That was the general response I received when I told my family and friends that I was embarking on a 10 day meditation/spiritual retreat to learn the art of Vipassana (pronounced Ve-Pashna) meditation. I myself wondered what I was in search for, what I was getting myself into and did something like this make me a crazy fanatical in search of answers. As the day of departure grew nearer, I was a little bit nervous, a little bit excited and very anxious to see what could come of going to a place for 10 1/2 days and having no communication with the outside world and having to take a vow of complete silence for the duration of the course. On top of that we were kept to a very strict vegetarian diet and the last meal of any substance we would have was at 11 AM when we had lunch. At 5 PM we were allowed to have a couple of fruits and a glass of water or a glass of tea and that was it.
Our schedule began at 4:30 in the morning until lights out at 10 o'clock in the evening. Throughout the day it was approximately 9 hours of meditation every single day. One thing I can definitely say is that I was not nuts for having embarked on this journey and it was easily one of the most enlightening and personally gratifying experiences of my life. The best part for me was the strength I gained. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I feel I gained all this strength from completing such a tough course especially for someone of our society and the mainstream flow. I can easily tell you that 4 of the 30 guys dropped out within two days of the course and many more were ready, but they persevered.
The women who attended the course work separated from us. We ate in separate halls, we had separate paths to walk and we had no interaction with anyone or anything, but ourselves and nature. We were also permitted, at 2 points of the day, to ask questions to our teacher with a 5 minute time limit. If you ever have doubt about what you can accomplish personally and sometimes you wonder about your inner strength or your drive I would definitely recommend checking out a course like this. If you are one that believes in the ability to have power over how your mind perceives things or you want to walk a path of enlightenment, I believe this is a great beginning. One of the determining factors for me is that it's a free course that works solely on donations from past participants of the course. In other words if you wanted to go to their website and donate money to their cause they wouldn't except any of your money unless you had been to one of the courses previously. Another aspect that truly resonated with me is that it had no religious ties whatsoever and the gentleman who taught us the course actually talked about how religion typically gets in the way of purifying ones soul.
The main precept behind this course is this is a way of life, not just a routine or religious practice. It's a way to purify ones soul. It's the way to eradicate personal misery and to let love and compassion be your driving force. I loved how the teacher focused on how one shouldn't react to having good moments or bad moments, the best thing we can do is to learn how to treat these moments exactly the same and to just accept them for what they are. We must understand that they are just moments and they will pass just like every other moment in life. Pain will pass, the joy will pass, the excitement will fade away and the sadness will dissipate. All are just moments which should be viewed as nothing more than that. I really attached myself to this way of thinking and I started seeing that if we could become masters of our minds, as this gentleman talks about, think about what we can accomplish. It taught us to realize that anger and resentment were things that we multiplied when we didn't just view a certain moment, we reacted to it. For example I noticed within the first few days that the actions of some of the other participants were really getting to me, and if you knew me personally you would know that one thing I have always struggled with is not being understanding enough about the differences of others and not allowing the actions of others to affect me so much. As I noticed this was beginning to happen again, by the 3rd or 4th day I was starting to view others and their actions in a totally different way. The actions were no longer affecting me and instead of getting angry at someone's ignorance, I felt compassion and an urge to help. It was extremely powerful.
After successfully completing this course I can tell you that I feel re-born. I feel like I can achieve anything I set my mind to and I believe I am in better control of my mind, my emotions, my reactions and my life. There were no miraculous moments, no visits from any gods, nothing out of the mystical realm, just understanding the way your own body and mind work together and in most cases work against each other. In our everyday lives learning to be a master of your mind is a lifelong goal but something that I personally am willing to work on. I've always wanted to strive to be the best version of me and I think that everyone should want to have control over their minds, their destiny and their emotions. If that is something that interests you I highly recommend checking out this course. I could honestly write an entire book about my experiences and I probably will one day, but for now I believe this is a good start.
We also had to observe five other precepts during the course, which were:
1. No killing of any living beings (This included the ravenous swarms of Mosquitos that gladly fed on all participants)
2. Abstain from stealing
3. Abstain from all sexual activity
4. Abstain from speaking lies (very easy when one takes a vow of silence, not so easy when one speaks in daily life)
5. Abstain from all intoxicants
For more information you can visit www.dhamma.org
I'd love to receive comments from any other student of Vipassana, past or present, to get a variety of experiences and points of view on the subject.
In the words of our teacher, "May all beings be Happy"!
Our schedule began at 4:30 in the morning until lights out at 10 o'clock in the evening. Throughout the day it was approximately 9 hours of meditation every single day. One thing I can definitely say is that I was not nuts for having embarked on this journey and it was easily one of the most enlightening and personally gratifying experiences of my life. The best part for me was the strength I gained. Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally. I feel I gained all this strength from completing such a tough course especially for someone of our society and the mainstream flow. I can easily tell you that 4 of the 30 guys dropped out within two days of the course and many more were ready, but they persevered.
The women who attended the course work separated from us. We ate in separate halls, we had separate paths to walk and we had no interaction with anyone or anything, but ourselves and nature. We were also permitted, at 2 points of the day, to ask questions to our teacher with a 5 minute time limit. If you ever have doubt about what you can accomplish personally and sometimes you wonder about your inner strength or your drive I would definitely recommend checking out a course like this. If you are one that believes in the ability to have power over how your mind perceives things or you want to walk a path of enlightenment, I believe this is a great beginning. One of the determining factors for me is that it's a free course that works solely on donations from past participants of the course. In other words if you wanted to go to their website and donate money to their cause they wouldn't except any of your money unless you had been to one of the courses previously. Another aspect that truly resonated with me is that it had no religious ties whatsoever and the gentleman who taught us the course actually talked about how religion typically gets in the way of purifying ones soul.
The main precept behind this course is this is a way of life, not just a routine or religious practice. It's a way to purify ones soul. It's the way to eradicate personal misery and to let love and compassion be your driving force. I loved how the teacher focused on how one shouldn't react to having good moments or bad moments, the best thing we can do is to learn how to treat these moments exactly the same and to just accept them for what they are. We must understand that they are just moments and they will pass just like every other moment in life. Pain will pass, the joy will pass, the excitement will fade away and the sadness will dissipate. All are just moments which should be viewed as nothing more than that. I really attached myself to this way of thinking and I started seeing that if we could become masters of our minds, as this gentleman talks about, think about what we can accomplish. It taught us to realize that anger and resentment were things that we multiplied when we didn't just view a certain moment, we reacted to it. For example I noticed within the first few days that the actions of some of the other participants were really getting to me, and if you knew me personally you would know that one thing I have always struggled with is not being understanding enough about the differences of others and not allowing the actions of others to affect me so much. As I noticed this was beginning to happen again, by the 3rd or 4th day I was starting to view others and their actions in a totally different way. The actions were no longer affecting me and instead of getting angry at someone's ignorance, I felt compassion and an urge to help. It was extremely powerful.
After successfully completing this course I can tell you that I feel re-born. I feel like I can achieve anything I set my mind to and I believe I am in better control of my mind, my emotions, my reactions and my life. There were no miraculous moments, no visits from any gods, nothing out of the mystical realm, just understanding the way your own body and mind work together and in most cases work against each other. In our everyday lives learning to be a master of your mind is a lifelong goal but something that I personally am willing to work on. I've always wanted to strive to be the best version of me and I think that everyone should want to have control over their minds, their destiny and their emotions. If that is something that interests you I highly recommend checking out this course. I could honestly write an entire book about my experiences and I probably will one day, but for now I believe this is a good start.
We also had to observe five other precepts during the course, which were:
1. No killing of any living beings (This included the ravenous swarms of Mosquitos that gladly fed on all participants)
2. Abstain from stealing
3. Abstain from all sexual activity
4. Abstain from speaking lies (very easy when one takes a vow of silence, not so easy when one speaks in daily life)
5. Abstain from all intoxicants
For more information you can visit www.dhamma.org
I'd love to receive comments from any other student of Vipassana, past or present, to get a variety of experiences and points of view on the subject.
In the words of our teacher, "May all beings be Happy"!
