[Buddha-l] FW: Stephen Batchelor --video--seminars on

[Hans Gijsen]

On Apr 23, 2010, at 2:37 PM, Curt Steinmetz wrote:
 
>Does anyone know why Batchelor broke with Goenka?
 
Did he?
 
> Batchelor claims to 
>practice vipassana in the style of Goenka, but he actually only attended 
>one Goenka retreat back in his 20's, and they parted company after that, 
> and not on good terms.
 
Does he make this claim? 
Did they part not on good terms?
 
In Batchelor’s book ‘The Faith to Doubt’ he clearly states that this rather short 10-day retreat with Goenka had an ‘overwhelming impact’ on him, his ‘consciousness was unquestionably altered’ and he gained ‘direct experiential insights into the meaning of the Buddhist teachings’.
 
Until now Stephen Batchelor is engaged in teaching Buddhism in combination with vipassana medition retreats, together with his wife Martine. So from the point of view of developing, shaping en transmitting vipassana meditation Stephen Batchelor did a tremendous job and the terms are very good!
 
In vipassana retreats Martine and Stephen work together in a very fruitful and stimulating way. As far as I know Martine did not work with Goenka. Nevertheless her book ‘Let Go; A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits’ is vipassana meditation pur sang (without even once using the word vipassana). 
 
In the end ‘this’ is not about Goenka or Stephen Batchelor or Martine Batchelor or Guru X, but it is about the transmission of philosophical and contemplative methods for the wellbeing of many (all?).
To state it a bit different: How far back do you want to go in studying the relationships in transmissions: Stephen Batchelor – Goenka – U Ba Khin - …………….?
And parallel to this: Martine Batchelor – Kusan Sunim - ……….?
And: Stephen Batchelor – Geshe Rabten - ………?
And: Stephen Batchelor – Kusan Sunim - ………?
This would give a rather complex study. Why engage into it? To find the one-and-only method? Or even the one-and-only Vipassana-method?
 
Let me give an another line of reasoning.
When I listen to someone performing a song (lied) from Schubert I can most of the time hear which vocal school or linguistic background someone is coming from. When I sing the same song it will remain Schubert, but at the same time it will be colored in many ways by my vocal training, my cultural background, my physique (baritone), my understanding of the German language, my energy, my training, my feelings and mood of the moment, the interaction with the audience, etc.
How important is my relation with my vocal teacher at the moment of performance? Or my relation with Schubert? Would Schubert agree I perform the song with a Yamaha piano instead of a fortepiano?
One thing I really know: singing a Schubert song is never the same. It is nice to sing anyway.
 
 
Hans