Riverpedia archive - 01/09/2022

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Vipassana

The technique of meditation I practice. 2 hours a day, one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. I've gone to a mediation course at least once a year since 2003.

Throughout my life as a musician, I searched for a way to go deeper into creativity. I was certain that I hadn’t reached my potential, that I could do much more if only I could concentrate more deeply. As the years went by, I felt more dissatisfied with my music and life. I felt that my inspiration was drying up. The most important thing to me, writing great new songs, was now impossible. I tried many ways to kick start my creative energies--drugs, emotional strife, self-deprivation, and the philosophy of Nietzsche. Nothing worked for long. It felt as if I was trying to shock a dying animal back to life.

Then in 2003, a record producer suggested that I try meditation. I balked, thinking meditation would only make me more numb. But I had tried everything else so ultimately I decided to give it a try. I searched online for information about intensive retreats. I found www.dhamma.org. After reading the info there, I knew that Vipassana was exactly what I had been looking for all along, without knowing it. I was impressed by the non-sectarian nature of the teaching and the acknowledgment that hard work was necessary to achieve benefits. I was most impressed to learn that the teaching was free of charge, even for room and board. After my first 10-day course I perceived immediate improvements in my songwriting. I didn’t believe that I was fully healed, but knew that I was on the path to recovery. I began to let go of my dependence on formulas in music-making. I started creating from a more spontaneous and instinctual place. My music sounded more personal to me, and more important.

I sat more Vipassana courses and served at the centers. I noticed that my relations with others improved, even if a little. I made efforts to get closer to my family and mend relations with those with whom I had fought. I felt that the world was a more comfortable place to live in and that people were on my side. These feelings yielded more confidence and creative benefits. I concluded that meditation was not only a means to improve my songwriting. It was also a key to unlock what I had unconsciously been searching for all along: happiness. Two years after taking my first course, at the beginning of my 20-day course, I committed to the path for life.

My teacher's website is www.dhamma.org.

10% happier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_3KRd0U9Q&t=1s

( Last edited by Rivers at 2022-01-09T22:56:44Z)

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