I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
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I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
1–10 of 99 posts
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#2I've shared a bunch of Willoughby Britton's talks here in the past, mostly from the Buddhist Geeks podcast/conference. They're super interesting, I'd recommend checking them out.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#3I found the article a little disorganized and the author seems to be having trouble expounding a clear thesis. I just read it for the second time, and I still don’t have a good grasp of what he experienced or what connections he’s trying to make to Buddhism. Maybe that’s understandable given what happened to him (though I’m not really sure of, besides him going “crazy”), but I still think that as a journalist he should be able to write a more cohesive and lucid article. And for reference, I’m saying this as someone who’s gone through a number of ineffable experiences with heavy doses of psychedelics. Just saying that he felt like he was dying and being reborn ad infinitum doesn’t really cut it as phenomenological explanation.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#4> I didn’t want to stay medicated (my previous stint had lasted a decade), and I understood that the rules of the retreat meant that as I had left before the end, I could not go back. Vipassanā makes it clear in its literature regarding “serious mental disorders” that: “Our capacity as a non-professional volunteer organisation makes it impossible to properly care for people with these backgrounds.”
I don't really see what the author's personal troubles have to do with specifically Buddhism. If you stop taking powerful psychiatric medications and freak out in a greek monastery on the the Athos peninsula, you're also likely to get hauled away in handcuffs.
I'm no mental health expert but it seems risky to stop taking your meds, cold turkey, and likely against the advice of your mental health professional, proceed to immerse yourself 24x7 in any sort of religious retreat.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#5I found the article a little disorganized and the author seems to be having trouble expounding a clear thesis. I just read it for the second time, and I still don’t have a good grasp of what he experienced or what connections he’s trying to make to Buddhism. Maybe that’s understandable given what happened to him (though I’m not really sure of, besides him going “crazy”), but I still think that as a journalist he shou…
I took it as the author simply relating their experience and including some informed opinions on it. What was news to me was that this can happen just with meditation! I didn’t know that.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#6I've been meditating for approximately two decades, and I think it was clear to me from the beginning, more or less, that abnegation of the self was absolutely a possible pitfall: to be either conscientiously approached, carefully avoided, or embraced and thereby ultimately ameliorated. I haven't had much success with any of the three, and it's something I still struggle with.
I try to make this clear to people when I talk about meditation (which I don't, often) - it's a sword, not a shield, and you can definitely misuse it. But for people who feel lost and powerless, it is sometimes worth the danger.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#7> my previous stint [taking mind altering anti-psychotic drugs] had lasted a decade
Very interesting how much the author focuses on this one weekend retreat of sitting around, and not on his admitted long term use of experimental mind altering antipsychotic drugs.
This sounds like commonly reported withdrawal symptoms (aka freaking the fuck out) from long term use of very very powerful poorly understood drugs.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#8> I didn’t want to stay medicated (my previous stint had lasted a decade), and I understood that the rules of the retreat meant that as I had left before the end, I could not go back. Vipassanā makes it clear in its literature regarding “serious mental disorders” that: “Our capacity as a non-professional volunteer organisation makes it impossible to properly care for people with these backgrounds.” I don't really see…
Does the article say the author quit their meds cold turkey before this retreat? I viewed the first sentence you quoted as meaning the author was stuck. They didn’t want to go back on meds (we aren’t told when or how the meds were stopped) and they couldn’t go back to the retreat. I thought it was a simple statement about having few options.
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#9> I didn’t want to stay medicated (my previous stint had lasted a decade), and I understood that the rules of the retreat meant that as I had left before the end, I could not go back. Vipassanā makes it clear in its literature regarding “serious mental disorders” that: “Our capacity as a non-professional volunteer organisation makes it impossible to properly care for people with these backgrounds.” I don't really see…
Its hard to follow, but I don't think he was on medication going into the retreat, rather was given anti-psychotics in hospital after. (There was, apparently long ago, a history of mental health issues).
Re: I Left a Buddhist Retreat in Handcuffs
#10I've shared a bunch of Willoughby Britton's talks here in the past, mostly from the Buddhist Geeks podcast/conference. They're super interesting, I'd recommend checking them out.
Do you have any links? I browsed your submission history but it's fairly lengthy.