A Practical And Spiritual Path – An Introduction Of Vipassana Meditation (eng)

A Practical And Spiritual Path

By Paul R. Fleischman 

Introduction

During the years that I have been giving talks on Vipassana meditation, the audiences have changed radically. Only a few decades ago, meditation was relatively exotic. Today, it has been the subject of thousands of studies and articles in the Western world, and is practiced to some degree by millions of people. Audiences have more scientific information, beliefs, assumptions, misinformation, enthusiasm, commercial interest, or psychological over-expectations and fears. Each lecture requires an adjustment to a different style of listener. In the winter of 2014-2015, I found myself scheduled to give lectures and talks at a number of varying venues.

I developed three goals for each talk: describing to potential new students the meditation practice and the courses in which it is taught; making the presentation compatible with contemporary science while preserving Vipassana’s historical authenticity; addressing specific audience agendas.

The winter of 2014-2015 was ferocious. We had serial snowstorms banging down upon us, and months of temperatures hovering around zero Fahrenheit, with no thaw, and therefore with continuous accumulation of white, frozen piles. Many mornings the wind chills were well below 0 Fahrenheit, several days as low as minus 20. Every day was a challenge to dress properly in order to survive the hour walking the dog. Icicles hung in glittering arrays from gutters and rooflines. The historic nature of the freeze – the coldest February since temperature records started in 1836 — added to its subtext of threat, as an aberration imposed by global climate change.

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