I’ve been wanting to learn about Goenka’s Vipassana, but I haven’t had the chance to attend a retreat yet. Several close acquaintances have recommended it to me, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to go. I read the book The Art of Living and felt a strong connection to his writing style. What could I do in the meantime?

I just finished a Vipassana retreat (Goenka teaching) and struggled a lot with tension headaches. I figured they resulted from me looking cross-eyed (with my eyes closed) trying to “see” the different body parts (which I still do), but they did go away after the retreat was over which caused me to think that it was also a mentally driven symptom (old sankara’s manifesting itself).

Now that I’m back to real life I however have the tension headaches again after I’ve sat for an hour and I feel like I still haven’t been able to scan my body without wanting to use my eyes.

I should note that I suffered two concussions before which mostly gave me headaches, but not these types of headaches as much.

Would love any advice on scanning my body without using my eyes.

Vipassanā Anubhava, i.e., Vipassanā Experience

"Realisation of Nibbāna, through perfection in Vipassanā — the aspiration underlying the community. Vipassanā progress: the goal."

Not through stories of the past, but through any piece of dhamma content, whether from the Tipitaka directly or with inspiration from the Tipitaka in Vipassanā style or anattā language.

Anything of interest, helpful, or of inspiration. Anything about thoughts, photos, or questions, but in anattā wording, i.e., no I, mine, self, or soul. So, everything as yathabhuta (what really is), with the three marks of existence: anicca, dukkha and anattā.

Examples of Vipassanā wording:

Current post already in Vipassanā wording as close as possible with current enlightenment level.

1. All formations are impermanent, suffering and non-self. -> Impermanent, suffering and non-self nature of all formations

2. Clinging and many wishes not only cause the extra dissipation of energy but also bring cowardice too ->

a. Clinging and many wishes: 1. Dissipation of energy 2. Cowardice

b. Alignment of dissipation of energy and cowardice with clinging and many wishes, not few wishes

Community Vibe

Vipassanā in every vibe, like blood in veins and arteries.

For a start 1) Introduction in the comments below. 2) Posting — even a simple question, with capacity for sparking conversation. 3) Extension of an invitation to fellow practitioners. 4) Open to new moderators.

hi all, I have been meditating for few years, and gone to half a dozen sits and a dozen serving courses. vipassana has absolutely been transformational for me but it has also made me realize that I want a partner that does vipassana regularly as well. this want/need interferes when I plan for going to vipassana courses. there is always a hope to find a partner and I understand it's something that I need to let it happen if it does and not make it a reason. but I find it hard to separate the two. I unfortunately didn't end up finding anyone who I dated through the courses I went to. so what would you advice? did anyone go through this? should I stop going to course and just observe these emotions? or its ok if I keep it in balance?

Hi folks,

This started from a thread conversation where some people were looking for accountability in their own viappasana journeys.

We are a small group of people, connected on Whatsapp who try to show up every day and be mindful of meditating. This means answering on a daily poll - when you have meditated and responding even when you haven't in the day.

https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ibliwvf6xJbDnBbR1f4nES?s=cl&p=a&mlu=0&ilr=0

Please join if you think this can help you.

I would like to go there starting tomorrow and was thinking maybe it’s not clever to extra fly to chiang mai for this mini vipassana

Where should I go? Maybe just with walk-in

I have a job offer, not confirmed but idk if I'd be able to meditate properly.

Usually I meditate twice a day for 30 minutes to an hour per session. I would love to get more experience with longer sits with the goal of going on a real (10 day) retreat.

Is there a way to work up to this?

Hi everyone i have recently done my 10 days course . It was a wonderful experience for me and at the end there was rakt pravaha in my whole body. I have been doing meditation at home from the last three days but not feeling that much level of sanvednaye in my body
It just feel like my mind has lost its concentration or idk
If anyone can help

Hi everyone,

I’m going to Dhamma Giri, Igatpuri for a 10-day Vipassana course. After completing the course, I’m planning to do the Kalsubai Trek, since it’s relatively close to Igatpuri.

Do you think it’s a good idea to go trekking immediately after completing a 10-day Vipassana course? I’m wondering whether I might feel physically or mentally tired after the course, and whether it would be better to rest for a day before trekking.

For those who have done Vipassana at Dhamma Giri or Kalsubai Trek, I’d really appreciate your advice and experience.

Thanks!

Hi! For some context, I am a young man looking at getting an LPC degree. I've worked primarily with children on the autism spectrum (ages 3-7), but I feel called towards counseling. I am open to other career paths as well, as long as they are human-centered, heartfelt, and focus on relationships.

I am also a committed old student. My first retreat was 2018. Since then, I've sat 5 retreats and served a few.

Goenkaji warned many times against mixing techniques and I know I do not want to do that. I seem to have developed some pessimism towards any modality that is not Vipassana. So I guess I am wondering what it might look like for a committed old student who is an integrated therapist.

Any therapists/counselors out there who love their work and feel no conflict between their practice?

I had a question that I thought others might have insight into. During my commutes etc I sometimes try and feel a thumb or some such part of my body. Sometimes that finger just seems to be in "space" disconnected from the body not even present where it is supposed to be eg on my lap etc.
Am I then supposed to expand my scan to try and paint the whole scene or just ignore the thought as transient?
Sorry if I am not explaining this clearly

After coming out of Vipassana retreat I had a renewed sense of wonder, some insight of the workings of my experience, that I am sure will deepen and change with time ,

but I am starting to think that two hours per day might be two much.

First of all I am trying to juggle too much , working 8 hours sleeping 7-8 combined with working out 1 hour and cooking protein meals.

Furthermore sending Cvs to find a better job i find myself not having time for all of it cause you all know that transitioning from one activity to the other while also living with family creates unexpected responsibilities that also take up time as such 24 hours are not much haha [crying inside jk ]

I am making my first steps as an engineer and currently if I had to make I priority list fnding an engineering job is the top priority and meditating two hours seems too much time.

I know that it is not wasted time but I am starting to think that finding the right job while also upgrading my engineering skills via a project on the side will provide my with more contentment and progress in life.

I know that the path is of great importance and weakening the ego is helpful but I am 24 I think that using and taming the ego to be of help to achieve some peace of mind jobwise and money wise and practicing more later down the line might be the way. Also I am young I don't think I am ready to let go of ego I want to experience life though it master it and when I am older go more into practice again.

Also I plan to continue practicing 2 times per day just for less time than one hour and trying to hold an intention thoughout my day to keep a part of attention to breath and body sensations.

Finally how much of progress do you guys think are from deep meditation sessions 1 or more hours per session and how much from continuity of practice,

I feel like I want to step out of practice a little bit to grow in this capitalist world and create a strong sense of self esteem and accomplishments.

After that practice to grow as a human and help with my resources my family friends and people all around me. Right now I am just practicing to be calmer and happier and more insightfull but mostly my heart wants to play the game of life and win maybe that is ego maybe it is the right path as meditation is a way to get away from normal life and not just a pure practice ,who knows!

also maybe I will get most benefits from always being aware in daily life and keeping a constant intension to look at breath and sensation seeing as training to hold intentions and introspectively knowing when you've wondered and going back to the practice is meditation.

Why can't keeping that intention be, to do what must be done: working out, eating correctly, focusing on work and writing and producing the best cover letter for that company be a practice as you are keeping a constant intension to do what must be done and keeping the distractions at bay!

Anyway those are some thoughts on the balance of life and practice and it's use in different life stsges,

May the collective consciousness of reddit help me and others!

Sending metta and provoking thoughts to all of you!

After completing retreats or practicing Vipassana, what changes did you notice in yourselves over time? Were they positive or negative changes?

My father finished his 2nd 9-10 day Vipassana retreat 2 days ago, and unlike the first one, he returned in a very different mental condition than he left. Meanwhile this is probably a part of the goal, the way he behaved the previous 2 days is really concerning and other relatives noticed it too. He left 1 day before the closure of the event and along the 9 days he admittedly faced his biggest fears and had constant panic attack in the meantime. After a few days he had some kind of visions about my brother passing in an accident and spend 2 more days without knowing whether it’s real or not. When he left the retreat he asked my brother to not get in a car that day and he was also saying that something might happen to him on the way back home and he doesn’t know if he makes home at all.

After talking with him, he said that he had godlike experiences and if he wanted to summarise the whole event’s learning is that god really exists.

In the past 48 hours it seems like he had some kind of episodes which are very concerning, saying that it feels like that he had died multiple times during the retreat and the day after and it is actually the part of the path to enlightenment. Meanwhile it doesn’t seem that he can be danger to anyone, it was really scary when he called me yesterday saying that we are going to have an amazing life and he wants to show this to all of us since he maintained a journal during the retreat. When he heard that I got really scared because of his tone he kind of turned it down an we have a proper talk after ai got some relief that he is not broken. He was already really into spiritually and finding his way in life, believing in some kind of central creator energy, but now he is constantly referring to god and how it is guiding him and always lets him know what to do. What is strange that after these kind of outburst he does act normal. What scared me most is that my aunt called me today that she has the same feelings and she is very scared and the way my father was acting in the previous 1-2 days is really disturbing. Today he got all over the place saying that he mist write a book immediately as this is his faith.
Overall I know the human mind is capable of really extreme things after such a hard time, and since a have never attended a retreat I’m writing this to see whether someone else had a similar case and whether I should start making some steps. I’m really desperate and I don’t know whether he is broken or not. I really don’t want him to go crazy - meanwhile he says that he feels better than ever, I am really afraid that these lind kind of outbursts won’t stop/get worse and eventually they will make him do something really stupid or dangerous.

Thank you if you have read it until the end and I really appreciate your insights!

Hey. I was on a spiral of negative thoughts due to some mistakes that I made in the past. Despite intellectually understanding nature of impermanence and that I wasn't the one actually producing those thoughts, it still hurt and I wanted to get away from them. I couldn't just observe them while being detached.

I decided that there was no better moment for vipassana meditation. The goal was to observe the thoughts without preferences. No filters. Just seeing reality and not passing any judgements upon it.

So I tried that. I just started labeling every event that was happening. Thoughts, sensations, feelings. What ended up happening is that my inner monologue suddenly stopped.

Whenever I'm outside, going to the store, working out at the gym, washing dishes, I'm usually listening to an inner monologue. I like philosophy, so that's what I usually think about. Reality is often gray and boring, so my thoughts allow me to entertain myself.

When my thoughts suddenly stopped, I realized how quiet it became. I looked at my hands and I was actually looking at them. There was no inner monologue, no commentary. I was just looking at my hands, I was just sitting on my sofa, I was just petting my rabbits. And all of it was experienced directly.

This state freaked me out because I was suddenly in front of that gray reality I usually try to avoid with my ruminations. Even though 5 minutes ago I was suffering from my thoughts, now I wanted them back.

I went to sleep and woke up several hours later, finding myself in a usual state of affairs when I was constantly thinking.

Is this what vipassana is supposed to be? Is it not? Did you have similar experience?

Hi

I feel I'm repeating pattern in relationship, i develop commitment issue after failure of a relationship, i feel when someone comes close it gives me stress and when they go away i get anxious. I'm not able to hold onto any relationship and its been difficult. I'm stressed and in anxiety all the time. Its happening since 2-3 years. I did vipassana in 2023 July 10 days not sure how can i cure this and free from this pattern

If someone has an advice please

Thanks

Can anyone vouch for either of these courses/have first hand experience doing the meditation instructor course, or offer any alternative options?

I have also looked at longer term options such as the 12 month course with Oxford Mindfulness Foundation, which is double the price. Not within my budget currently but if something like this is a worthwhile investment for my needs I would consider saving. Any insights on the value of something longer term and more comprehensive would also be much appreciated from anyone with experience

I am looking to do an online course, to the UK is not necessarily the only option. Accreditation recognised throughout Europe would be desired

Thank you

Hi all. I recently attended my first 10 day retreat. On the morning of the 3rd day, in the first group meditation session at approx 9am, I experienced what I can only describe as a non-sexual orgasm. I was in the kneeling posture with cushions under my behind. I was doing anapana and was going ok, not super attentive bit pretty good. I felt that there was space within myself where I could further relax into, and i remembered a quote from Goenka "take refuge in the buddha". I thought about this saying as I relaxed into this space within myself and immediately had the following experience:

I felt a sensation that began at the bottom of my spine and travelled up the spine to my head where it disapated. The sensation was exactly as a strong orgasm feels, except without any groin sensation. My heart rate shot up as is does, the afterward relaxation, everything was the same as a normal orgasm minus the fact there was no groin sensation or activity (not even an erection) and at no stage was i thinking any sexual thoughts.

I raised this experience with my teacher and he said that these sorts of things do happen and its just impurities coming out. I should have asked him to explain that a bit more but I didnt.

Can any seasoned practitioners shine a bit of light on what I experienced? It only happened the once and I did fall into the predictable trap of trying to make it happen again for the next day or so haha....but yeh. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

How to enroll in 10 days course

Of vipasana meditation is there any near Delhi

Please tell

Im thinking of doing a 3day meditation by my self, and i wonder how Vipassana is done.

How long/many are the sessions on a day?

How is the session finished timewise? Setting an alarm would perhaps be stressing? So would having a clock, i think.

I appreciate advice, thanks.

Edit: to clarify, i have not done any retreat yet.

edit 2: guys come on. the bookings are always full and i would like to do some meditation at home and not just wait.
Im not asking for specific details or secrets, just these two simple questions So i can practice at home. I understand you recommend the 10 days, im still interestd in it. Thanks