The first three days were pretty tough because of the need to wake up at 4 am and go to sleep only at 9 pm. During those three days, the toughest part was to sit for hours on end and meditate. The legs would get cramped, you get headaches, and the body and mind were showing many other signs of resistance to this forced discipline. The more I tried to meditate, the mind would wander away and think of other things, then I would have to bring myself back but before long the mind would wander  again! Also, the meditation technique for these three days was to focus on the triangular area of the nose down to the upper lip and observe incoming and outgoing breath and (later) also any sensation in that narrow area. By the end of the third day, this process of doing the same thing over and over was getting so monotonous that I wondered why I was even here.

But the fourth day brought the big surprise. The fourth day is a very important day since this is the day the technique of Vipassana is taught. It all made sense why we needed to do what we did for the last three days. It was to make the mind keen enough to be able to practice Vipassana. The fourth day after practicing Vipassana, I felt something I had never felt before in my life!  It was a complete bliss! It was worth every hardship for the last three days! I don’t want to divulge what was taught and what I practiced. It would dilute the whole technique. Not to forget, I am not even qualified to talk about it. I also came to a conclusion that this technique would make more sense only after one learns it in its purest form at the center or as per the instructions of the teacher adhering to a strict set of disciplines.

I started enjoying meditation after I experienced that amazing feeling. I would continue meditating everyday as per instructions. Now the mind and body were not resisting like before. Slowly I had gotten into a habit and days were rolling faster. By 8th day I realized that there were only 2 more days left and I was not too excited to go back to normal life. Then the 10^th day came when we were allowed to start “Noble Speech” when we talk only among meditators, volunteers and the assistant teacher. This was a “shock absorber” day before we went to the real world the next morning.

The most attractive thing about Vipassana for me is its universal appeal. No matter what religion we believe in or even if we do not believe in any religion, the meditation does not persuade us to follow any set religious rituals. It just requests not to kill, steal, lie, drink alcohol during those 10 days. This way, it is not limited to any one single group, community or sect. Even when somebody is a firm believer in his/her religion, the person will not feel any conflict between Vipassana and his/her religious practice. The only request for those 10 days is not to engage in any religious activity so that the technique can be practiced in its purest form. Goenkaji does say that Buddha attained Nirvana by practicing Vipassana. But he emphasizes on Buddha the person and not on Buddha the god. In other words, you don’t have to be Buddhist to learn this technique.

The Vipassana center in Illinois is near Rockford and more details can be found at http://www.pakasa.dhamma.org/. Also, a Nepali Vipassana teacher, B.N. Acharya is interested in conducting a Vipassana course next July for the Nepali Coummunity in the US. Interested person can contact me or Dr. Bishnu Phuyal for information and participation.    –   By Binod Dhungel

Children from Asian minority group growing in American culture serve as a basis for research. In average middle class family in Nepal, a child is raised in an extended family where adult male is responsible for maintenance of everyday household economy and female is involved in household chores and taking care of kids. Living in collective culture of multigenerational kinship, children share foods, toys, clothes, rooms as well as follow the tradition and learn the behavior that has been passed on from different generations under certain social norms.  Children grown up in Nepalese middle class family if immigrated to United States, there might be several developmental changes.

The new cultural pattern affects the development due to changes in composition of household, its economic and social resources, the games children play, the foods they eat, the way the family members act toward one another. In a new culture, the child needs to adapt and succeed physically, socially and academically. As an adaptation to a new way of living, the food habits change which affects the physical development. The authors of “Immigration and the Health of Asian and Pacific Islander Adults in the United States” used the 1992–1995 National Health Interview Survey to examine the effect of immigrant status (both nativity and duration of residence in the United States) on the health of Asian and Pacific Islander adults by constructing models in which national origin was also specified. In logistic regression models adjusted for age, marital status, living arrangement, family size, and several socioeconomic indicators, immigrants were found to be in better health than their US-born counterparts, but their health advantages consistently decreased with duration of residence. Depending on the nutrient intake, it may have adverse effect on physical development. In the Asian culture, it is very rare that one sees obesity becoming a problem, due to their diet and the nutritional values of the foods they consume. The more fast food restaurants that are coming up left and right in Asia, and the more Asian immigrants coming into America and turning toward the cheaper, less nutritional fast food, the higher the obesity rate is becoming in Asian Americans. Sources for Children’s recreational activities are abundant in a developed country, so children are more involved in physical activities which improve their physical development

The child’s academic and social involvement in a new school environment plays an important role in cognitive and psychosocial development. In addition to home and neighborhood, school is a place where the child gets exposed to multicultural contemporary friends. Children of immigrants suffer from the dislocation and confusion that inevitably accompany leaving the familiar and coping with a whole new language and school structure. Cultural and native language discontinuity can be the source for children to think that their classroom is not “working”. As they are in school all day, children usually learn the new language and customs more rapidly than their parents. As a result, they frequently serve as translators, negotiators and teachers for their parents. In some cases children completely refuse to speak their home language. These communication gaps also mean that they might have difficulty learning their native values, beliefs and wisdom from their parents. Children’s cultural contexts influence how they perceive and react to their natural environment. Most children in United States readily absorb the values of conquering nature and are learning that nature is something you tame and exploit. Toddlers and preschoolers often build roads or dig to find treasures when they are playing in the sandbox. Children from families and groups that believe in the sacredness of the earth may feel uneasy by the conquering earth assumptions. As children learn about different cultural responses to the environment, they can experience physical properties and environmental phenomena in new ways and possibly rethink their assumptions. Children shift their allegiance from the family and community of origin to the popular culture of their peers and the expectation of school. Children growing up in more collective cultures may be uncomfortable with the emphasis on individual achievement that dominates most U.S. classrooms and may be judged as unmotivated.

Although family, community are important sources for developing social group, for most students school is a primary place to practice the skills necessary for making and keeping friends. It is very important for the immigrant children to maintain the balance between the beliefs, behavior learned in native culture and mainstream culture in order to form social status. They need to get help from parents and teachers to learn to negotiate between the two cultures and benefit from these multiple perspective.

In a nutshell, cultural changes make a significant difference in the development of children from minority group. Children may identify only the dominant culture and do not acknowledge their home culture. Children may think one way at home and another way at school. Children may live totally in their home culture and avoid or reject the dominant culture. The most positive outcome can be children may live in both worlds, understand and maintain a good balance between home and mainstream culture.

By Sarana Parajuli