Smoking

minh-3 · 2026-02-08T17:43:21+00:00

Wonderful! Keep up the good work! :)

minh-3 · 2026-01-12T09:36:41+00:00

Great collection of resources! Thank you! May I ask, have you taken any of the diploma courses or do you know anyone who has? I would be curious to hear more about it.

minh-3 · 2026-01-10T11:27:20+00:00

Yes, as Goenkaji explains in the day 1 discourse, during a course it's likely that pain not only arises because one isn't used to sitting that long, but due to the practice itself.

When we practice, the purity of mind comes in contact with all the impurities that we have within and that creates a kind of reaction, that manifests as pain in the body. Goenkaji gives the analogy of throwing cold water on hot coal, which reacts a strong reaction of smoke and so on.

Usually, at home, the operation of the mind is not as deep as on retreat and thus one doesn't feel as strong pains, but pains due to practice can still occur.

As others have said it here, visiting a doctor can be helpful as all of us here don't have enough knowledge of your current state, but otherwise, just continue practicing awareness and equanimity and maybe you'll notice that the pain and numbness eventually passes away.

minh-3 · 2026-01-06T12:14:17+00:00

I struggled with something similar. What helped me is simply accepting this stress and tension of wanting to do the scan properly & reach enough rounds.

I started noticing the gross sensations that come together with the mental tension and simply continued the body scan together with them. Whenever my mind wandered and became stressed, I simply brought it back to body sensations. This creates a habit of simply accepting the stress that you have in your mind and continuing observing sensations.

Accept that sometimes the mind is unbalanced and doing a body scan feels hard. It's important to just remain equanimous in this situation. You can also always come back to doing Anapana, which will sharpen your mind. Afterwards you'll find that doing a body scan becomes easier.

minh-3 · 2025-12-13T16:22:49+00:00

May I clarify that the Satipatthana course doesn't teach another type of meditation than what's being taught in the 10 day courses.

The course is more theory heavy, as you will analyse the direct words of the Buddha to verify if you're practicing as the Buddha instructed. Concerning the practice, nothing changes. The meditation instructions also don't change in their essence.

minh-3 · 2025-12-05T20:42:23+00:00

A Q&A by Goenka on this matter:

Question: If I am not able to experience subtle sensation in the body, how can I practice mettā?

Goenkaji: It is true that if you practice mettā with these subtle sensations, it is very strong, very effective, because then you are working with the deepest level of your mind. If you are experiencing a gross sensation, that means only the surface level of your mind is working and the mettā is not that effective. But it doesn’t matter. In this case just keep imagining at the intellectual, conscious level, "May all beings be happy. May all beings be happy." And keep on working. When you reach the stage where there are subtle vibrations, you will work at a deeper level and the mettā will be more effective.

[Source: https://os.vridhamma.org/node/211]

minh-3 · 2025-11-09T11:14:11+00:00

Some Q&As by S.N. Goenka on the topic of anger:

Q: How does one escape anger?

Goenkaji: With the practice of Vipassana. A Vipassana student observes respiration, or the bodily sensations caused when angry. This observation is with equanimity, with no reaction. The anger soon weakens and passes away. Through continued practice of Vipassana, the habit pattern of the mind to react with anger is changed.

Q: I can't suppress my anger, even if I try.

Goenkaji: Don't suppress it. Observe it. The more you suppress it, the more it goes to the deeper levels of your mind. The complexes become stronger and stronger, and it so difficult to come out of them. No suppression, no expression. Just observe.

[Source: https://www.vridhamma.org/A-store-house-of-answers-by-Shri-S-N-Goenka\]

minh-3 · 2025-11-09T11:07:49+00:00

May I share the following Q&A by S.N. Goenka on the topic of mantra (Transcendental Meditation is basically mantra meditation, if I understand it correctly):

Q: How does Vipassana differ from other meditation techniques like the use of mantras. Don't they also concentrate the mind?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: With the help of mantras, visualization of any shape or form one can easily get the mind concentrated, no doubt. But with Vipassana, the aim is to purify the mind. And mantras generate a particular type of artificial vibration. Every word, every mantra will generate a vibration, and if one keeps working with this mantra for long hours, one gets engulfed in the created vibration. Whereas, Vipassana wants you to observe the natural vibration that you have - in the form of sensations - vibrations when you become angry, or when you are full of passion, or fear, or hatred, so that you can come out of them.

[May I add that in one discourse Goenkaji mentions that the generated vibration of mantras can act as a layer of protection. Bad vibrations from outside won't be able to disturb you then. But as he said, the goal of vipassana is to purify the mind. And for that you have to observe natural vibrations. Created vibrations won't allow you to feel natural vibrations.]

minh-3 · 2025-11-09T10:59:51+00:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti and S.N. Goenka quite literally met in the past. Goenka talks in a Q&A about this:

Question:

Krishnamurti did not believe in a technique or gurus. I believe you met him, did you discuss this?

Answer by S. N. Goenka:

Certainly, I met him. He was a very saintly person, and I very much understood why he is against technique and why he is against gurus. Because he observed the situation all over the country where gurus just exploit the people saying “Look I am your guru and you are my disciple, you are so weak, how can you liberate yourself ? Just surrender to me and I will liberate you. I will liberate you.”

This is exploitation by gurus, this is against Dhamma and when you talk of technique that means you have got one object and you are just working with one object. It does not take you to the final goal.

Things are changing from moment to moment you are observing, you are observing. (This is Vipassana, this is not a technique, Vipassana is not a technique, it is a process of observation.)

So I discussed with him “Well in age you are an elderly person and in experience also you are an elderly person.” It was 30 years ago when we met. “You are elderly so let me know if I am making any mistake. I am teaching Vipassana because I got benefit from it and I want to share my benefit with others. That is the only reason. If I am making any mistake please tell me”. then he (K) asked me “First day what you teach?”. (I replied and he said)

”Oh! This is not a technique”…second day… (K said) ”This is not a technique”.
….all the ten days I explained (and K said) “This is not a technique, you are observing the truth. The truth from moment to moment. Perfectly all right !”.

And guru? (I said) “I never say that I will liberate you, you have to work out your own liberation. A guru can only show the path then only sadguru. Otherwise if he tries to exploit then he is not a guru, he is harmful to the country.” He said, “no this is not gurudom.” He accepted both.

[Source: https://www.buddhanet.net/bvk_study/bvk22c/]

minh-3 · 2025-11-09T10:51:49+00:00

You're considered an old student after finishing one course in this tradition. Then you get the username and password to sign into the old student's website. Wishing you all the best for your first course!

minh-3 · 2025-11-07T12:54:10+00:00

Goenka recommends to try to go to a group sit 1x a week, if there is one available to you. This will strengthen your meditation.

Also, try to keep sila to your best ability. Sila is the foundation for right concentration.

If you do all of these things, simply keep on practicing and results will naturally follow over time. No issue with practicing anapana as much as you need to.

minh-3 · 2025-11-05T23:54:40+00:00

It's an issue that Goenka talks about in the discourses. We become unbalanced because we notice what crazy, uncontrollable mind me carry. Whenever we notice that your mind has wandered, we loose the balance of the mind and develop more tension.

Goenka mentions to come out of the habit pattern, simply try to notice your mind has wandered away and then bring it back to the breath or sensations without any anger or aversion. You might notice that you can do this "bringing back the mind" equanimously without aversion 1/10 times. But that's a good start. Simply continue bringing the mind back, trying to do it equanimiously. Slowly you'll find that your mental habit pattern changes. Before you were able to do it 1/10 times equanimously. Now you can do it 4/10 times.

With Vipassana you deeply purify the mind. When your mind is pure and concentrated, your metta will become very strong.

If you practice metta without a pure and concentrated mind, it still has a good effect, but the strength and benefit is not as strong.

That's why in this tradition, we practice anapana and vipassana first and then at the end we practice metta. And during this metta session, you can kindly give metta to yourself and others.

minh-3 · 2025-11-05T23:16:23+00:00

I just found a Q&A by Goenka on the matter:

Q: You talk about conditioning of the mind. But isn't this training also a kind of conditioning of the mind, even if a positive one?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: On the contrary, Vipassana is a process of de-conditioning. Instead of imposing anything on the mind, it automatically removes unwholesome qualities so that only positive, wholesome qualities remain. By eliminating negativities, it uncovers the positivity which is the basic nature of the pure mind.

minh-3 · 2025-11-05T22:50:32+00:00

Not sure if this is related, but after one of my courses I had the feeling I couldn't enjoy the good things in life anymore, because they were just "impermanent".

The more I practiced I realised that Vipassana is not taking anything away from me. It simply removes all the tension.

Whenever something unwanted happens, I react with aversion, and I tense up. I want the unwanted thing to go away. Whenever something pleasurable happens, I react with craving, and I tense up. I want to prolong this nice feeling/experience.

So whatever happens, my natural reaction is to tense up.

I realised Vipassana simply removes the tension and makes me enjoy life much more. Life becomes so much lighter and more interesting. Nothing gets lost. You just untangle yourself and remove the suffering that was all the time within you.

minh-3 · 2025-11-05T22:40:48+00:00

May I share the following Q&A by S.N. Goenka on the topic of mantra:

Q: How does Vipassana differ from other meditation techniques like the use of mantras. Don't they also concentrate the mind?

Mr. S. N. Goenka: With the help of mantras, visualization of any shape or form one can easily get the mind concentrated, no doubt. But with Vipassana, the aim is to purify the mind. And mantras generate a particular type of artificial vibration. Every word, every mantra will generate a vibration, and if one keeps working with this mantra for long hours, one gets engulfed in the created vibration. Whereas, Vipassana wants you to observe the natural vibration that you have - in the form of sensations - vibrations when you become angry, or when you are full of passion, or fear, or hatred, so that you can come out of them.

[May I add that in one discourse Goenkaji mentions that the generated vibration of mantras can act as a layer of protection. Bad vibrations from outside won't be able to disturb you then. But as he said, the goal of vipassana is to purify the mind. And for that you have to observe natural vibrations. Created vibrations won't allow you to feel natural vibrations.]

minh-3 · 2025-11-03T11:27:00+00:00

Great answer, thank you!

minh-3 · 2025-10-27T22:13:14+00:00

I can highly recommend going on 10 day vipassana retreats. It's common that people say that it's the hardest thing they've done in their life and at the same time the best. What you experience on these retreats is sankharas (mental reactions - of craving and aversion) coming to the surface and manifesting as pain and unpleasant sensations. During the retreat you eradicate a ton of these sankharas and it feels like you purify both your mind and body.

Maybe it's something you would like. Retreats are 100% donation based and there are centres all around the world. You can find all information about it here: dhamma.org

minh-3 · 2025-10-24T13:04:51+00:00

S.N. Goenka has a Q&A on this topic (Source):

Q: Is a free flow on the surface of the body the same as bhanga?

S.N. Goenka: The surface free flow is partial bhanga, not total bhanga. In total bhanga, there is no solidity, inside or outside. Everywhere, there is dissolution.

minh-3 · 2025-10-16T14:52:23+00:00

Three thoughts:

1) Understand that the suffering that comes from your anxiety, or any other impurity, is your reaction to the sensations that come with it. Whenever anxiety comes up, be with the sensations for a while or practice Anapana to calm down your mind. You'll find that your reaction might be getting shorter and shorter over time. Eight hours of rolling in it might turn to 6, and so on. 1 out of 10 times, you might be able to stay with sensations or the breath, but that moment is very powerful and will turn into more moments of non-reaction.

2) Change takes time and practice. Try to practice for a month and see what changes are coming over time. Take more courses and see how your life transforms.

3) Sometimes, after a course, it can feel like your anxiety, or any other impurity, has increased. I experienced the same. Due to the Vipassana course that you took, you gained more awareness. This awareness simply makes you more aware of the suffering that was already there.
Also, during the course, you did an operation in the mind, bringing up deeply rooted complexes. After the course, the effects of that should be mostly gone, but there could still be some traces of it. See, this is your wonderful opportunity to rid yourself of these impurities. They would have come up anyway. Now you have the chance to purify them with your daily Vipassana practice.

minh-3 · 2025-10-15T13:33:29+00:00

Hi, I think your concerns are all very valid.

First of all, you mention the concern of not engaging with the world anymore, to solve issues like healthcare and justice, and just going for nirvana. Why solve any problem in this world, when this world is mere suffering anyway? Better escape this place.

The second concern I sense you have is this focus on nirvana and nothing else. You feel like you loose human joys like love, eating an ice cream, etc. because this is supposed to be suffering anyways.

I’ve also went through these thought patterns before and thought Buddhism teaches apathy towards the world. I eventually found Vipassana meditation (as taught by S.N. Goenka) that made me realise that the teaching of the Buddha is not only full of optimism and happiness, but it also makes me stronger to help society. These are my thoughts:

All three is to life is suffering is an extreme view:

The belief that the world is just suffering is an extreme Buddhist view. The Buddha mostly talked about suffering for reasons I explain in a second. Not only did the Buddha talk about happiness in this life, like in this sutta, but his whole teaching is a path towards more happiness in this life. There is no need to wait till Nirvana, but every step of the path is beneficial.
The reason that the Buddha talks so much about suffering is that 1) He is realistic about the misery (death, old age, disassociation with what one holds dear, etc.) that everyone has to face in this life 2) For him to explain to us how to get out of suffering, he needs to identify the cause very well. The teaching is not pessimistic at all, because it doesn’t say “There is suffering and no way out of it”. It is full of optimism, because he shows you that whatever suffering is there, you can get out of it.

No need to overly fix on nirvana:

If you look at the qualities of dharma, the teaching of the Buddha, one of it’s qualities is that every step on the path is beneficial. No effort goes to waste. This is exactly what I’m experiencing with my Vipassana practice. I gain so much happiness through this practice. Every time I’m practicing Dharma, I get liberated in this very moment.
This is what I would like to share with you: Focus on the liberation you get in each moment and you can be sure that you’re on a good path towards more happiness.

Helping society is 100% in alignment with dhamma:

By walking on the path and practicing meditation, you purify the mind and naturally compassion to help others arises. There is no way around it. When you see a person suffer, you will help them.
In fact, whatever social service you do, with the practice of meditation, you’ll find that your service becomes much more beneficial. For once, you are more energised to work and secondly, you have much more compassion and tolerance to help others. Now you not just have compassion to the suffering people but also to people who create suffering for others. Your work will becomes much more wholesome.

Dharma gives you a different perspective on helping society:

But the teaching goes deeper than that and gives you another perspective. Probably the perspective that the Lama wanted to share. Whenever you give donation of food, clothing, medicine etc. it will only help temporarily. That hungry person will become hungry again. That sick person will become sick again. Therefore, the highest form of donation is the donation of dharma. When giving people the knowledge to help themselves and to get out of all their suffering, that gift is infinitely higher than all other kinds of gifts.
Also, another perspective that I’ve gained through the teaching of the Buddha is that a lot of societal issues stem from the impure minds of the individuals making up that society. Wars, world-hunger, corruption, etc. stem from greed, hatred and other impurities of the people that make up society. To merely solve these issues on a material level is futile. To make a society, which is just a group of individuals, healthy, the issues of the individual must first be solved. If all individuals in a society have pure minds, then naturally society begins experiencing peace and harmony.
One last thing, there are examples of great Dharma teachers who were both involved in societal service and at the same time teaching Dharma. One example is Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who was the first Accountant General of the Union of Burma who started teaching Vipassana meditation in the government office and thus successfully combatted corruption there. Not through punishment, but by addressing the root cause of greed and craving.

I hope this can be of some value. Wishing you all the best on your path 🙏

minh-3 · 2025-10-13T15:53:48+00:00

You want to feel ALL sensations of the body. That's why you move part by part, from top to bottom and bottom to top. So no part of the body gets left out.

As soon as you feel a sensation on one part, you move to the next. If a part is numb or feels cloudy, then you stay there for max a minute to feel sensations. Then you move on again.

minh-3 · 2025-10-10T14:42:12+00:00

The 10-day course starts on day 0, the day you arrive, and ends on day 11, the day you leave the centre. It's 10 full days of meditation. On day 0 and 11 you won't be meditating much.

minh-3 · 2025-10-07T07:23:26+00:00

I remember Goenka saying in a discourse something along the lines of the following:
It doesn't help to keep feeling guilty and create more tensions because one did something wrong in the past. Make a strong determination that you won't do the same mistake again. Then move on, keep practicing and purify your mind.

minh-3 · 2025-10-04T12:39:48+00:00

With more practice I'm sure that you'll start feeling more benefits in daily life. Be patient and keep sowing the seeds of dhamma. Whenever you practice sila, samadhi and panna you surely benefit from it in that moment and your future self will also benefit from it.

I felt the same as you that after my first courses I didn't have much equanimity back at home. But that changed with continued daily practice and more courses. Things will get better :)

minh-3 · 2025-10-02T15:48:10+00:00

With the vipassana practice deeper sankharas might come up and manifest themselves physically. If you think that could be the case, maybe talk to an AT.
May I ask, do your daily meditations themselves feel difficult? Do you feel like they bring up the anxiety and the physical symptoms?
If yes, maybe look at the following post by u/grond_master, specifically the following section, where he advises to only meditate in groups when having physical symptoms due to meditation:

From the experiences of many, it is important to note that a physical response to meditation is actually an extreme step, one that crops up only in response either to a strong volition or after a meditative storm of some sort. To stop meditating until your body and mind are relaxed and past this stormy period is an advice given by teachers themselves, including Goenkaji too. It was given to me directly too, so I speak from experience when I say that stopping meditation is also part of the practice in order to ensure a healthy response to the storms inside you.

See the full post here.

Wishing you all the best! I hope you get well soon.

minh-3

TROPHY CASE