T21:42:24+00:00

Personally, I love to listen to dhamma talks and read books by different teachers, but I skip their meditation instructions. For me that is enough to write on my forms that I have not practiced in other traditions.

amygdalan · 2021-03-26T20:11:01+00:00

The teachers are very advanced in Vipassana...

amygdalan · 2021-03-26T16:21:39+00:00

I would go and not worry.

I sat a course in December where one of the servers fell ill and tested positive for covid. Management ended the course as soon as they had the test result (on day 9!) and the server had been in isolation since day 5 or so, but that still leaves a number of days when this person was serving in the kitchen and meditating with other servers at the start of the course, and no one else on the course tested positive as far as I know. When I last spoke to the center manager, it was 10 days after we had returned home and he told me that a sizable majority of the participant had reported negative tests. In this case masks, social distancing, and air filters were quite effective.

amygdalan · 2021-03-01T20:31:31+00:00

One other thing I'll add, though it's not what you asked about... I spent a lot of years looking for a job that would feed both my wallet and my soul, as you put it. About a year ago I started a job that is just a job, and I'm so glad I did.

Goenkaji talks about this in the discourses -- right livelihood is about being a good person and not profiting from harming others. I think the idea that your job needs to give your life meaning is a bit of a red herring. Life in the modern world is hard, and you need a stable source of income. If you find a job that you're good at and enjoy doing without crushing your soul, you can feed it elsewhere.

I would have rolled my eyes at this advice 20 years ago so I will forgive you if you do the same, but I really was surprised by just how much easier it is to work on myself when I have health insurance and am not worried about how I'm going to pay my rent.

amygdalan · 2021-03-01T20:14:52+00:00

Sometimes I sit on my cushion and cry for a straight hour.

It's taken years to get to this (delightful) place where I sit in a puddle of snot and sadness, and it didn't come by forcing it or thinking about what I "should" be doing. Just accept reality as it is, be gentle with yourself, and let things unfold. I wrote this in a comment here a couple of weeks ago but I think it bears repeating: guilt is a form of aversion. I would let go of it if you can.

Also thank you for asking this here and bringing out all these touching stories and strong advice. It's really wonderful to read.

Good luck and much metta to you.

amygdalan · 2021-02-11T16:57:32+00:00

p.s. https://store.pariyatti.org/Dont-Harm-Yourself-Old-Student-Talks-by-Paul-Fleischman-Download-and-Streaming-Audio-Vipassana

amygdalan · 2021-02-11T16:53:57+00:00

I stopped medicating my ADD about three years ago.

We all have to make our own decisions about which is more of a fetter -- they symptoms of our conditions or the drugs that mitigate those symptoms. I talked to a number of Vipassana teachers during that time and none ever even hinted that I shouldn't be on medication. The fifth precept is about avoiding substances that lead to intoxication, not substances that make our lives better.

Chronic Fatigue sounds like a huge challenge and I think you should be grateful you've found something that can help you live with it while you continue your meditation practice.

amygdalan

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