New members introduction thread 2017 - present.

[aayushkr]

Hello vipassana community!
My name is Aayush and I attended SN Goenka's 10 day vipassana course in March this year. Since then, I am actively developing the habit of meditating in the morning and night for an hour and the habit is solidifying at a moderate rate. I am grateful for my present way of life where I try to observe rather than react and opine  .

I mostly rely on the dhamma.org app for instructions and meditation and have been reading the mahasatipatthana sutta published by VRI. Other than SN Goenka resources, I also used the resources created by Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu of Sirimangalo monastery, Tathagata monastery's insight to meditation instructions, the Hamilton project blog's 'Going For Stream Entry On A Goenka 10-Day Vipassana Course'.

For monetary sustenance I work as a software engineer and I live in Southern California.

I plan to attend another 10 day course (or preferably a 30 day course) early next year. I have set an intent to lay the groundwork for it now and to use that time as 'diligently, patiently and persistently' as possible and to meditate continuously.

Thank you for creating this community I will definitely be reading the discussions quite a bit and adding/asking my thoughts every now and then. Please feel free to help me with whatever advise/remarks you have. I am eager to develop on this path.

[raushan]

Welcome Aayush.

[Vivek]

Welcome, Aayush.

[mobius]

Hello! I joined here to learn and ask questions, as it seems getting advice from more experienced people in meditation is a wise thing to do (rather than just reading or listening to podcasts, which is what I've been doing).

I'm 28 years old, I started meditating for the first time several weeks ago and now I'm in the process of solving a mystery from my childhood. (I'll explain that in another topic).  I am not religious, though Buddhism and Hinduism does interest me quite a bit. I'm Agnostic when it comes to God or spirits. I'm a scientific person, but I also try to have an open mind about such things. I've never done any drugs though I've been reading a lot about them recently, like on the John-Hopkins psylocibin studies, one thing that got me interested in this in the first place. Fascinating studies/stories to listen to.

In spite of what I just said; I always thought meditation was just about relaxing, and forcing yourself to be calm and reducing stress in your life. Wasn't I wrong?  After meditating for several weeks I've gotten a few tastes (for better or for worse) of the... mind/life altering capabilities. Wow. I promptly realized I needed to take this more seriously and learn and research before just going about this willy-nilly.

Reading through some existing topics has already been helpful, so thank you!
As I'm very new to this and not a practitioner of any school of thought of religion, please excuse my ignorance and perhaps lack of appropriate language.

[Merrikay]

Hi everyone! I’m Kaela, 27 year old mother of two and I am an inconsistent meditator, haha. I’m happy to be here and love to everyone.

[raushan]

Welcome mobius and Kaela.

[Nope]

Hi Everyone!

First and foremost, thanks for accepting me in the group

I attended my first 10 Days Vipassana (SN Goenka) in December 2017, without any previous experience in meditation. I was introduced to Vipassana by a former Yoga teacher; After the retreat, i maintained the following routine: 1h mediations a day + 1h of group meditation/week + 4h meditation course/per month. I stuck to this until the last 2 months and in 1 week I am attending my second 10d.

Thanks again for letting me become part of the forum and also for all the information and support you are guys providing

[Bambs]

Hello everyone!

Thank you for accepting me into the group.

I have meditated on and off for several years, sometimes very regularly and sometimes not, so I hope participating in this community will help me build up a steady practise.

I'm a longtime reader of the forum and a lot of what has been said on here has been very valuable and useful to me - as I am sure it has been to many others 

Bambs

[derek]

Hi Everyone

My name is Derek, I've been meditating for a few months now and feel I've hit a bit of wall. I'm continuing with it. I tend to use an app called Calm, I like a little help in getting started. I'm hoping to learn more about meditation and to work on finding that calm place that I know exists somewhere.

Thanks

[KHo]

Hi everyone!

My name is Kevin and I started practicing Vipassana meditation last year on a 10-day Goenka retreat. I've been meditating on and off and am looking forward to growing my practice into a daily habit alongside the rest of this community.

[aspen patchouli]

Greetings fellow journeymen.  I'm not sure if this is how I'm supposed to post an intro or not, but this is the best I can figure out so here goes.  I have had a very troubled past.  When I was 6 years old I was in a wreck that killed my little brother and a family friend, and literally killed me.  The emts had to bring me back to life on the scene.  I spent 91 days in the hospital, the first part(over a week) in a coma.  And I had to learn to do everything all over again.  Ever since then I have felt disconnected from society somehow, but I digress.  About 2 years ago, I started weaning myself off of caffeine.  That led to taking myself off of sodas.  Fast forward to now, and I have been a vegetarian for a month now.  I have been meditating for almost 2 years now, and I think I am just now starting really feel the benefits.  The emotions that I had kept inside after the accident are coming to the surface now, and I feel more at peace with the natural world around me.  I no longer watch television, I pretty much just keep it on a meditative station.  Yesterday I pretty much meditated all day, and I had the best nights sleep of my adult life......10 hours without moving an inch!

[VipassanaXYZ]

Welcome!

[savethelastbreathforme]

Hi folks,

Thank you for hosting this forum. Nice to know so many other people are exploring meditation. As for myself, I have started meditation since getting ill over christmas 2017. End result of the illness is loud Tinnitus (both ears), and strange neuropathic head problems.

I have been doing mindful meditation & deep breathing meditation, and have found so far it keeps me in balance - if that makes sense.

Although only meditating for 2 weeks - I think I have found a new friend.

Thank you.

[Amanaki]

Hello everyone I am new to this forum and i hope to learn new aspects of the meditation here
I have had about 20 years with vipassana meditation practice but i know i still need improvements

[Matthew]

Welcome savethelastbreathforme and Amanaki.

[Jvd]

Hi, I’m Jim Van Dyke ( ‘JVD’) from the east San Francisco Bay Area, USA.

I’m 58, son of a very mixed up fundamentalist minister, who I chose to believe when he said that I wouldn’t live to become an adult because of the impending apocalypse. I tried the Christian path for my early years (intertwined with much radical experimentation), and then tried meditation starting in my mid 20’s. Yes, good can come from Donald Trump and his followers, because in late 2017 I found myself so wound up with anger at the increased amount of racist comments stemming from him and echoed by family members that I finally found the ability to meditate for a few moments each morning (humor intended in that last sentence...the best humor is often true, right?). Good is wherever you find it I suppose.

Since using a guided meditation app recently, I feel like I’m truly encountering some profound personal changes. It’s often like I’m watching a movie of this thing called life, and perhaps I’m less of a primary character and maybe a bit of all the characters and even the setting in this so-called movie. I also feel less of a desire for excitement all the time, and more contentment. Additionally, I’m radically aware of the head games I feel in response to interaction with others...what a manic amount of fireworks I’ve had going on in my head all these moments of my life!

Thanks for hosting and maintaining this site, Matthew.

[Apkallu]

Hello,

I am Laurent from Paris, France and a 45 yo man.

I started meditation in Jan 2015 (AYP/Yogani) until I switched 2/3 years after to MCTB.
I've been doing Asana & Zhan Zhuang ... so exploring a bit energetic possibilities.
But I was disappointed by not really bettering myself apart some siddhis here and there that were not that much useful in feeling more calm on a long period. On the contrary.

This was more like being more calm at the surface but the storm was still underneath and more powerful than ever to the point where you could litterally go mad rather quickly and feel numb/dull the rest of the time (which could be wrongly considered calmness).
I was told to do more "grounding" activities but I could relate it was not helpful.

I also faced personal issues that finally were even more destabilizing than expected and this energy just melt myself from the inside (atrocious) and I think, helped in aggravating PTSD symptoms that arose.

I thus decided, after almost 3 years of suffering, to completely change of method for good (no more energy stuff) and tried SN Goenka for 3 weeks (listening to his discourses of the 10 days retreat). Of course, this is not ideal and I know retreats would be recommended but I cannot yet and need help nevertheless.

So let's just judge the tree to its fruits : my PTSD almost disappeared but I nevertheless experienced some rage outbursts from time to time probably due to wrong practice (possibly too much attention to sensations and thus equanimity could not develop enough). This imbalance I experienced is being corrected. I also corrected my observation not to be attention/intention which would lead to move energy where I look at internally and create sensations by myself.

Of course, I (try to) never mix what I learned with Goenka's method and every listening uncovers new truths/understandings but I felt the help here from experienced practitioners could be a life saving... and prepare me to a retreat one day (considering I think I would explode if I would attend it right now).

Thank you for reading me.

[Matthew]

Hi Jim and Laurent, welcome to the forum.

[11square]

Hi, Everyone

Thanks for accepting me to the forum, I'm am Vineeth. I'm from India.  I came to know about meditation 5 years ago. But the practice has been on and off, feel like I need a constant motivation to make to a daily habit.  So here I'm, learn and practice with all your help.

Thanks.

[Kamma]

Hello meditators,

I'm happy to have finally registered (after lurking for a while) in this lovely community!

I've started meditation when I was still a child, without even knowing what it was. Later on I discovered it's an actual thing and experimented with many techniques (and also various drugs, most of them natural). What I lacked so far was consistency.

Goenka's Vipassana (I did 2 courses, one just recently) has helped me tremendously to understand myself and the world better. I must have done something right in a previous life, as from very early on I've experienced what I understand is called bhanga. It changed everything in me and I got out of a depression that haunted me for years. I've been an atheist since childhood, which has left me quite empty and purposeless. Experiencing the reality of existence was like taking a veil from my eyes.

But, as I said, consistency has not been my forte, so I didn't keep a regular meditation practice. I did apply many of the learnings in my day to day life though, so I've seen the benefits first hand. With the start of this year I've done a 2nd 10-day Vipassana course which has helped me understand the technique better and made me more decided to follow up. I managed to keep the 2h daily sittings on most days in the past 3 weeks which is such a big acomplishment for me! Being on this forum is definitely very motivational and I love reading your stories.

Thank you for having me and much metta to all!

Kamma

[raushan]

Welcome to the forum Vineeth, Kamma.

[tbarron]

Hello,

My name is Tom. I live in East Tennessee in the US.

I have been meditating for a while. I attended a weekend Zen retreat back in the 90's -- don't remember the exact year now, but it was when I was meditating regularly (weekly) with the local sangha that sponsored the retreat. I struggled to maintain a daily practice back then, but missed many days.

Since then, my practice has been off and on, more off than on, although I did have a couple of years in the last fifteen where I meditated every day, typically for 30 minutes or less each day. I've been working on another daily streak since April 7, 2017, again 30 minutes or less each day. Since I retired at the end of April, 2017, I have a lot more free time to devote to practice.

This past December (2018), my appetite for sitting suddenly increased and I'm up to around 1.5 to 2 hours each day at this point. I think the increase in appetite may have been due to a combination of some painful personal conflict with family members coupled with running across some testimonial information about the benefits of awakening for understanding oneself and being able to navigate relationships more skillfully. Whatever it was, my motivation has been strong ever since.

The guidance I'm currently using is the book The Mind Illuminated, by Culadasa. I've also benefited from some of his youtube videos. In the system described in that book, I judge myself to be on stage 4, which just means I've almost got where I can keep my attention on the breath for the whole session with minimal distractions.

I'm grateful to be able to be part of this sangha. Thank you for allowing me to join. I hope to learn lots from you all and to contribute as I'm able.

May all of us and everyone else be healthy, happy, and content.

Tom

PS: JVD, just wanted to say that I relate to what you wrote. My parents were Southern Baptist missionaries in Indonesia. It made for an interesting cultural experience growing up, but their religious beliefs ultimately didn't work for me. I'm your age, too.

[Mohit]

Hello Everyone,

Greetings!!
My name is Mohit and I live in Delhi, India. I got introduced to the topic some years back courtesy books from the likes of JK, Eckhart, Ajahn Brahm etc and have been an active meditator since then . I also had the privilege of attending a retreat in Dharamshala last year where I got introduced to the Shamatha practice.

I usually practice in early morning for 1-2 hours and try to remain as aware as possible throughout the day. I can see that the practice is improving and I can remain more aware of my emotions and feelings by regular practice. Sometimes it becomes really frustrating and irritating, but I guess once you start on this path, it is very difficult to go back to the old habits and old ways of doing things. One simply knows and understands that everything has been temporary and conditioned and to know the reality, one has to practice and see things as they really are. What generally keeps me inspired is my keenness to achieve freedom and happiness by being independent from every external thing/people.

This sangha is highly required for keeping the motivation levels and improving on the practices. I would thank everyone here and my best wishes to all  in there journey.

May all sentient  beings be full of compassion and loving kindness.

Warm Regards,
Mohit

[Middleway]

Welcome Tom and Mohit.

[Jallen]

Hello everyone!

Thank you for accepting my request to join (whoever you are).

I began practicing meditation and studying Buddhist philosophy 10 years ago (at age 16) to overcome depression. That was until an ex-gf became frustrated with me for not responding to her attempts to trigger me, calling me "a robot." 

I have since drifted towards other forms of spiritual practices, experimenting with yoga, breathing techniques and psychedelics. I am now 26, and looking back on my meditation days, I remember them as the time when I was the most peaceful and contented I've ever been. I have recently attended a Goenka-style Vipassana retreat and am now looking to return to meditation as my main spiritual practice. I have some specific questions about said meditation practice, and will post them in the appropriate section

Much love,

Jamie