Vipassana post-script

Lumbini, Nepal


Some folks have said I may have painted an overly bleak picture of my experience with the Vipassana meditation course. Perhaps a long-honed propensity to sandbag swayed me toward under-selling what I came away with. I most certainly didn't want to appear like some of the few starry-eyed alumni I've met who can't seem to find anything but unqualified, raving praise for their own experiences. That kind of summary always smells of "promotion" to me, or of someone clinging to a life preserver of dogma. I prefer the dynamic of "attraction". Check things out for yourself. If you find something or things you like, excellent. If not, perhaps the practice or philosophy is not for you.



There is no doubt that the Vipassana course put me through ten honest days of gloves-off grappling with my brain and body. But when do you ever grow without some fear or pain? I don't want to discourage anyone. This course taught me a LOT. I will continue with this practice and, if I'm lucky, very likely do another course or more at the Vipassana center in California. Without exception everything we were exposed to was practical and self-assessable. In other words, I was able to judge for myself to see what I found. For the record, I was - and I very much like what I felt.



It's not a small coincidence that I'm writing this post from Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. Tami and I made a last-minute change of plans for trekking and came north into Nepal. The road goes near Lumbini where we've heard that a handful of Buddhist monestaries is growing in a large campus of sorts. Each monestary is built in the style of the representative country where Buddhism is practiced. We had a very good two-hour meditation at the Korean complex.



For me, life in this modern world is confusing and not easy to navigate with happiness and tranquility. Vipassana seems to be a useful tool to help me do that better. That's enough for me to keep on trying.