An Ancient Path: Talks on Vipassana meditation as taught by S. N.

185 Pages·2010·2.4 MB·English

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v Disseminating the words of the Buddha
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v Illuminating the meditator’s path
AN ANCIENT PATH
Public Talks on Vipassana Meditation
as taught by S. N. Goenka
given in
Europe and America
2007
by
Paul R. Fleischman, MD
VIPASSANA RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS ! ONALASKA, WA, USA
VIPASSANA RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS
an imprint of
Pariyatti Publishing
867 Larmon Road, Onalaska, WA 98570
www.pariyatti.org
c 2008 Paul R. Fleischman, MD
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-928706-52-6 (PDF)
ISBN: 978-1-928706-53-3 (Print)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009921669
With special thanks to TSJZ and DMT
At last I have become old enough
to have young people to teach me.

Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
A Way of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Boston, Massachusetts, June 1––2, 2007
Differing Contributions of Vipassana and Mindfulness
to Mental Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Freiberg, Germany, November 19, 2007
Clarifi cation of Mindfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Vipassana Meditation, Mental Health
and Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Madrid, Spain, November 16, 2007
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Madrid, Spain, November 16, 2007
Karma and Chaos Revisited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Vienna, Austria, November 24, 2007
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
Vienna, Austria, November 24, 2007
Cultivating Inner Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .123
Dublin, Ireland, December 3, 2007
Questions and Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .140
Dublin, Ireland, December 3, 2007
The Tath±gata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Ghent, Belgium, December 7, 2007
Questions & Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .172
Ghent, Belgium, December 7, 2007
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181
About Vipassana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .182

Preface
The talks collected in this book were given to varying audiences
under unique circumstances that partly shaped what was said. I
hope some of the pleasant ambience of these occasions comes
over in print.
This is not a collection of essays. The talks stand side by
side, all having the same center, which is reached from a dif-
ferent angle each time. The Boston talk was to mental health
professionals in the USA. The Freiberg talk was given to ““Mind-
fulness”” researchers in Germany. The Madrid talk was given in
a hospital, with a translator, that slowed and limited its length.
Before the Vienna talk, I was advised to speak as if the audi-
ence had a pre-existing, intellectual knowledge of Buddhism,
and I was asked to speci cally address the topic of ““Karma
and Chaos.”” Before the Dublin talk I was admonished to give a
literary and intellectual cast to the presentation. In Ghent I was
asked to speak to a University audience with a more philosophi-
cal background.
To me each talk was a memorable mingling with new places
and people, and an echo of dozens of other talks that either
were never recorded, or that lacked anything speci cally differ-
ent enough to be worth presenting alongside of what is written
here. Because every introductory talk, regardless of the angle of
approach, has to cover some similar material, not all talks are
worth saving, and there is a lot of repetition in this book. Much
7
8 An Ancient Path
of the repetition has been preserved, so that the talks remain in
themselves generally coherent and intact, but since all audio  les
were edited for readability, the written word varies signi cantly
from audio material bearing the same title and date.
I would suggest that the talks be read one at a time, and the
book (or computer screen) closed in between for a while. When
it is reopened, I hope the next talk will have enough that is new
to sound vivid and fresh, and enough repetition of essentials to
have the effect of a chorus.
The Garden Cottage
Bloomington, Indiana July 2008