The Manifest: Launchpads

LAUNCHPADS

"The Spare Room Ascender"

Name: Vince Horn

Practice: Insight Meditation (from the dreaded Theravadin tradition of Southeast Asia)

Comments: “An hour a day keeps samsara away”, or so they say? Well in any case this my slightly confused meditation area. Confused for a few reasons. 1) You see that blue block which I sit on? It’s called a gonden, and was designed by ol Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the crazy Tibetan meditation master who founded the Shambhala lineage (a non-secular contemplative tradition). In the vipassana tradition most would probably say “You’ll never experience Nirvana on a blue block, you’ve got to have a zafu man!” Well, what can I say, my god damn zafu cushion went flat as a pancake in about 6 months. This baby will never go flat! 2) As a lover of all things Integral, I often wonder what the hell I’m doing practicing in the Theravadin tradition. In Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Wilber’s monster work, Ken gives a scathing criticism of Theravadin Buddhism in one of the endnotes. He basically proclaims that the doctrine of “no-self” can be terribly confusing and lead to psychological unrest, and that the Theravadin path is a purely ascending path (meaning these meditators are trying to escape the world, rather then live in it). I’ve constructed a few possible responses to this criticism.

Theravadin Buddhist Monk: “Well Ken, your criticism is merely a transient phenomena which is arising and will eventually pass away. Further more it is “not-self”, impermanent, and will lead to suffering!”

Me: “thanks for pointing out the possible pit-falls of this tradition, I will henceforth choose to place my practice within a larger framework which can both lead to enlightened spiritual awareness as well as psychological well-being, now if you don’t mind, it’s time to return to blissful cessation.”

Editor of TM, Paul Salamone: “Dude, I don’t want to even post this article, it’s time to quit this job, move to downtown Boulder, work on my pathetic live poetry act, and render The Manifest—Unmanifest.” [thanks, dick. –ed.]

Submit a photo of your own meditation space along with a brief bio and description of your space and the practices you use it for to launchpads@the-manifest.org.

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