Dilip Mandal misunderstood the spirit of Vipassana. He rejected it without testing. Mandal quit after 4 days to attend to unfinished business due to Independence Day. When applying one commits for all 10 days. By leaving early, he wasted one precious seat.
Published in The Print, August 17, 2023
As someone who has completed the 10-day Vipassana course and who practices its meditation technique, I was both intrigued and disappointed with the arguments and observations put forth by Dilip Mandal, in his article in ThePrint Why I fled Vipassana in just 4 days. It is one thing to have attended all 10 days of this globally known meditation course and offer informed insights and critique, and quite another to make problematic generalisations based on false assumptions after quitting in just four days. Here I highlight some fallacies that must not go unchallenged. A disclaimer upfront: I do not work for the Vipassana teacher, late SN Goenka’s dhamma.org and am not a trained Vipassana teacher. I am responding in my individual capacity as a student and practitioner of the Vipassana meditation technique; my response also resonates with other Vipassana sadhaks I know.
