first comments on the course

The course arrived Tuesday morning, and I spent a good bit of the evening ripping the lessons to my Zune, as I'm on the go a lot and also wanted the most convenient possible way to play the guided meditation parts.

Everything from the box itself to the workbook and discs were surprisingly professional in appearance and composition. That's always a plus, although I'd have been content with something just cheaply slapped together, to be honest.

I've played the Lesson 1 audio material a few times now, mainly during my drive to/from work, and sat with the Lesson 1 guided meditation session on mindfulness of breathing and hearing last night (a 45-minute sitting session, which I understand to be the norm for this series).

Initially, I'm digging the approach to both the lessons (supplemented in the workbook) and the guided meditation. I don't have to watch a clock or remember to set a meditation timer with these, as you're informed when it's done just as though you were in a dharma center. In fact, with eyes closed and Sharon's voice in my Zune headphones, the sitting session was essentially indistinguishable from one in a dharma center.

The lesson content sounds a lot like a planned dharma talk from a Vipassana teacher, so the whole experience really is very much like sitting with sangha.