
Vipassana for Hackers [pdf] - hargup
https://github.com/deobald/vipassana-for-hackers/blob/master/vipassana-for-hackers.pdf
======
sgentle
This paper is a pretty comprehensive take on Vipassana, so in case anyone's
looking for something a bit more general, I'd like to offer a complementary
summary based on my own experiences.

Vipassana is a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Silent in this case really
means distraction-free, entertainment-free, or stimulation-free. Think of it
as the diametric opposite of social news. No noise, no conversation, no
instant gratification, no easy pleasures (not even reading, writing or music).
You just eat, sleep and meditate, with occasional breaks in between.

During the course you see other students and listen to recorded meditation
lessons, but you are, effectively, alone. It's a cultural trope that having
nothing but your own mind for company sends you a bit mad, and in my
experience that was basically true. Normally you can count on the distraction
stream to save you from your own thoughts, and without it you can spend days
stuck in ever-intensifying thought loops with nothing to break you out of
them.

Which, to me, gets to the heart of Vipassana. It's not really about silence;
it's a specific kind of meditation designed to change your relationship to
sensation. I think of it like audio engineering: we have a gain control on
what we feel, and when the sensations get too much we turn them down until
we're comfortable again. The problem is that you turn down everything at once;
distracting yourself from painful experiences also distracts you from
pleasurable ones. Keep turning the gain down and you eventually end up with a
featureless experience: no peaks or troughs, just a flat line.

The reason you start with silence is because you're going to turn the gain
back up, and you don't want to blow out your speakers at the first loud noise.
The technique focuses on bodily sensations, but since sensations are mental
and physical everything kinda comes along for the ride. You spend hours
focusing on the most minute feelings until they fill your entire mind and your
whole world is an area of skin the size of a postage stamp. It can get pretty
intense.

But what makes it _too_ intense? You do. It's not like bad news is painful
because it melts your auditory nerves. Rather, you react to the sound, then
you react to your reaction, then you react to that reaction and so on until
you've built this unbearable feedback loop. Then you turn down the gain
because, damn, that was LOUD. But that's bad engineering; you gotta go fix the
feedback at the source. And that means unlearning your reactions.

That was my core experience of Vipassana. Turn up the sensation, learn to
accept the sensation. Feel more, react less, repeat. Everything I tried to
avoid thinking about, I thought about. Everything I didn't want to feel, I
felt. I was defenceless as my self-sabotaging thought patterns sabotaged me
over and over until I realised I was the one doing it and I could just...
stop.

It's easy to dwell on the hard parts, but it was often quite peaceful. I spent
an hour watching a family of lizards (they hid until I'd been still for
fifteen minutes), another watching the finches chase each other and listening
to their tiny wings, and another just looking at trees. Have you ever noticed
how _green_ trees are? I don't think I'd seen anything that green since I was
a child.

~~~
MichaelGG
Excellent review, thank you. You capture the vividness of it very well.

I will add a disclaimer, if you are talking about Goekna / Dhamma.org
retreats. They are absolutely not just about technique or dogma-free, despite
their marketing. They are overtly religious and the entire retreat is couched
in hand-wavy woo.

The retreat itself was amazing. I went to one in Quebec. Excellent facilities,
crystal clear skies (it was -25 C out), very soothing place. Food was
excellent and overall, the physical aspects were not nearly as trying as I was
expecting (though my back was kill after a couple days). I would recommend
bringing a sleep aid if you are used to not sleeping so early (they are
accommodating). I went a few days without using it, but it is hard to meditate
after a sleepless night.

I was very excited. The place had been hyped up as dogma-free. Sam Harris's
_Waking Up_ book seemed to encourage it. No mystical teachings. Just a great
practice. No communication. No speaking, writing, reading. Not even eye
contact to avoid non-verbal communication. I love the idea.

The moment I first sat. . . well, here is the type of sound they pump in:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEWTlaweaM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqEWTlaweaM)

The reason for this, in their words, is that the chanting of ancient Pali
gives off good vibes. Next, they ask all the students to start repeating
phrases in Pali. It feels incredibly cultish at that point. The voice of the
instructor during key meditation lessons is intentionally over-accented (you
can hear Goenka speak just fine at other times). In other languages (not
English) the instructions are clear and concise. Only in the original
recordings do you get this woo-y voicing.

Finally, you do get sustained language, in the form of the nightly discourses.
After having no other serious language input, every night there is an hourly
discourse. By that time you're dying to relax a bit, and if you're like me,
desperate for communications so that even a cereal box label would be
spellbinding.

The lessons are very anti-science and very religious. Goenka explicitly states
the purpose of meditation is to purge your deep-seated sins (sankhara I
believe was the word he used) so that you can re-incarnate better. He was
clear to point out that the study of physics is unnecessary because Buddha had
discovered physical secrets long ago. Literally, he makes a point that Buddha
determined the vibration of subatomic particles (even though the numbers
provided are wrong, and the premise is nuts). He even goes out of the way to
criticize a scientist involved in the work of the cloud chamber, saying that
the scientist was always unhappy and thus should not have bothered trying to
discover things.

Even the non-anti-science parts are a bit off. At one point, during a lecture
on not murdering any living being (acceptable, sure), he goes as far as
mentioning that "a cat killing a mouse is not following its true nature".
Questioning these things gets you a warm smile with a condescending dismissal.

Here's an example of the course:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJxuIMGC9s4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJxuIMGC9s4)

I only mention all this because HN readers are probably less woo/religion
minded than most, and Dhamma.org portrays it as no-woo when it is full of it.
The annoyance caused me to drop out of the course on day 6 as I could not
stand the indoctrination side of things. Physically I was fine and enjoying
the structure.

But... I would still recommend it over nothing. I would prefer a retreat that
had the structure and setup but without the dogma. If you cannot find such a
place nearby (Goenka's retreats are everywhere), well just know going in that
you will need to deal with all this and ignore the dogma and not be upset.
Consider it additional training. Maybe try hanging out with people praising
homeopathy and not saying a single negative word as preparation for the kinds
of things you're going to feel?

I would also note that Sam Harris's guided meditation
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboD7JrT0NE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OboD7JrT0NE))
was quite instructive, after reading his book. You do not have to buy into his
overall views or be "a proud atheist" to enjoy the book nor his meditation
part.

~~~
curun1r
The important distinction between the Goenka retreats and other dogmatic
religious organizations is the instructions to only accept what you find
palatable...you're free to pick and choose what you find valuable and what you
can validate through personal experience and ignore the rest. If you'll
remember the story of the kheer and the cardamom seeds, it's meant to
encourage you to be as skeptical as you feel you need to be to get value out
of the retreat.

Also, your comment on the sleepless nights makes me realize that you
misunderstood the non-meditation periods in the same way that I misunderstood
them during my first 10-day. I thought if I wasn't meditating, I was 'off' and
mostly just passing time until the next session. But what I realized in my
second 10-day was that there should be no down time. If you're not sitting and
meditating, you should be walking and meditating, eating and meditating or
showering and meditating or whatever and meditating. If you're lying in bed
and can't fall asleep, you meditate. And what I found was that it didn't
matter how much I actually slept because lying prone and meditating was as
restful as sleep. If you ever try it again, try doing it without the notion of
any down time...meditate through all of your actions as well as the prescribed
meditation periods.

But I agree that the anti-science (and pseudo-scientific) parts were
unfortunate. I served a 10-day after having attended twice, and was somewhat
upset to see that they only made available traditional Chinese medicines to
students and wouldn't even allow basic Western medicine (aspirin, immodium,
etc). At one point, we had an elderly man who ran out of his high blood
pressure medication. During a meditation session, his pulse rate spiked (~190
bpm) and he started freaking out. After following the teacher's advice and
trying a traditional Chinese remedy (which, of course, did nothing), I finally
suggested something with an actual basis in science (dipping his face in cold
water to activate the mammalian dive reflex). That got the situation under
control until an ambulance could arrive.

~~~
MichaelGG
>you're free to pick and choose what you find valuable

This is what they say, and sure, they cannot force you. But if you do this,
they criticize and condescend, telling you you're like a child not eating all
his food and that when you grow up you'll find everything they say is correct.

And Goenka is very clear that the goal of Vipassana is improving
reincarnation.

There is one point where they say something, maybe literally "we do not teach
dogma, only truth". Saying it does not make it so! They'd be much better off
not trying to convince people they aren't pushing such beliefs than being
misleading about it.

As far as sleep, I tried meditating. Both there and afterwards. I do not find
it as resting as sleep, and found myself drifting off while meditating during
the rest of the time. What happens in my case is that I'll be awake in bed
until 3-4am then finally sleep. This is fine if I don't need to get up at 5-6.
But I understand this is personal and I should have fixed my sleeping habits
before arriving.

For students, they seem far more tolerant of medication, probably for
liability.

~~~
Legogris
> But if you do this, they criticize and condescend, telling you you're like a
> child not eating all his food and that when you grow up you'll find
> everything they say is correct.

I am sure this depends a lot from center to center and the one I went to
(Sweden, beautiful location) was not like that at all.

~~~
MichaelGG
The parable in question, about the child not eating the "black stone" in his
pudding, is one that many people report hearing. It might have been in one of
the discourses.

I must stress that the individuals and teacher in person were wonderful people
and I've absolutely nothing against them. The main issue, without slighting
the dead, is Goenka's part. Including the condescending parable.

I would probably go again if I can't find a non-goenka course. But I'd listen
to all the discourses and get my annoyance out ahead of time and consider the
chanting to be an added difficulty.

~~~
Legogris
I recognize this annoyance you have and would say just that everything else
that comes up during the retreat (annoying person next to you coughing all the
time etc) is part of the exercise. Observe and accept your reaction and keep
on practicing. It is all part of the process. This does not mean that you have
to accept all the contents of the discourse as truth or correct or agree. You
are listening and meditating, use it as practice.

And no one's going to bust you for not participating in chanting.

------
sampl
I highly recommend the book Mindfulness in Plain English if you're interested
in meditation.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XF1LKW/](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XF1LKW/)

It strips away a lot of the "woo woo" kooky stuff and clearly explains what
meditation really "is". I just finished re-reading it, and must have
highlighted every other sentence.

~~~
wodenokoto
What I expect to be in a similar vain is "Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality
Without Religion".

While I enjoyed reading it and it helped me make sense of a lot of things
related to meditation, mindfulness and spirituality in general, I can't say I
felt every other sentence was highlight worthy.

The chapter on spiritual frauds was however very enloghtening.

~~~
sorokod
Could you briefly explain what spirituality without religion is? How is it
different from psychology?

~~~
fsloth
Not OP but as an atheist for me spiritualism was made concrete when after a
meditation session I intuitively knew and felt that myself and the world were
the same. I watched at some familiar trees through my windows and _felt_ I and
them _were the same_ and _actually existed_. This sensation brought me great
joy and calmness. And then it passed, I was myself again, and the world was
again separate from me.

This was some two decades ago. I've never felt anything like that after that,
but the memory of the sensation is still very strong.

No drugs. Just the most basic 'lie-down-relaxed-and-watch-at-a-dot' exercise.
And wham.

It was pretty cool. I was an adolescent back then and I had decided several
years before that logically religion was total BS. Had I been religious I'm
sure I would have interpreted my experience as being in direct communion with
God. But, I interpreted it as a neurological response to my meditation - which
did not make the experience any less spiritual.

The experience did not reveal anything new to me, but it made me _feel_ the
truth that we all are one and connected, philosophically speaking.

 _Feeling_ is something purely logical discourse seldom provides. This
experience was pure feeling. Like, I intuitively feel my legs are part of me.
I felt _the whole world_ was part of me. Now, this is at the same time true -
or - false. We are made of the same atoms and are interconnected through our
actions and the laws of physics. At the same time, it's a bit silly to
describe oneself extending beyond ones body. So, one can choose was I
enlightened by a fundamental truth or was I just a bit silly after a brief
session of neurohacking.

~~~
sorokod
Well, people used to interpret experiences with hallucinogenic substances as
religious/spiritual (some still do). Would you say that your own experience
fundamentally differs? Obviously you didn't ingest chemicals but other than
that, is the end result substantially different?

~~~
fsloth
The original question, to which I answered, was, that what does non-religious
spirituality mean? I described what a spiritual experience _felt_ like to me.

So, I suppose the key here is the personal experience.

I'm sure there are a lot of ways people can have deep spiritual experiences
without them interpreting it as communicating with divine forces.

~~~
sorokod
I didn't mean to try to belittle you experience in any way.

The one thing I am tying to validate / invalidate is weather "spiritual" as
used by non religious people, is mere hacking of our delicate physical and
chemical machinery.

~~~
cuspycode
What makes "mere hacking" different from true enlightenment?

Is it just the perspective of the one who has the experience? As Tim Leary
said: The caterpillar cannot understand the butterfly.

~~~
sorokod
One is rational and comprehensible, the other one isn't. At least that is how
I read "spiritual" and "enlightenment"

------
tomcooks
[https://github.com/deobald/vipassana-for-
hackers/raw/master/...](https://github.com/deobald/vipassana-for-
hackers/raw/master/vipassana-for-hackers.pdf)

Mobile friendly pdf link, because for some reason mobile github just shows a
"This file is too big to show. Sorry!" with no raw file link.

~~~
miopa
Is there any reason why is this shared as link to github page?

While opening on desktop Firefox (Linux) first the tab froze, then whole
browser, and now the PC is completely unresponsive, with the disk in full
write, i guess the swap is getting filled.

~~~
deobald
First off: Thank you for the mobile-friendly link! I didn't realize this would
work... I'd always just interpreted the broken PDFs on phones as "GitHub has a
bug". ;)

This wasn't really "shared" on GitHub... this is a work in progress. A
colleague of mine (the OP) posted a link to my paper without asking me about
it. I've shared it on Twitter before, which may have given him the impression
that the paper was complete.

I do plan to put the paper up on a website with some additional material
(anecdotes, other meditation resources, etc.) this summer. Apologies for the
current format.

------
deepaks4077
I would highly recommend The Mind Illuminated as a solid instruction manual
for beginners who want to start meditating at home.

[http://a.co/61TjGpW](http://a.co/61TjGpW)

~~~
arglebarnacle
I'd second this. It really is a phenomenal book. For me, the most interesting
thing about it is it would probably be a terrible meditation guide for a lot
of people I know. But if you have the approach/learning style that's typical
of folks on hacker news, it's the best book there is--because of its emphasis
on clearly elucidated concepts, consistent use of language and terms, ample
neuroscience-oriented background, and an "actionable" progressive approach.

~~~
deepaks4077
For me, its key feature was that I found it more actionable than other sources
that I'd found online. I prefer it to 'Mindfulness in Plain English'. However,
to be fair, I haven't read the entire text, so I don't think that I can make a
fair comparison.

Edit: The author of the book is Culadasa (Dr. John Yates, PhD), whose profile
mentions that he was a neuroscience professor at one point in his life. I
haven't verified this.

His profile: [http://culadasa.com/about/](http://culadasa.com/about/)

~~~
plinkplonk
There is some skepticism about the 'professor' part. No one can locate the
colleges at which he supposedly taught neuroscience.

A reddit discussion.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMindIlluminated/comments/6sx7n7/...](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMindIlluminated/comments/6sx7n7/culadasas_response_to_doubts_about_his_academic/)

------
rglover
Nearly two years later, I can say that taking part in a Vipassana retreat has
had a tremendously positive effect on my psychological state. I went from
being in a state of what I later realized (after the retreat) was borderline
depression and rife with anxiety to being extremely calm, collected, and
happy.

The meditation was nice, but it's the overall message that underlies the
meditation that I found essential: Anicca—everything is temporary. It gives
you a mental toolset for dealing with the world that cuts away the weight of
the day-to-day in a difficult to articulate way.

Here's my personal take written soon after my return:
[http://www.ryanglover.net/articles/vipassana](http://www.ryanglover.net/articles/vipassana)

------
ndr
Talk from the same author:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWYqHbF00c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BWYqHbF00c)

~~~
malikNF
The slides for this talk.

[https://github.com/nilenso/media/blob/master/presentations/v...](https://github.com/nilenso/media/blob/master/presentations/vipassana/vipassana.key)

------
SteveJS
Somewhat related is Thomas Metzinger’s The ego tunnel. Metzinger is an applied
philosopher, directly examining what is consciousness as can be determined and
backed up with neuroscience. I loved Antonio Damasio’s the feeling of what
happens, and the ego tunnel is like that on steroids, with years extra work
from scientists making progress on teasing out distinctions you didn’t realize
were there. There is zero ‘woo woo’, and instead a fascinating set of theories
on what exactly consciousness is, why it feels the way it does, what science
can tell us now, and what remains unknown. For me it is super fascinating from
the point of view of why Vipassana works.

~~~
collyw
I watched a youtube talk with Thomas Metzinger recently. The interviewer asked
if he meditated. His response was "yes" (for a significant number of years
that I can't remember), "that's how you can tell if someone is serious about
the study, and not just interested in an academic career". I found that
comment really interesting.

------
TravelAndFood
Cool quote from the beginning section "Computing Sidebar: LISP":

"The machine at the bottom of your consciousness is a strange loop. Having a
look at this strange loop is a lot more fun than reading about it."

Awesome. Great style and expectation-setting in the intro portion. From my
perspective as a programmer, occasional Vipassana-practicer, and not-speed-
reader, and having read only the intro portions, this has piqued my interest
enough to sink time into reading.

~~~
theptip
The phrase "Strange loop" was coined by Hofstadter, who has written a lot of
enjoyable explorations of the philosophy of mind:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop)

"Godel, Escher, Bach" being his most well-known, but he has a number of other
very interesting works as well.

~~~
TravelAndFood
Thanks. Just added "Godel, Escher, Bach" to my reading list.

------
motorokr
For those who are interested in roots and origin of mindfulness, should take a
look at original Anapanasati Sutta
([https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.html](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.html)).
Anapanasati Sutta is the main source from which all the modern literature
related to mindfulness has been derived. For more detailed explanation of
sutta, listen to talk on mindfulness of breathing
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4NR3nn4nfM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4NR3nn4nfM)).

------
plinkplonk
you could just use the meditation algorithm, and meditate by yourself for 10
(or however many) days for multiple multi-hour sessions a day, and avoid
having to sit through Goenka's religious meanderings, weird sound tracks and
cultiness.

Check into a cheap hotel during non-tourist season, sometime in the mountains
or near a lake or sea. Switch off the phone. Eat + meditate + sleep * 10 days
(or however many you want). Et voila. You get all the benefits without all the
cultiness.

Vipassana is a technique. You master the technique by doing it. Attending a
cult's course is one way of doing it.

Whether it is the optimal method is open to debate. The key seems to be to
spend long hours practicing the technique for many days (vs 30 minutes a day).
I'm not convinced proficiency in the technique can only by attained by a
retreat with a specific organization.

One can learn to program in Clojure (say) by attending a 10 day course by
$ClojureGuru. One can also learn to program with a book and a laptop, and
occasional questions on irc. Both methods work, and have different trade offs.

Personally, I learned Vipassana (and Jhana) meditation by myself, by reading
and experimenting. I've since encountered advanced Buddhist mediators (abbots
of Buddhist monasteries etc) who 'confirmed' I'm "doing it right" (fwiw, I
wasn't really looking for validation or advice, it just came up in
conversation). They didn't seem surprised I taught myself. So I doubt it is
that uncommon. If the only way to learn to 'hack' is to attend a 10 day
course, that isn't much of a 'hack' in the first place.

I strongly push back against the "only way to learn is be attending a 10 day
course" idea. Other than this, I enjoyed reading the paper, Steven is an
excellent writer.

My 2 cents. YMMV, as it should.

PS: I do admire the grit of anyone who actually completes the 10 day retreat,
not so much the meditation as enduring all the culty BS. As grit training, it
probably works ;-)

PPS: I have no belief in the religious dogma of any Buddhist school. I just
think the techniques are useful

~~~
infiniteseeker
> Personally, I learned Vipassana (and Jhana) meditation by myself, by reading
> and experimenting. I've since encountered advanced Buddhist mediators
> (abbots of Buddhist monasteries etc) who 'confirmed' I'm "doing it right"
> (fwiw, I wasn't really looking for validation or advice, it just came up in
> conversation). They didn't seem surprised I taught myself. So I doubt it is
> that uncommon. If the only way to learn to 'hack' is to attend a 10 day
> course, that isn't much of a 'hack' in the first place.

Very commendable. Could you please share what you read that was most
effective. How much did you practice every day. A brief overview please?

~~~
plinkplonk
In retrospect, the best book I _should_ have read was Shaila
Catherine(spelling?)'s "Wisdom Wide and Deep", which sets out a full practice
program based on the (Theravada) Buddhist texts Abhidamma and VishuddiMagga.
This is about as hard core a book as you can find. Richard Shankman's "The
Experience of Samadhi" is a much more lightweight alternative on just Jhana
(and not Vipassana iirc), nowhere as deep but an easier read.

In reality, I had to piece together 'algorithms' from random sources and test
them out. The basic instructions for jhana and vipassana meditations I ended
up with match with those in SK's book, though her path involves getting into
extremely deep states of jhana before switching to Vipassana, wheras I
developed both skills in parallel (which is a valid method and used by other
Buddhist schools)

I used to meditate 2 to 4 hours a day (more on self set 'retreats'). These
days I meditate about an hour to 90 minutes per day. I'm not interested in
going beyond basic jhana and vipassana and did not do 'skeleton meditation' ,
'corpse meditation' etc, because at that point, - about the middle of Shaila's
book - the meditations begin to seriously embody Buddhist dogma about the
nature of reality and purpose of life etc, specifically ways to 'shake loose'
your identification with your body, and so on. I have no wish to be
'liberated' from 'samsara', or otherwise be a full time Buddhist monk or the
equivalent, so I stopped with achieving the ability to do either Jhana or
Vipassana meditations for a few hours at a time.

I use these purely in a non religious fashion, as 'weight training for my
mind' and am happy with my limited achievements.

Even at this relatively minor level of practice, things begin to get funky at
the edges, as Steven's paper illustrates.

------
littlethrowaway
TLDR: I had a manic psychotic (bipolar) episode triggered on a vipassana
course. This was with zero history of mental illness (before or after)

Be quite careful with Vipassana, especially if you're not used to regular
meditation. It's not just a "silent" retreat in the sense of not talking.
Also, no eye contact, no reading/writing and meditating 10 hours a day. It's a
seriously stressful time for your brain.

I did the course, and I had a manic psychotic episode as a direct result. I
made some audio and put it on a blog I started while manic [1]. It details
what the course was like, what it was like to be manic (totally awesome! ;),
what it was like to be depressed (absolutely awful) and getting better.

I'm not saying don't do the course, I'm not saying I didn't do something wrong
with the technique, I am saying be very very careful and don't think there
can't be downsides. I was off work for a year and it took about 3 years before
I felt "normal" again.

[1]
[http://livingvipassana.blogspot.com/](http://livingvipassana.blogspot.com/)

~~~
pretendscholar
Wow, thanks for sharing. Very interesting. Were you new to practicing
meditation? I could definitely see why ten days would be harmful, its almost
like solitary confinement.

~~~
littlethrowaway
Yip, basically totally new to practicing meditation. Utterly naive ;) I
actually think it should be a requirement that you undergo a 1 3 or 5 day
course first, before they allow you onto a 10 day. Unfortunately, you have to
do the 10 day first, before they'll let you do a shorter course.

I did give the organisation this feedback, but, I don't imagine any changes
were made.

I also think they should have a trained psychologist to assess people when
they're leaving (I would have been picked up as unwell I think as I was
definitely manic when I left). Hey ho.

------
serpix
for a LISP using meditation practicing hacker reading this is incredible, the
same insights written down by someone else.

> You do not feel physical sensation, consciously or subconsciously, without
> an accompanying thought or emotion. this is true. When really connected with
> your body, mind and emotion you see these are interlinked. The body follows
> thought and emotion, suppressed emotions are kept in the body. Your body
> feels emotion before you consciously recognize it.

~~~
jwdunne
I noticed this experience a few weeks ago.

I was having big trouble getting to sleep and my partner's snoring was
agitating me. I decided to relax and meditate.

I noticed myself trying to "cure" my agitation. I decided to accept it. But
then I realised that I was forcing myself to accept it. Instead of some
'conscious decision', I eased into just being conscious of it. I just felt it
and it washed away, replaced with a feeling of pure contentment I've never
experienced before. That applied to "trying to sleep" too.

I slept well not long after that. It was a profound feeling.

~~~
epistasis
Vipassana has helped me with so much physical and emotional discomfort and
pain, precisely in this way.

------
orasis
An excellent Podcast on awakening is Deconstructing Yourself -
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/deconstructing-
yourself/...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/deconstructing-
yourself/id1240056193?mt=2)

~~~
collyw
Is it available outside of iTunes?

------
thsowers
> The only way one can learn the technique of Vipassana is to take a 10-day
> course

Is this really true? I agree that a large amount of people may not be able to
learn the techniques outside of a retreat setting, but I think it comes down
to the individual and is different for each person

~~~
MichaelGG
I cannot say it is true because I would not consider myself learned. I will
say that the 10-day retreat thing comes off very culty, and it is in their
interest to encourage the course. They've built a massive monument apparently
funded by donations:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Vipassana_Pagoda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Vipassana_Pagoda)

See my other comment for my more in-depth review. There is certainly a better
way to learn than the Dhamma.org 10-day courses, but it might not be readily
available in any form today.

------
samsord
I had a limited experience with this type of meditation/abstinence. I called
it something like "pleasure/ sensory reduction" and sought to re-sensitize
myself to stimuli. I didn't talk, accept by accident or for my part time job
for 2 weeks. It was an excellent experience. My main take away was that we
often are compelled to speak but it adds nothing and is somehow typically
better remaining silent where you instead become a better listening. So my
experience may have been more to do with the social dynamics of speaking. I
also abstained from other forms of pleasure, all drugs and mindless recreation
things (TV, music etc) which continued for 3 months afterward but I worked on
writing and music projects or anything I deemed productive rather than
mindless. The whole experience was interesting but I returned to my normal
state soon after as though it had all been a dream. I think a true silent
retreat would give you a more internally focussed experience which would be
wholey different. Either way you may benefit. Try to experience lower-level
stimuli for extended periods as there is a tendency to filter out (or turn the
gain down on) experiences when we bombard our senses constantly.

------
atulatul
Interesting article. Not written in the same way but an interesting earlier HN
post on similar topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8877737](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8877737)

\-- I think Indians(maybe Asians) get this detachment philosophy __as a
cultural gift. Practicing it is of course a different matter. But it is easier
for me to understand (or at least not have too many doubts about) the Samkara
/Sanskara/Karma thing. For example, when the linked article (100 Hours of
Meditation in 10 Days — My Stay in Buddhist Prison) talks about the saliva-
swallowing or a lady sobbing, it does not raise too many questions in my mind.
Although Naipaul has written about its ill-effects (India A Wounded
Civilization))

 __The term(detachment philosophy) is used loosely.

~~~
vram22
IIRC, it (detachment) is called vairaagya in Sanskrit. I remember from reading
the Bhavagad Gita, that Krishna says to Arjuna, that abhyaasa (practice) and
vairaagya are key. (I've used my own version of the spelling of those words to
emphasize the pronunciation, since I don't know how to put those accent marks
on top.)

~~~
vram22
>IIRC, it (detachment) is called vairaagya in Sanskrit.

Just remembered, I think the word used was dispassion (in the English
translation of the Gita that I read), not detachment, although the meanings
are about the same.

------
Legogris
This is by far the best I have read on Vipassana so far. Great approach and
scope and good breakdown.

I went to four-five retreats but have kind of fallen out of practice in recent
years.

I will begin to send this when I know people who are going.

------
slipperyp
There is more information on the method from this documentary Doing Time,
Doing Vipassana:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkxSyv5R1sg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkxSyv5R1sg)

It documents the use of Vipassana as a reform measure at a harsh prison in
India and traces the impacts it had on some of the inmates there.

------
tomcooks
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=1BWYqHbF00c](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1BWYqHbF00c)

Glad the pdf doesn't include the annoying baby nor the occasional father head
covering the presenter.

Parents that bring babies to public events bring out the aggro-nihilist in me.

------
sridca
Vipassana is the ultimate form of Stoicism. A great way to dissociate from
problematic feelings, instead of addressing them head on. :-P

~~~
duncan_bayne
I can't speak for Vipassana, never having tried it, but I think that's an
unfair characterization of stoicism (but perhaps not of some who claim to
practice it?).

[http://modernstoicism.com/](http://modernstoicism.com/)

------
happyruss
nice overview; albeit quite technical. I actually wrote a vipassana how-to app
that teaches the process:
[http://www.guidedmeditationtreks.com/vipassana.html](http://www.guidedmeditationtreks.com/vipassana.html)

------
0xFFC
I am always curious about how much meditation can affect our brains. In pop
science and pop culture, we see a lot of overestimation about meditation
affects on our brains. But what is the scientific perspective on meditation?

~~~
nabla9
As someone who has practiced over 19 years very intensively, my opinion is
that pop science and culture overplays the effects of moderate meditation (say
30 min per day) in a short term and mostly misunderstand the effects of long
term meditation.

The starting assumption of a secular meditator (like me) usually is that we
want to develop some abilities. You are you, just better.

If you meditate a lot, or very long time, there comes a point where you
realize that it's not just developing cognitive abilities. Your motivations
and perspective change as well. It's not just you doing meditation practice.
The practice is also working on you. Eventually you are going towards
direction where you don't want to go and it can create lots of negative
feelings, including fear and hopelessness (sometimes called the Dark Night of
the Soul). This is the end of the road for many people. They lose the interest
and do something else.

I think it's easier for people of religion because they have innate trust that
everything is going towards something better and others have done the same.

~~~
skosch
> Eventually you are going towards direction where you don't want to go ...
> this is the end of the road for many people.

It sounds like you're saying that moderate meditation is overrated, and more
intense meditation is outright detrimental in the long term. That is
surprising to me. Is this an inevitability? Did you experience this, and how
did you push through it?

~~~
akvadrako
What he's describing doesn't sound detrimental to me; it sounds like facing
the truth, which might be a very dark place, but it's what we'll all end up
facing eventually.

And of course, there is probably something behind that too, of which I have no
idea.

------
eof
seems getting that pdf on mobile is impossible?

~~~
corysama
Mobile friendly link [https://github.com/deobald/vipassana-for-
hackers/raw/master/...](https://github.com/deobald/vipassana-for-
hackers/raw/master/vipassana-for-hackers.pdf)

