Bhanta Vimalaramsi

[Jhana4]

In the book of Vimalaramsi you can read the sutta before the explanation of his meaning.
Then you can agree or disagree with the explanation.
Personally I agree, and for now It worked very well for me.

How long have you been practicing his method?   What have you gotten that you were not getting before?

[thelastrich]

I'm in the 6th month practicing meditation, a very short time I know, but I got a lot of changes.
I do sit every day at least once.
First of all I feel more happy, relaxed and fulfilled in my life.

I got a lot of habits I didn't have before, I'm more clean, I study more and better, I started to do exercise regulary, left smoking, left alcohol, I have learned to draw (i'm not good but before I was like hell) and take my camera with me every day, I'm learning paper folding too, I'm more kind with people and like more their company...
Before meditation I spent that time playing video games, in night party and watching movies and stuff, dreaming how my life would be If I could do this, or I do that...

Those habits are only "things", changes in the surface if you want to call It, but for me, personally, is a huge and radical change, for good, and came to me naturally, I didn't force them. I feel like a new person.

[Matthew]

[Mungo]

I'm in the 6th month practicing meditation, a very short time I know, but I got a lot of changes.
I do sit every day at least once.
First of all I feel more happy, relaxed and fulfilled in my life.

I got a lot of habits I didn't have before, I'm more clean, I study more and better, I started to do exercise regulary, left smoking, left alcohol, I have learned to draw (i'm not good but before I was like hell) and take my camera with me every day, I'm learning paper folding too, I'm more kind with people and like more their company...
Before meditation I spent that time playing video games, in night party and watching movies and stuff, dreaming how my life would be If I could do this, or I do that...

Those habits are only "things", changes in the surface if you want to call It, but for me, personally, is a huge and radical change, for good, and came to me naturally, I didn't force them. I feel like a new person.

I see exactly where you are coming from. I am almost up to a year practicing now. Some days it seems like you havent achieved anything but only when you look back to where you started from you can see the difference. As a fellow beginner there are still lots of different "me" inside but the practice seems to cultivate more skillful "me".

[Morning Dew]

Calm-abiding is my primary practice since March 2010.
Before i started Shamatha i was very much adicted to porn sites, drinking beer every day after work (to relax), i was paranoid to the extent i could not sleep on my own in a house, paranoid to walk on my own in the night, i was very angry, always worried doubble checking whether i locked the door, etc...

Now after more than a year of practicing Calm abiding as this Bhante explains as well as Matthew all the above decreased tremendously without my effort.
There is this me grounded in breathing without effort looking at the mind's non-sense. Im not enlightened  but insights are happening on their own accord even if the actual sittin session feels like a total disaster. Noting the distraction is your best friend and relaxing once noted and remembering to bring the awareness back to breathing. Thats all to it.

There is this moment where i slide into a diferent paralell conciousness, thoughts still happening somewhere on the side, away from me, and the space im in is without distractions, they are out there happening on their own accord rising and passing, like im sitting on the margins of the mind not involved in the mental crap yet very much aware of it. This does not happen often. Smooth bresthing and realy relaxed yet awake i am when this shift happens.

One can not try praccticing this. You do it or dont. Thats it.

May you all find the way

[Jhana4]

thelastrich, dusko & mungo,Thanks for the accounts.   People usually make positive changes after starting a meditation practice but it is rare and interesting to read about such significant turnarounds.

Have a good weekend.

[meditime]

Here, in this excellent talk, Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi talks about the differences between Vipassana practice and his more recent discovery of what the Suttas teach directly with no interpretation.

In 1999 he ended 20 years of Vipassana and decided that he still had not found "it". This after 22 hr/day retreats of up to 2 yrs in length with the most famous meditation teachers in the world.

In Sri Lanka, a monk said throw out everything he has learned and go back and read the Suttas (Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya) and follow them exactly. There you will find what the Buddha taught, but you must read them with no preconceptions.

In this talk to at the Indonesian Temple, in California, he explains what he found and his subsequent meditation practice.

Teacher: Bhante Vimalaransi

link : Vipassana Vs the Suttas - Which is Right? Bhante at the Indonesian Temple.

[Billymac629]

Not a big fan of Vimalaramsi... I get that he says you should investigate on your own, however, I don't respect the fact that he bashes the commentaries only to tell people to follow his advice WHICH IS ANOTHER COMMENTARY IN AND OF ITSELF!! 
The man definitely boasts about his accomplishments alot.  And why is his commentary any better than the older commentaries??   The man has confessed that he cannot read pali..  so he is using a translation of a translation to dispute things.. 
Also he stated that there is a thin membrane around the brain that tightens around the brain when one has craving...  Yet when talking to neorologists they state that that is totally false..  there is not a membrane that tightens around the brain when one experiences craving...
He also states that he can cure aids.. 
there is alot of controversy around this guys words and teachings..  I like when he states that the words "nose tip" and "abdomen" are not found in the "instruction" for meditation in the suttas..  But when asked where craving being a tightness in the head or around the brain is in the suttas, he cannot answer.. because it is his way of interpreting it.. its his COMMENTARY on the subject, yet he tells people not to learn from the commentaries but from the suttas.. so i guess he doesn't want people to learn from his style of meditation.

Also.. He studied Mahasi technique and down grades it..  yet mahasi teachings do coincide with the satipatttana sutta ..  and many many many teachers have taught relaxing the mind and body for years.. way before Vimalaramsi!  the relaxation step is not new.  There is nothing new to his teaching except him trying to make things appear as if he has rediscovered this method from the buddha that only he knows and teaches..   
sorry i ranted a bit

metta

[rob]

Also he stated that there is a thin membrane around the brain that tightens around the brain when one has craving...  Yet when talking to neorologists they state that that is totally false..  there is not a membrane that tightens around the brain when one experiences craving...

Not trying to be argumentative, but a simple search on google turned up a number of medical texts stating that the meninges does, in fact, tighten and contract as a response to stress factors. More pronounced tightening of the meninges is more commonly associated with extreme conditions like migraine headaches and meningitis... but this is our brain, so I don't think any contraction of the meninges has to be terribly extreme to affect us. Anyone who has worked in a "boiler room" office situation is probably all too familiar with "stress headaches" and accompanying nosebleeds. If the brain can manifest physical symptoms such as these, then I don't think his assertion is a leap at all.

[siddharthgode]

I watched Venerable Vimalaramsi's video.   I didn't see what he had to say as being at odds with the way S.N. Gonenka via his videos teaches meditation at his retreats.   Goenka's retreat videos outline Dependent Origination and they teach the students to cut the cycle short in between contact and desire.  The videos explain that the way to do that is to simply be aware of the desire, while trying to be equanimous.

That is what Venerable Vimalarmsi is instructing people to do, with the difference being that he is focusing much more on how to be equanimous.

here is how it is different.
what goenkaji teach n tell to practice are 2 different things.
i guess the nose part is very much clear in the video. i would like to clear off the vipassana part also.
goenkaji says to remain equanimus is the most important thing. but when we start practicing the technique he say that when a sensation arrises at someother part that is not being concentrated just ignore it. well thats where we start developing abortion towards that sensation and the whole process gets dirty. when i approached the teachers they have no idea what to say to this. they say just follow the instructions. i found the answer to this myself - being aware of both sensations n being equanimus to both. if not possible then stop scanning and just be eqanimus to all sensations and let the difficult sensation to mange pass away and then continue.


AND FOR THE VIDEO: i cant thank you enough for posting this video. it gave me soo much strenght now that i know what i taught myself was right all along. especially that small membrane around brain and also around pain and releasing it. i will for ever in dept to u 
my 

[siddharthgode]

I am just a beginner so please disregard my rambling, but i tried focusing more on the relaxing component the last few sittings and i found it counterproductive, dulling the awareness. I think relaxing is a very dangerous word to use in instructions, mabye it`s the opposite of restlessness and there`s something inbetween them on the middle of that scale that is the right answer; a neutral calm of sorts. Of course i could be doing it wrong and missing his point.

i guess you didnt see the full video? plz do it again. he says dulling the awareness with distractions is natural and not fight it out. let it pass no matter how long it takes.

[Masauwu]

That post was made during a very restless period when frustration was high, I`m ok now. What i had meant was that there is an important difference between relaxing the mind and calming the mind; calming (as i see it) is relaxing yet remaining mindful, without drifting into a pleasant state where attention goes to sleep. I agree with you, this should be done gently and not forced when we notice the mindfulness faded; it took a bit of practice to understand.