On the 19th January I faced a dilemma, everyone I
had been travelling with was heading homeward and I still had no idea what I
was going to do next. I was beginning to feel a creeping loneliness and wasn’t really
sure what to do with myself so on the spur of the moment I decided to head off
on a ten day Vipassana meditation course. Mark (the dude from the motorbike
that joined our Rickshaw convoy for a day) was doing it and so I piggy backed
on his adventure.
It was the morning the course started and the night before
when I looked there were still places but the day of applications had closed so
I rang them up and asked if I could come along the phone call went a little
something like this
Me: “ummm can I join the Vipassana course that starts today?”
Vipassana centre: “yes yes yes, come come come… do you have
any physiological issues?”
Me: “no”
Vipassana centre: “yes yes yes, come come come…do you have a
smoking addiction?”
Me: “no”
Vippassana centre: “yes yes yes, come come come…have you
read the course outline and rules?
Me: “yes of course” (I hadn’t)
Vipassana centre: “do you know its 11 hours a day seated
meditation? it’s very strict are you prepared for it?”
Me: (suddenly feeling like maybe this wasn’t a great idea as
I defiantly hadn’t read that) “yes of course I’m looking forward to it”
Vipassana centre: “ok then we will see you this afternoon”
And so I had made the commitment. For those of you who don’t
know Vipassana is a meditation practice taken its purest form directly from Buddha
and is the one true path to enlightenment. A ten day course is designed to put
you on the path that you will continue for life to help free you from craving
and aversion and lead you to an enlightened state and to true happiness.
The course schedule is rigid and goes like this
- · 4.00am Wake up bell
- · 4.30am to 6.30am Meditation
- · 6.30am breakfast
- · 8.00am group meditation
- · 9.00am to 11am meditation
- · 11am lunch
- · 1.00 to 2.30pm meditation
- · 2.30pm to 3.30pm group meditation
- · 3.30pm to 5.00pm meditation
- · 5.00pm dinner
- · 6.00pm to 7.00pm group meditation
- · 7.00pm to 8.30pm teachers discourse
- · 8.30pm meditation instructions
- · 9.00pm bedtime
That’s 11 hours a day of seated meditation with a further
90minutes of seated discourse (dharma talks) it’s also completely silent for
almost the entire ten days, contact between meditators is strictly banned (so
no gestures , glances or eye contact) and segregation between the sexes is enforced
The meditation centre is set just outside of the Jaipur and
is all pretty stunning with mountains in the back ground and loads of trees and
what not all over the place. The accommodation is in single cottages with
private bathrooms in each, with bucket showers (but there was hot water!!) the
food is simple but tasty and the whole thing is funded on donations of past
students, at the end of the course you simply donate whatever you feel you can
give.
Although ‘silence’ is enforced burping and farting in the
dharma hall was completely normal (and extremely distracting) and the wildlife
around the place obviously hadn’t got the memo as there were monkeys screeching
constantly and peacocks flapping about making weird noises that sounded as
though they came out of video games. And at night just around bed time a local
disco started up and there seemed to be fireworks most nights but it was stil
pretty weird to have the only voice we heard be the teachers.
In total I spent 12 nights at the centre arriving on the
afternoon of the 19th and leaving the morning of the 30th
meaning I was there for ten full days of course. Mark and I travelled there
together on his motorbike and arrived to be fed lunch (in separate male/female
dining halls) before registering and handing over all our contraband items. Reading,
writing, any electronics and of course drugs and alcohol are strictly
prohibited and so as not to have them as temptation they are all handed over
for safe keeping until the course ends. We then spent the afternoon chilling
out before the course officially started at 8pm that night.
The first morning I failed to wake up on time and missed the
first morning meditation session, the wake up gong is over on the boy’s side of
the centre and even being the light sleeper I am it failed to wake me up. (For the
coming days I set the alarm on my watch) but I made it in time for breakfast
(of course I did…) and participated in the rest of the day’s activities.
By the end of the first day my knees hips and spirit was
absolutely ruined and I was questioning my sanity in undertaking such a huge
task. But then by the end of the second day my focus was intense and I was
seeing my life clearer than I ever have.
Midway through the afternoon on the third day a flash came
into my mind and I manage to locate in my bag my UK debit card which I hadn’t seen
since Singapore after putting it in a ‘safe place ‘and never being able to find
it again
By the end of the sixth day I felt amazing and was walking
around with a huge smile on my face but by the morning of day seven that had
completely changed and I spent most of the day in tears hugging my knees and
rocking back and forth like an insane person.
Day eight I woke up feeling fairly indifferent to it all and
managed to struggle on the last few days but my focus wasn’t strong and my
meditation suffered somewhat.
On day ten after the morning group meditation the vow of
noble silence was over and we could resume talking to each other although all
other rules still applied suddenly the centre was abuzz with noise and it was
almost too much speaking felt weird and it took a while to get used to. The last
day was the hardest day as we could talk but the program was still in place and
by that stage most people were ready to leave. But I had a personal victory in
that for the first time in the entire course I was able to sit cross legged
completely still for an hour not once but twice in the day.
On the 30th which was the 11th morning
we had to be up at 4am for the final discourse session which was a recap on the
technique an all the teachings from the past ten days it was the hardest
session as freedom was so close but afterwards we had one final group
meditation session and I managed to remain focused throughout. We had breakfast
and then were free to leave.
Overall Vipassana was one of the hardest things I have ever
done. It tested me mentally emotionally and physically but was defiantly an experience
I will cherish. Although I found it hard to focus on the meditation itself for
such long periods of time I was able to reflect on life and general and gave me
an opportunity to think about the future and what I want out of life. I may
have had some sort of ‘life changing epiphany’ so watch this space…
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