Comment by arc_of_descent | Hacker News Reader

Comment by arc_of_descent | Hacker News Reader

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Thats how its marketed. But no, Vipassna is a form of meditation practice. There are many others.

And to be honest its not the real stuff. What are 10 days? You are going to learn absolutely nothing. Mediation is a 24 hours a day practice. And it takes a lot of time to just get used to it.

For example, in one form they only tell you to focus your mind on an object (like breathing, or your abdomen). In Vipassna, the idea is focus first, but the next step is to observe your thoughts (mindfullness). Observe, never reject, whatever it is. Happiness, Lust, Greediness, Anxiety. Observe, and let it go. The mind is a crazy machine. More precisely, our chattering monkey mind.

Please read this book if you haven't already. I can't recommend it enough. It has changed my life.

Mindfulness in Plain English - Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Everyone keeps recommending Mindfulness in Plain English, including people I have a deep admiration from. But I went into it thinking it'd be a no-bs exploration of meditation and closed the book once the author mentioned how some meditators experienced "talking to their ancestors".

I'm sure that you can be objective and cut through that type of statement but meh, I couldn't do it. Maybe I'll try again at some point but that one really put me off.

I somehow agree with you, but I especially found the book great since it has little or no mention of Religion or gods.

Although spiritual experiences can occur if you think of them as hallucinations due to the state intense meditation can get one into.

> Thats how its marketed. But no, Vipassna is a form of meditation practice.

I never realized that. Thank you!

I've been looking for a good getting started guide to meditation. The book seems like a great resource. I will definitely read it.

Consider reading http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index-subject.html#vipassana for some further discussion (and that whole website for a vast store of information on Buddhism) and glancing at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Buddhist_traditions_t... to see the Theravada tradition's significance in the history of Buddhism.

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