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After a day’s reflection, and a little bit of adjusting to the re-entry, I realize that I just spent the last weekend participating in an event of unqualified beauty. There was simply nothing that was not beautiful about the three days I spent meditating with a couple dozen other Midwestern souls in a small retreat center in rural south-central Minnesota. There was pain, there was frustration, there was all the madness of our individual minds and the suffering of our bodies, but who we were and what we were doing there was nothing if not beautiful. This was my first residential meditation retreat with the Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis, led by the wise, compassionate, adorable, and apparently ego-free Mark Nunberg.

If you are reading this, you probably already know about my experiences with the 10-day vipassana courses in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. You have read how transformative and freeing this practice has been for me. The Common Ground also practices vipassana, but with a broader interpretation than the very specific technique taught at the Goenka centers. At first I was a bit suspicious of this. The Goenka version is very rigorous and specific. The honing of single-pointed awareness followed by sustained attention to the sensations of the physical body leads to deep insight into the nature and construction of the mind/body phenomenon we experience as the self. It is a powerful method. I didn’t want to lose out on the benefits I know I have received from this.

The Common Ground approach to vipassana, on the other hand, at least on this retreat, was much more open to interpretation and variation of method. The daily timetable was similar to Goenka’s courses. Noble silence. The taking of refuge and precepts. Many hours of sitting each day. But instead of a specific technique, Mark’s instructions were simply “relax the body and mind.” No object of attention was suggested. Nothing in particular to try to do. Just relax and pay attention. Similarly, the theme for the weekend was simply “forgiveness”. More like gestures, images, or metaphors than specific instructions, we each of us went to work on whatever relaxing the mind and body and being mindful of forgiveness might bring forth in a few days of sitting quietly, eyes closed, mind (more or less) alert.

At the closing of the retreat, as the whole community gathered and each shared a bit of what had transpired that weekend, it was surprising and deeply moving to see how many different ways lives had been touched in a few short days. The simple instructions and broad theme were taken up, worked with, absorbed, and practiced in as many different ways as there were people in that room, and each and every one seemed to be touched by some different word or experience or insight that reached them exactly were it was needed for that person, in that place, at that time.

While Goenka’s method remains, for me anyway, a deeply effective means toward lasting change, there was nothing that I could fault with the experience with Common Ground. The fruit, the blessing, the liberation, the result of the practice is evident; the value incalculable. It needn’t be compared. The point is: sit. How rare to stop with the endless machinations of our daily lives, to stop and simply observe what is going on in there, in mind and body. It is not a particular technique or method, but awareness itself that opens us, brings forth transformative insight, and changes us, truly, for the better. And there is the beauty of it. There is nothing but good happening here, and in the company of so many others, that is an amazing thing.

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Ely, MN -

I’ll pick up where I left off some time ago,‭ ‬in two respects.‭ ‬One,‭ ‬as a continuation of my‭ “‬spiritual journey‭” ‬as described in my post on Vipassana meditation.‭ ‬Two,‭ ‬as an exploration of my second motivation for travel ‬which was to test a theory:‭ ‬What would happen if I abandoned all anxieties,‭ ‬agendas,‭ ‬and personal ambitions and simply remained open to whatever arose,‭ ‬trusting that the universe would cooperate in supporting and leading me wherever I ought to go? The following is an attempt to draw together some observations about the religious and spiritual practices I encountered in the various places I visited, to place them in light of my own experiment in risking unqualified trust, and to make some effort at beginning to articulate what I think the whole spirituality/religion thing comes down to.

The Story so Far – The Varieties of Religious Experience – Now It’s Getting Personal – Fruit – I Think It Goes Like This – Drawing Pictures – The Analogy of Color – Ego – The Politics of Identity – True Spirituality – Practicing Grace

A Brief Summary of the Story so Far or‭ “‬Stop me if You’ve Heard this One Before‭” (‬and skip to the next section‭)
I was raised as a Charismatic Lutheran- a curious combination of staid traditional Lutheranism and hands-in-the-air speaking-in-tongues Pentecostalism.‭ ‬Those were powerful years for me‭, full of hormone-driven teenage angst, passion, idealism and many undeniable experiences of the numinous.‭ As I went on to college, a series of personal crises challenged my fundamental beliefs and values. The assurance of faith began to falter, and I came to identify myself as an agnostic. I started exploring some of the secular philosophies I found most interesting‭ ‬such as Marxism,‭ ‬feminism,‭ ‬and various strands of what was then called postmodern critical theory.‭ ‬I also,‭ ‬for a season,‭ ‬developed a strong interest in the writings of Carlos Castaneda‭ (‬about the same time I was dabbling in hallucinogens‭)‬.‭ ‬But I was decidedly unhappy.‭ ‬I was plagued by depression and mental anomalies.‭ ‬The combination of intense critical introspection with the powerful discipline of drugs so disrupted the conceptual foundations of my reality that I found myself in a kind of pure state of negative enlightenment.‭ ‬I could find no foundation for meaning anywhere.‭ ‬I was desperate for some framework that could serve as a justification for my own existence,‭ ‬but I found none.‭ ‬Everything deconstructed.‭ ‬Ground zero.‭ (more…)

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Minneapolis -I’m off to Dhamma Pakasa (the Illinois Vipassana Meditation Center- shown below) for most of the month of September… and maybe longer. What will I be doing there? Well, if you haven’t already, read my Long Essay about Vipassana Meditation. I will spend the first 10-day course serving as center staff (hopefully in the kitchen!) and will sit another 10-day course following. Then we’ll see about staying longer. Apparently I am the only confirmed staff volunteer at this point for the first course, so looks like I’ll be busy until it’s my turn to sit!

Further installments of my State of the World Address, although mostly written, are being postponed indefinitely until I get around to finishing them. More than likely, I will have a few things to say about my experience at the meditation center that I will want to get posted first, while still fresh.

In the meantime, I have recently discovered a website (a movement, really) that almost uncannily addresses the very things I was planning to say in the further extensions of my State of the World address. It is an example of the kind of thinking that I have seen emerging as I have traveled around our globe and thought about it’s future. It’s called WorldChanging.com, and you should check it out. It is about the convergence of the organic and the digital, nature and technology. It is about Designing for Life, and Cultivating the Garden. It’s about the absolute necessity of weaving core values such as compassion, tolerance, sustainability, innovation, and joy into our engineered future. It’s about the new conditions emerging in our world that provide a new context for hope.

See you in October!

Nate

Read the WorldChanging.com Manifesto.

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Igatpuri, India -Dhamma Giri, also known as the Vipassana International Academy, is the main hub for all the vipassana meditation centers throughout the world under the teaching of S.N. Goenka. Located in Igatpuri in the state of Maharashtra, India, the garden-strewn campus is set in a dry desert bluff climate reminiscent of the American southwest. There are several large pagodas surrounded by rows of individual meditation cells. There are a number of larger dhamma halls for group meditations and discourses, and men and women are completely segregated into different areas. It’s a slick and comfortable operation, accommodating hundreds of students per course. There is also a separate facility for old students engaged in long term courses, up to 90 days and even longer. The kinks of some of the less-established centers have all been worked out, and I found Dhamma Giri to be incredibly conducive to serious meditation. There are very few distractions, and even though there were hundreds of people at a time sitting in the main hall, they all seemed to be working very hard.

This was my fifth 10-day course and, in spite of (or maybe because of) the comfortable efficiency of the place, it was my roughest sit so far. I worked hard and without much internal or external distraction. The difficult part of meditation is also its greatest benefit: you get a real good look at yourself. The veils of delusion are systematically stripped away, and you stare unblinking into the truthful mirror, which can be alternatively deep and dark and sometimes far too bright. I went through it, boy, I can tell you. It ain’t easy. But in the end, there is no question; it is the single best thing I do for myself. Facing the reality of self and world. Looking at it. Seeing it. It is a process of purification, a refiner’s fire. It hurts like hell, but in the end, you emerge with a much greater degree of equanimity and awareness. So much happens in 10 days, it would take volumes to write it all down. But here are some notes and thoughts arising from this particular course. For a more detailed account of vipassana in general, some necessary background info, and a document of my initial experiences, see my original vipassana post.
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