Hello! Looking for a mentor/guidance...

[lkearns]

Hello,

My name is Luke, I am 18 year old living in Australia; I couldn't say to a point how long I have been practicing and studying various different aspects of buddhism, to a degree it has been present through much of my life, having been born in Singapore with a father who is in Asia for 2 out of 3 weeks since as long as I can recall. Only in the last year and a half have I started practicing seriously (meditating and reading texts for a few hours each day), my life has changed immeasurably since

I am in the process of looking for a teacher;
I have monks that I look up to, reading their essays and listening to their talks, but I find that invariably I will run in to technical difficulties when I try and converse with a Youtube video

Due to school being particularly intense at the moment (beginning the HSC, New South Wales' ranking system for university entry) I don't have the time on my hands to balance visits to any Temples or centres regularly, so I thought I would ask here if there is anyone that would be willing to provide guidance to me/give me their opinion on queries I may have, online.

Thank you

[retrofuturist]

Greetings lkearns,

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel.



I'm sure you'll find that if you pose a specific question in a topic here, or post a link to a video and ask specific questions about it etc. that people will generally respond to it in good faith. Dhamma Wheel has a lot of practitioners, each with a slightly different approach to their practice, so if you throw a question out there, you may get various shades of response in return. Some responses will resonate, some won't... either way, it should be a useful exercise for you and a good means for learning through the community.

Metta,
Retro.

[DNS]

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!

Ask away, right here at DW. There are many well-read, knowledgeable members right here and we even have some members who are monks and nuns.

[kmath]

Welcome to Dhamma Wheel!

Ask away, right here at DW. There are many well-read, knowledgeable members right here and we even have some members who are monks and nuns.

There was a question asked here:

http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=18901

[Ben]

lkearns,

My tradition offers ten-day residential retreats in vipassana meditation on a pure dana basis.
There's a centre in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, two hours by rail west of Sydney:
http://www.bhumi.dhamma.org/

I recommend that you think about attending a course when your HSC is over - in about 4 to 6 weeks.
All the best with your studies.
kind regards,

Ben

[bodom]

Welcome Luke!

[lkearns]

lkearns,

My tradition offers ten-day residential retreats in vipassana meditation on a pure dana basis.
There's a centre in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, two hours by rail west of Sydney:
http://www.bhumi.dhamma.org/

I recommend that you think about attending a course when your HSC is over - in about 4 to 6 weeks.
All the best with your studies.
kind regards,

Ben

Hi Ben,

I'll definitely look in to that, as I have spent my fair share of time living in the mountains over the past 5 years! 5-6 weeks would be nice, but I'm at the other end of the course! another year for me

[Ben]

Ok, so you're in Year 11. You are one year level under my son's.

If you are interested, VMC Dhamma Bhumi also run courses for teenagers. From memory it is a one day course and they'll teach you the samatha variation of anapana meditation which is useful in developing calm and developing concentration - not bad life skills that could help you with your studies as you approach crunch time in just over a year's time.
kind regards,

Ben

[cooran]

Welcome Luke

With metta
Chris