Welcome

New and collected essays exploring the interface between psychiatry, science and the timeless teaching of the Buddha, from an eminent psychiatrist who practices and teaches Vipassana.

Hardback, 160 pages
Published by Vipassana Publications of America
Publication date: 1999
ISBN 0-9649484-5-1

A seminar held at Dhamma Giri, India

Research Report on Vipassana in India's largest jail, Tihar.

Listen to the myriad voices of people who are "Realizing Change" by practicing Vipassana meditation.

An American businessman, reflecting on his first ten-day Vipassana course: "We were practicing the same thing that we live every day, experiencing the very physical sensations that we would have in real life, learning to watch those impermanent sensations and let them pass. Of course, we also learned what would happen when we did dwell on them. When I concentrated on the pain in my knee and got angry, it only multiplied the pain. Sounds like the compounded frustration I feel when I get angry at my boss. However, when I would calmly, just observe, the pain would pass. There was a real lesson here for my daily life."

A Christian priest: "Vipassana represents a radical shift from a deductive, theoretical, prefabricated system to an inductive, experiential way of learning. No book, no Bible, no rosary, no mass, no prayer, no God—nothing. You begin to find that the ‘real’ book is yourself, your own body and mind. You discover that within yourself there are laws operating which are the same laws operating in the universe outside."
A prisoner: "This course allowed me to blow away the black clouds in my head and forgive myself for the misery I’ve caused. I don't expect anyone who has been a victim of my past to forgive me as easily, but maybe as they see a change in me, they’ll at least accept I'm no longer that person."
A schoolchild: "Once I fought with one of my friends, and I was going to shout at her, but I thought, “I can't do that.” I concentrated on my breath for about a minute or so, and it just came back to normal . . . I didn’t shout."
People from every walk of life, every country and culture, every age have found Vipassana a steady anchor in the gale-force winds of change that buffet us all. By facing reality head-on through direct observation, rather than reacting, impermanence itself becomes the very medium of transformation. The result, ironically, is greater stability, happiness and creativity.

Come, listen to the voices . . .
Ian Hetherington has gathered a worldwide chorus of voices which express the subtle yet profound experience of change activated by the practice of Vipassana. He is himself a practitioner and teaches Vipassana as a senior assistant to SN Goenka. He lives with his wife and young son in Herefordshire, UK.

Published by: Vipassana Research Publications
Publication Date: May 2003
Softcover, 256 pages
ISBN: 1-928706-21-5

Talks from an International Seminar at Dhamma Giri comprised of sessions including the definition of Dhamma, the role of Dhamma in current social problems, the complimentary aspects of Dhamma and Science and an explantion of Vipassana meditation as a practical solution to personal and social problems.

A reflection on the differences between non-violence and pacifism.

When the first ten-day Vipassana meditation course came to a close at Alabama's Donaldson Prison in 2002, twenty men were faced with the possibility of a new chapter in their lives. Many have life sentences and most have been deeply acculturated to the life of violence and abuse that is all too common in prisons. In letters written during a four-year period after this course, 15 inmate-meditators offer direct and intimate access to their thoughts, struggles, dreams and triumphs after taking part in this intensive, voluntary program. Corrections officers, wardens, judges and others ask: "Can this program really reform such hardened inmates? Will the changes last?" These letters will help you decide for yourself if their transformations are real or not.