Vipassana Cliff Notes

I decided that my last post was ridinkypants, as in wayyyy too long! Sorry about that! I will now put together some of my favorite points for you. If you are at all interested in seeing a bit of what I did please netflix or check out The Dhamma Brothers Dorian and I watched it the other night and it was wonderful.

Now for the favorite insights and quotes:

• Observe Objectively. 
• Observe Respiration and Sensation.
• Remain Equanimous. (balanced and calm)
• EVERYTHING is subject to the law of Dhamma (nature)
• EVERYTHING is IMPERMANENT "anicca, annica, annica" [pronounced ah nee chay] (ever notice how things claiming to be perminent are not i.e. permanent markers and permanent hair color!!?? yeah... I know)
• The four Noble Truths:
• the fact of suffering
• the origin of suffering (craving)
• the cessation of suffering
• the path leading to the cessation of suffering
• YOU are 100% responsible for your reactions and emotional well being. 
• The 3 roots of all mental defilements
• craving
• aversion
• ignorance

The following are some of the things that really stuck with me:

• Our minds like to live in the past and the future. Times that don't exist. It's obvious that the future doesn't exist and the past has already happened. Vipassana is meant to break our minds of those conditioned habits, to teach us to live in the now. The now is the only time anything ever happens in.
• Planting a seed of anger in yourself will sprout a plant of anger. This plant will then produce the fruit of anger. The fruit contain many many more seeds than the single seed that was planted. Then those seeds are planted and thus begins the process of multiplication of anger. 
• Negative actions by yourself means you had to plant a seed of anger within yourself to grow and multiply in order to give that negative reaction to someone else. And you have thus created a deep saṅkhāra [reaction/mental conditioning] within YOU.
• Just as if someone brings you a gift and you do not accept, the gift stays with that person. So too with negativity. You can choose to NOT accept that person's gift of negativity and it will stay with them. 
• "The secret to success is continuity of practice"

This last statement carries so much truth. It is easy to be calm and equanimous from the meditation cushion, much more difficult amongst others. 

I have had a difficult transition. I felt I understood the practice and did well while at the Vipassana center, where we sat for 10 hours a day. Now back here in a town that I tend to have a distaste for, it has become challenging to sit for two hours a day.  Luckily I have Dorian to sit with, and I have started to realize how important those two hours are. If I am able to be happy that happiness is very easily shared with others.  Which is in all honestly all I ever really wanted to be....cue tangent:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

 I was in middle school and we were doing all of those fun 'career' testings, projecting what we would be good at in the future. [looking back at this it seems really ridiculous...I was maybe 12 years old and half and half of my lifetime I probably don't remember...] I remember having a really hard time with them. I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. It seemed to change on a whim.... After a while I realized that these career testing things were useless for me. It really didn't matter what I did, just as long as I was HAPPY. Since then I have always told people that I wanted to be happy when I grew up. Now having gone thru Vipassana everything just makes a lot more sense.

Well anyway, now I can't really remember where I was at before this tangent took place so I will leave you with this.

May you share my love, my peace, my harmony and my liberation.

Smiles happiness and metta ❤