Daily Dharma

I think/feel/perceive/intuit/experience Vipassana as a less complicated, more practical way of staying in touch with the here and now. Vipassana does away with the intellectual and leaves thought alone. With the focus on breath and sensation one doesn't get caught up in the gimmicks of therapies. The passive awareness of an objective mind is critical to the here and now. By sitting daily morning and night the mind becomes purer by nature and "who I am" appears. Down deep all of us are kind loving people who have a lot to give. Life has so much negativity in it, not in and of itself, but it's the energies we are exposed to.

[...from the letter of Rick Smith, written on July 26, 2006 to Jonathon. Republished in Letters from the Dhamma Brothers: Meditation Behind Bars. Available for pre-order]

Comments

[Delany]

Nice site! I was in the Korean Zen scene (Kwan Um School of Zen; Kansas Zen Center) for several years, but I gravitated toward Vipassana practice. I am a psychologist, trained in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy; I wanted to be able to use and teach meditation to clients and students, but I realized that there were and are very few among them who have any interest in (or even tolerance for) chanting, bowing, kong-ans, altars with big gold Buddhas, etc.

I have great fondness for my Zen friends, and dharma kin. There are many, many of us in the Vipassana (or "mindfulness," or "Insight Meditation") world who started out with Zen. Probably some who go in the other direction, too, just that I have not known any of those folks.

Best wishes!

Delany

[Andree]

Just wondering if you ever experience "who I am" disappearing instead of, or after, it appears...

I practice in the Tibetan tradition but am considering Zen since I moved to a small city with only a Zen sangha. Thanks for your thoughts.

Andree

[Richard]

Interesting comments about therapies. Somethimes they can become just another way of holding an opinion.

[Jeremy McMillan]

How can Vipassana be passive? Mind and world: objectivity is dualist thinking. Heisenberg was a Buddha. Choosing to care and attend one's own mind/breath is the world becoming Zen. World is letting go, and as attachments are clouds the deep sky eventually appears. Mind is discovering Vipassana, and eventually becomes enlightened.

[chalip]

So many comments on this quote... It is just a quote... posted here to demonstrate that more can happen in a prison environment than random acts of violence.

For Andree who posted a question on Zen, all I can say to you is try it out. Zen is not about chasing a particular experience... it is about being with whatever is, right here, right now... Zen is a very stripped down, bare bones approach. It is hard for me to say what it would be like for someone coming to Zen from another tradition, because I haven't had that experience...

But Sangha is important. I would encourage you to visit and just try it out.

bows,
chalip