“Do not meditate to get the right attitude—get the right attitude, then you’re meditating.” – Tuck Loon, Cambodian meditation teacher
“Meditate to understand, not ‘because of gong’.” – paraphrasing Sayadaw U Tejaniya, Burmese monk
My First Retreat
In 2015 I attended my first meditation retreat, at a small centre on the prairies of eastern Alberta. Going in, I knew what to expect: ten days of total silence, physical pain, and little to eat. In this sense I was more prepared than some of my fellow meditators. Basil, a University of Alberta medical student, was shocked to learn that he’d just signed up for ten dinner-free nights. Hino, an Eritrean immigrant living in Fort McMurray, didn’t know that we would have to give up our phones. Hearing Basil ask others whether they knew about the no-dinner policy, and watching Hino flaccidly protest the removal of his phone privileges, I felt a bit smug. The retreat hadn’t even begun and people were already suffering. Continue reading “Vipassana with SN Goenka: Pros & Cons”
Stories From the Ground. 