Life in Balance: Amit D. Chaudhary’s Blog
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I went to a Vipassana course in Aug 2006. I left before the course was over. I wrote a blog post fairly soon after that on the experience: Experience from attending Vipassana Course by S.N Goenka (4 days out of 10): Updated

Here is my current view on it and some other information.

Vipassana Course as taught by S. N Goenka is not for me. Why

1. Mismatch of general philosophy and outlook

I do not believe in the most common refrain that more one does or achieves (Money, Career, etc) in the world, the more one is accumulating bad karma. This is typical of many Buddhist and Hinduism philosophy and also of Vipassana.

My current method seems to be a mix of Yoga (Moral Conduct, Asanas, Meditation as per Yoga Sutras by Patanjali), Law of Attraction\Intention manifestation, though I keep checking what my goals are and updating paths\methods accordingly (Ideas to think consciously about your spiritual goals and evaluating spiritual paths.)

2. There are enough of aches and pain in life on it’s own

In my opinion, in a Vipassana course, pain (in addition to diet detox, less sleep, minimal or no caffeine, deprivation of normal activities and stimuli, etc) is used to break down mental barriers and defenses to self exploration.

I would rather not go through acute pain and potential of injury for my spiritual path. This is more relevant being a computer programmer my body gets repetitive stress on a daily basis. and being in my 30s.

I will, in future seek courses\retreats which include Yoga Asanas to balance Sitting Meditation. Unless Yoga continues to help me in which case I might consider reapplying to a Goenka Vipassana course.

Vipassana Course as taught by S. N Goenka why it might be for you.

1. It is one of the non-controversial spiritual path and it is free.

At the core, it is kind of straight forward. You sit and meditate lots of hours for lots of days, insight happens.
It is free, donations are welcome at the end of the course. This compares well againsts the typical $100 per day at the other Ashrams such Sivaananda or Haridass ones.

2. You do not have acute pains or even better have a young body.

I personally know or saw 55+ year old people doing the course and of many young ones being in utter pain. I believe the course is better handled if you do not have acute pains or even better have a young and healthy body.

3. You have difficultly starting some spiritual practice on your own.

A retreat, any retreat is a good way to get a boost, a jump start and if the general Buddhist philosophy appeals to you, give a try.

Few other things

1. Retreats or meditation break\vacation are useful

They revitalize one’s path, resulting in progress and highlighting the benefits of a spiritual practice if one has been drifting.

2. If I ever get the temptation to get tough and try it out, I will remember to sit at home for 2 days or I might just try something else equally tougher like climb Mt. Rainier.
3. I found a disturbing trend is that some educational institutes (For example, MBA HR students at SCM HRD, Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development in Pune, India) are forcing their students to take the Vipassana course.

Nipun wrote about such a group in Vipassana Day 2: Dharma Works. Excerpt: “Right then, the director of the college calls just as a routine check-up. He is furious to learn of the plans of these 17 students (to leave early); he blatantly informs them that they will be expelled from college if they return.” and “if they get expelled, not only will they lose their valuable admission here but they won’t be allowed to enter another business school elsewhere.”, though they do not agree with it “And everyone at the meditation center here is in full agreement that such a scenario should never ever happen again. Fear simply can’t be the motivation for meditation.”

4. Vipassana course did and still does has that feel of being able to provide a way to go to the other side (Spiritual, More knowledge, etc) and make quicker progress, it is in sheer hours, equivalent of many months of regular meditation.
5. Do consider it when you are serious about a spiritual path. As I wrote earlier in Ideas to think consciously about your spiritual goals and evaluating spiritual paths, “Do not go knocking on doors you do not want opened or want to go through”.

On what to expect at a Vipasana Center and what to take

• Keep the items to take at a bare minimum, the place is rustic. You will not get a drawer or cupboard, so be ready to use your luggage bag as your cupboard.
• The beds are bunk beds with one of top accessible using a ladder.
• The toilets and bathrooms are rustic but more or less clean. The waterless ones in NorthWest Vipassana Center in Onalaska smelt pretty bad most of the time.
• Carry
• a water bottle and a mug, it will save you trips.
• a meditation cushion, though they do have some and provide a thin one for all.
• a light shawl\throw for the temperature change.
• Consumables like Soap, ToothPaste, Sleeping bag, etc
• The food is excellent, it is modern vegetarian with lots of whole grains, vegetables, etc.

Last updated: 2nd June 2007.

Startup\Entrepreneur tips from Po Bronson’s Wired article on Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail from 1998

1. Used a decoy plan to shortlist the Good VCs(Investors)

So in August 1995, Sabeer began shopping around a business plan for a Net-based personal database called JavaSoft. This would become, in effect, the front for the Hotmail idea. With venture capitalists skeptical of the software market - it was too hard to get good distribution and rise above the fray - JavaSoft wasn’t likely to fly, but Sabeer kept showing the plan, and saving Hotmail for those VCs he’d tested and respected. Hotmail was such an explosive concept, Sabeer didn’t want a less-than-ethical VC to reject him, then turn around and copy it. In order to keep the Hotmail idea under wraps, he and Jack Smith even put the JavaSoft name on the front door of their first tiny office in Fremont, California.

Key takeaways: Secretive, Smart and Paranoid.

2. Inspite of earlier rejections, Negotiated with DFJ for double the initial investment offer

One might have presumed that since Sabeer had been rejected by 20 previous VCs and was virtually a nobody, he was grateful to accept Draper Fisher Jurvetson’s $300K on their terms. “He’s the most interesting negotiator I’ve ever met,” Jurvetson says. Tim Draper made the perfectly reasonable offer of retaining 30 percent ownership on a $1 million valuation. Sabeer held out for double that valuation - their cut, 15 percent. The negotiations got nowhere, so Sabeer shrugged and stood up and walked out the door. His only other available option was a $100,000 family-and-friends round that Jack Smith had arranged as a backup - not nearly enough money. “If we’d gone that route, Hotmail wouldn’t exist today,” says Jack.

Draper and Jurvetson relented; they called back two days later to accept their 15 percent. And Sabeer and Jack stretched that initial $300,000 all the way to launching the service before needing a second round.

Key takeaways: Confidence and Self-Worth.

3. Negotiated with Microsoft every week for months and went from initial offer from US $40 million to actual sale price of US $400 million

When Microsoft came bidding in the fall of 1997, they came as a small army. Six at a time, they flew down from Redmond and sat in Hotmail’s small conference room across the table from Sabeer. They offered a figure, something that would have put tens of millions of dollars in Sabeer’s pocket. Sabeer rejected it, and they stormed out. A week later they were back, and every other week thereafter for two months. hey flew him up to Redmond to meet Gates and have a little get-friendly conversation. At that point, it’s easy to see it all as funny money - when you’ve got a week to think about it, it’s hard to really see the difference between 50 million and 60 million. Are you really going to risk losing the deal for another 10 million?

Sabeer went back to Microsoft and asked for $700 million. “You’re crazy,” the negotiators shouted, followed by a few expletives. “You’re out of your mind! You’ve blown it!” But Sabeer knew those were only tactical outbursts.

But negotiating alone allowed Sabeer to present a unified front; it prevented Microsoft from taking Jack Smith to dinner and saying, “Jack, you’ve got a wife and a kid - c’mon, they’ll be set for life.” But Sabeer wasn’t psychologically alone - his backers and colleagues kept the faith.

Key takeaways: Patience, Courage and Partners

4. Neither he or his partner had knowledge or experience in the field they were starting, they hired the experience.

Sabeer believes he’s damn lucky to live in this place and time. “Only in Silicon Valley could two 27-year-old guys get $300,000 from men they had just met. Two 27-year-old guys who had no experience with consumer products, who had never started a company, who had never managed anybody, who had no experience even in software - Jack and I were hardware engineers. All we had was the idea. We didn’t have a prototype or even a dummied graphical interface. I just sketched on his whiteboard.”

The first 12 Hotmail employees signed on entirely for stock, forgoing salary - not very common in the Valley, where the unemployment rate is nil.

Key takeaways: Business and Personal skills over technical and Location