By Shravasti Dhammika | 1/6/2025
Buddhism teaches causation, that the whole universe is a web of
interrelated causes and effects. There are two types of causation –
natural causation and moral causation. Natural causation has nothing to
do with people being good or bad, it is simply a matter of the various
forces in the universe acting on each other. A rainstorm or crops
ripening would be examples of natural causation. Natural causes can of
course have an effect on us – being caught in a rainstorm can give us a
bad cold or crops failing may cause food shortages and hunger. But
suffering from a cold or being hungry has nothing to do with moral or
immoral past actions – they would be a natural effect of a natural
cause.
By Miguel A. Romero | 1/5/2025
Bhikkhus, those who have neglected the four bases for spiritual
power have neglected the noble path leading to the complete destruction
of suffering. Those who have undertaken the four bases for spiritual
power have undertaken the noble path
By Narayan Dasarwar | 1/5/2025
In December 1973, with Goenkaji's assent to proceed with the
acquisition of the original seven hectares of land, an agreement was
concluded between the owners and Rangil Mehta, the generous donor. To
meet the legal requirements for the transfer of ownership however, it
took several months to amass the necessary documents, complete the
required surveys, and obtain local government permission to change the
zoning. Shyam Sundar Taparia and his colleagues managed all this.
By Christine Joly | 12/30/2024
By Bikram Dandiya | 12/30/2024
Sometime around 2017, a friend and I were visiting his father who was
convalescing at a hospital in Jaipur, India. Preparing to take my
leave, I happened to mention to my friend about a certain stickiness in
my right eye. I scarcely expected anything consequential from this
offhand remark, but he responded by saying that the ophthalmologist at
that hospital was a schoolmate, and I would do well by seeing him. Not
normally given to visiting doctors, in this case, however, somehow, I
did. I suppose it was the confluence of an expected familiarity with the
doctor and the convenience of already being present at the hospital.
By Manish Chopra | 10/24/2024
Einstein expounded the theory of relativity with a brilliant
postulate about the interchangeability of light and matter that took
others a long time to bear out and verify firsthand. We also hear
commonsense phrases like “mind over matter” that clearly legislate that
mind is supreme and foremost entity that is primordial and precedes all
other phenomenon.
By Shravasti Dhammika | 10/24/2024
The Buddhist virtue of generosity (dāna) or sharing (cāga)
are well-known. That food is the main thing given is also well-known
and a well-established custom. However, the Buddha often spoke of giving
things other than food and giving to recipients other than the Saṅgha.
One of these gifts that receives little attention and which could
perhaps be re-emphasized is the giving of water. In a land such as India
in ancient times, where summers could be witheringly hot, where
distances between one village and the next could be long, and where most
travel was done on foot, the availability of water was not just a
convenience, it could be a matter of life-and-death. The Tipitaka
contains a dozen or so passages about travellers running out of water
while on the road, of people dying of thirst in the wilderness and of
anxiety about not having enough to drink when away from home.
By Narayan Dasarwar | 9/4/2024
Within a few months of the purchase of the land in early 1974, two
foreign meditators arrived—Geo Poland, a Canadian, and Graham Gambie, an
Australian. After thoroughly cleaning one of the two old bungalows on
the property, they each took up residence in rooms at either end and
used the central room for meditation. The only other buildings on the
property were a spacious but neglected godown (warehouse), the
home of spiders and centipedes, and a small shed. At that time, I was a
one-course student working and renting in Igatpuri, but I came to the
new centre almost daily.
By Aviva Derenowski | 9/4/2024
The Satipatthana Sutta course I attended in May 2024 follows a
structured format similar to a ten-day course. The main difference is
that the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, a foundational text in Vipassana
meditation, is thoroughly discussed during the evening discourses. Each
meditator has a textbook of the Mahasatipatthana Sutta, an empty
notepad, and a pencil for personal reflections. The evening discourses
systematically explain the Vipassana meditation technique, offering a
deeper understanding of how and why we practice this technique in this
way.
By Joah McGee | 8/21/2024
Friedgard Lottermoser passed away on August 8th, 2024 in Germany,
from an aggressive cancer of unknown origin. Dedicating herself to a
life that fused Western and Eastern spiritual traditions, Friedgard’s
journey was marked by profound personal transformation and significant
contributions to the global dissemination of Vipassana meditation. Under
the guidance of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, one of Burma's most revered
meditation masters, she became a testament to the power of mindfulness.
By Padmaja Challakere | 8/6/2024
I attended my first Vipassana course in May 2009 at Dhamma Pakasa,
Illinois. Exactly 15 years later I went to my second course at Dhamma
Siri in Texas.
I wish I could say that what brought me to my first
course was a search for happiness, a search for meaning. Rather, it was
suffering, as it is with many of us. I worried all the time and
couldn't escape it. I worried about my brother who had lost everything
and moved to our place in St. Paul. I also worried about my son. Worry
as a form of aversion consumed me.
By Shravasti Dhammika | 6/28/2024
You can see it in almost any Sri Lankan temple. Its six pastel-pink
petals and its strong, almost cloyingly sweet fragrance, are
unmistakable. It is of course what Sinhalese people and indeed many
others as well, call the sāl flower, the blossom most favoured by devotees to honour the Buddha with. The sāl tree and its flower played a minor, but interesting role in the Buddha’s life.
By Narayan Dasarwar | 6/27/2024
A few months after the land for the new Dhamma Giri centre was
discovered in December 1973, Geo Poland, a Canadian, arrived, and within
a few weeks Graham Gambie, an Australian, joined him. At that time only
four colonial-era buildings stood on the broad hilltop: two stone
bungalows, a large godown (warehouse) and a small shed. The
newcomers took up residence in one of the bungalows, and several months
later, after Geo left, I too moved in.
By Narayan Dasarwar | 5/17/2024
In mid March 1974, a Canadian meditator named Geo Poland moved, with
Goenkaji's approval, into an old stone bungalow on the newly purchased
hilltop property that was to become the first Vipassana meditation
centre in India. A few weeks later, Graham Gambie, an Australian,
arrived. The building that they chose to live in had for years been
deserted and used by local herders as a stable. It required a thorough
cleaning.
By Manish Chopra | 5/11/2024
Growing up in the land of superstitions and astrological readings, I
have had my share of beliefs ranging from walking through a street
crossed by a black cat can bring ill fortune to trying to change one’s
destiny through the use of certain gemstones which hold the power to
alter future life events. I even developed a pseudo-scientific theory to
explain away why I would follow the practice of wearing multiple
gemstones in specific fingers and set in rings made of suitably
correlated metals to derive outcomes like “vanquish one’s adversaries”
to more mundane ones like preserving good health and amassing a fortune.
As I tasted the nectar of objectively observing my mind and body
through Vipassana, I quickly concluded that my destiny wasn’t beholden
to astrological charts or apparent omens that were simple and naturally
occurring physical phenomena.
By Shravasti Dhammika | 5/11/2024
A wheel (cakka) is a flat circular object that turns as it moves and is
considered one of the most ground-breaking inventions in the history of
technology. The ancient Indians used the wheel as a symbol for political
sovereignty and dominion. The first Buddhists used it as a symbol for
sovereignty too, but for spiritual rather than for worldly and political
sovereignty. As most meditators will know, the Buddha’s first discourse
is called ‘Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma’ and a wheel
flanked on either side by a deer has long been a symbol of the Buddha’s
teaching this first discourse in the Deer Park at Sarnath. The Buddha
sometimes made allusions to the wheel in his discourses; for example, he
said: “Generosity, kindly speech, doing good for others and treating
them with impartiality are to the world what the linchpin (ani) is to
the wheel, keeping it turning smoothly.”
By Narayan Dasarwar | 4/27/2024
In March 1974, about the same time that the first foreign meditators
came to live at the new Vipassana centre in Igatpuri, Chandra Mohan
Jain, calling himself Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, relocated from Mumbai to
establish an ashram in Pune. He had already developed a reputation as a
controversial guru by rejecting traditional religious and ascetic
practices and expressing opinions on moral values that were opposed by
most ordinary Indians. His young Western devotees, in their maroon or
ochre robes, soon became a common sight in the city. Rumours circulated
and began to appear in newspapers, containing allegations of drug use
and sexual improprieties that tarnished his ashram's image.
By Shravasti Dhammika | 4/14/2024
According to the most ancient sources, several months after the
Buddha passed away, 500 monks, all of them Awakened, met together in
Rājagaha and held what is usually called the First Council (sangīti pariyāya).
The purpose of convening this council was to make sure that what the
Buddha had taught during the previous forty five years would not be
forgotten. The arahats and probably many others too, believed that the
Buddha’s Dhamma was too precious, too important to be confused or
forgotten. It had done so much for them, leading them to awakening (bodhi),
that they wanted to make sure that others, at that time and forever
after, would have the chance of attaining the freedom and peace of
Nirvana too. It is likely that the arahats did not preserve everything
the Buddha had said, because he had repeated some things many times, but
they did preserve what they judged to be the essentials.
By Narayan Dasarwar | 3/29/2024
December 16, 1973, was the last day of my first meditation course at
the Bhatia Sanatorium, a resort in nearby Deolali. That day, we new
students learned that Goenkaji was looking for land, not too far from
Mumbai, for a Vipassana centre. After breakfast, Bhojraj Sancheti and I
met with him and suggested that there were some properties in nearby
Igatpuri that might be suitable. We requested Guruji to pause on his way
to Mumbai and visit them for a few minutes later that day. At first he
declined, but then gave in to our entreaties. We were happy to hear this
and broke the news to our fellow students. Most were heading elsewhere,
but after learning of Guruji's intention, one of them, Rangil Mehta, a
friend of Bhojraj, revised his plans and offered to give us a lift to
Igatpuri since he too was headed to Mumbai.
By Andrée François | 2/23/2024
By Bruce W Fraser | 2/23/2024
People typically come to meditation with a purpose. Whether or not we
know of the First Noble Truth, suffering is an intrinsic part of our
experience, and the desire to alleviate that suffering is powerful. In
my own case, I took up Vipassana out of desperation, not really
understanding what I was getting into. Difficulties at work and at home
seemed insurmountable, so I turned to a technique that seemed – to a
neophyte – esoteric but promising.
By Manish Chopra | 1/19/2024
While it is likely that humankind will continue to pursue alternative
or altered forms of reality through virtual or imposed means as a form
of escape from their mundane existence and providers of such services
will feed off of the dissatisfaction we experience in a real world, a
different universe of positive energy is available to use if we can tune
our inner antennas to the forces of Mettā.
By Paul R. Fleischman | 12/12/2023
For a person who
chooses to practice Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S. N. Goenka and
teachers of his lineage, mindfulness is a central component of an integrated, well-rounded practice. Mindfulness is not utilized
as an isolated entity, but as
a guiding feature
of a full meditation that leads to wisdom and growth
on the path to liberation.
By Patrick Given-Wilson | 11/19/2023
By Jeppe Strandskov | 11/19/2023
I’m grateful for my saṅkhāras, especially the profound ones that
occasionally disrupt my equanimity. These mental formations motivate me
to sustain my meditation practice, helping me manage and ultimately
dissolve my suffering.
