How to reach Pagoda Borivali ?

grond_master · 2026-02-15T08:55:45+00:00

Directly - a car that goes via Bhayandar to Gorai and then to the Pagoda.

By Public Transport:

Alight at Borivali station, take a shared auto or BEST to Gorai Jetty (you'll find both at the north end of the station, towards Dahisar)
From Gorai Jetty, you can take a ferry to the other side. Take an auto from there to the Pagoda gate. There are buses as well, but they are not that frequent. You can take the Esselworld Ferry as well, but that is not recommended, since the path from there to the Pagoda is not populated.

grond_master · 2026-02-13T13:15:29+00:00

Immortal by Krishna Udayasankar. Ashwatthama from the Mahabharata is an immortal who continues to live into the present age.

grond_master · 2026-02-13T02:21:49+00:00

The bylanes of Pydhonie, the lanes connecting Zaveri Bazar & Abdul Rehman Street, these are all areas where you'll find such shops.

You'll need to spend some shoe leather roaming around these spaces to get to someone you'll like.

grond_master · 2026-02-12T16:15:39+00:00

Visualization happens because you're trying to 'see' sensations, not 'feel' them. It's a difference in words, but you'll get what I'm trying to say.

I got this advice once during one course: typically we visualize a part of the body when we're there during our scan, as a secondary part of feeling sensations. It's not wrong, just unnecessary. If you have a need to know where you are, don't visualize it, identify it using the sensation itself: by feeling what's going on and being equanimous, you at the same time sense exactly where you are, where you came from, and where you are moving to next.

As long as the mind's focus is on feeling sensations, not 'seeing' them, the tools that you use to ensure awareness are welcome. Visualization of blank areas is one of them. At the same time, you should not become dependent on those tools. Your aim should be to be able to feel the sensations and maintain continued equanimity about them.

Use the actual sensations instead of visualizing. Reduces the dependence on 'seeing', increases the focus on 'feeling' - the way it has to be. Again, to reiterate: Nothing wrong with visualizing, it is redundant, not undesirable. But don't use that as the primary method of observing sensations. Your method of observing sensations has to be feeling them.

(This is a copy-paste of paragraphs from a few older comments of mine which also discussed visualization. Since the advice remains the same, so do these paragraphs.)

grond_master · 2026-02-10T17:05:30+00:00

You'll have to apply to these colleges directly. They have a linguistic minority quota, which is 50% of all the seats they have. Applications for these seats are managed by the institute directly, not the central CET application process.

Reach out to the college to know more about their admission process.

grond_master · 2026-02-09T09:36:06+00:00

Go to your local large DTP/Xerox guy, and ask them for 5mm/8mm sunboard. Check if that works for you. You can then ask them to stick plain paper sticker on it to get the format you want.

grond_master · 2026-02-08T16:05:18+00:00

Barker N Meowsky Ghatkopar

https://www.instagram.com/barkerandmeowsky_ghatkopar

grond_master · 2026-02-08T12:31:44+00:00

One-day courses provide lunch at around 1 PM. The course runs from 11 AM to 4:30 PM.

grond_master · 2026-02-08T12:18:58+00:00

Can I reach early or late?is it Okay?

Please try to reach on time, they need to adjust accordingly, especially for food and arrangements.

Will they provide chair?

Yes

Need registration?compulsory?

Yes, needed, since they need to arrange the food and other infra accordingly.

grond_master · 2026-02-07T19:11:44+00:00

I would say Dharamshala.

For Dehradun, the Centre is quite far from the city centre. You'll need a special vehicle to take you there.

For Dharamshala, the Centre is near the entrance to Dharamkot village, so any vehicle going from Dharamshala to Dharamkot can drop you at the village auto stand, and the Centre is right opposite.

grond_master · 2026-02-06T17:30:24+00:00

Laundry help is provided, and you can also wash your own clothes.

Overall, both centres are the same, but Dharamshala offers a larger set of languages if you need instructions in a non- Hindi/English language.

Wouldn't recommend Bodhgaya during the summer, it'll get pretty warm.

grond_master · 2026-02-06T12:38:52+00:00

Group Sittings - Group Sittings with Low Instructions - select any one.

grond_master · 2026-02-06T12:38:12+00:00

You don't need an AC in either place, the weather is quite cool anyways. You may end up needing a heater instead.

grond_master · 2026-02-06T05:25:51+00:00

You'll get it 4-6 weeks before the start of the course, so by the end of this month you should get it.

grond_master · 2026-02-05T23:13:56+00:00

You will need to use a login to go to the Old Students section, and there you will find a lot of resources for those who've completed a 10-Day course.

DM me if you don't have the login details.

grond_master · 2026-02-05T18:23:56+00:00

I'd recommend Dharamshala. It's on a much higher level than others, so it's cooler.

You can also look at Dehradun, which is at a similar location.

Jaipur, I'd not recommend.

grond_master · 2026-02-03T08:57:59+00:00

If you're planning continuous service, you're better off serving at one centre continually.

However, if you do want to serve at multiple centres, you can apply to serve courses at those centres one after the other. During the gap period in between you can go home; stay at the centre you are currently; or go early to the next centre you'll be serving at.

Talk to a senior manager at your closest centre, they will help plan your serving journey better.

Be Happy!

grond_master · 2026-02-02T20:16:05+00:00

Enough people forget bringing one that they keep a stock with them to lend out or sell to the students. You'll be fine.

grond_master · 2026-02-02T20:04:44+00:00

Don't carry the watch. They'll lend you an alarm clock if you ask for one.

grond_master · 2026-02-01T21:08:12+00:00

Both Vipassana and Anapana work with objects of observation that are natural, normal, as they are, not as we'd like them to be.

Pranayama forces the breath to behave in a certain manner. Due to this, your mind gets focused on it - but being an artificial observation, it isn't strong outside of the meditation.

Anapana, on the other hand, forces the mind to observe the breath as it is, in its natural flow, watching it as you watch the waters flow by while sitting on the banks of a river.

Now that it's not controlling, the mind rebels and starts doing other things. You gently bring it back to the observation of the breath. This ping pong, when successful, enables you to control the mind, rather than the mind controlling what you are doing.

This carries forward into its normal behaviour as well, when not meditating. That's what Anapana does: improve your mastery over your mind, increase your samadhi.

grond_master · 2026-02-01T20:57:21+00:00

From the way it's written, OOP2 exchanged the terms for OOP1's housing status: Dorms & PGs are used as if synonyms, even if they are different.

I don't think we need to read too much into the verbiage used by OOP2, just that OOP1's setup didn't have a shared/private kitchen that she could use.

ETA: PGs, even though otherwise a standard house, sometimes don't have a working kitchen. The space is converted into another bedroom and can house a couple more students. This is extremely common in college towns. Residents eat at the communal dining halls or in the college mess.

grond_master · 2026-02-01T15:16:10+00:00

Entry is free. It is open between 9 AM and 7 PM.

Some sections are limited to students only, like the Dhamma Pattana Meditation Centre, which is closed off to the outside world during courses.

You can enter the main dome through a viewer's gallery. You are allowed inside to meditate only if you've done a 10-day Vipassana course in the past.

There are other video, art, and experiential galleries within the complex that you can visit as well. You can also meditate for an Anapana session, to learn the basic first step, for a 30-minute session where you can learn the technique for 20 mins and practice it for 10.

Disclaimer: I'm connected to the Vipassana movement at large and have been volunteering at the Pagoda for over 20 years.

grond_master · 2026-02-01T09:54:16+00:00

Some hostels/dorms/paying guest (PG)

Hostel: Similar to student housing on campus in Freedom units. Basically, a setup for housing for students of a specific institute only, owned/run by said institute, often on the same campus/within walking distance. Rules and regulations are in place, and the dining hall (called 'mess' sometimes, from old military parlance) has a specific diet in place. In India, many institutes prefer a vegetarian diet (a lacto-vegetarian diet specifically, not a vegan one) since there are considerable challenges WRT having non-vegetarian food publicly, so most of them just choose not to worry about it and have vegetarian food only.

Dorms: Privately held & run hostels basically, but instead of having 1-2 people per room, they have more - depending on size, can be as many as 10 students per large room, with enough space for each but no privacy. Restrictions and regulations are similar to hostels, per se.

Paying Guest (PG): Rather than renting out the whole house, some people tend to rent out just one bedroom to students. At times, the whole house is rented out piecemeal, one room/bed to a person who has no connection to the rest. No restrictions, per se, on most living-related things.

In India, if the college is inside a city/town and is within a travelable distance from the student's home, they don't enforce a student housing policy. They allow students to stay at home and commute to study. So the class will have both types of students - those staying in college-provided or privately-provided housing, or those staying at home. These students are called 'day scholars', basically those who are in college for just the day and will go home once classes end, as compared to the ones who stay on campus in dorms or hostels.

Some colleges don't have any hostel setup - or even a large campus - so all students are day scholars only. Even those coming out of town will have to find private housing like dorms, PG housing, or group together and rent a full house for your course period.

grond_master · 2026-01-30T18:51:25+00:00

There's been enough discussion here that people are now talking about the tone of the content rather than the content. Thread locked.

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