A few days ago I returned from 11days course of vipassana meditation in Blue mountains so I want to share my experience with you. Just brief summary about vipassana. It´s a meditation technic which comes from Buddhism, however its religious neutral. The conditions were for today´s person quite strict, so I wanted to test myself, If I was able to pass the course from 4a.m. morning waking up, completely in silence (except of consultation with the teacher about the technic), hand in your cellphone, mp3 player, even books and all day long just meditate...I assume that I cant even mention rule about cigarets, alcohol and sex. I was also informed about modest vegetarian diet - just 2 meals per day and in the evening just some fruit.
I didn´t write a journal, but I did take some notes during whole course which came to my mind.
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1 During the meditation with eyes closed I start to drifting off soon, I dont want to ask teacher about this, perhaps I am not mature enough for a meditation.
# 2 Meal is great! Quite good wide offer for breakie and for lunch something that I normally cook for myself - lentils with carrot, pasta, brocolli, salad.
#3 The observation of a breath, so mental excercise is much more difficult for me than physical one (jogging, swimming). I am not able to focus on, there are a lot of association in my mind and suddenly I find myself that after one minute I am not observing my breath, nevertheless I am recalling and thinking about something different. Thats the reason I justify myself for quite big portions of meal despite I dont have so much physical excercise. The meal is still top! This centre must obtain generous donations (You dont pay anything in advance for a course, however once you finish, you can donate as much as you want.)
# 4 When you anticipate the worst, you can never be disappointed - exactly opposite though! I thought that I am going to concentration camp, meanwhile after lunch there is a dessert served. Gradually I am enjoying this place, even in meditation I have done some progress - I discover mystery sensation inside of my nose, moreover I am able not to drift off for a longer time, hurray!
# 5 People don´t realize how they are used to constant distraction around themselves - always sticked to their smartphones. And suddenly if they took all these gadgets from you, then you are looking forward to every melodyless singing of guru Goenka, which starts and ends every meditation session. When I heard this singing for the first time I needed to bottle up my giggling. In a few parts it sounds like when you are running out of batteries in your walkman player.
# 6 I don´t usually take notes about my dreams, but this one was so funny that I was laughing even in that dream. Firstly I happen to be in a blue gorgeous house by the Vltava river where took place the czech comedy "How to drown dr Mracek". I was there with my grandma Vlasta, so we were exploring that house, taking some pictures and then in one room there was a man sitting behind a pc, working with excel sheet and updating some data and tells us: "Thats interesting - the shares of Czech television have risen up to 70% due to viewers ratings. So I asked him whats on programme right now. "Etiquette"....and me: "Hmm, thats interesting...and any specific episode?" "Yes, how to choose desserts"
WTF? :D
# 7 Did I say that I was starting to enjoying this place? Now even more! The surroundings of meditation centre is breathtaking. Lovely Blue mountains around, somewhere you can see bizzare sanstones reminding houses or hummocks. The red blue parrots I consider like pigeons now but yesterday I spotted for the first time big Yellow-tailed black
cockatoo!!
I am sorry that I still speak highly about the food, but it is absolutely phenomenal. Today´s tofu with coconut milk, great beetroot salad with sesame seeds and for dessert brownie with caramel topping. Dhaba Beas (vegetarian restaurant in Prague) has a lot of to learn! Vegetarian cuisine is very diverse and if it wasnt so ortodox and you could add eggs and fish we cant talk about boring food at all.
#8 The song for today - Tracksuit up, bollocks to the right (Czech favourite song) Yes, it got cold. I am glad that I got hat and gloves. I didnt realize before how high in mountains we are. Now we are completely in clouds, only little hill 70 m far is visible.
And fun is over as we have started with meditation. I just thought how I started to like meditation, I have discovered a posture which is comfy and I am able to stay like that without changing it. So yesterday I got terrible tingling from that posture! And by practising vipassana you musnt change the posture for one hour. I wont be expelled if I moved of course, but anyway challenge accepted. We are in the middle of the course now and I am sure am able to stay to the end. The first three days were difficult and everytime I heard passing train I wanted to run away. Now I have realized how people are spoilt and if they had not their everyday stuff with themselves they crack down. After all something similar must be life in a monastery or a prison except of a fact that you can speak to others there. And they can live there somehow. Of course that I wouldnt want to live like that forever, but in some aspects is really better. I dont miss my phone or notebook, but music and reading. And would like to talk to someone about my feelings and ask her about hers. Hopefully I wont have a need to catch up what I have missed - 200 000 words, oh my god :D
#9 Heureka! For the second today´s meditation I haven´t change my posture. And for bonus I have seen two big kangaroos. They´ve hopped in to the compound. Juuu. We were observing them for a while with one girl (maybe Brazil or Spanish). And when they jumped away we turn to each other with facial expression "Oh my god they were so cute, I want to take them with myself home!" By this we broke the rule about communication, but we couldn´t help ourselves - It was so strong emotional moment for me as we wanted to express and share the joy from the kangaroos but we couldn´t.
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10 Today´s highlight - I have maintained my eyebrows. And everybody is obsessed by dental hygiene. Thats because you don´t have anything else to do in your free time (there isn´t so much free time) except of walking in the compound.
#11 The only reading on the toilet are notices that tampon musn´t be flushed down to the toilet...and thanks god for that! What do the men read I have no idea.
#12 I am going nuts. I got up at 3 a.m. turned on the light, check my watch and found out that I have one more hour of sleep. What a bliss! And I am not alone who is crazy. Some in speaking from the sleep: "Meditation, how do you call the the the the treatment!" And my dreams tell me that I need to have a sex already. A skeleton of a soldier come to me (actually it was only half of the skeleton - to the waist so I dont know how did it come.) And we were kissing and he touched my breasts...then snip and different dream. One song from Muse was on here, so I started to sing it, but I found it wierd, because I hand in my phone at the beggining of the course, so what did it play? Then I looked under the pillow and my phone was there! creepy!
# 13 The meditation technique is still changing and developing, luckily. Because yesterday I got the feeling that I am overmeditated. Meditation is fain, however 10 hours per day is too much. Besides you need to change your activities, but there is nothing else to change it with. So yesterday I use my unused skill, yet my incredible memory for movies and instead of evening meditation I played movies in my head. Luckily no one can see into my head...But as I said before, the technique is changing, so hopefully I won´t need more movies to play.
#14 We are be allowed to speak tomorrow! For the last day of the course. They claim that noble silence helps us to maintain the technique and not to be distracted. However I think that there is a practical reason as well. Who would be willing to listen constant girls´ talk?
#15 The end! I have strange mixed feelings. On one hand I was looking forward to the end of the course all the time, but now I am little bit worried about return to reality. After all it is not a return from children summer camp. I think I can judge the course more objectively later, however even now I can say that it was very beneficial. I can recommend it to everyone who wants to learn something new. Mostly how to concentrate and conrol your mind. And also to try different attitude to life and test yourself by unusual way.
