Keith Strand:
But then once at the sits in NYC I found it hard to figure out who was where in their practice since we were kinda schooled not to talk about each others experiences.
Paradoxically, and I'm sure this has been covered here, I find this an insightful aspect of Goenka's style of teaching.
Hi Keith,
I was a Goenka student for 9 years. What you mentioned there was one of my pet peeves and probably the reason I cycled endlessly through the dukkha nanas. Every AT or teacher I asked for help from gave me the same text book advice. "Be equanimous with the sensations. It's just a sankhara" Keep sweeping" etc. Always "Go back to the technique".
Here's a very cool quote from Shinzen Young:
"A coach listens carefully. A mistake some teachers make is that when someone shares a really significant experience they’ll say “Oh well, that’s okay, but go back to the breath”, because they don’t recognize the significance. All they know how to do is say, “Get back to the technique, get back to the technique”. There are times when you don’t say, “Get back to your technique”. There are times when you say “The wisdom function is arising within you, go with it!” If you can’t recognize when Nature/Grace is opening a window of opportunity for your student, you may end up making an error of omission.
A coach also cheers you on, encourages you. There are really two sides to encouragement. One is superficial. The other is deep. The superficial is the actual encouragement that the student hears. The deep subtle side is a deep conviction that I have, the conviction that everyone is capable of classical enlightenment. Either in the sudden dramatic form or in a more gradual form."
Kenneth Folk and even posters here like Daniel and Tarin are very good at coaching you to stream entry. Tarin helped me with his advice a year or so back to get to stream entry.
I eventually came in contact with Daniel's book 2 years ago. Found this place, believed that i could get stream entry too like those saying they'd done it as well. I included the Mahasi noting technique into my practice and went and got stream entry on a 10 day course within 2 years of reading MTCTOB. (The noting technique seems much more effective in getting yogis to escape velocity and then stream entry by the sheer numbers of those getting it done noting as opposed to just observing sensations only. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of Goenka yogis getting stream entry on mass for some reason)
I am biased towards the Mahasi noting technique and don't think the sweeping technique is as effective in getting quickly to stream entry. However, Tarin Greco has said that , as he was a Goenka practitioner at one stage too, that if you are aware of anicca at all times while getting to equanimity of formations nana, instead of spacing out and letting the mind drift off and wander, then stream entry can be achieved via that method too. Hopefully he will correct me if i'm wrong.
Hope this helps.
Nick