I received introductory lessons on meditation from a local Buddhist worshiper. The technique I learned along with my girlfriend was vipassana or insight meditation. It relies on deep breathing and constantly returning to a calm state. I began to use meditation to combat the mental fatigue that came with alcoholism. I moved to Madison, Wisconsin where I had abundant free time to meditate and really explore the practice. I was exposed to many concepts in meditation like the planning mind, the worrying mind, and the dreaming mind. I learned these at Quaker meetings. I drifted away from meditation but came back to later while attending to my dad in a hospital.
Key Takeaways:
- A man taught us vipassana, and we sat cross-legged while trying to focus on our exhaled breaths.
- AA helped me to stop drinking, while meditation helped me control my runaway brain.
- When my father died of leukemia, I assessed my life and got back to meditation practice.
“While in my final semester of college in Baltimore, I learned how to meditate. My girlfriend and I arranged for a fifty-ish man from a local Buddhist center to give us an introductory lesson at her apartment for twenty dollars. When we answered the door and he saw two students who could’ve been his children, his face registered surprise.”
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