> Are these Vipassana retreats suitable for someone who has very little knowledge about meditation and zero experience? If you're young, in great health and lo

> Are these Vipassana retreats suitable for someone who has very little knowledge about meditation and zero experience? If you're young, in great health and looking for a huge challenge: maybe. It's a very extreme intro to meditation. Vipassana retreats break people. > Are there other options? I would prefer to be guided by a person than read a book, that option will just slip out of my schedule. Check for groups in your area, meetup.com is a good resource. So is google. Look up the lineage, the teacher, etc. For school X look up "X controversy" and there will almost always be something there, that's OK but there are some weird traditions out there that you'll do well to avoid. Trust your intuition. A lot of Buddhist meet-up groups will have a little note that says something like "if you're a beginner, second Tuesday of every month is beginner's night so show up a half an hour early and we'll square you away." Some have a "young people's night". There's a lot of luck involved. A usual evening should be a bit boring and might include one or two 20-minute sitting meditation sessions, maybe some walking meditation, maybe refreshments, some sort of a talk, some social time, and hopefully an opportunity to ask questions.