Vipassana and professional development- Part 2

Just finished visiting the Pakasa Vipassana Center to serve (May 6-8) in Illinois.  It was interesting both to visit a new center and to have the opportunity to serve.  Serving really does blend the 'real world' with contemplation as you are both (stressfully) cooking and coordinating meals for 70 people at the same time you are sitting in meditation.

Formal meditation at the center helps prevent me from lapsing into 'thinking' about equanimity by forcing me instead to experience equanimity (balanced mind free from craving/aversion).  If I want to implement contemplative practice in the classroom, I will need to return, perhaps monthly, to a center to serve.  True selflessness and indefatigable compassion are fairly antithetical to the teachings of modern society.  In my opinion, they also must be experienced and not just contemplated.

• As such, future professional development will likely hinge on in-semester visits to serve at a center.

From the experience, I am reminded of the following for class:

• Students must be given an opportunity to heal themselves before caring about others.
• Curiosity and questions are always better than 'knowing' and 'telling.'
• Solutions come about more easily when shared goals have been identified and individual agendas loosened.
• Individual agendas do no good.  It is so much easier to question and listen without simultaneously fighting to prove your own point.
• Assignments in mindfulness can be as simple as looking for representations in society, pondering the origins of personal favorites, and returning to nature.