10 Day Vipassana Meditation

You wanna get deeper in Buddhist life, Learn meditation,Understand real freedom, Be away from consume, You wanna learn about yourself, Or just because you wanna see if you can make it 10 days without speaking. 

 :)

• What? Vipassana Meditation course  
• Where? All over the world, most of the time in a quiet mountain area 
• How Much? Free, on donation basis. 
• What do you need? 10 Days of your life, patience and strength 

A reflection: 
Before I start talking: Vipassana is sort of the most important or maybe THE most important thing I did in my life, because it helped me finding back to my inner voices.

I was 19 years old when I first heard about Vipassana. I just freshly graduated from highschool, my mom sent me studying Chinese in China (I am of Chinese origin) and I decided to meet one of my best friends who was just exploring Thailand. What a journey! Anyhow - so she told me all about Vipassana, how she had registered, how she had already took the journey to the temple somewhere in the middle of nowhere and while the course was about to start, she went through the rules again and decided "nope, aint for me!" and quit -

exactly those rules that had made her quit the course, were the characteristics which made it all so exciting for me - yes exciting - somewhere inside me a bell started ringing, an echo came, and its so cliche but true- I knew "I have to do this!/

So the daily schedule is waking up at 4am in the morning, meditating over 10 hours a day, having only veggy food (breakfast, lunch, 2fruits for dinner), while you are not supposed to talk/read/write/listen to music/ internet or whatever ("noble silence"). /

Thanks to my ambitious nature I learned to overcome the physical pain quickly. The question to quit never even entered my mind. It was absolute clear to me that I will complete that course. My pride would not have allowed me to leave. So within days I was able to sit 60 minutes without a single movement with a posture a ballet dancer would have been proud of. However, exactly that ambition was the next border to be broken as it is one of the characteristics meditation tries to overcome: the EGO.

it was the 5th day or so, when i finally was able to let go. not only of the physical pain, but also of all the thoughts in my head. i was able to observe. while not even realizing that i was doing so.
the first time that i saw the person i was. full of anger and hatred. full of desires and fears.
the cognition that only love is important. - i mean you might know this in your head, but it's a whole different story to understand this in your heart.
at some point also these thoughts passed.
and i only was. i was in that state maybe for seconds. maybe for hours. i don't remember. in retrospect i realized, in the first time in my life, i had actually found peace. and peace is, when you are in harmony with the universe, when there is no i.
Well I am still working on that EGO story,  but let me tell you how Vipassana has changed me so far:
One of the most important changes is that I used to be a person full of anger, my outbursts of fury were well known among my poor friends - I am not an angel now, but so much more peaceful -  before I did not even understand the feeling of peace --- being born in a business family, my only aim in life was getting rich, next to enjoying all the material joy one can find on earth - now money is just a tool not the target. I avoid eating meat, fish, drinking alcohol etc. - I finally managed to quit smoking after years///--- short: my whole life has changed.
because now i know there is something worth changing for.

ich kann nur (m)einen weg beschreiben. das lesen einer wegbeschreibung, ist jedoch nicht genug um am ziel anzukommen.

there is no way to describe a feeling, you can only go to experience yourself:  www.dhamma.org

Useful, too:

• www.vridhamma.org
• Goenkaji-U ba Khin : The clock of Vipassana has struck
• Ledi Sayadaw: Manual of Ultimate Truth
• Joseph Goldenstein: Insight Meditatoin – the practice of freedom 
  
  Try 10 Days Vipassana Meditation and you know. 
  

  
  

Wayne Dyer

Quote of the day

Wayne Dyer

"A belief System is nothing more than a thought we've thought over and over again."

Spirit Science 15 ~ Power of the Heart

Book Review: Daniel Odier Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love

in short: daniel odier describes his journey to India, where he met an enlightened tantrika leading him to the deepest states of awareness. 

when reading this book i felt it being one of the most authentic stories ever. either daniel odier is a mastermind of a writer or he just has to have lived what he is telling in there. it describes beautifully not only what tantra is, but his own journey and feelings initialized by his master Devi. 

what is tantra? 

tantra is said to be originated 7000 years ago in the indus river, south of kashmir. it is the mystic, the scientific and the artistic part of drawidinic culture, and everything possible for the human being. 

it is probably the only antique teaching, which survived time, robberies, emperors by the continuous delivery from master to student. the only teaching, where you can still find the idea of the big goddess without emphasizing the power of men. 

the highest fulfillment of a Tantrika, one who is exercising Tantra, is to understand and realize our deepest nature. it is not limited to sexual techniques - in the opposite, without truthful spiritual understanding these sexual practices will become shallow and meaningless. 

daniel odiers story --

daniel odier seems to have been looking for a master for decades, until one time, in the middle of nowhere in india, he just gave up. this precious moment led him to meet his master: an enlightened yogini - a woman who is supposed to be dangerous, even a murderer as rumor wants it. his determination was set though. daily he would trek close to her hut, presenting various offerings until she accepted him as a student. . . 

highly recommended - a must read!

Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening: Phil Borges at TEDxUMKC

now i can look back and write about it, but back then, it was just a horror trip which did not seem to stop:



2014, autumn, i am in australia, byron bay hinterland. i am with friends, people who love me dearly. i am in a community where i can be who i am and can live the life i have always dreamed of. nature, art and beautiful music are surrounding me.

and what happens?

voices within me, voices go through me, spirits are with me, shadows want to be resolved and i dont know how to deal with the situation. in one second i was totally fine and in the next i was crying like a river fall. i walk into wonders, like seeing cobras dancing - plants talk to me- i see people and see through - i know more than i should - i felt i was going crazy.

and i ran. this video helped me so much. thank you.

digital nomads - authentic lifestyle or undercover depressed?

what is it all about?

dreaming to live where other people do vacation?

and not only there, but having the freedom to live anywhere at any time -

when work only needs a laptop and internet access?

or are they just running away?

i have been observing this trend for a couple of years now... and it seems the number of digital nomads are growing! 

there are people like sebastian kühn who did not fit into the "normal world", being employed and working in the office just made him unhappy. he started by taking online jobs, after that he built a marketing agency and finally he is working with his own projects, which he calls: wireless life. he sounds pretty happy with what he is doing. 

another similar fellow is ben paulo, who started a blogging university and is likewise successful.

in germany there are even conferences by now: where you meet and connect to like-minded people. 

however, there are also critical voices like patrick. he says, all this traveling around, is just about running away from yourself. you are happy as long as you are on the road. however, as soon as you return to your home country, you can not stay. Why? because you are faced with the boring everyday life or you are missing real social contacts, as in the meantime your friends moved on or you moved on and the base of a real friendship is just gone. 

it is a tricky question. where do we cross the line from living an authentic life to just running away from everyday life?

channeled by bashar:

"...it has been often said you are shifting. your frequencies from one reality level to another. and this is so. but you are always shifting. your are shifting now. it is a natural thing that you do. you don't have to wait to shift. you've been shifting. you've been shifting all your lives. this is the way motion is created. this is  what happens when you create the illusion of movement. the only way to create the illusion of movement is to actually shift from parallel reality to parallel reality that is slightly different from the reality you are in before.
so your are shifting now. now. now. NOW
through constant constant CONSTANTLY shifting parallel realities.

the idea of noticing the changes is.

thats when you know you are shifting.

that learning to shift is nothing you need to learn

this is the nature of how change exists

the qustion is not can you shift.

by Bashar

crisis - a definition

In most dictionaries a crisis is found to be some kind of problematic situation, e.g. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, where the crisis is “a time of great danger, difficulty or confusion when problems must be solved or important decisions must be made” (Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary 1995, 265). It is distinguished between medical, personal, economical and political aspects (Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary 1995, 265). However, they fail to express the chances provided by a crisis, a time of transition, an opportunity to change. A rather neutral interpretation can be found in the medical or personal context, where a crisis is a certain level in the development of a sickness. The resolution of the crisis is to determine whether the patient recovers or dies (Holton 1987, 504).

The quotation „every transition is crisis, and isn’t crisis sickness?” of Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s apprenticeship depicts the idea of a crisis far more clearly.

By the first part, Goethe expresses the idea of a crisis as a transition. 
When continuing his sentence, his initially rather neutral description receives a negative connotation, whereby one has to consider that this amendment has the character of a rhetorical question. In light of this expression, Goethe reveals the peculiarity of a crisis. 
The crisis regarded to as a transition, has positive and negative aspects. Nevertheless, Goethe calls it also “sickness”, because it forces the involved subjects to act, which is a deviation of normality and depending on the degree of anomaly could be quite threatening and dangerous. 
However, one has doubts about the nature of interpretation, saying such situations are only disadvantageous, especially when regarded to as speeding up a necessary transition,  which is why Goethe phrased his assertion as a rhetorical question and leaves it open to interpretation.

So in general, a crisis is an unstable situation, in which subjects are forced to take decisions, which have substantial consequences for the agents or the involved, with a good or bad outcome. The process of transition itself is accompanied by uncertainty, pressure and in some cases danger.

Keeping Goethe’s definition of crisis in mind the economic, environmental, social and personal or psychic crisis can be understand as being the possibility of a transition, a change to a more just

and healthy society in harmony with nature, but this decision has to be made individually. 

Phil Borges Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening?

The other day I happened to stumble over Phil Borges. For over 25 years he has been traveling around the world, documenting indigenous and tribal cultures. Apart from his award winning books and famous photography, he recently started a project called CRAZYWISE  - it is about the call, the awakening to another consciousness level, which goes along with a shocking experience for most of the Westerners. 

The talk gives a good introduction that we need to understand that a so called psychosis is not necessarily to be treated with medication, hospitalization etc. 
We have to understand that in tribal cultures some of these experiences would have been regarded as a Shaman's call. 

It was such a relief for me to hear about him explaining all this. Because the other year I experienced something similar what he was talking about. Almost out of nothing! I was having a happy life in a community near Byron Bay, Australia. And BAM. Anyway. 

By this talk I understood I am not crazy. Even though I am still not totally convinced. It just goes beyond all concepts we have learned in this capitalist society so far. And even now when I am writing these words, it just seems so surreal to me. 

 Check out the talk here.

LIFE PURPOSE in 5 Minutes

In a TED TALK:  ADAM LEIPZIG  claims the life purpose is easily found by walking through 5 questions: 

1. Who are you?
2. What do you do?
3. Who you do it for?
4. What do these people want and need ?
5. How they change as a result?

He added one question: What is the one thing, you feel qualified to teach others?

Now I do not believe that one will find all the answers in 5 Minutes. However, the questions are really worth thinking about. And what he puts emphasis on is to face outward. He says, in his experience people are happy, who make other people happy. Now that is nothing new right? 

However, somehow that simple fact, is the one that got me. All these years, I was doing meditation. I was moving inward. It got me happier and somehow got me lost as well. Almost each concept I was taught so far revealed itself as being not essential in the end. 

Then I started wondering what is left to do? And I get it now by this talk. I have dealt with my own shit. I can’t say I am out of it totally. However, I can say, I am at peace with myself - at least most of the time. These days I feel I am okay.

Now maybe it is just time to face outwards as he puts it. Maybe it is time to help others to feel okay. It is time to serve. 

Either way. This Talk got shared over 4 Million times, a figure, which made me understand, how desperately people need a purpose in life nowadays. Somehow this figure, as sad as it is, is somehow soothing too: I am not alone. 

Check out the talk yourself: click here

Sadguru: What is the purpose of my birth?

Sadguru claims to be enlightened. He is mystic, a philosopher, a speaker, anything but usual: