I have booked myself on the Goenka Retreat in Sep (UK). Can anyone give me some feedback as to whether its a worthwhile move etc...?
Thanks!
Tony...
Apologies if this has been done before - I'm in work and can't really search.
Goenka Retreat?
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Haven't done one yet, but others here have. So until they post here, you could check out this thread:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 49&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
or this
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 61&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 49&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
or this
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 61&start=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Let it come. Let it be. Let it go.
Re: Goenka Retreat?
I have no doubt that it is worthwhile Ashtanga. Are you going to the place in Herefordshire ?
I wont say too much because I think it is important to go with a minimum of expectation, we are all different..
But I am sure that you wont regret taking advantage of a real opportunity to grow Dhammically..each days retreat is the equal of a year thinking about these things.
Hope it goes well. I hope also that you tell us how it went.
I wont say too much because I think it is important to go with a minimum of expectation, we are all different..
But I am sure that you wont regret taking advantage of a real opportunity to grow Dhammically..each days retreat is the equal of a year thinking about these things.
Hope it goes well. I hope also that you tell us how it went.
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Hi ashtanga
I've participated in at least 30 retreats under the guidance of SN Goenka in the last 25 years.
And I keep going back. You're welcome to pm me any specific questions you may have.
kind regards
Ben
I've participated in at least 30 retreats under the guidance of SN Goenka in the last 25 years.
And I keep going back. You're welcome to pm me any specific questions you may have.
kind regards
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
-
Goofaholix
- Posts: 4029
- Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:49 am
- Location: New Zealand
Re: Goenka Retreat?
I've done about 6 Goenka retreats, depending on your attitude some people find them very difficult. His teaching style is very much to push people to work harder the trouble is us westerners can often get all uptight when we hear that kind of instruction over and over again.ashtanga wrote:I have booked myself on the Goenka Retreat in Sep (UK). Can anyone give me some feedback as to whether its a worthwhile move etc...?
Thanks!
Tony...
Apologies if this has been done before - I'm in work and can't really search.
My advice is for you to relax, you want to maintain a consistent relaxed effort not an uptight trying to force something to happen effort, if you maintain that you'll find it worthwhile I'm sure.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
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Brizzy
Re: Goenka Retreat?
ashtanga wrote:I have booked myself on the Goenka Retreat in Sep (UK). Can anyone give me some feedback as to whether its a worthwhile move etc...?
Thanks!
Tony...
Apologies if this has been done before - I'm in work and can't really search.
Welllllllllll....................
I will desist from saying anything new, however if you look up my posts you might get my answer.
It is your decision
-
living peacefully
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 8:46 pm
- Location: South Carolina
Re: Goenka Retreat?
I sat my first 10 day retreat last month at the SE Center in Jesup, GA, US. I am still processing the experience. No regrets! 
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Well done, living peacefully!
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Highly Recommended... I sat my first retreat last december. Sitting another one next month...
Re: Goenka Retreat?
done one Goenka retreat in 2005...changed my life.....self confrontation......good luck!!
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Some respond well to his method. I didn't, but that may have had something to do with the sycophants around him, who just bugged me. Oh well. Give it a shot, just realize it is not the only game in town.
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Hello alan,
Did you actually go to a Retreat where Goenka-ji was personally present?
with metta
Chris
Did you actually go to a Retreat where Goenka-ji was personally present?
with metta
Chris
---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---
Re: Goenka Retreat?
No, I was hoping to meet someone real, but was stuck with his C grade acolytes. Perhaps that was all they could get to come up to Kathmandu, where I was living at the time--this would be 1986 or so, when I was a long haired hippie. (The retreat was sold as if he would be there).
I would say to ashtanga that if you are not already sitting a few hours a day or more the schedule will probably be very difficult. At that time at least, they were very strict on insisting that his was the Only Way. I was busted for stretching, for instance, and got a "stern lecture" from a guy I had trouble respecting--no need to create negative feelings but lets just say he scolded me because "Yoga conflicts with Goenka's teaching."..blah blah blah. Ok then, but how about I stretch my legs? Is that a sin?
My experience might not reflect what is going on now. And I know there are people who have benefitted from it. But I have found that establishing good concentration takes long enough, and is rewarding enough, to be worth a lot of time. Goenka wants you to go right to his own system. For me at least, it did not work.
I would say to ashtanga that if you are not already sitting a few hours a day or more the schedule will probably be very difficult. At that time at least, they were very strict on insisting that his was the Only Way. I was busted for stretching, for instance, and got a "stern lecture" from a guy I had trouble respecting--no need to create negative feelings but lets just say he scolded me because "Yoga conflicts with Goenka's teaching."..blah blah blah. Ok then, but how about I stretch my legs? Is that a sin?
My experience might not reflect what is going on now. And I know there are people who have benefitted from it. But I have found that establishing good concentration takes long enough, and is rewarding enough, to be worth a lot of time. Goenka wants you to go right to his own system. For me at least, it did not work.
Re: Goenka Retreat?
Sorry to hear it didn't work for you Alan.
I think part of the problem is that some of the assistant teachers, and many of the volunteers in 'management' have never experienced anything outside of Mr Goenka's tradition and some of them a rudimentary exposure to the Tipitaka. So, the 'only way' is taken literally, and not understood as "upaya" (skill in means). And for many new "old students" the extraordinary retreat experience becomes a vehicle that generates the same kind of blind faith, devotion and zeal that Mr Goenka actually warns against. When I was in India in 1989/90 I attended the winter season of long couses at Dhammagiri and served Mr Goenka. I witnessed him a number of times actively discouraging students from engaging in guru-devotion. While it seems to be a bit of a cultural norm in India, he wouldn't accept it from his western students and actively discouraged their attempts at adopting sycophantic devotional behaviours. During the long courses, Mr Goenka states that part of the role of the teacher is to lead students from dependence on a teacher, to independence - self-dependence. He encouraged his students to try and work things out for themselves and only resorting to speaking to him (or an AT) only if it was absolutely necessary.
But like you, over a 25 year period, I've met my fair share of acolyte-wannabes. But my impression is that that phenomenon is the result of whats going on inside the heads of some of the people who attend, rather than it being the fault of the teacher.
kind regards
Ben
I think part of the problem is that some of the assistant teachers, and many of the volunteers in 'management' have never experienced anything outside of Mr Goenka's tradition and some of them a rudimentary exposure to the Tipitaka. So, the 'only way' is taken literally, and not understood as "upaya" (skill in means). And for many new "old students" the extraordinary retreat experience becomes a vehicle that generates the same kind of blind faith, devotion and zeal that Mr Goenka actually warns against. When I was in India in 1989/90 I attended the winter season of long couses at Dhammagiri and served Mr Goenka. I witnessed him a number of times actively discouraging students from engaging in guru-devotion. While it seems to be a bit of a cultural norm in India, he wouldn't accept it from his western students and actively discouraged their attempts at adopting sycophantic devotional behaviours. During the long courses, Mr Goenka states that part of the role of the teacher is to lead students from dependence on a teacher, to independence - self-dependence. He encouraged his students to try and work things out for themselves and only resorting to speaking to him (or an AT) only if it was absolutely necessary.
But like you, over a 25 year period, I've met my fair share of acolyte-wannabes. But my impression is that that phenomenon is the result of whats going on inside the heads of some of the people who attend, rather than it being the fault of the teacher.
kind regards
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global Relief • UNHCR
e: [email protected]..
Re: Goenka Retreat?
I attended a 10 days retreat this past month in Sutton, Quebec. I started meditating in June last year, for about 8 minutes each morning. Up until I went to the retreat I gradually increased my sittings, up to 20 minutes, sometimes twice a day, sometimes only once and at other times I just got discouraged and didn't sit at all.
For me, the 10 days retreat was one of the hardest thing I've ever accomplished but it was also probably the single most transforming event of my life. So much so that I'm going back for another one in July.
Since the retreat, I sit for one hour, mornings and nights. Sometimes I have some difficulties with the wild mind and poor concentration but I'm determined to just sit and try my best to observe what is. It's great now because I have the time to dedicate to meditation. I'm starting school this coming week and hope to be able to carry on this journey...
metta...
For me, the 10 days retreat was one of the hardest thing I've ever accomplished but it was also probably the single most transforming event of my life. So much so that I'm going back for another one in July.
Since the retreat, I sit for one hour, mornings and nights. Sometimes I have some difficulties with the wild mind and poor concentration but I'm determined to just sit and try my best to observe what is. It's great now because I have the time to dedicate to meditation. I'm starting school this coming week and hope to be able to carry on this journey...
metta...