On Sep 11, 2008, at 9:27 AM, Jonathan Chadwick wrote:
Well it is not no. 6! (by the way that is a great website).
Well, you might want to reconsider that.
Think of all the people who went on a 6 month course. Then another.
Tapas, tapas, tapas: burnout.
That course in Spain (?) where the entire course went nutso.
Or the fact that MMY encouraged the women in the dome (2007) to fly
for as long as possible, one woman flying for 5 hours. "Inspired" by
that suggestion now the women's domes are open ALL NIGHT.
These are all recipes for burnout.
I also would question whether TM or the TMSP actually helps
"concentration", the ability to focus in a totally relaxed manner for
long periods of time on a particular thing. Compare that to the
shamatha practitioners in the Shamatha Project who could meditate for
up to 12 hours, many hours of that undistracted by thoughts! And then
they came out rejuvenated and ready for more...
6. Paggaha
The next defilement of vipassana is paggaha which means exertion or
strenuousness and is defined as follows:
a. Sometimes the meditator may practice too strenuously.
b. He may intend to practice rigorously, even unto death.
c. The meditator overexerts himself so that attentiveness and clear
comprehension are weak, causing distraction and lack of concentration
