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I enjoy meditation very much and I think a 10 day course would really help my meditative practices become more apparent in my everyday thinking. That said, my sleep schedule is naturally utterly chaotic, and for this reason I think the course would be impossible. I am rather negatively affected by lack of sleep, moreso than most. Do you think there are any alternatives or allowances that could be made for me?
As I mentioned in another comment, the Goenka courses actually easily accommodate up to 9 hours of continuous sleep at night, from 9:30PM to 6:30AM. The pre-breakfast meditation is encouraged, but entirely optional. You could even nap for another hour after breakfast. There's also an hour to hour and a half of nap time after lunch.
I personally get 8-10.5 hours of sleep a day when doing a Goenka course. I go to bed at 9:30, have an alarm that wakes me up at 5:30, nap after breakfast from 7 to 8 and nap again after lunch from 11:30 to 1PM.
Their pages mention that they are funded entirely by donations from past students.
After you've taken the course, how much do they contact you (to solicit donations or otherwise)?
Just to add to Luke_Grecki's comment (which is spot on), at some of the old student courses it's not even mentioned. The Goenka centers are remarkably passive about donations.
In response to
Understanding vipassana meditation
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.
I've been doing Vipassana via Goenka for over 10 years, have gone to courses at a few of the NA centers, have done a satipatthana sutta course and other shorter old student courses. I can confirm the comments by Luke_Grecki and eternaltourist.
There is no big secret behind how they are run. It's exactly the same whether you are just starting it or have been doing it forever. There's no pressure to donate. They mention it at the end of each 10 day course and that's pretty much it. At some of the short old student courses they don't even bring it up at all.
The centers are safe, the people volunteering are there to make sure your basic needs are met so you can meditiate without distraction. The centers are run by normal people who volunteer. The center trust meetings I've attended are just like practical, run of the mill board meetings.
Regarding the specific concerns, you can actually sleep up to 9 hours easily if you skip the sittings before breakfast. The first required sitting is after breakfast. The sleep thing is really a non-issue. When I'm at a course, I pretty consistently sleep a full 8 hours from 9:30 to 5:30.
The assistant teachers are mostly there to try to nudge you in the right direction. All you are doing is focusing on breath or body sensation, so there simply isn't much to teach outside of goenka's instructions. It's more a matter of just doing it. I suspect that some people have difficultly with the lack of human interaction and try to use the assistant teachers as an outlet for it, but it's counterproductive since it breaks deep concentration and distracts the mind.
As for leaving, eternaltourist's comments are spot on.
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These occur in the vipassana stage, after the anapana? I think I have a good idea of where my various faults are and possible ways to fix them, having tried to work with them in the CBT framework. I tend to be rather harsh on myself, so I've had a quite a few unsavory personal realizations. Do you think there are likely to be more such realizations than I anticipate? Basically I figured I'd attacked myself from every which way already. :)
In my experience, anapana is more difficult and brings up more stuff because, unlike vipassana, simply focusing on the breath doesn't provide a way to deal with the stuff that comes up.
The thing to remember, though, is that you are trying to focus on breath (anapana) and body sensation (vipassana). Specific thoughts are more or less a distraction. Of course, your thoughts and mental state are tied to the sensations you experience, but because staying equanimous to the sensations is the tool your are using, the actual content of the thoughts are not something you are trying to focus on.