Vipassana in NYC

"Vipassanā (Pāli) or vipaśyanā (Sanskrit) means "insight" and is often referred to by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike as simply "insight meditation". While it is a type of Buddhist meditation as taught by the Buddha it is essentially non-sectarian in character and has universal application. It does not require conversion to Buddhism to practice vipassana meditation. While the meditation practices themselves vary from school to school, the underlying principle is the investigation of phenomena as they manifest in the five aggregates (skandhas) namely, matter or form (rūpa), sensation or feelings (vedanā), perception (saṃjñā, Pāli saññā), mental formations (saṃskāra, Pāli saṅkhāra) and consciousness (vijñāna, Pāli viññāṇa). This process leads to direct experiential perception, vipassanā." From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first time I happened to hear about Vipassana was back in 1984, in India. I am not sure if I heard this term but I was told by people who went for a week of silence, without talking at all , and heard wonderful stories on how it changed their life. Few years ago a good friend of mine did it here in Israel for a full 10 days and his reaction was (again) :" it changed my life" and since than he is putting a pressure on my to do it.
Last week I was in NY for a week, part of it was business and part was my NY Spring vacation, as always NY was great , I spent a weekend with Tali and when she left on Sunday I decided to make the next few days the Vipassana way. I tried hard not to contact people, not to speak, to run a lot in central park , to go to hear music but not to be in physical/talking contact with other. i must say i succeeded!!!
I sure will not call it "real Vipassana" but it was a very interesting experiment, first you meet yourself and always it’s the most difficult thing, than you open yourself to the surrounding, I mean really sharpen your skills of listening to what's going on around you. Since you don't talk, you are concentrating on other people, their behavior, you can notice if they are happy, sad ,angry ,passionate, tired……the world looks different when you listen and not participate in the talking.
After three days like this I couldn't do it any more, and the first one who approached me with question got the all story for few hours……………thank you T. for listening.
My NYC Vipassana didn't change my life but certainly sharpened my listening skills.

And for all of you NYC Jazz lovers – try Zinc , its still one of the best kept secrets in NY.