Vipassana Meditation Course

One week has now passed since the completion of my Vipassana meditation course. Normally after such I significant event in this journey I would have posted something within the day; but it has been too difficult to find the words. This experience has been quite important for me. This is somehow a focal point of the whole trip. Okay, let me try to write something today.

What was it like? Tough question. Let's try an easier one.

What did I do for the ten days? I learned a particular meditation technique.

Who was the teacher? This standardized course is taught by S. N. Goenka via videotape. All 10-day courses are taught in the same way, with the same tapes. Although it sounds droll, it's actually totally enjoyable. Goenka is a delightful fellow, very charismatic, and a real joy to meet on tape every evening. There are instructions in English and Hindi; translations into many other languages are available (students in my course were from all over the world). Each of these standardized courses also comes with two real live assistant teachers--one for the male students and one for the females students.

Where was I for ten days? The Himachal Vipassana Centre is settled in a beautiful wooded area 3 km uphill from the traveler center known as McLeod Ganj. You can get a few images from their website by selecting Photogallery from the sidebar. This center is one of 50 such centers in India; there are 100 worldwide.

What was life like in the course? In a word: monastic. One gets up early, meditates, eats simple meals, meditates more, listens to a lecture, meditates more, and goes to sleep. There is no talking, no interaction with fellow students, no phones, no TV, no contact with the outside world. A prospective student agrees to these restrictions and more: no killing, no speaking untruths (easy when you can't talk), no sexual misconduct, no stealing, and abstention from all intoxicants. This meant for many students that they had to give up cigarettes for the course. All of this discipline and all of these rules were in place simply to help the students maintain the proper mindset for the meditation.

Especially the silence. Folks have asked me what it was like to shut up for the duration of the course. Initially I was afraid that silence would be painful, lonely. But throughout the course I reveled in it. I did not know any fellow students, so there was no motivation to break my silence. Oh sure: I was curious about how others were feeling about the course, if they were enjoying the food as well, or if they felt pains in their knees and back. But I knew that it was more important for me to have my own experience and not reshape it based on the words of others. It was easy to keep quiet.

What was a typical day? With the exception of day zero and day ten, all other days were identical.

• 4:00 wake up bell
• 4:30 - 6:30 meditation practice
  
• 6:30 - 8:00 breakfast and rest
• 8:00 - 9:00 group meditation 1
  
• 9:15 - 11:00 meditation practice
• 11:00 - 13:00 lunch and rest
• 1300 - 14:15 meditation practice
• 14:30 - 15:30 group meditation 2
  
• 15:45 - 17:00 meditation practice
• 17:00 - 18:00 snacks & tea
• 18:00 - 19:00 group meditation 3
• 19:15 - 20:30 discourses and theory
• 20:40 - 21:00 meditation practice
• 21:00 - I always went straight to bed

In all, I spent about ten hours per day in the meditation hall---sitting on cushion 30---trying my hardest to perform the meditation technique correctly. The difference between "group meditation" and "meditation practice" was actually not very great. In "group meditation" we received little or no directions but had to hold one position for the entire hour. In "meditation practice" we often received a little more detailed directions and sometimes the assistant teacher would call up groups of five or six students to answer questions and reinforce the instructions.

You may have noticed that there is little food to speak of after 11:30. Oh yes. In fact, the returning students (about 20% of us) were expected to take no snack at 17:00, only lemon water. Yikes! Myself, I was always hungry before going to bed, so it's hard to imagine adherence to this rule.

So what was it like at first? I'd say the main two themes for the first days were 1) the pain of sitting and 2) the wandering mind. The pain of sitting needs no explanation, save that it does slowly subside after about four days. Myself, I never became comfortable sitting cross-legged on my cushion; instead I opted for a crutch, the meditation bench. Others used rigid backs behind their cushions. And the ones who did sit cross-legged looked like so many Buddhas lined up in rows.

How I learned to notice my wandering mind: the assignment, for the first three days, was to focus all of my concentration on the breath passing in and out of my nostrils. Nothing else. Not the rise and fall of my stomach, not the pain in my lower back, not the guy sitting next to me burping. And I was most definitely not supposed to let my mind wander onto other things.

But thoughts appear. I think of the past: I remember childhood events; stories from this adventure; old friends; inconsequential trivia from days long gone. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be staying with the breath in my nostrils. The breath in my nostrils. The breath in ... and then more thoughts appear. I think of the future: I wonder about what things will be like when I return to the states; I remember a store I want to visit when I get back to McLeod Ganj; I think of what to write on this blog; I start designing a briefcase. Oh damn, I'm supposed to be staying with the breath in my nostrils. The breath in my nostrils. The breath in ... and then my mind is wandering again.

My mind is a monkey mind, climbing from branch to branch. I try to tame it but it always gets away from me.

A few days into the course it gets easier, the mind does not wander quite so quickly. Then we have a new assignment. The actual Vipassana technique is given some days into the course. I had better not go into detail on the technique itself since I am not myself a teacher. But in a rough approximation, the technique goes like this: stay aware of the sensations in your body with an equanimous mind. Stay aware of the sensations like pressure or heat or prickling or pain or numbness as they arise and as they pass away. And when noting them, try to be as objective and impartial as you can be. If you feel pain in your hip, okay, there is pain. No need to develop hatred towards it, just notice it. If there is a pleasant sensation of tingling moving up your forehead, okay, it feels good. But beware not to become attached. Not becoming attached to good sensations and not developing hatred towards unpleasant sensations is the essence of the equanimous mind.

[ note: the following is the continuation of the above unfinished posting - sean]

So Vipassana is basically complete awareness with equanimity. Simple to describe and tricky to sustain.

Why would someone do Vipassana meditation anyway? One does Vipassana to free one's self from the suffering of life's ups and downs. The practice teaches the mind not to cling to pleasant things (which are impermanent and will always fade, leading to suffering). Likewise the practice teaches the mind not to hate the unpleasant things (which also are impermanent, therefore not deserving of your hate). The mind begins to see the world for what it is. Suffering is decreased. If one sticks to the technique long and hard enough, enlightenment is the promised result.

The Vipassana technique comes from a lineage of Buddhist teachers in Myanmar who (supposedly) preserved the technique for 25 centuries since the time of Siddartha Gottama, the Enlightened One. Therefore present-day practicioners of Vipassana are following in the Buddha's footsteps, trying to reach enlightenment.

Now that the course is over, what has changed? Let's be clear about one thing: I have decided to continue the practice, in my normal life, for one year. That's one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening, every day. I'm giving the practice a little chance to work on me. It's a long and slow path, enlightenment, and I don't really expect to see any huge results soon. But I do hope that the continuation of this practice will help increase the quality of my life. I think that it has already. I think that I'm more balanced and have better perspective. I think I'm better able to handle stressful situations. Slight as the changes are, I welcome them into my life and I look forward to this year's project.

Do I recommend Vipassana to others? Absolutely. Go for it. I'm not saying that it's going to change your life. But if you don't try it, how will you know? If you have any other questions that I can answer, especially if you're considering taking the course yourself, don't hesitate to contact me.