10-day Vipassana Meditation Course

This Vipassana course, although the same word for word as the three previous ones that I have completed, has made a deeper effect on my mind than the previous ones. All religions, as well as humanism and atheism, tell us how we should live and behave, yet all fail to tell us how to do it!  The answer is in our minds. The Vipassana technique, which can traced all the way back to the Buddha, 2,500 years ago.  Unlike other meditation methods, which focus on an image, flower, or sound, like a mantra, are a barrier to getting into the mind, a sort of Gestalt, as I see it, figure and ground, the mind cannot focus on two things simultaneously. Like multi tasking, which is impossible with the way our minds are wired. Focusing on the respiration of the in and out breath onto and a very small area on the upper lip. Just follow the breath with equanimity feeling the light brush of the in and out, the out being warmer. The first three days of the course are spent in learning to do just that, when one is able to do this one finds that the mind is still. The ego has gone, dissolved. No monkey mind whizzing about, moving unscripted back and forth. He said

this, she said that. the anger, the frustration, the desires, the aversion. The length of stillness increases, with resolute determination, to see things as they really are. No room for protection of the ego, as it is no longer present. In this state of the present there is no fear, grasping, the future, the past, no anger, no misery, no wanting. Look at what is within, not at the source. This practice has enabled me to see that politics was devouring my time, my mind, my life. I have now decided to get a life and have renounced it. It was only by using this method that it enabled me to reach this conclusion. A few other changes have also been made. Oh, and it is silent, no talking for 10 days, just listening. Men and women are totally separated for the whole period.

There are two further things to add. Firstly, the excruciating pain suffered by sitting still for an hour without moving. Sore bum, aches in joints, numbness, stiffness, itchiness, these are  to be ignored. Grim, yet one has to keep ones equanimity. Secondly, the mental gymnastics required to scan the body systematically for feelings, while ignoring unwanted ones. The concentration required is exhausting. By the time I went to bed every night at 21.30 I was exhausted. This is the hardest thing I have ever done. When you loose it you return to respiration to get restarted.

The Pagoda

The daily timetable

My cell for 5 hours a day

Cell doors in a curved row

Group Meditation Hall. Men blue, women fawn seats

Dining area

Utensils rack above the sinks

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Breakfast on a plate

The fact that there is no reading materials, phone, camera, or other distractions. These are all handed in at the beginning. It is the first time I have had a cell, which was in the Pagoda. Just a small foam mat to sit on. A steel door, no windows. Only students who have done earlier courses get this option. Five hours a day in here and 4 hours with the group sitting with accompanying instructions. It was all so austere. Marble floors, no shoes indoors. No heating, wash from a plastic bucket. An eating area like something out of a prison movie. Steel eating plate, bowls and a spoon. A vegan diet of two meals a day. 19 hours between the last meal until breakfast time. 

Below is a  link to an account of the experience by a Russian lady. She did not use the Pagoda as it was her first course.

http://marcianka0-0.livejournal.com/3942.html?thread=11366