Teaching Vipassana at home

[saszaandersson]

Hello friends,

I want to introduce Vipassana to a person that stands close to me. Unfortunately, her physical condition do not allow her to attend a 10-day course.
I've read somewhere that it is "dangerous" not to learn Vipassana the "right" way. Is that really the case?

Best regards,
Sasza

[Dharmic Tui]

I guess it could be, it depends on the individual and what/how they're taught. The instructions on the front of the forum should do the trick as a starting point

http://www.vipassanaforum.net/forum/index.php?page=2

[Goofaholix]

It's not dangerous.  The worst that can happen is your friend may not get clear enough instructions or realise the importance of giving it sustained effort for a reasonable period of time and gives up.

[Laurent]

The important is to clearly understand what you do, when you do. If the person does not understand what he is doing when meditating and what is vipassana meditation, it is careful to practice only anapanasati (meaning attention to respiration). For deeper methods, there are sometimes warnings from the instructors to not teach those methods to other people.
I have a colleague who has mental issues (obsessive compulsive disorder). His psychiatrist has recommanded him to practice attention to respiration, so i guess it is safe for all people. You can see an introduction to this method on the main page of this forum.
The buddha emphasizes on the importance of anapanasati which can lead to all fullfillments of the path.

[Vivek]

Hi Sasza, the link that DT referred to above, is a good starting point. Certain traditions of Vipassana do advise not to attempt to learn meditation by oneself. Whether that is valid or not, is certainly debatable but keeping that aside, you can still go trough the meditation instructions given in the homepage for a start.