Tuesday, August 1, 2017

My Vipassana Meditation experience as taught by S. N. Goenka (deceased).

See - Manuel Laserna Jr. with Eldrin Cruz and 15 others.

I am posting a five-hour audio book on Vipassana Meditation (Practice of Awareness and Equanimity) based on Goenka's book entitled "The Art of Living ".

For details on Vipassana Meditation please visit www.dhamma.org. Go to the Philippine link.

Free ten-day residential Vipassana Meditation courses are given worldwide in various Vipassana Meditation centers.

"Noble silence" is strictly enforced during the entire residential Vipassana Meditation course, that is, no talking and no eye contact among the students. Male and female students reside in separate dormitories but meditate in a common meditation hall under the supervision of an internationally trained and accredited Vipassana Teacher. Our teacher then was a German. (The world Vipassana headquarters and meditation center are located in Bombay, India).

You may apply with the Philippine Vipassana Center online (via www.dhamma.org).

The new site of the Philippine Vipassana Center is located in a secluded and peaceful coconut plantation in Tiaong, Quezon.

I took my first Vipassana course in 2006. Its former center was located in a quiet mango plantation in Dasmarinas, Cavite.

The new center in Tiaong, Quezon is quieter and more conducive to meditation than the urbanized city of Dasmaribas.

I have not yet visited the new Vipassana center in Tiaong, Quezon. Parts of it are still under construction.

The Philippine Vipassana Meditation Society operates based on voluntary donations by old students. It is a worldwide Vipassana policy.

Their donations subsidize the free Vipassana Meditation courses of future students.

From 2006 to 2009 I attended two ten-day Vipassana courses each year. (My daughter Mabelle attended one ten-day course before she moved to America some years ago).

In each course meditation starts at 4:00 AM. Goenka's evening teachings or lectures (videos) are given at 8:00 PM. Sleeping time is at 9:30 PM. Breakfast is served at 6AM and lunch at 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. There is no dinner. Tea/coffee and one piece of fruit are served for snack at 5:00 PM. Meals are vegetarian.

The meditation schedule is demanding. Discipline has to be strictly observed. To master and control one's mind to atttain enlightenment demands discipline.

You have to block ten days of your professional/personal life to complete a course. Only a serious person in search of peace and wisdom will invest time and effort to complete a ten-day Vipassana Meditation course.

After the course you should supplement your meditation practice with your own readings which are available online for fee.

YouTube contains free videos of the Vipassana discourses, teachings and chants of Goenka.

Goenka's Vipassana courses are non-sectarian.

When I took my own courses, some of my classmates were Filipino and foreign Catholic priests, nuns and pastoral volunteers.

Most of my Vipassana classmates were young Filipino Generation X/ Millenials in their twenties and thirties from very good universities, private companies and government agencies seeking inner peace and wisdom.

I was already fifty one years old when I discovered Vipassana Meditation through a Buddhist Foundation located in New Manila, Quezon City that offered free Buddhist lectures (given by a UP philosophy professor) and free books from Taiwan.

The Vipassana meditation method and philosophy are based on the teachings of Gautama, The Buddha, who was born five hundred years before Jesus Christ in northern India bordering southern Nepal.

To complete a ten-day Vipassana Meditation course is both a matter of personal decision and karmic destiny.

The Art Of Living by William Hart. Vipassana Meditation: As Taught by S. N. Goenka The Ancient Meditation Technique that Brings Real Peace of…
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