德國暢銷旅遊作家Andreas Altmann將帶領讀者展開一場內在心靈平和的探索之旅。
In the training camp for inner peace
Andreas Altmann is the opposite of an esoteric: enlightened, critical, opinionated. He can be irascible and polemical. But even a tireless travel book author needs moments of calm to collect himself. That is how Altmann came to India. What was he looking for? Concentration and clarity. What did he find? A training camp for inner peace.
He traveled from New-Delhi to Varanasi where he explored the most important Buddhist sites – and landed by chance at the meditation centre of S.N. Goenka. He has been teaching the practice
of Vipassana, the Buddha’s most important meditation method, for forty years. Andreas Altmann remained there for ten long days. Every form of diversion is prohibited there. And the rules are strict: All objects that that one brought along are collected, no radio, no drugs, no sex, no electricity, and no conversations. Altmann obeyed everything, except the prohibition on writing. Meditation lasts from the early morning to the evening – but instead of the desired void, the abundance of brought-along thoughts break out; the mental cinema, the associations, feelings and images only gradually diminish. And at the very end the wisdom taught by the Buddha to overcome the Buddha proves to be true.
Andreas Altmann has written a clear-sighted personal and courageous report that is also eyeopening for stay-at-homes.
