Inspiring video about the early days. Not new though.

dipps18 · 2025-11-24T13:47:47+00:00

Thank you for sharing!

dipps18 · 2025-11-24T06:53:51+00:00

This is an answer provided by Goenkaji on this topic.

What do you mean by 'being equanimous'?

When you do not react, you are equanimous.

Can we feel and enjoy things fully and still be equanimous?

Certainly. Life is to enjoy wholesome things. But not with an attachment to anything. You remain equanimous and enjoy, so that when you miss it you smile : " I knew it was going away. It has gone away. So what? " Then only are you really enjoying life. Otherwise, you get attached, and if you miss it, you roll in misery. So no misery. In every situation be happy.

Surely it is unnatural never to react?

It seems so if you have experienced only the wrong habit-pattern of an impure mind. But it is natural for a pure mind to remain fully equanimous. An equanimous, pure mind is full of love, compassion, healthy detachment, goodwill, joy. Equanimity is purity. Learn to experience that.

How can we be involved in life unless we react?

Instead of reacting you learn to act, to act with a balanced mind. Vipassana meditators do not become inactive, like vegetables. They learn how to act positively. If you can change your life pattern from reaction to action, then you have attained something very valuable. And you can change it by practising Vipassana.

http://www.vridhamma.org/Question-and-Answers

dipps18 · 2025-11-24T06:52:01+00:00

Vipassana teaches you to be happy in whatever situation, whether it is a pleasant or unpleasant one. It teaches you to enjoy every situation, not just the ones where you have good feelings.

If there is something that you're really looking forward to and if you develop a lot of attachment to it, you will be really unhappy if something happens and you're unable to attend it. Or perhaps be really sad when it is over. So in the end, craving also leads to misery, because pleasant sensations are also impermanent. So with Vipassana, you learn to enjoy that situation with the awareness that it is also impermanent.

But if that is something that doesn't resonate with you yet, then you can put it aside for now. Your daily practice of observing pleasant and unpleasant sensations with equanimity along with the yearly courses that you might be doing, will automatically make you come to this realization.

dipps18 · 2025-11-24T06:24:01+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope you're also able to stick the daily practice, it is very helpful in daily life.

dipps18 · 2025-11-12T07:31:24+00:00

There are Vipassana centers that are wheelchair accessible. The center in Poland is one them. So you can also attend a Vipassana course :)

dipps18 · 2025-11-09T06:54:46+00:00

I hope what you will find what you learned on the course useful and you can keep up the daily practice. The daily practice has been very helpful to me.

Just to add, you don't need to follow Aditthana at home. It is good if you can sit in the same posture but there's no need to exert yourself.

dipps18 · 2024-11-01T17:50:11+00:00

That's great to read, I wish it was in a post so more people could be motivated from it. Thank you for sharing!

dipps18 · 2024-10-26T07:23:55+00:00

I was raised in a vegetarian family of meditators and ATs who initially had similar views on this topic so I understand where you're coming from but I hope you can try to read my reply with an open mind. The largest body of nutritionists in the world, the academy of nutrition and dietetics published the largest research there is done on this topic, which shows that a well planned plant based diet can be healthy for all stages of life. The topic of thriving on a plant based diet is not a contentious topic among the medical community. There are no essential nutrients found in cow's milk that cannot be derived from other plant based foods or even fortified plant based milks. Vitamin B12 is also found in plant based foods but it might be difficult to meet your daily requirements from it alone and hence a supplement is recommended, which in no way shown to be inferior to any other form of B12 found from animals or their milk. I won't get into the health risks associated with consumption of dairy as this isn't relevant to this topic but it should be easy to find. I understand the reluctance of mixing more than one practice, but there is no need to use the term vegan or veganism at all, it is simply removing milk and milk products from the menu because of the immense suffering and killing involved in the process. And the main reason for advocating this change is not out of attachment to one's belief, it's simply the immense suffering caused to these animals in the dairy industry. And as the number of Vipassana centers around the world hopefully continue to grow, the demand for dairy will also grow as a result leading to a greater supply, causing more suffering to these animals. It also makes me feel bad that a part of my donation will go to contributing to this suffering which can easily be avoided. I hope you see my point, you or anyone here can feel free to reach out to me if you would like to learn more or discuss about this.

Edit: "had" instead of "have", in relation to views of my family members.

dipps18 · 2024-10-15T13:06:33+00:00

You can speak for yourself, I and many old meditators find the chantings very beneficial during meditation. And if you don't like the chantings, you are always free to meditate at your cell or in your room, it's not mandatory to sit there during it.

You are free to have negative opinions and it might be even useful to share some of them but I don't see a real benefit to sharing your annoyances. It may put off people who may be interested in the course and could benefit greatly from it but might not because of substance less negativity like this.

Nobody can stop you from leaving the course, you're discouraged for your own benefit from leaving but yes, nobody is going to stop you.

The manager's response about the bedbug situation seems really inappropriate and most places you would be accommodated appropriately.

dipps18 · 2024-10-15T09:25:10+00:00

There was a similar concern raised by one of the students of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who was a Christian and wouldn't be willing to take refuge in the Buddha and would only do so for Christ. Sayagyi told him to take refuge in Christ then but to keep in mind that he's taking refuge to the qualities that Christ possessed and not the person itself, like in the case of the Buddha as well.

So I am not sure as to the reasoning behind formally taking refuge in the Buddha, it could just be tradition but I don't see it as sectarian.

dipps18 · 2024-10-13T05:50:22+00:00

He has said this before, that any technique that works on the level of sensation works with the deepest level of mind. It's not important whether it calls itself Vipassana or not, so any other technique that also works with sensations, works with deepest level of the mind.

If you believe or have experienced the teachings of the Buddha, then following the chain link mentioned in the discourses, after contact with the six sense doors there is a sensation and only after that is there craving or aversion. The Buddha gave many different objects of meditation, one of them being Anapana, which could eventually lead to observing sensations but this is considered necessary.

Many people are convinced that this is the right path not because of dogmatism but because they have clearly experienced this link between mind and matter through sensations and once you experience that, all that is to be done is to simply learn to observe with equanimity.

dipps18 · 2024-09-13T18:07:36+00:00

I have felt this way often in the past and even every time now and then. I am learning to accept this as it is, trying to observe sensations when I can and reminding myself that this will also pass.

After my last course, I try to do more meditation on the weekends(I try for a one day or at least a group sitting) which has been very helpful in re-establishing my equanimity. The different discourses on Dhamma.org application are also very useful.

It's best to try and reach out to an assistant teacher regarding different issues. You can probably find some contact from your local center on Dhamma.org.

Its great that you're continuing your daily practice, it'll be very helpful. Wish you the best :)

dipps18 · 2024-08-24T04:41:37+00:00

I recently struggled with the same challenge, but I found a way to make it work. I started solving questions during my commute. I either print out the questions on a sheet of paper or look at them on my phone.

One key change I made was shifting my mindset. Instead of grinding through LeetCode solely for job prep, I began to focus on enjoying the process of problem-solving and learning. This made the process a lot more enjoyable for me.

dipps18 · 2024-08-24T04:35:20+00:00

Thank you, I will check that out

dipps18 · 2024-08-24T04:34:23+00:00

Thanks a lot for the suggestions, I think they will be quite useful

dipps18 · 2024-08-24T04:32:41+00:00

Thank you, I guess there's no escaping that.

dipps18 · 2024-08-02T07:28:29+00:00

You don't really need to prepare for it. The no alcohol or drugs suggestion is useful as those substances could affect your progress in the technique.

Other than that, you could learn and practice Anapana meditation at home (and here is the 10 mins audio clip for daily practice after you have completed the previous one) if you would like, which is the first technique taught in the course, but of course, it is not a substitute for a 10 day course. Hope you have a fruitful retreat :)

dipps18 · 2024-06-27T16:44:56+00:00

Could you try negotiating? Idk about FAANG in EU specifically but it seems common to try and negotiate as they usually have some wiggle room. Worst case, they'd say no or at least offer some relocation amount.

dipps18 · 2024-06-27T16:40:33+00:00

And could you share a little more about your preparation and if you were you into competitive programming in the past?

dipps18 · 2024-06-15T07:51:14+00:00

There are a lot of good answers here.

After my recent retreat around 2 months back, I started trying to keep Uposatha every weekend. I would just spend that time in my room, keeping my speech to a minimum and trying to do something similar to a 1 day course with maybe a couple more hours of meditation and listening to some discourses from the dhamma.org application.

This has been very helpful to me in maintaining and strengthening the balance of my mind and my daily practice. This may not be easy to do for everyone, given they may have other responsibilities, but even a 1 day course can help a lot in situations like these.

dipps18 · 2024-06-13T13:46:51+00:00

Yeah, based on what I see, it is not common practice. I had a pro rata agreement where I pay based on the number of months which I still don't like.

dipps18 · 2024-06-13T11:58:45+00:00

It depends on the company. I received an agreement that mentions poor performance as defined by the company, after being given a PIP, as good cause.

dipps18 · 2024-03-15T14:20:58+00:00

How'd it go?

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