Mind Creates Matter

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.

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Water, Water Everywhere

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.

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First Course at Dhamma Giri

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.

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Reflections on the Transformative Impact of the Satipatthana Sutta Course

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.

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Friedgard Lottermoser: A Bridge of Dhamma Between Myanmar and the West

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.

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A Second Chance

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.

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What is the Real Sāl Tree?

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.

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Early attempts at tapodana and shramadana (donations of meditation and Dhamma work)

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.

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How Dhamma Giri got its name

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.

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No Coincidences

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.

Manish Chopra

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The Wheel of the Dhamma, Eight Spokes or Many?

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.”

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Cultural Sensitivities and Awareness

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.

Narayan Dasarwar

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The Buddha You Never Knew

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.

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Goenkaji First Steps Foot on the Land

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.

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Starting Again

By Andrée François | 2/23/2024

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A Reflection on Service

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.

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Dwelling in the Mettā-Verse

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.

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Clarification of Mindfulness in the Context of Vipassana Meditation

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.

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Mountain Palace

By Patrick Given-Wilson | 11/19/2023

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Amor Saṅkhāras

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.

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Residing at Nan Oo Taik Monastery

By John Geraets | 10/24/2023

[8] Back after an overnight break at Shwebo, the pagoda spire shines clearly from a kilometre away, a citadel. A burgeoning of the heart:

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Transmitting the Dhamma in Word and in Deed: An Interview with Bhikkhu Bodhi

By Kory Goldberg | 9/17/2023

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi is one of the most prolific translators and interpreters of the Pāli Canon. The American Buddhist monk’s translations include the Majjhima Nikāya (with Bhikkhu Ñaṇamoli), the Saṃyutta Nikāya, the Aṅguttara Nikāya, and the Suttanipāta. His influential anthologies such as In the Words of the Buddha and The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony, as well as his collections of essays such as Investigating the Dhamma and Dhamma Reflections have guided seekers and scholars alike in their explorations of the Buddha’s teachings.

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Four Noble Truths

By Andrée François | 9/9/2023

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The Non-Linearity of Life

By Manish Chopra | 9/9/2023

Wouldn’t things be so much simpler if life progressed in a straight line and predictable manner? As everyone can attest, nothing could be further from that expectation. And yet despite these lived experiences, we continue hoping, praying, and wishing that things turn out the way we want them to (and when we want them to) manifest in a certain expected manner. How much fret and struggle when that turns out, often enough, to not be the case.

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A Stupa Over India: The Renaissance of the Dhamma

By Bikram Dandiya | 8/12/2023

Fig.1 Rashtrapati Bhavan

Some 900 years ago, the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, faced a profound challenge after being uprooted from India. But history has a penchant for surprises, and so it was that the Dhamma would rise again in the land of its origin.

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