Vipassana Meditation 10-day Retreat

[Evilwave Heddy]

Hey.

So I've been meditating for an hour a day for the last 3 months (30 minutes in the morning and evening) and have recently discovered  Vipassana.  I have signed myself up for a 10-day(for the hell of it) and am beginning to regret it as I've learned how hard it can be.   I have already read a few experiences from other people and each are different in every way.  I've heard that it is suppose to be really hard to sit but many people have come out of it feeling great while others gave up half way through.  I remember Leo mentioning in one of his videos about isolating yourself for some time and watch your mind or something which is kind of similar in some ways to this retreat.

Have any of you guys done one of these retreats and if so would you recommend it?

Thanks.

 

[Leo Gura]

It's great. Don't worry about it. Do the best you can and relax throughout the process.

Vipassana is like detox for your mind.

[nbolt]

If anyone is around New York I've been eyeing http://www.zenstudies.org/daibosatsuzendo.html

[Jan Odvarko]

2 hours ago, Evilwave Heddy said:

Hey.

So I've been meditating for an hour a day for the last 3 months (30 minutes in the morning and evening) and have recently discovered  Vipassana.  I have signed myself up for a 10-day(for the hell of it) and am beginning to regret it as I've learned how hard it can be.   I have already read a few experiences from other people and each are different in every way.  I've heard that it is suppose to be really hard to sit but many people have come out of it feeling great while others gave up half way through.  I remember Leo mentioning in one of his videos about isolating yourself for some time and watch your mind or something which is kind of similar in some ways to this retreat.

Have any of you guys done one of these retreats and if so would you recommend it?

Thanks.

 

Hi @Evilwave Heddy, yep I've done it and going to another one next month - I can see you're from Ireland so I guess your course takes place in Drogheda? (-:

Before my 10 day retreat I've been meditating only 20 minutes a day, so I'd say your preparation is better. Also, I use a seiza bench because I've hurt my legs during running. So if you find it difficult to sit in a cross-legged position for prolonged periods, you can use a seiza bench too.

The retreat was extremely painful, that's true, but it let me experience completely new states of mind which I never though were achievable during meditation. I'm really tempted to give you more details about the pain and about the amazing experiences I had, but I won't, because one should undertake the course with no expectations, but ready to give it all they've got. The course is designed very well so that the environment is as conductive for meditation as it only can be.

I can only say that if you take the retreat seriously and persist to the end, you are very likely to unlock completely new areas of your mind. After the retreat I was feeling much lighter, at ease, and I realised how selfish life I had been living. It was indeed like a mind detox as Leo says.

But anyway, you must decide for yourself.

Be happy! (-;

Edited February 22, 2016 by Jan Odvarko

[Emily]

I'm also considering doing one, although ideally would start off with one for a week or less. This article from The Guardian by Lavanya Sankaran, who wrote The Hope Factory, has some useful info.

 

Vipassana meditation retreats: enjoy the silence

For me, 10 days of monastic living, deep meditation and not uttering a word to anyone is the ultimate in emotional cleansing

Lavanya Sankaran
Sunday 9 June 2013 19.00 BST Last modified on Saturday 16 January 2016 02.56 GMT

There's this thing I do, every now and then. I will step away from the comforts of my life: my spouse and child, my home and dog. I pack a small bag with two pairs of old linen trousers, three T-shirts, a thin cotton wrap and flip-flops. Then I make the trek to a Vipassana meditation centre and begin a monastic life for 10 days.

These centres are scattered around India and all over the world. I have been making this trip for more than 10 years, varying my location each time. Wherever you go the retreat has an identical structure and discipline: 10 days of silence, meditating from 4am to 9pm, with short breaks for meals and rest.

You rapidly get used to this routine. The morning wakeup bell at 3.45am is followed by a quick bath in warm water, then a silent walk to the main meditation hall, which can seat 200. We sit in our designated spots and meditate until breakfast, a simple vegetarian meal consumed in silence. More meditation, this time alone in our tiny cells – a room no bigger than a sofa and lit only by a round window near the ceiling – until lunch at 11am. After a short period of rest there is more meditation from 1pm to 5pm. Then a glass of lime juice and a brisk walk in the designated area. A lecture, where we learn the theory behind our meditative experiences, more meditation and bed at 9.30pm.

Men and women are segregated throughout the compound; we live and eat separately. Returning meditators may get a room of their own, but newbies usually have to share. Those on retreat include students, corporate executives, artists, housewives; rich and poor. One of the great principles of Vipassana is that no fee is charged. Centres are instead maintained by the donations of those who have completed a meditation course. This opens the doors to everyone and places every meditator in the position of being a bhikshu (monk), who for those 10 days possesses nothing. It is very humbling and wonderfully freeing.

Vipassana means "to see things as they really are". It is a pre-Buddhist meditation technique that was revitalised and popularised by Gautama Buddha 2,500 years ago. The instructions, played out over the speakers, are straightforward: observe your breath for three days, then observe your body for seven. Simple, the way instructions for running a marathon can be made reductively simple: take a step or two; continue for 26.2 miles in a speedy fashion.

Sitting still and silent on my cushion, I learn that observing my breath at the point where it exits the nostrils focuses the brain. That by observing my breath, I am learning to observe myself. Anger and peace at the subtlest level are all in my breath. For breath, I learn, is spirit itself.

As the practice deepens, my chaotic thoughts and emotions, memories fond and painful, yield all manner of sensations: pain in my joints, leaps in my chest, tingling behind my neck. I am told not to suppress them, but not to chase after them either. I am simply to observe them on their journey through me. When emotions are observed, not suppressed or amplified, they filter through quicker, leaving a smaller residue behind. Sensations rise and pass. Just observe, they say. Don't react. This is unbelievably difficult.

The journey deepens. Heavier sensations dissolve from the body and awareness sharpens. Meditating for hours is throwing myself wide open: I am part of a rush of energy far bigger than myself. When I step out of my cell, the world is unimaginably bright. I notice the intense flavour of steamed rice; the music of distant everyday voices. I am extraordinarily peaceful. I carry this peace back with me to my daily life, along with the clarity and mindfulness that only peace can bring.

That is one kind of experience, but not all Vipassana retreats have been filled with peace. One, in particular, undertaken when I was under severe emotional stress, stands out. I stepped inside, and was blasted by the anger and fear and hurt and sorrow that I had packaged away in my daily life. These feelings brought forth tears and heat and chills and fever as they rose to the surface – so many layers that it seemed as if it would never end. The discipline required to just observe the sensations as they happened, to not distract myself from them, to not run away, was enormous. Layer by layer they rose, in full force, before lifting away months of anguish and suffering. At the end I was drained, exhausted, limp – but cleaned out.

The gift of Vipassana to my writing life is unparalleled: my relationship with words is more intense and playful; I am sensitive not just to my work but how I work. The way I observe people changes – I am able to step away from myself more easily, from the constraints of my own life and experience and understand them for who they are.

I am both faster in the things I do, and calmer in the manner I do them. My world is lighter and yet more meaningful. Vipassana is the single most powerful thing I do.

The Hope Factory by Lavanya Sankaran is published by Tinder Press

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/09/vipassana-meditation-retreats-enjoy-silence

[Electron]

I am too going in June, going to attend two retreats one after another. I wonder how better I will become.

[Khin]

I really want to know how Leo find retreat centers in U.S.

[Pierre]

I'd fear the waking up at 3.45 am... don't you spend your day fighting sleep ?

[Matej]

I'm seriously thinking about one. But I don't know whenether people are doing those things in Czech yet. All those retreats are like getting your ass kicked constantly for several days. It'll be fun the first time, not knowing what to expect.

[Evilwave Heddy]

@Jan Odvarko Yeah it's in Drogheda.  Altough I can last half an hour cross legged, doing 10 hours a day cross legged might prove difficult. D:

Either way I'm going to attempt it.  10 days is nothing...(I'll regret saying that haha) 

[Matej]

@Pinocchio Yes, I found one "school" at my city too, so it's just a question of time now.