Pictures are of the schedule, the meditation hall, my room (complete with rock hard very uncomfortable bed but it is ok because I thought I would be sleeping on the ground), my bathroom (bucket wash only) and me doing my presentation. 839, 842, 847, 852, 856
Ok so as you may or may not know I went to a very intense but rewarding meditation course from April 5th till 16th. The course was called Vipassana and it is know world wide for being a very good way to eradicate suffering and also it helps you to liberate yourself from misery.
The schedule for the course was incredibly intense, at least 9 hours of meditation in a day. So a normal day would look like this: wake up at 4, meditation between 4:30-6:30, then breakfast and a wash between 6:30 and 8, after that there was meditation between 8-11 with a 10 minute break, then lunch and rest between 11-1, following such there was meditation between 1-5 with two 10 minute breaks, then tea break till 6 and after that there was one hour of meditation followed by the theoretical part of the day where you watched a video of the main teacher (who popularized Vipassana worldwide) speaking about very relevant things, he was very convincing and enlightening. After that there was ½ an hour more of meditation and then bed by 9:30. You will notice that there is no dinner, which was kind of bad because I don’t like going to sleep hungry but it helped me because now I am only 1 kg over my Canada weight.
You will notice that there are sometimes breaks and in-between the sessions you are free to think whatever you want. Yes I said think, break time doesn’t mean you go play x-box, go on the computer, go jogging, or even read because you can’t do any of that. You may sit and think but they recommend you keep meditating during break time; I just sat and did some constructive thinking. So in addition to not being allowed to read, and write you must maintain a strict code of silence for 9 ½ of the 10 days. This means you can not talk at all, this would be enough to drive the normal person crazy, and I guess I am normal because I started to do some weird things. As time pass I would go back to my room and clean it, or I came up with nicknames for some of the people in my class. I know that the point of this class is not to create judgment but some of the nicknames were: new bowling ball head man (who had a head which you could see your reflection in), man with big earlobes (self explanatory), the pregnant man (who was due pretty soon with quintuplets), the talker (who after the 5th day would make small talk with others, spaghetti legs (who I think had polio or something, I really admire him for completing this course and it will be amazing for his mental strength in the future but he still had very noodle like appendages for legs), the turtle (who looked like a turtle), and the hardcore (who was a Buddhist monk but wasn’t one of those cute Tibetan ones he was just a big fat south Indian, he thought he deserved special treatment so when he went into the dining hall he would just sit down then someone would bring the food to him and he never cleaned his own dishes like the rest of us). Ok I know some of these are not nice but I couldn’t do anything but think so naturally I will come up with some sort of judgment. Also the girls and boys were separate for the entirety of the course, they lived on different sides of the compound and the only thing they did together was meditate in the main hall. I still managed to come up with a couple nicknames for them too though; one was the coughing albino (who would have a coughing fit every 10 minutes, and it was a really dry cough like she hadn’t had a glass of water in her life), and lastly there was goliath who was without a doubt the biggest Indian lady I have ever seen, she could eat me if required. One other funny thing I noticed about the centre was the similarity of such to an insane asylum. Where else is the area solitude amidst the chaos of an Indian city and people walk around in their pajamas all day without talking. Another thing is you had to look down when you were walking for one to avoid stepping on any kind of insect then, and for two you were not allowed to make eye contact with anyone. So picture this a bunch of old men walking around a green field, not talking, in their pajamas, looking down when they are walking, living in single occupancy rooms, and they lock you in actually so you can’t run away, please conquer that the only thing that is missing is a straight jacket.
I accidentally broke two rules. The thing was I went on to the grass and I sat down, but I didn’t realize that I had sat near a colony of small red ants so they started biting me and I tried to brush them off but ended up killing a few, I looked around then moved away quickly. Also the speaking twice, but never out of my room, once I was alone and I looked out my window and saw a butterfly and said the German word for butterfly: “Schmetterling”, I think it is funny because it sounds so harsh for such a beautiful insect, but I was very surprised I said the word. Also there was a Hindu temple just out my window and once there was chanting and I joined in one part of the song, I sang “Ganpati bappa moria” which is a common chant for the elephant god, Ganesh. I was surprised at that point too. A little weird that the 2 times I spoke neither of them were in English. Like I said there was a Hindu temple just outside my room and you may or may not know that there are lots of bells at the temple, and bells were also what called us to meditate so for the first few days I was always opening my door to check the clock in the corridor because I wasn’t sure if it was the temple bell or the meditating bell. I was able to differentiate buy the end.
Now for the process, the teaching methods they would have a tape player with a man (who is the main Vipassana guy throughout the world) speaking and he would direct us at the beginning of each meditation session, he would tell us what to do for the next hour or two. At the end of the session he would chant then we would untangle ourselves. How I attained all the interesting concepts was at the end of the day from 7-8:30 there was a session called the teachers discourse where we watched a video of the main teacher who I mentioned earlier. He had very good stories and relevant things were learned from every story. So in short it was the lectures where I learned most of these things but I was able to apply them in the sessions or thinking in the break time. Three times a day for one hour there were these meditation sessions where you were not allowed to move at all for the full hour (in other sessions you were allowed to open your legs or even go for a glass of water) those were incredibly tough but the most rewarding. Your legs would be asleep within half an hour and your back would be ready to collapse by 20 minutes, but with intense self determination and desire you could do it. The first couple times I couldn’t do it but after that I could.
What I gained was amazing, I think now I have more confidence and I can think more objectively. The day I got back to Mumbai I was talking so much but now I feel I have actually been thinking about why someone said what they did and such. I also realize now that I have to know myself more so I will take a year or 2 after university to discover myself, instead of just jumping into another 2 years of studies or a job that I don't want.
So for the course, it was very difficult especially the first 3 days, because you are conditioning your mind to concentrate, so you just observe your breathing for 3 days. The next 6 1/2 days you observe your body and the sensations that you feel. You must remain equanimity towards the sensations though so no positive or negative sensations. This part was a little difficult for me. Some of the things they said were not practical for kids my age like no positive or negative sensations because then you will either develop cravings or aversions which will make you miserable. I thought but I like to eat good tasting food and I like a hot shower in the winter etc... I will not change some things in my life but I will try to apply at least a little of what I learned in my daily life. On the 10th day we worked on the final stages where after experiencing the sensations you just think about how you love everything and how you want everything to be happy. Also some of the things they said were very true but were very blunt and lacked compassion like, why cry when someone dies, all the crying in the world will never bring them back and you should celebrate life, also every family has someone who has died in it at some point. Some of the things that I will apply: know thyself, you alone control the misery in your life the nature or people provide the stimulus it is how you perceive them which matters, always smile, always donate and be humble, smile at the time of you r death, and god does exist but it doesn't need to be a person or form to me truth is god, compassion is god, and goodwill is god, if one has these characteristics in them they have god in them. These things made perfect sense to me and I will apply them somehow in my life if only it is offering advice. I also bought a few books about the process so those should be good.
I think that is all I have to say about the process but if you have any questions please ask. Also I would recommend the course to anyone who has time and the confidence. You may not gain everything from the course because I surely didn’t but you will gain something for sure and even the greatest journey started with a single step, so that’s food for thought. Check out the site at www.dhamma.org , there are various centers throughout the world. You must go into the course with a positive attitude though otherwise I have heard of students running away before the first 3 days are completed.
Just so you know I will be going up to the Himalayas for a trek this Friday for 12 days then will be back by May 4th and after that I will just be enjoying the rest of my time in India. I did my Rotary presentation on Friday I think it went pretty well. I think I will change my host family again and just explore around the city. Oh ya school is over now for me.
Think that’s it for now, as they say at Vipassana BE HAPPY.
