Best Of

ALL insight, ALL growth, ALL movement towards enlightenment comes from training your mind, through meditation, TO become and reside in open awareness. That is just the start.

“You have to do your own work; Enlightened Ones will only show the way. Those who practise meditation will free themselves from the chains of death.” Dhammapada 20.276

The actual change starts when you begin to recapture that level of observational awareness when NOT meditating. It can take as long as 5 to 15 years to start to have the first wisps of insight which generate minor inner change. From there .. it just builds over time as you continue your daily meditation practice and work at developing non-meditative awareness. It IS worth it, but it's not a quick fix.

For a partial and quick fix, try cognitive behavioral therapy. You can change a negative reaction pattern in just weeks, depending on the nature and cause of the problem and on your own efforts.

For slow but thorough inner change .. Buddhism is the path. If you no sangha or teaching, do Vipassana meditation. It is the only form of Buddhism designed to work witout a teacher to coach your practice. I recommend "Mindfulness in Plain Engnlish" by Bhante Gunarata. Often available on amazon (although the back of the book asks you to GIVE it way when you are done with it .. and NOT sell it for profit!). But it is the best written guide I have run across in my 25 years of doing Buddhism.

However, a local teaching monk is ALWAYS the best coach. It doesn't matter which Buddhist discipline the monk has been trained in .. they all work, when done properly.