10 Magical Days Of Vipassana Meditation
Meditation is a topic that is wide open for discussion. Many are the souls who believe they simply cannot do what is asked for. Or, at least they believe they have tried only to fail a few weeks or months down the track.
The sad truth of this is that one never fails at meditation, they only misunderstand the process by which it takes hold of your life and squeezes out room to become a more permanent member of your family.
There are many different ways to meditate and each has its own benefits. There is not a “one size fits all’ approach to this science. Having a willingness to engage the process and stick with it is the key.
This article explores Vipassana Meditation. If you are unfamiliar with this, read on. The author presents a wonderful account of exactly what this form of meditation entails and how to explore yourself through this path. (Nigel)
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By: Zoe Schlanger (independent.co.uk) – It was 5:30 in the morning on my third day of silent meditation when I noticed something in me take a sharp turn left. I was groggy, frustrated by my inability to sit still and hungry for the breakfast that was still an hour off. I got up from the spot on the floor of my bedroom where I’d been attempting to meditate and walked outside, to the new-growth woods behind the residential quarters at the Vipassana Meditation Centre in Shelburne, Massachusetts. It was springtime, and the outdoors seemed spring-loaded with potential: the buds on the trees were sharp little things, and hundreds of fuzzy fiddlehead ferns dotted the forest floor, curled snug. I walked down a little looping path that stopped unsatisfyingly soon; “course boundary” signs curtailed my meandering to an area the size of a soccer field. Exercise, like so many things here, was not permitted.
For the past three days, a brass bell had woken me at 4am, along with the 129 others who had committed to this 10-day silent saga. We meditated, with guidance, for roughly 10 hours a day, broken up by meals and “free time”, which was free only in the sense that we weren’t meditating. We weren’t allowed to read or write, speak to one another, make communicative gestures or even look at one another in the eye. So we all paced the small loop in the woods, staring at trees, careful not to acknowledge one another’s existence. No nodding, no smiling.
During free time after lunch, I walked outside to find a cluster of women standing in the courtyard stock-still, eyes closed, faces tilted toward the sun, looking posed for alien abduction. One woman wore a Nirvana band T-shirt, presumably without irony. I began to giggle, a major transgression, but I couldn’t help it. It all seemed so ridiculous. What the hell was I doing here? There’s no way, I thought, that this silent sitting around, this utter lack of mental stimulation, could be…
Read the complete article here.