Jhāna Drama with Vince F. Horn

In this episode of Buddhist Geeks, Vince Fakhoury Horn shares his experience of working with the meditation startup Jhourney (www.jhourney.io/), and raises concerns about their insufficient training and appropriation of Buddhist meditation practices, advocating for a more responsible and deeply informed approach to secularizing Jhāna meditation.
Episode Links:
📝 The Second Generation of Mindfulness ( / the-second-generation-... ) by Vince F. Horn
🔗 The Meditation Research Project (meditation.mgh...)
🔗 The Jhana.community (www.jhana.comm...)
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[@johng4609]

Thank you much for these first-hand details! Scaling up ignorance is not skillful, and IMO it sounds likely that Jhourney is partly playing that kind of game. Decades ago I did two 10-day silent retreats at Wat Suanmokkh, lived there a couple of months, and based on that and time spent in other practices I share your concerns. I am glad the Jhourney guys sought your feedback and hope they learn from it.

[@jakebraden1460]

TWIM is my main method. Did some retreats with it and had a great experience with it. The six Rs are clunky at first but one gets into a smooth flow after a couple days; I thinks it’s great for counteracting the tension of craving and keeping a person moving in the soft jhana direction. It’s frustrating to hear that it is being by appropriated and I agree with Vince says here. Someone had to say it. Doing a ten day at Dhamma Suhka where Bhante V used to teach is amazing for the record. TWIM is legit as are many methods. I also did Goenka retreats and TWIM is much safer. I feel like I’m mainly saying TWIM works well and has a strong context. Nothing is perfect and I am always learning and listening to new teachings. Thanks

[@jakebraden1460]

I wonder if the jhourney guys are delivering TWIM as it is delivered by authorized teachers. I wonder if morality is emphasized (sila) for example, or the other various Buddhist topics like dependent origination. TWIM is about as Buddhist as it gets!

[@cleonal8935]

I like Twim too! Nice podcast, thanks

[@hansenmarc]

I don’t know many details about the histories of Bill Hamilton, Kenneth Folk, and Daniel Ingram. Were they lineage holders?
I wish Jhourney the best of luck, but would definitely feel better if they partnered with more experienced retreat teachers. I know Delson Armstrong has both taught TWIM retreats and been involved in medical research involving jhanic states. He seems like the perfect person for them to collaborate with. I wonder if they’ve reached out to him.