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vrpa020
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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
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