Vipassana

Just my opinion on Vipassana...

I no longer believe that there's such a thing as consciousness
anymore, the mind or an "I". To me these are artifacts of the
cultural language game we're born into. I don't see language as a
veil of appearances to be seen through, a prison for our minds to
escape from or a mirror of reality we should keep polished. Language
is a useful tool, nothing more.

Consequently, I don't believe in the idea of truth anymore. "Truth"
is a useful term on occasion, but trying to find the truth is
attempting compare the sentence "there is beer is in the fridge" with
the fact that beer is in the fridge. But the world isn't broken up
into sentence-shaped bits called facts.

A wine connoisseur has learned about the many and varied tastes,
smells and sights of wine. They're not clearing away a fog to finally
see the wine as it is in itself, free from delusion. Wine
connoisseurs are just good at the language game called "wine
connoisseur". Experiencing wine without language can also be done,
I'm sure the connoisseur finds language a poor substitute for
experience, but the experience isn't the truth either. Neurons fire
for many years and you get a red nose.

So I think it's dumb when people talk about enlightenment, noble
truths, the Way, insight, etc. Even things like intelligence and
wisdom, to me, refer to people who are good at a particular area of
our language game. There might be a currency for these skills, but
the idea that that these people are in some way in touch with the
truth, or have it right, is silly to me now. And the idea that people
can improve those skills by doing something else, like meditating, is
also silly.

Vipassana builds up this idea that the mind is sick and in need of a
special kind of surgery, or it's blunt and can be made sharp. They
create the problem they solve. They allude to all these other things
that don't really stand up to much scrutiny, but people support what
they want to believe. People get addicted to a feeling of progress
with these kinds of things, or to the idea that they're doing
something that the average human can't appreciate, but will notice it
given the right conditions, and be intrigued. Even beyond these
adolescent fantasies, people may do it for no reason whatsoever,
perfect detachment. This is also a perfect waste of time. If I'm
going to waste time, I at least want to enjoy myself.

In the course, Goenka translates the enlightenment of the Bhudda, "I
know thee! [or something like that] You'll not build a house for me
anymore" etc. Um, what can I say... yeah right. Instead, why not
listen to the stories from Jesus, Muhummad or Moby *** for that
matter? As Jesus was being nailed to the cross he supposedly said,
"forgive them, they know not what they do", as if he alone knows what
they do. As if he has some special access to the truth that nobody
else does. Each to their own, but I'd sooner get advice about my life
from George Bush. At least Bush would consider the nails.

Having different world views is great, I think. It makes the world
more interesting and we're less likely to become entrenched in
thinking that our world view is the one true world view. I don't
think Vipassana has it wrong, or, that my view is right. That's
exactly what I don't think. It's my view and only my view, and I'm
interested in hearing yours.
.