Vipassana. Silence is Golden...

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Actually I lied, please forgive me, you do speak on the 10th afternoon, it’s called a shock absorber so you are ready to go out into the world and communicate with people. You would laugh at this concept I know, but even I, and it seems I than quite a few chatty others, even I, who we all know likes to talk, didn’t want to speak. I really didn’t want to speak. I suppose I was quite happy narrating every action to myself. It is not part of Vipassana to narrate each action, that is something my wonderful mind decided to do all by itself. If you wonder what I mean by narrating it’s kinda like what I am writing now.. Except I wasn’t writing, you’re not allowed to read or write, or listen to music, or anything really except meditate, eat, sleep and drink, it was all just the words in my head. I suppose by the 10th day I was all talked out.

Rather than me explain Vipassana I shall refer you to the website, where, if you are interested you can read about it for yourself, and see where there are centers over the world.
http://www.vri.dhamma.org/

It was, I can honestly say, one of the best things I have ever done. I would recommend it to everyone. It is available to everyone. It does not matter age, sex, religion, caste, rich or poor, sensible or silly, sickness or health.. I’m sure there is something else in marriage vows, but hey. For 10 days if you work and are serious you can definitely find something good in it.

I did, a lot. I found out a lot about myself. I did not find myself because I did not believe I was lost. But it was great.

I’d also recommend that if you can sit very comfortably for an hour in crosslegged position without moving, you try a harder pose. Pain, which we must be indifferent to, is constantly changing, and when we feel pain we are releasing old tensions stored in our body. I have since learnt that getting a dead leg and then waiting for the feeling to come back, which in itself is a pretty weird painful feeling when you don’t move, was taking it too far, but it wasn’t the only pain I was feeling so I’m glad I didn’t move.
At one stage I cried, not for me (though I had for me before..try it, it hurts, you try staying indifferent) but for Goldfish. Restricted in that tiny little bowl when they could have the whole ocean to explore. And caged animals.. Lions, monkeys, Birds (ok, not animals, fine). I suppose you could say the restriction got to me a little.

But now I’m FREE! Ha ha haaa!!!

Basically it teaches you a lot, you experience a lot, and you only have yourself to tell about it. And unless you paint yourself gold and stand on a box in Covent Garden there are not many occasions where you do not let yourself move. I mean, you could move in Covent Garden but you’d lose a few quid by letting passers by see you move, but imagine you need the money so you don’t move for an hour. Well, Vipassana could be kinda like that, except it involves meditation techniques, and you have to have your eyes closed, and you don’t spend hours getting the wretched gold off your skin and out of your hair at the end of the day.

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