2019 Sermons

Led by Rev. Jim Parrish.

Religious (and non-religious) folks talk about having a “spiritual practice” quite a bit, a practice of connecting with your inner self, or a sense of connecting with “something larger” than the self. A spiritual practice can be as simple as being fully present to the washing of dishes, walking in nature or, as referenced in this service, learning a meditation technique. I practice Vipassana meditation taught by S N Goenka from a line of Buddhist teachers – India to Burma and back to India. It is a mind/body integration kind of meditation that I find foundational to my spiritual practice. There are many other Vipassana practices that I think are very useful as well, and I’m going to explore them more. However, I do recommend this particular practice as a starting place. It is not easy to learn, the training using nine days of silence to build the practice, but it is thorough. I find that indeed, it can bring balance and equanimity to my thinking/feeling about life and its many vicissitudes, so I might make better decisions and not take things so personally. It’s not perfect, but as human systems go, meditation is a pretty good tool for getting along. Enjoy.

This is a link to the video shared demonstrating Anapana, or a breath meditation technique that is used to train for the full SN Goenka Vipassana technique. And this is a link to the Vipassana Center website.