Saturday, December 11, 2010

My Vipassana Experience

I am back from the 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat. This was an experience far from what I had initially expected, for the better and for the worse. 

It was hard, harder than any other experience I’ve ever had. The amount of emotional, mental and physical pressure was incalculable and so difficult to bear, a price to pay to get liberated from most-if not all- of the “stock of misery” as they put it.

Before attending the retreat, I did not have high expectations, was not going to make drastic changes in my life, certainly not expected to become a new person in 10 days. Turns out I couldn’t be more right! My main motivations were first and foremost the challenge and living the experience. Well, I did survive and even more I’ve never felt this much peace and satisfaction!

The meditation technique was surprisingly simple; Observation! Objective Observation of the breath and then sensations in all the body parts. With no distractions from the outside world, the mind gets quiet and quiet and in absolute silence, we plunged in ourselves. The observation begins. Dirty laundry is out in the open. Impurities, fears, angers, grieves,… all come to surface and then comes pain, pain and more pain and finally peace. 


Surprises!
- Observing noble silence for 10 days turned out the easiest part of the whole program.
- Vegetarian food can actually be very tasty!
- If you keep your back straight, you can sit still for 11 hours a day or even more!

The Unbearable
- Waking up to the sound of the Gong at 4 am.
- Having to endure chantings in Pali language (original language of Buddha) before and after meditation sits with painfully numb legs.

What next?
I admit I still have doubts on the technique although I did reach results far better than I expected. The Kundalini practice I was doing before including Mantra Meditation - which Vipassana does not approve and highly criticizes- has worked perfectly well for me for the past two years and I certainly will not be putting that apart. However I will be give Vipassana a fair trial. It is worth it.

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