Learnings & Experiences
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The End of Suffering
I think the purpose of meditation matters a lot. If we are after enlightenment, then its pursuit becomes a craving in itself and that ends up being a hindrance. However, if our intention is to end suffering, then we have a far more practical goal and infact letting go of craving becomes so much more…
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Meditation: Relaxation Taken to the Extreme
Meditation is, in many ways, the art of pushing relaxation to its ultimate limit. We begin by relaxing the body, releasing tension and tightness as soon as we sense them. This can be done through techniques like body scanning, as practiced in Vipassana, or by focusing on the breath. With each distraction, we gently return…
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Formless Forces Move Formations (or Content)
I’ve noticed that gravity, even though it’s formless, still moves things—physical objects—toward its source. The same goes for magnetic force; it’s formless too, yet it pulls or pushes specific things, like certain metals, depending on the source. While it seems like these forces come from physical objects—a heavy mass for gravity, a magnet for magnetic…
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The “Self-Process”
It seems to me that “Self” is a process, and not an identity or a thing, let alone a living thing. Every now and then, you may have noticed that your mind is filled with “review thoughts,” as in thoughts that revisit/review When such thoughts show up, you may get “attracted” or “sucked into” to…
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Unresolved Emotion
After nearly a year of meditation, I’ve discovered that emotions are mainly just body sensations. Before, I wasn’t aware enough to notice them in my body, so I experienced them as full stories in my mind. I focused on these stories, thinking they needed my attention or action. This focus unknowingly fueled the stories, causing…
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Why practice meditation?
Meditation helps develop concentration, clarity, and equanimity. By enhancing these abilities, practitioners can observe the true nature of reality, which includes understanding impermanence, suffering, and the concept of no-self. This practice ultimately leads to liberation and a deeper, experiential understanding of life. Regular meditation transforms the mind, making it more adept at handling life’s challenges…
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Asking Questions
Recently at the Aarohi Campus, there was a conversation around “learning by asking questions.” Ratnesh was encouraging learners at Aarohi’s Coversity to ask lot of questions to industry experts in their domain as a way of getting to know the industry. No doubt, asking questions is a great way to understand the world around us.…
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Self-Not-Required
When one thinks of Self (mySelf, thySelf, herSelf, himSelf, theirSelf and so on), it seems to point to an entity who is in control and calling shots in the region of influence of that Self. “Region of influence of Self” would include mind, body and perhaps some instrument that is at the moment an extension…
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Equanimity
During Vipassana meditation, the idea is to watch body sensations as they are, equanimously — ie. without reacting. When I first started practicing, I was kind of unclear what “without reacting” or “equanimity” meant. Equanimity is a priced quality of a meditator and it is elusive. Sometimes I feel like I got it, and many…
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The Practice
I restarted meditation practice in early Aug 2023. I have written a full post about what led me to restart my practice, after I completely let it go in 2016 when I completed my first 10 day Goenka retreat. It started off small with just 5 min Aana Paana, once a day. Then a week…
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Seven Years
Looking at biographical stories of many enlightened people, I have formed a theory that it takes roughly seven years for a meditator to go from start to complete realisation. After that, according to Frank Yang, it takes roughly seven years for the realisation to be more or less integrated with everything in life. Additionally, it…
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“Who I am” is “What I see”
During meditation, I have been noticing something interesting. As I observe sensations closely, they seem to behave differently. For instance, the very act of breathing changes when I observe it closely. The vibrations that float around breathing change as I observe them closely. Initially, the vibrations are in sync with breathing and when I watch…
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The Way of the Mind
One of the first things that Goenkaji tells us during the 10 days Vipassana retreat was this: When the mind comes in touch with a sensation, there is a reaction of craving or aversion. Out of ignorance (avijja), one does not understand the impermanent nature of the body and the mind. One therefore constantly goes…
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Noting
Once we have done some amount of concentration practice, and then some amount of insight practice, we get into the territory where we start noticing things like body sensations, vibrations, emotions and thoughts (memories, plans, ideas). It will become easy to drop into meditation. Gone will be the days when you had to focus and…
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Observing Emotions
How do we know that we are angry, or irritated, or sad, or frustrated, or scared, or anxious, or happy, or elated, or excited, or aroused, or horny, or bored, or anything else? No, no.. let me put it another way. How exactly are anger, irritation, sadness, frustration, fear, anxiety, happiness, excitement, arousal and boredom…