The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation Paperback – August 4, 2009

I first completed a ten-day Vipassana course back in 2004. Back then, after the course, when we were allowed to talk again, the conversation was predominantly about how we could possibly translate the discourses into different languages, or perhaps provide subtitles. My concern was wanting to review the discourses over and over again. Of course, when YouTube arrived, the discourses have been uploaded there already in several languages. But now comes these books (along with Discourse Summaries, also by William Hart). These are amazing reminders of the valuable lessons generously given during the evening discourses at a ten-day course.Nothing compares with learning Vipassana Meditation at an actual ten-day course. Please enlist if you are called to the practice. This book is no substitute for that experience. This book gives a great review for those who have finished a course, and a valuable transcript of questions from students with answers straight from Geonkaji himself.In September 2024, I enrolled for the ten-day Vipassana course again. Yes, twenty years apart! This time, I was seething with hurt and anger at former friends who have done me great evil. My head was whirling with thoughts on revenge. Also, I did not like any of my classmates in the course. They were noisy, egotistic, smelly, ate too much, complained too much…. At the end of the ten days, however, I experienced a profound transformation and the beginning of understanding the principles of Buddhism. I have not become perfect or enlightened. But I now continue the practice every day. And I read this book after I got home from the course and it was a wonderful refresher of Goenkaji’s wisdom.Please dedicate twelve days of your life to learning Vipassana at a ten-day course, and then read this book. We shape our lives and this planet with the quality of our Consciousness. Vipassana purifies our minds from the deepest level of reality and science. If all humans practice Vipassana, there’ll be hope for our species.

I utilize Vipassana as one of my primary spiritual practices, having sat and served a number of courses in Southern California. I do not do an hour in the morning and evening as recommended, but it has become very nicely integrated in my spiritual practice as well as my public life. I provide this level of detail to make it clear that I very much appreciate the Vipassana system as taught by SN Goenka, but I am far from one of the Vipassana sycophants who adhere to nothing but Vipassana.While serving a course in December 2013, I came across this book in the library. It's shorter than most books in this category, and I have seldom gotten much of value reading about meditation, so I did not have very high expectations. The author does a very good job of composing a summary of Vipassana while staying very close to Goenka's method and style. I would not have been surprised if the book had been penned by Goenka himself, the author did that good of a job.I would suspect this would be a great book for someone new to the Vipassana system. But the value for a regular practitioner is having a concise book that accurately describes a system that is somewhat mysterious to the outside world. Now we have something to hand to our bosses or our spouses or our best friends that can intelligently explain why we are drawn to this form of personal growth and discovery. Therefore, I would recommend this book to newbies and hard core sitters alike.

I actually read this book after taking the 10 day course. I was first introduced to this technique through the 10 day discourses on a CD that a monk gave to me; they are available to purchase online in mp3 format as well. The technique is incredibly practical, logical and showed immediate results in my daily life.Where does this book come in? It explains a lot about the fundamentals of the technique, the reasons behind some of the peculiarities that make it different than many others, the difficulties one may encounter and what to do about them. I found the Q&A sections in the book to be wonderful; full of many questions I myself had, or that many people had asked me.I found that this book made a strong case for logically explaining the reasoning behind this form of Vipassana and it's goal of destroying the negative habit patterns of the mind and ultimately reaching liberation from suffering (nirvana).Nothing compares to taking a 10 Vipassana course at one of the hundreds of centers around the world and learning the technique first hand. I practiced on my own for hours daily for months before I took the course, but by taking the course I had progressed perhaps twice as much as those several months in just the first day of being there.No amount of reading will ever give you the experiential knowledge required for eradicating the habit patterns of the mind which is what will really change one's life for the better. Reading is good for inspiration to practice, and hopefully this book will do that for one who hasn't taken the course, and if they have already taken a course, I know for myself, it can clear up several importation questions or confusions.This book is not a 'How To' (which is what the course is [necessary] for), but rather an exposition of theory and explanations about the technique. It also goes over the core principles in Buddha's teachings, the Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eight Fold Path, Anapana-sati, Kayagata-sati, and Vipassana-Bhavana as well as some other key issues.

Very attractive and persuasive narrative, but it doesn't tackle any of the severe criticism launched against the actual practice of the 10-day process, easily accessed on the web. Difficult to assess the practice as a result. Take your chances.