Some old students become “believers” and that can sometimes lead to a dogmatic slightly extreme aprouch but most are just doing this because it makes them happy.

On most courses a few new students will find the course underwhelming sometimes one or two might quit half way through. That is to be accepted because it is not going to suit everyone.The emphasis on reincarnation and the chanting can agitate some people.
If people change through spiritual or psychological methods then it is not about changing into a new better version of themselves an iddea that they will be able to better accept and feel accepted by others.

What changes us for the better is the acceptance that we are what we are at this moment and surrendering to that is all that we need to do,its not about improving how we think of ourselves because how we think of ourselves is the problem, its not real its a dream constantly monitering what we like or dislike whats right and wrong and always with this idea in your head of a me that lives in seperation.
Vippasana is not the only way, it may in some ways be hampered by its cultural refrences.
The whole course is geared to one thing only, teaching this technique, and the organisation relies on the fact that for the majority of people it has a positive affect and they give a donation.

It has grown rapidly and apart from a few postings from people who didn’t”enjoy” it there has never been a scandel or any instance of people being harmed by it ever reported.

I don;t have any interest in the dogma of vippasana but the method is a great help

it is challenging, difficult and makes you wanna run away sometimes, but facing the truth was never easy anyways.

lastly, faith is everything. you must do any program, course or training with utmost faith to get any results. Any intellectual peron would be skeptical and inquisitive, but faith above all is a necessity.

God bless you all.
Atul Bhansali
Bangalore, India

I struggled, the entire time that I was there, because I desperately missed my partner. I am used to calling him in the middle of the day, just to hear his voice and find out how he is doing. I’m a worrier, in the real world. With nothing to do but meditate and think all day, I felt like every feeling I was having, every thought, every fear were multiplied 10x or maybe even 100x! So my mind went in all kinds of crazy directions, concocting all kinds of scenarios — both negative and positive. This just drove me crazy! I think if I had been permitted to call my partner once a day, or even once every two days, I might have been able to survive the duration of the retreat. (I was doing pretty well with maintaining the meditation position for longer durations)

Another thing that may have influenced my stay was that I initially shared a room with two others. One left on the first full day after becoming very ill and having to go to the hospital (part of me was jealous and thought how lucky he was). At the end of the first full day, my remaining roommate walked out of the first evening group meditation session. Then immediately following the next morning’s 4:00 gong, he packed his things and left. I watched him as he walked away from the building, in dim morning light. I was so full of emotion when that happened! I wanted to cry. I wanted to run an join him. I “connected” with him more than anyone else during the few hours we were allowed to meet and greet on arrival day. I felt like his presence there was helping me, and now it was gone. I was left alone in a room for 3, with two empty beds. The manager offered to move me into a new room so that I was not constantly faced with these empty beds and “bad vibes,” but I declined. As it turned out, I’m glad I did because I needed the extra space to breathe and pace back and forth during multiple future anxiety attacks! All I could think about — other than a few very strange random thoughts — was my partner and how I could escape. I even thought, as I slipped a little in the shower, that maybe I should let myself slip and fall and maybe break a wrist or something so that I could get out!!

Although the “staff” were very nice — as nice as you can be with limited interaction I had a strange feeling about the Teacher. He always had such a stern look on his face, it was very intimidating. Whenever we spoke, he became very gentle and understanding but I wasn’t able to feel that this was real. I approached him at 5:00pm, immediately after the first 2 hour introduction to the Vipassanna meditation session on day 4. During that session, I wasn’t able to sit still at all. Against instruction, I was moving my legs all over the place, scratching my face, etc., etc. Yet, when I told him I wanted to leave he told me that I was doing so well and I sat very well through that session. Was he really watching me? If so, he would see how badly I followed instructions! Seemed to me that he was BS-ing me so that I would stay. But maybe I’m just to much of a skeptic.

This retreat was located in fairly peaceful setting, except for a main highway up on the mountain that was off in the distance, but close enough to see and close enough to hear the whining of the busses and large trucks as they drove down the hill. Every time I heard that sound — which was all day — I thought of how they were heading in the direction of home and it made me “crave” home even more. Funny enough, when I did “escape” I was on one of those busses and I listened to it whine as we descended the hill over the retreat. I smiled with relief.

(I wish I could write as well as you because I feel like I’ve just been blurting out thoughts, randomly. My apologies for that.)

You can do vipassan to reach to the Nirvana level or you can do it to become a better person in life. with practice you are a new person and always succeed in whatever you do.

Just 10 day course done properly with full dedication can change you life in many ways.

May be you need to learn to surrender.

VKW

I feel like I do somewhat understand the physics behind the process so I’ll share the theory briefly – Goenka tells you in the beginning about how all the particles that make up atoms are continually changing-disappearing and being regenerated 10^22 times a second. Accepting the blackhole theory of matter, this revelation makes perfect sense as does the meditation technique. Blackholes grow by absorbing positive energy particles and evaporate by absorbing negative energy particles. i don’t mean positive and negative as in charge but direction in time. negative energy particles appear to be regular, postive, particles moving backward in time. postive and negative particles are continually being created in pairs and innihalting each other. this happens 10^35 times a second. in nature, at the event horizon of a blackhole, when this particle pair creation occurs, they negative energy particle can cross the event horizon causing the blackhole to evaporate a little while the positive energy particle can either escape, radiating away or fall into the black hole too but the smaller a blackhole is, the more likely the positive energy particle will radiate away. It seems to me that the sankharas are the patterns of negative energy that our minds hold in suspension as waveforms at the event horizon of the atom’s blackholes by observing the sensation, the wave-particle phenomenon is in effect and the negative wave pattern has no choice but to express its particle nature and fall into the blackhole causing it to evaporate a little. This is also why a calm and equonimous mind is also essential. you wouldn’t want to put any new patterns in effect, let nature do the work. That’s how I rationalized it working anyways and so far i think the technique is working for me.

you said,”I think there may have been a bit of mild brainwashing going on, but I made sure to always keep “one eye open” and I don’t think I was affected. If you are going to do a retreat I encourage you to be aware of this.”

Obviously, your suspicions did not allow you to give a fair trial to this retreat and it is hardly surprising that you did not benefit. I read about this Vipassana from Sarah MacDonald’s Holy Cow. She too did not follow the instructions. She imagined her toes talking to her knees and stuff like that. It was interesting to read, but in the ultimate analysis, she cheated herself.

Prisoners, esp. murderers reformed themselves after this course. Drug addicts, who were unable to wean away from cocaine, finally got control over their cravings. The key difference was that, luckily for them, they were not as critical/suspicious as you. They allowed themselves to be “brainwashed”, but it worked for them. After all, there was no coercion to join this program in the first place.

Your statements are quite confusing. On one hand you agree that one should believe only when one experiences and then you sound unhappy that you got “fuzzy” answers! Perhaps the answers were fuzzy because you are supposed to solve the problem yourself to attain the EUREKA moment.

The very concept of meditation was born in India (Hinduism) some five to six thousand years ago and later was adopted by Buddhism – a derivative of Hinduism. Hence the teachings are enmeshed in the culture. Chants are inextricably linked in the process. Please do not it diminish as brainwashing. And no one should apologize for that.

I would strongly recommend educating yourself on these cultures or avoid these methods. Else it will be wasted effort as it is quite evident by your writings.

People misinterpreting goodwill for brainwashing should clearly avoid such retreats. It is not for all.