Part III: Perfect Equanimity

What is 'perfect equanimity'? Why can I still hear it? Is it because I was brainwashed for 10 days? Possibly. There’s nothing like being brainwashed for world peace. But ultimately, I don’t think it’s brainwashing. Sure, you are isolated for the rest of the world, encouraged not to speak to others or consume any other information other than your host for 120 continuous hours, but ultimately, when you hear something and experience something to be true, it sticks. So, ‘perfect equanimity’ sticks - but why?

Ari IssacMarch 28, 2018Vipassana, retreat, buddah, buddhism, self love, equanimityComment

Part II: The Monkey Mind & More BS

It is incredible what the mind will resurrect when it is totally and completely free of distraction. Well, most distractions. ‘Vipassana Camp’ (it’s like ‘band camp’ for spiritual folk), is sex-segregated with women on one side of the property grounds, and men on the other. Clearly this separation does very little to mitigate distractions of the queer-identified and curious individuals who sign on to this particular brand of zen torture. I’m fairly certain I fell in love with the back of someone’s head, and a pair of hands dishing out Mung Bean Curry...

Ari IssacMarch 28, 2018Vipassana, meditation, mind, matter, self help, self love, retreat, buddah, buddhismComment

Part I: The Vipassana Experience

A duffel bag, a backpack, two pairs of loose joggers, three sweaters, a warm blanket and a thermos. This would be all I’d need for 10 whole days. I took one last look at my Parkdale condo before meeting my ride-share downstairs, and had a strange, familiar feeling. It was a feeling I’d felt before, just hours before my Dad passed away - the day I woke up, and something in me knew that something was going to change that day.

Ari IssacMarch 28, 2018Vipassana, meditation, retreat, experience, life, growth, attachment, addiction, avoidance, dhamma, buddhism, buddah, silenceComment

Being 'IRL'

I have been dating IRL (In Real Life) for the better part of 2 full years now. Inconceivable! I have not swiped right for genuine human connection, doing it the way our mamas and papas (but I suppose more like papas) used to do it back in the day: cruising for chicks in meditation circles, summer camps, open bars, and getting down on the d-floor.

Ari IssacMarch 28, 2018love, self love, dating, apps, tech, bumble, tinder, okcupid, plenty of fish, POF, date, presence, growth, being, IRLComment

Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt

In a way, we are all coming out of a closet at one point or another, revealing pieces of ourselves that are essential to our functioning as a human being. We are always all of those things in our shadows, we just choose not to see them. We choose to externalize the things we hate because it’s easier than dealing with the fact that we have demons to deal with - work to do. We externalize the things we love because it’s easier to have someone else complete us than do the work to actualize who we want to be. In summary, humans are resistant and procrastinating. We are, in a word, lazy. But I’m learning that that’s not as bleak as it sounds - knowing it and staring it in the face is actually the greatest gift.

Ari IssacJanuary 16, 2018Comment

The One You're With

If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with. On it's face, it sounds like flippantly giving up on love and settling on a less ideal alternative. But reflecting on it - it means exactly the opposite. It means something so much more meaningful.To love the one you’re with is to truly love the situation you are with presently. To love the one you’re with means accepting that whatever didn’t want you or didn’t work out is simply the way it is, and that all that can be done is focusing on what’s at hand - the things that are with you right now.

Ari IssacDecember 4, 2017Comment