Hello all: Introduce yourself in this thread or just read it to meet the members

[xRyokenx]

My name is Anthony and I live in Eastern NC.  I am 18 years old and am currently going to college majoring in Psychology as it both interests me and I love helping people when I can. 

To save on threads that are made, anyone can post in this one, I'm not too worried about it being "hijacked" or anything.

[Matthew]

Hey Anthony welcome and thanks for joining. I hope you find inspiration here

In fact I have locked this board as reply-only so it will only ever have this one thread in it where people can reply .... no threadjacking ... just one thread Sooo .... if you are new to the boards and want to say hello this is a good place to do it.

To introduce myself:

My name is Matthew, known as The Irreverent Buddhist both here and elsewhere. Often people shorten that to TIB which is fine by me I'm English, 41 and live a Dhammic life.

I'm a meditator since 1997 and Buddhist since 1999 and have studied with Tibetain, Japanese and other masters. I have lived in Dhamma centres in France and England for a total of around three years during that time and sat numerous retreats. My basic practices are Shamatha and Vipassana. I also practice meditation in action in every moment that I can remember to.

I take a basic approach to buddhist Teachings. I am the owner and administrator of these forums yet you will find I take a very democratic attitude to things. This forum is built with the aspiration to grow a small but strong online sangha where meditators find support on the path. Thanks go to Joey, Ben and Anders for their support, inspiration and participation. Anders ran the forunner to this forum vipassanaforum.com and Joey (silentflute) and Ben are moderating these forums.

In the Dhamma,

Matthew, The Irreverent Buddhist, vipassanaforum.net

[mettajoey]

Welcome to the boards, Anthony!
How did you find us so quick?  That's great.

My name is Joe and I will be helping in moderating the forum. 
TIB and I are very happy to see this forum back online and hope to get as many of our veteran posters back as we can.  We are also hoping to grow this community for support in practice and help as many folk we can on their path of Dhamma.

I did my ten-day at the Dhamma Dharawith the SN Goenka people.  It was a fantastic experience.

I should mention my old handle was "mettajoey"  It was kinda off the cuff...ya know?   

[xRyokenx]

Matthew sent me the link to the site.    Thanks for the welcome.

[Fritz-the-Cat]

Greetings all!

I really like the look of this forum!

I received the email notification from silentflute (Thank you!  ) and am looking forward to lurking and learning and occasionally posting. 

Vipassana is relatively new to me so I certainly fit the "newbie" category.  I discovered vipassana through a workshop I attended at Omega Institute in New York.  I originally attended the workshop because it was headlined by Stanislov and Christina Grof.  The subject was Holotropic Breathwork.  Jack Kornfield was there to combine meditation with the breathwork.  What a wonderful experience!  I was familiar with Jack prior to going but it was an honor to learn from such a compassionate teacher. 

Like Anthony, I too am seeking a degree in Psychology.  My goal is to specialize in transpersonal psychology and so far, it's working out quite well.

On the spiritual side, I have a hard time with labeling my beliefs.  If I had to put a label on, I would say I'm a Gaian believer following a buddhist philosophy.      How's that? 

Blessings!

Fred

[mettajoey]

On the spiritual side, I have a hard time with labeling my beliefs.  If I had to put a label on, I would say I'm a Gaian believer following a buddhist philosophy.      How's that? 

Blessings!

Fred

Hi Fred,
I feel that's perfect! 
My main attraction to this meditation technique is its totally secular nature.  Believe what you want.  Meditation is just a tool to weed out the noise so you can really go about living.

Welcome back!

[Matthew]

Greetings all!

I really like the look of this forum!

I received the email notification from silentflute (Thank you!  ) and am looking forward to lurking and learning and occasionally posting. 

Vipassana is relatively new to me so I certainly fit the "newbie" category.

We're all new every moment that's one of the beautifull discoveries of being a meditator

I discovered vipassana through a workshop I attended at Omega Institute in New York.  I originally attended the workshop because it was headlined by Stanislov and Christina Grof.  The subject was Holotropic Breathwork.  Jack Kornfield was there to combine meditation with the breathwork.  What a wonderful experience!  I was familiar with Jack prior to going but it was an honor to learn from such a compassionate teacher. 

WOW !! I can't believe the richness of your introduction to meditation. What a blessing.

Like Anthony, I too am seeking a degree in Psychology.  My goal is to specialize in transpersonal psychology and so far, it's working out quite well.

On the spiritual side, I have a hard time with labeling my beliefs.  If I had to put a label on, I would say I'm a Gaian believer following a buddhist philosophy.      How's that? 

Blessings!

Fred

Welcome Fred,

Please do me a favour and raise the last part of your post in the "Practice and Path" section of the forums and I will provide a substantive response there.

I am flattered that you like the look of the forum. Yesterday lunchtime I decided to enact a plot Joey and I had been hatching for more than a week. I bought two domain names and a 2 year 300Gig hosting package. That gives us room for a slowly growing but potentially large online Sangha (the sanskrit/Buddhist/pali term for community or group).

Since lunch yesterday I installed and configured the forum software and set up the core bulletin boards. We beta tested with three users for about 12 hours and now we have gone live.

I hope this space lives up to Joey and mine's aspirations, everyone's needs and provides a Dhammic route towards better living and awakened minds for people beyond our imagination.



Matthew

[Nathan Moshinsky]

Re: Hello all,
My name is Nathan. I am an Australian and have practised buddhist meditation fo rmany years. At present I belong to a Zen group which has long sits but I have not attended any retreats for many years.
I am 65 years of age and have practised yoga and meditation for some years.
Recently I have done a Reiki course which has its origins in Japanese Buddhism and is a form of spiritual healing.
I was a member of the previous forum rum by Anders.
All the best,
Nathan

[Matthew]

Welcome back Nathan

Matthew

[Ben]

Well done to Matthew for getting the vipassanaforum back online.  Joe Harrigan and Anders Ohrn your efforts are truely deserving and should not go without mention!  No doubt you have earned great merits.

About me...
My name is Ben (Ben O'Loughlin), I am from Central Victoria, Australia.  I have been practicing vipassana meditation in the tradition of Sayagi U Ba Khin as taught by SN Goenka since 1985.  I am also the group-sit convenor for fellow practitioners or 'old students' of SN Goenka, in the Ballarat region.  I am also a moderator on another Buddhist discussion forum which will remain nameless for the time being.
THe Dhamma is a crucial aspect of my life, whether it is sitting, serving or study, or for that matter, integrating it into the warp and weave of a busy life with the multifarious responsibilities of work and family.
Due to my responsibilities, I was unable to contribute much on Ander's vipassanaforum.com, a situation I hope to remedy this time around.
I look forward to getting to know you at some time.
Kind regards

Ben

[mettajoey]

Warmest welcome back Ben.
Quality people such as your self and others here really strengthen this virtual Sangha and make it a viable resource and support for people in their practice.
Whatever input you may have is most welcome.

Namaste!

[Matthew]

Hi Ben

Good to see you. Welcome back to the forums. I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone again and watching the comunity grow. Your contributions will enlighten us all

I'm amazed that people are joining so quickly. It's great.

Well done to Matthew for getting the vipassanaforum back online.  Joe Harrigan and Anders Ohrn your efforts are truely deserving and should not go without mention!  No doubt you have earned great merits.

I always sidestep compliments. Decided not to. ... Thanks

I have just added youtube functionality to the forums so Dhamma teachings on video can appear in the Resources section and be watched straight from the forum pages. I have put an example in there. Trying to decide if I want to turn off this Newbie thing or "fix it" and leave us all as "newbies" forever as a reminder of the path.

Any ideas from anyone let me know.

In the Dhamma

Matthew

[anders]

Hello my friends,

As the founder of the old vipassanaforum.com, I am very happy to see what a great job Matthew and Joey have done to keep the tradition alive. I believe there is a great need for a forum like this one, and I think it looks very promising.

Here are some thoughts I would like to share with you...

- when trying to spread the word about the forum to make it grow, do not post spam like messages on other forums, as these will only create ill will.

- if you are interested in creating a large sangha (I am not saying that a forum with many users should be the main goal, but at the same time I guess having many users could be helpful when discussing the technique) I would suggest trying to get the forum as highly ranked on Google as possible. When users search for "vipassana forum" this site should be on top in the results list. Another great thing for promotion would be to have a link posted on Wikipedia, under the article for vipassana meditation. I am not sure whether this would be possible without violating any rules, but I would suggest having a closer look at it.

- right now the forum is divided into quite a few categories. This is a great feature for forums with heavy activity, but can be very frustrating for smaller forums. I limited vipassanaforum.com to only one category because I wanted users to get into that one category when they typed the url www.vipassanaforum.com without having to do any additional clicking, and to be able to read all new posts without having to jump between subforums. I would suggest starting with only one category, and then introduce new ones as activity grows; I understand this is a matter of personal taste though.

- I remember I made some rules about posting when my forum was still in its infancy, which only produced ill will among the users. I would recommend trying to keep everything as open as possible, and deal with problems as they arise.

If I come to think about anything else I will post my ideas here. I wish you the best of luck with this forum, Matthew and Joey.

Sincerely
Anders.

[mettajoey]

Welcome, and thanks for the advice and support Anders.
I'm glad you stopped in - even before my harassing email! 
Take care and talk to you soon,

[Matthew]

Anders

Thanks for your wishes and welcome. I hope you will be joining the discussion here and contributing your passionate energy and enthusiasm.

I've set the forums up with an initial structure but very limited. That's it for now and the rest will be lead by what this community develops into. There is a rationale behind the divisions I have made explained in the website board. I am not one for having  no structure to begin as a skeleton at least helps some people know what the are looking at/for.

We will see what happens.

It's good to see you here,

In the Dhamma,

Matthew

[Paul]

Hey, its great to meet up with you all again!  Well done Matthew and Joe I'm so pleased that you managed to get this site together, thank you!  I look forward to discussing with you all on this site 

[Ben]

Welcome Paul

I recall chatting with you when I first joined vipassanaforum.com - right before I disappeared!
Welcome back!
Cheers

Ben

[mettajoey]

Thanks Paul and welcome! 


It's been fantastic to see our virtual Sangha returning.

[Matthew]

Welcome back Paul glad to see you here.

Matthew

[Flipasso]

Hi there my name is Filipe A. Pinto as you may knew me from the facebook forum.
And my nickname (alterego) is FliPasso as you may knew me from the previous vipassanaforum.com


peace@you.all

[Matthew]

Flip

Welcome back from the bottom of my heart.

Every time someone from the 'old' forum rejoins I have a deep sense of the rightness of going to this effort and also a knowing that we are headed back to the excellent and interesting discussions our beautiful little sangha enjoyed.

Thanks for joining,

In the Dhamma,

Matthew, TIB 

[Jack]

Hello all,

I'm Jack, from the old forum that came to us through Brother Anders.  Thanks for bringing this back online 

Metta - Jack

[mettajoey]

Hello all,

I'm Jack, from the old forum that came to us through Brother Anders.  Thanks for bringing this back online 

Metta - Jack

Hi Jack,
it's great to have you back, welcome.

[Ben]

Hello Filipe and Jack!

[scarlet]

Hi all,
I'll probably mostly be a lurker on this site as I am pretty new to meditation.  I registered in order to say that I appreciate having this forum available again.
Scarlet