What up my fellow seekah.   Hope you have a great time and benefit from your stay at this retreat. 

I checked out the site and did have some questions about some of the things which maybe you could clarify for me?

  Taken from the site--under "Other Techniques, Rites, and Forms of Worship": 

    Now i understand the previous injunction of giving this particular practice a fair shot, but then the kind of absolute clause that follows, "Students are strongly advised that deliberately mixing other techniques of meditation with Vipassana will impede and even reverse their progress. Despite repeated warnings by the teacher, there have been cases in the past where students have intentionally mixed this technique with a ritual or another practice, and have done themselves a great disservice."

  doesn't quite make sense to me.  For an example, how could say practicing Bruce's "remembering the feeling of Love" technique possibly "hinder" Vipassana, or any other practice for that matter?

  Or another thing that doesn't quite make sense to me and mayhap you can clarify some about the part under "Noble Silence"?  Before i quote it, i will qualify or preface with that i well understand the purpose and benefit of silence, and imo in our society there isn't enough conscious and positive silence taken, let alone valued. 

  However, i don't understand the following taken from that site, "Students should cultivate the feeling that they are working in isolation. "

  Isolation?  Is there even such a thing in a reality of Oneness? and isn't trying to cultivate the feeling of isolation kind of antithetical to the feeling and purpose of Oneness?  Have a healthy respect for individualism, free will and the space of and for self & others yes..., but isolation?

  One of the coolest and most enjoyable developments at my Gateway Voyage program at TMI was the balance of taking plenty of time for individual silence and introspection (etc.), but combining that with a lot of sharing, communicating, etc. with the fellow group members.  Our group came to know and experience a lot of unity and sense of Oneness with each other in a short time, which i think boosted and really helped our own individual times and practices of silence, going within, etc.  It was really the most enjoyable and helpful thing about the program imo.

     It seems to be what all this Earth stuff is all about remembering and re-learning, or at least the major part of it. 

  Well anyways, i hope you enjoy and take the most positive out of this program for yourself.  10 days of a lot of meditation and abstinence from material focuses certainly could help a lot as long as one doesn't get caught up in specific dogma's or the like.  Definitely cool that it's materially free, but then again, free can be a relative term and concept. There is little out there in and of this World which is truly free, even if it doesn't cost a penny materially.   

  Word to the Mothership 

    Hi again OOB Dude,

  You wrote, Quote:


   See, i agree much more with your answer above and the slightly more flexible nature of same.  Noticed I highlighted your use of "Could".    Could seems to fit better than what they were saying, which seemed very absolute/overly rigid. 

  But to address the issue in a bit more depth again.  I started experimenting with mediation when i was 13, and so it's been about 19 yrs since i've been meditating and within that time i've tried various techniques, approaches, and traditions.  At first, a lot of them were very Eastern based.

  From what i can gather of reading about Vipassana on their site, in a lot of ways it seems to be the more typical than not, self observation, self awareness/focus, very still oriented type of meditation which is the likes of is quite common in various Eastern traditions and disciplines (especially those related to Buddhism in some way or manner).   Actually that seems to be kind of a general hallmark or pattern within that larger archetype. 

  It definitely has it's place and can be helpful.  I brought up Bruce's remembering love technique earlier for a reason.  I had originally started meditating in manners and ways like the above, and while it helped some, it wasn't until I started to practice and use techniques like Bruce's that i began to really see a much more expanded progress. 

   What i'm trying to get at, is that balance seems to be a key.  I understand what you are saying about focus, but i've found that say if i'm seeking to attune to guidance/expanded self, that I naturally combine and go between a more active type meditation (like Bruce's remembering/feeling Love) and the more still, receptive, observing, awareness type mediation. 

   They complement and help each other is what i'm saying.  They bring a greater balance and integration.   

   Attuning to Love automatically expands perception and helps to clear the self, so that one can better self observe, etc.  I DO realize that this course DOES teach something akin to Bruce's  technique on the last day of the course, which i think is great that they incorporate something like that. 

  Like i said, i just didn't understand the absolute nature of the injunction that i previously quoted. I still have the intuitive feeling that combining both from the get go would most likely only help, but it's possible that some might find it helpful if it is separated at first. 

  You wrote, Quote:


   Perhaps so, but it hasn't been my experience.  My experience has been that practicing a combo of deep self introspection, stillness, quiet observation combined with focusing on others & self via feelings of love and gratitude, as well as sharing, communicating, etc. is what expands, balances and integrates the most.

   Extremes don't tend to help, trying to keep oneself completely focused on self and isolated from others is an unnecessary extreme in both my intuitive perception and experience. 
 
  Just as just focusing on others, etc., wouldn't be ideal either.  Balance is key. 

  It could be that for some individuals, they may temporarily need and benefit from more focus on self introspective/observing route for a time, and with others it may be the reverse--they may benefit from focusing more on others. on communication, relating, sharing, etc. 

  But, that is a very individual thing for individuals that the individuals themselves would have to figure out on their own.

  This course says it does not promote dogma in any way, and yet it's setting up a dogmatic/fixed pattern of approach (too much structure and fixed patterns, is what leads to dogma often), and if people become too attached to that it will be limiting.  I don't think you would or will, but I know plenty of people that i mediate with in the groups i'm part of, that would get a bit stuck within such strong/rigid patterns. 

  That's why deliberately, consciously seeking and asking for expanded guidance and help/direction from same IS so unbelievably helpful for the individual, but this kind of practice and advice is lacking in many of the Eastern sourced traditions i've ever looked at or tried. 

   Seeking/asking for expanded guidance is so helpful because caters to the individual without setting up a fixed pattern and approach.  For someone too Yin imbalanced, Guidance might communicate something like, "hey, did you ever think maybe you should try interacting, communicating, and opening up with others more, put yourself out there more, self express more, could be helpful." 

Sure, these kind of nudges, intuitions, etc. can happen if one isn't consciously and deliberately seeking/asking for expanded guidance and is just doing the more traditional and Eastern sourced meditation practices, but in my experience the former speeds up and strengthens the process---especially when combining it with remembering/feeling PUL and similar techniques. 

  Anyways, i'm not speaking so much to you personally about all this, but more in a public, impersonal sense.  Like i said, my sense is that you will benefit from this retreat and the practices. 

   I'm thinking about signing up for one of the 3 day ones to try it out myself, and then maybe the 10 day if i benefit from it and have the time to take off from work.  I need more structure and discipline in actually meditating more consistently and it may help me to get into the more regular pattern again. 

 


   

   

  Kool beans     Hey, btw, i use to live in MA and still have many family and friends there, whom i occasionally visit.

Quote:


Absolutely!

Hi,

I'm new here, but wanted to wish you well on your journey. It sounds like such an exciting experience and I am looking forward to reading your post(s) about it when you return.

Happy trails,
mj