Vipassana

I have just completed my first 10 day Vipassana sit. For those who don’t know, it’s a silent meditation retreat in which participants meditate for upwards of 11 hours per day, are served breakfast and lunch, which are eaten alone in mindful meditation, and are instructed in the technique that Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha used to attain his own Awakening. Participants are given a bed in a dorm-style setting, but are forbidden from communicating with roommates (and basically anyone else at the retreat) in any capacity, including eye contact, gestures and written materials. Participants are forbidden from reading or writing anything, and are basically closed off from any kind of external stimulus save eating, the weather, and the discourses on how to practice the meditation technique.

I already feel that it is one of the more important things I’ve ever done in my life. In the discourses, it is rightly pointed out that everyone knows the qualities of a saintly or even just a happy person: there are plenty of scriptures and aphorisms, and living examples that pass through each and every one of our lives. We all know the qualities and we all consciously believe that they are right and good and if one were to simply live that way, it would probably be enough to be good, and kind, and peaceful and happy.

And yet…And yet we continue not being those things. I mean we all definitely have our moments, but as a general rule of thumb, the kind of consistent happiness, goodliness that we attribute to saintly figures always seems a little beyond our reach. And we can read beautiful aphorisms and post them up in our bathrooms and put them as bumper stickers on our cars…and yet, some things don’t really seem to change. Those kinds of qualities come out in our best moments and are far away in our worst, and we rarely seem to get much closer to just being like that consistently.

The course was not about inspiration. But instead, technique. It was an intensive course for learning a technique in meditative self-awareness that finally allows us to begin bridging the gap between the idealized happiness that gives birth to quotable aphorisms and our very concrete daily experience. The goals is to bridge the gap between the mind’s awareness of suffering and experience of suffering: to be aware when pain or pleasure are effecting the body (for internal or external reasons), and to maintain equanimity throughout the experience.

Of course it was only 10 days. No one can reasonably expect to transcend all personal demons in such a short period of time. But the real benefit is learning the practice, which, like all practices, needs to be practiced every day if one is to get any better at it. It follows the old aphorism about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish.

I feel more empowered with this technique than I think I have ever felt in my life. I feel this incredible sense of ambitionless determination to practice and strengthen and work hard every day towards a kind of liberation from demons and suffering, or at least some of the rest huts along the way.

In the couple days since I finished the course, I’m seeing all my priorities in life getting significantly edited, my clarity of vision expanding exponentially, and most importantly: an incredible sense of ease about where I am, which entails a release of deeply rooted anxieties about where I’m not.

With all of the atoms in body and the abstract conception of my soul, I recommend the course to anyone and everyone. They are offered all over the world and they are run on donation basis only. 10 days of silent meditation in a beautiful setting with delicious meals given to you, all for free.

The first reaction of a lot of people hearing that is “what’s the catch?” It’s probably some weird cult that offers all these goodies in order to hook you and then ultimately claws you into the fold. I’ll admit, when I was having a particularly hard meditation session, my thoughts went exactly there (As did the thoughts of some of my other fellow meditators, I realized later, when we were permitted to talk). But when those walls are broken through and one feels just really incredibly happy, then those doubts pass away.

The course is only instruction in a technique. That is truly all it is. You are taught a technique, which you are expected to take home with you and practice on your own. That’s all. Nothing is asked for in return. There are no hooks, no snags. Just learn the technique and if you benefit from it, make a donation so they can keep teaching it. If not, at least you gave it a fair trial.

Anyway, I’m writing this to recommend the courses to the whole world. Like I said, it’s already atop my list of the most valuable things I’ve ever invested my time into. It’s meditation boot camp and by the time you leave, you feel empowered in an unfamiliar way to make yourself really and truly happy.