Hello everybody,

A little background on me.  Over a year ago I hit the A&P on my first Goenka retreat.  Since that time, I had been practicing went through the dark night and after finding Daniels MCTB practiced noting to reach Equanimity, which is where I have been the last couple of months.  I have an opportunity to go on a 19 day Goenka retreat and am highly considering it with a aspiration for stream entry.  I really would like to go on a Mahasi retreat but due to the coronavirus Goenka is the only opportunity at the moment.  I have not done his technique for a long time and I know at the center one must follow his technique even though a noting practice seems to be the most useful in my experience.  Anyone have any advice on whether I should try to wait untill a Mahasi retreat opens up or if stream entry would even be an option at Goenka and considering where my practice is at?  Thanks everyone.

Hi,
You might find this useful

http://thehamiltonproject.blogspot.com/2010/11/going-for-stream-entry-on-goenka-10-day.html?m=1

Good luck

Excellent link! I have heard so many people say that it isn't possible to get SE on a Goenka retreat. I always thought it was a silly claim.

Goenka is great for SE. You probably don't need 19 days. 10 would do just fine. Often people don't land it on the retreat, but a few days or weeks after when they are more relaxed at home. You can use the retreat to really make progress however. 

Best advice based on personal experience: Follow the instructions. 

Seriously. No tweaking, mixing techniques, no regrets about not doing noting or strategising based on where you think you might be, just follow the instuctions. Your retreat will be much more productive if you don't spend 70% of it thinking.

~BTG

And I guess practicing a few minutes of gratitude each day for having this great opportunity could be helpful too. I'd love to have such an opportunity!

Best wishes

Hi Brad,

I did an online Mahasi retreat run by Satipanya in the UK a few weeks ago and it was very good, so that may be another option for you to consider.  We had people joining from as far away as New Zealand.  They are running a few more of them and they also plan to allow people to join online once they get back to running in-person retreats.

Conal

Do whatever technique you want.  Tons of people use Goenka retreats as an inexpensive generic retreat container.

Hello,

I did have my first cessation event on a Goenka retreat, I did follow what Goenka was saying but using Daniel tips aswell. My advice maybe is to let go of the scanning at some point and trust the process. Meditate 24/7 btw not only when sitting.
Good luck

Thanks for the comment, what exactly do you mean by letting go of scanning?

At some point I remenber that scanning was ''useless'' because my body sensation were just aware the all time when deep in EQ and after few days in the retreat so scanning would add a kind of ''doing'' that felt wrong . I remenber that I just sat or lie down doing nothing instead but being present with whatever is happening. Maybe don't even bother to understand and apply what i'm saying because I did what felt the more natural back there, which was following my intuition. I used the guide that someone link it above also. It is really just about being present 24/7 and following the technic until shit start to happens by itself and just relax into it.

This is great advice. Learning when to scan and when not to is a really useful skill. It's intuitive. You don't need to follow any specific recipe or do it only at certain stages etc. When you feel you can stop scanning, stop scanning. And then just be aware of the whole "sensation soup" of the body until you feel things start to stagnate and then scan down the body once or twice to move things along again. 


Eventually you will be able to drop it entirely. 

Interestingly, I intuitively do this at Goenka retreats. Well, I started doing it on my 2nd 10 day, and also at a 4 day that I did while in England a couple of years back. On my first 10 day, I was hardcore scanning the whole time, just trying to do what I was told.

It made me feel a little guilty when I would start 'resting in the sensation soup' but now I feel a bit better knowing that it was perhaps a good choice.

One more question, the in between periods.  Do you recommend noting during those periods?  I may just naturally be doing it since it is a habit or do you recommend no noting at all even when just walking around?

I'll say go with whatever method you use to stay present. It is really that simple, be present all time, do your best. If noting helps you then go with this.

Goenka doesnt talk much about between session, feel comfortable to use what you want, it is your retreat really.

I did follow my breath for the first 3 days personally. Then used some noting and basic walking meditation without note.

Lot of memories coming up, it was great