G'day mates,

Remember this story?  It's an oldie. 

Two monks were on a pilgrimage. One day, they came to a deep river.
At the edge of the river, a young woman sat weeping, because she was
afraid to cross the river without help. She begged the two monks to help
her. The younger monk turned his back. The members of their order were
forbidden to touch a woman. But the older monk picked up the woman
without a word and carried her across the river. He put her down on the far
side and continued his journey.

The younger monk came after him, scolding him and berating him for breaking
his vows.  He went on this way for a long time.Finally, at the end of the day the
older monk turned to the younger one. "I only carried her across the river. You have been carrying her all day."

I visit a few different forums unrelated to meditation.  Guys on these other forums bicker a fair bit but they don't appear to get upset nearly as much as you guys over minor issues.  I know it's easy for me to say because I'm not involved, but seriously,  the money/defamation thread was such a minor issue!  I'm not taking sides - I honestly don't have one.  Have a laugh about it!!  It's not a big deal.1113  Less serious and more playful would feel better.

Nice story. 
I've been a part of "internet" almost from it's very birth and I must say it's a rarity to see so many people offended or upset over some issues on an internet chat forum. I cannot comprehend the reasons for frustration as much as I try. I can only speculate. And from members who were supposed to be highly realized or well on their way to realization. Even more bizarre.

I don't post often but come to the site daily to read interesting topics, which are very in much decline lately.  This seems to be from unchecked egos fighting for "internet points" and status in an online community.  I really don't get it...

The interesting thing about seeing these interactions is that each individual thinks they are the height of decency because they can write in proper sentences.  It's still inflammatory, confrontational and unneccessary to the purpose of this site but they cannot see the woods through the trees.

Hopefully this site can recover and the sensible masses will emerge with their thoughts on practice and the issues they face on the road to awakening.

Hopefully...

My primary interests lie in the intersection of humanistic western psychology with various nondual wisdom traditions and so, several years ago, when I stumbled across this site while researching Goenka, I happened to scan through Daniel Ingram's book and noted that he'd referred briefly to TA Today (Stewart and Joines).

My suggestion is that he should take the opportunity offered by his rewrite to consider adding references to The Other Side of Power, Emotional Literacy and Scripts People Live, which would give balance and context to the rather dry and mechanistic approach of the Stewart and Joines text.

The first two books can be found on Claude Steiner's website (for free) - http://www.claudesteiner.com/

There's also a brief essay by Claude, which touches on his experiences on a Goenka retreat here - http://www.claudesteiner.com/blue.htm

I think the conversation, the bickering is taking place in the sub forums that are in place to converse, bicker about this website.  Since many people view the website through 'recent posts', bickers get mixed in with non bicker so it's easy to loose sight of the fact that conversations of different types are mixed together, but hopefully both types of conversations are valuable.

Victor, just a quick thank you for those links!

From the Kenny-Loggin's-singing gopher in "Caddyshack":

Who do you want? 
Who you be today? 
And who is it really 
Makin' up your mind? 

You wanna listen to the man? 
Pay attention to the magistrate 
And while I got you in the mood 
Listen to your 

Own heart beatin' 
Own heart beatin' 
Own heart beatin' 

There were rails under this thing?
On the bright side - no beheadings or drone assasinations yet.

'yet'. Ha! I wish there was a like button

My pleasure.

(And just to clarify a possible misunderstanding: I wouldn't recommend Goenka retreats myself because I consider that there are significant risks.)

EDIT:- this was supposed to be a reply to xx and I seem to have pressed the wrong button. Sorry!

No worries =]    I see you intend to reply to x x.

I will add that while I have not used Goenka in their retreats (but I have listened to some recordings of him in home practice from free online sources), I have a few friends who recognize its challenges, have had aversion to it (some still do), but who also still use its forms.

To each their own. It is an unexpected challenge to sit and practice mental and body attention and all the narratives that form during bodily cycles of hormone changes, habitual urges, boredom, fear, anxiety, practically ("should I just be working like the squirrels???").. so people find what works for them at the moment.