<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting Inquiry into Vipassana Meditation
Review: I read this book prior to the 10-day meditation retreat. It gives a great overview and introduction to this method of meditation. It's also very convincing. The technique that it lays out is very effective, I've found, although has some flaws within it. The retreat, lodging, and food is actually offered free of charge and can be accessed at www.dhamma.org. Check out the book prior to registering for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Introduction to Sensation-Based Vipassana meditation
Review: I read this book prior to the 10-day meditation retreat. It gives a great overview and introduction to this method of meditation. It's also very convincing. The technique that it lays out is very effective, I've found, although has some flaws within it. The retreat, lodging, and food is actually offered free of charge and can be accessed at www.dhamma.org. Check out the book prior to registering for it.
Rating:
Summary: Job well done Marshall!
Review: Its very hard for me to write this.
I practiced vipassana for seven years and talk about some highlights in my review of John Coleman's book elsewhere on my review list.
Marshall does a really good job of explaining vipassana and many of the points he makes particularly on morality and ethics - which are frequently lost in the hunt for "groovy feelings" - are exactly the points I would make.
I have very fond memories of goenka-ji and sitting with him - his discourses are masterly (though as one with "the gab" too I distrust eloquence without active right action being manifest in the speaker - something hard to judge without knowing the teacher intimitly.)
I take issue with simplistic "no-self" positions - I am not an individual - I am more like a flock or a school of being within - neither am I viable without the matrix of fellow beings of which I make a part outside this skin. But what I am does not have to be ugly, futile or absurd and deciding to look for this ugly "truth" and "surprise surprise" finding it within the (locally) "unconditioned state" does not impress me.
The high buddhist state is not a summit of insight - it is merely an apex in a multidimensional polygon of many apexes - several of I have visited and returned in a worse state than Messner after conquering Everest alone without oxygen. The are not ultimate truths - they are evidence of the shape and edges of reality - my place is somewhere in the middle.
I no longer formally meditate nor look for peak experiences (my poor old mind is a bit done in after "The lap of god watching him build the world" (where there is no chaos - nor random neither "noise" only "signal" throughout) followed a year later after five nights without sleep and before being taken to the nut house speachless and almost without movement - by "Sitting in the place of god being the builder of the house" (Best left to Him/Her/It)
Since then I have visited only one lower peak this spring "Where the world is just getting ever so slightly better each instant rather than ever so slightly worse" otherwise known to buddhists as the buddha in the Pure Land (not talking about chanting meditation here folks nor any formal meditation.)
What do I do and have I done these last years since stopping formal meditation as no longer fruitful?
I follow harder precepts.
#Always try and tell and do the truth.
#Take complete responsibility for your actions. (this trumps the former)
#Watch desire and aversion like a cat at a mousehole. (this is essential for the other two)
Now I sweep creation with the contemplation of the ebb and flow of desire taking place perhaps of the ebb and flow of breath - and sweeping the entire conscious sense plane - or rather letting it sweep itself as directed by desire/aversion in its new responsible grown-up guise.
I live through a very great deal of (objective) suffering mine and others'. I live through it cleansed and encouraged and not downhearted.
I shout and get angry - I drink and sometimes am drunk - but always with compassion (founded in responsibility) to the fore. I bicker enthusiastically with my latin wife.
I have acess through my exploration of desire to a number of past lives - my task is to ease them with new truths unavailable to them.
We have moved on 2,500 yrs since the bodhi tree - truth has evolved - no one man can hold it in this era - we all have to have our little piece and to proceed with scientific method and knowledge of both our evolution and of reality.
I am diagnosed (you should know) with Type one Bipolar disorder at times 'Schitzo affective') It is like having a wooden leg or a scarred face - no handicap to wisdom or its promulgation. Mind you "Just because you're seriously ugly doesn't mean you get to be in the Fellini Movie"
May all beings share my blessings - may all wake up to find themselves part of the tending and gardening of the Pure Land. that is always in the making and never perfect. (The adjective "pure" - otherwise evil - is tempered by the noun "land" unable to be an absolute - just "fine stuff".)
"Perfection" is the new evil
"Sin" (getting it wrong) is the new prayer
"Groovy Feelings" are the new gold of Mammon".
Waking through the mall and watching yourself buy just something you need - is the new meditation. (More correctly these things are "contemplation")
Messner has "discovered" the summit of Everest in the true and human way - as part of our home planet - no need to go there again - any apex is "the edge" - Damma is about the Middle - that has not changed since the new moon in June 1956 when I was born. Nicely in time for this new dawn.
See my other reviews to be sure I'm too crazed for my opinion to matter! (Arf!)
(I am a member of no group or cult though I find myself articulate and "initiate" in all I've come across - good or bad)
Now Marshall - go back to that very nice man with the big stick. - Who said what he did was "wrong" and if so what's the problem? - it was effective and deeply compassionate it seems to me. Perhaps you should ask him to do it again so you can see why it affronted you so. Personally I'd have done it with my tongue and you'd have liked it even less.
Don't crave or dread "The end" the world is not a movie that you consume.
"What about the suffering in Africa?" - we CAN and must fix it - if necessary with concrete things and systems like tanks (hopefully the type that hold water), policemen and the banning of secret off-shore banking. (My "practice" is four hours a week with "The Economist" - small print, deep samadhi!)
If in doubt walk in nature.
READ "THE WISDOM OF CROWDS" ( see my review of it) to undrstand why there can be no Arhat knowing more than all of us and rendering consciousnesss redundant.
Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Inquiry into Vipassana Meditation
Review: Vipassana Meditation As Taught By S.N.Goinka is, indeed, a jewel. Unfortunately, because of the way his organization is structured, there are few sources of information or perspective on this meditation technique or on the experience of meditation apart from those written by S.N.Goinka himself or his teachers. "Beyond the Breath" by Marshall Glickman is a valuable addition to this too small body of literature.In "Beyond the Breath" Marshall discusses Buddhism in general, Vipassana meditation in particular, and the scientific and biochemical underpinnings which make Vipassana meditation so effective. All of this in a simple and accessible style which both beginners and experienced meditators will read with enjoyment. Marshall points out some of the critical points concerning Vipassana mediation such as the fact that it is a gradual process; like "a dawn" rather then "a lightning bolt", that we must learn not to "confuse pleasure with happiness", and that the mind-body connection is such that it is possible to understand the term "mind" as including not only the brain and it's congnitive processes but also the body and it's physical sensations. He then goes on to explain how these and other abstract ideas from Buddhist philosophy and cosmology are realized in meditation practice and how such insights lead to a greater happiness. I would, however, express reservations (or perhaps further stress similar assertions made by Marshall) concerning the practical and specific recommendations and meditation instructions contained in this book. I'm not certain that this form of Vipassana can be effectively learned by most people outside of a 10-day course. I would recommend reading these sections of the book as the particular opinions, perspectives and experiences of one meditator rather then as an instruction manual.
<< 1 >>
| 
