AdeleneDawner comments on Understanding vipassana meditation - Less Wrong

42 [deleted] 03 October 2010 06:12PM

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Comment author: Relsqui 03 October 2010 10:28:07AM *  8 points [-]

Hm. I followed a link from what I'm told is your blog to a site for finding vipassana courses, and did a bunch of reading there. Some of the details made me quirk an eyebrow, but they could have just been poor presentation, so I went looking for more information elsewhere. I found, among other things, this thread talking about some very negative experiences with that particular organization (as well as some reminders that the organization does not represent the method).

The biggest red flags which went up while I was reading about that organization were the amount of sleep (posted schedule in the application I saw allows for a max of 6.5 hours/night), lack of real engagement with teachers, and pressure not to leave the course. Again, I realize the one organization doesn't represent the practice, although apparently they think they do:

Needless to say, as I was re-stating that I was leaving and that nothing would stop me, I was (kindly??) reminded that by leaving I would end up on the list of people who would never be allowed to sign up for a Vipassana course anywhere in the world. When I suggested that there might be other organisations than S.N. Goenka's teaching Vipassana, I was flatly told that there were no other possibilities.

(From the same link as above.)

Clearly some of the people didn't know what they were getting into, and yes, I realize it's not supposed to be easy, but that's still a whole pile of concerning things in one place. Have you attended a course run by the organization at dhamma.org? If so, where, and did you feel physically and mentally safe while there?

I didn't come away from that thread with only negative impressions, but the negative impressions are the ones I'm looking for responses to. The nearest courses to me are still far enough that I'd need to get a ride with someone else, meaning that while there I would be unable to leave on my own. This calls for a lot of caution about what I'd be getting myself into.

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 03 October 2010 12:01:45PM *  1 point [-]

This doesn't directly answer your question, I know, but there are quite a few meditation groups based in Second Life. The ones I'm aware of all either assume that their members already pretty much know what they're doing or stick to very basic techniques, but I can ask around for ones that do instruction.

Comment author: Relsqui 03 October 2010 04:36:47PM 0 points [-]

Thank you, but my only computer is an Eee 1000HA; I haven't actually tried running SL on it but I have an idea of how that would go.