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Ten Days of Silence

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Re: Ten Days of Silence

#31

Post by Animats »

From the article: "About half a year ago I started taking psychedelic drugs fairly regularly. Partially because they were fun, but also because I could see how they benefited me therapeutically. When I heard that meditation could produce similar effects, I found a ten day intense silent meditation course I could join in Italy."

Huey Lewis & the News:

    "I want a new drug
    One that won't make me sick
    One that won't make me crash my car
    Or make me feel three feet thick

    I want a new drug
    One that won't hurt my head
    One that won't make my mouth too dry
    Or make my eyes too red"
I'm inclined to go with Feynman on this. He was once convinced in the 1960s by Dr. John Lilly to try LSD, being told it would improve his thinking. Feynman then thought, the next day, that he had solved a hard problem he'd been working on. While going to a meeting where he was doing to discuss his solution, he realized that he hadn't solved the problem, he had hallucinated that he had solved the problem. Feynman was furious. He wrote "I like to think, and I don't want to break the machine."

That guy would probably get equally good results by taking 10 days off to go surfing.

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#32

Post by willyyr »

savage_platypus wrote: post #6

This sounds like more feel-good pseudoscientific hogwash. Is there any evidence that "not talking" can actually lead to an improved life, or is this yet another fad that makes people feel good about themselves?

The "not talking" part is basically just there to help you stick to the code of discipline [1] which is:

1. to abstain from killing any being; 2. to abstain from stealing; 3. to abstain from all sexual activity; 4. to abstain from telling lies; 5. to abstain from all intoxicants.

With "not talking" you automatically follow number 4 :)

[1] https://www.dhamma.org/en/about/code

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#33

Post by hackercurious »

I wanted to add that there are several forms/types of Vipassana and several different types of centers that conduct retreats. Many people get confused and think that there is only one type of Vipassana.

The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is located near Boston and is the most extensive center in the US.

“IMS offers Buddhist meditation retreats at two facilities – the Retreat Center and The Forest Refuge – in rural central Massachusetts. The Retreat Center is one of the two IMS centers in the United States. However, all Buddhist centers teach vipassana/vispashyana. It offers a full yearly schedule of more than 25 meditation courses, ranging in duration from a weekend to three months. Most retreats run for 7–9 days.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insight_Meditation_Society

Insight Meditation Society (IMS) uses a sliding scale to charge for its retreats and I have found them to be my favorite center for going on a retreat.

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#34

Post by compbio »

crindy wrote: post #19
savage_platypus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a scientology ad

Did you sign up just to bash vipassana? I'm curious as to why you feel so strongly about the issue. If it works for some people, it works for them. Does it cause harm to you if other people give it a try?

Scientology and some Thelemic orgs use Vipassana and other meditative techniques to ensnare their students. The wonky experiences like out-of-body experiences are used to market the system. So it works, yet is still abused to capitalize on the spiritual progress of followers. It works, but so does a parlor trick works when your audience does not pay full attention. Your question: 'Does it cause harm to you if other people give it a try?' is a tricky one. A practice can be harmful to others without being harmful to you. Does it cause harm to you if other people try out heroin? Does that void a strong opinion on drug abuse? To people not, or slightly, familiar with Vipassana, such stories do read like someone smoked their first joint and its the cure for every ailment they can think of. Like born-again people talking about "seeing God and having Him save my life". Glad it helped and you are so enthusiastic, but you are still claiming salvation from an invisible man in the sky, aka: you sound like a Scientology ad. Especially when claiming medical benefits, caution is required.

Edit: I am not comparing meditation to heroin. I am showing that the question 'Does it cause harm to you if other people give it a try?' is a trick question, a debating technique. Answering 'no' does not invalidate the statement 'this reads like a scientology ad'. But even if I did compare meditation to heroin, so what? The article compared meditation to psychedelics.

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#35

Post by willyyr »

I'm still looking back to my vipassana experience a few years ago. It's something I don't want to miss and it helped me focus again. Mindfulness is something beautiful.

Also something that I think is not quite clear from the article is that vipassana is not some kind of crazy cult. It's basically "just" a technique.

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#36

Post by littletimmy »

savage_platypus wrote: post #6

This sounds like more feel-good pseudoscientific hogwash. Is there any evidence that "not talking" can actually lead to an improved life, or is this yet another fad that makes people feel good about themselves?

What exactly do you mean by pseudoscientific? The article was not really presenting a scientific claim. What we saw was a story about a person who did thing X, experienced thing Y, and is now describing his experience while thinking about what it might mean for someone else. Where does science come into the picture?

You sound like one of those annoying fellows who would dismiss the works of Dostoyevsky as pseudoscientific, or the music of Beethoven as hogwash. Get out of your limited perspective every once in a while and see that there exists a whole world out that that does not require classification in mathematical models to appreciate.

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#37

Post by rosser »

compbio wrote: post #34
crindy wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you sign up just to bash vipassana? I'm curious as to why you feel so strongly about the issue. If it works for some people, it works for them. Does it cause harm to you if other people give it a try?

Scientology and some Thelemic orgs use Vipassana and other meditative techniques to ensnare their students. The wonky experiences like out-of-body experiences are used to market the system. So it works, yet is still abused to capitalize on the spiritual progress of followers. It works, but so does a parlor trick works when your audience does not pay full attention. Your question: 'Does it cause harm to you if other p…

You're comparing meditation to heroin?

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#38

Post by helloagain »

pizza234 wrote: post #28
savage_platypus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reads like a scientology ad

And yet again, it's not rocket science. There are simple psychological reasons for having pains. If a person has a very tense lifestyle, no wonder he/she will get pains due to induced muscle stiffness. In such cases, even a cup of tea a day (just to say) can "miraculously" cure a back pain, if the latter is caused by induced stiffness, and the first causes a daily relaxation.

I was not wearing my glasses and I read that first sentence as "There are simple psychological reasons for having pants". But I suppose this statement is also true :)

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#39

Post by ossreality »

comrh wrote: post #13

Sounds amazing. I can't figure out if this would be great for my ADHD or similar to CIA torture.

I feel extremely strongly the same way. Normally I'd be with others ranting on how this sounds like hogwash, but honestly, the idea of it terrifies me. I'm too addicted to constantly having something to be anxious about.

It'd probably be difficult, but good for me.

Re: Ten Days of Silence

#40

Post by cpayne »

Animats wrote: post #31

From the article: "About half a year ago I started taking psychedelic drugs fairly regularly. Partially because they were fun, but also because I could see how they benefited me therapeutically. When I heard that meditation could produce similar effects, I found a ten day intense silent meditation course I could join in Italy." Huey Lewis & the News: "I want a new drug One that won't make me sick One that won't make…

good results by taking 10 days off to go surfing

Or just 10 days of doing anything you don't normally do.

10 days of doing anything intensively would make a drastic results: - learn a new programming language - learn a new skill (cooking, painting, carpentry) - 10 straight days of helping someone less fortunate than yourself

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