Vippassana

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On the third day my monkey mind was playing games with me. I almost stood up from my cushion as an image danced in my head coaxing me to get up and play in a fantasy world. My eyes opened and I realized where I was. There was no image, there was only me on my cushion, surrounded by 100 other silent meditators. I did not get up and I closed my eyes again to follow the instructions given by the course leader, S.K. Goenka. "focus on your respiration between the the nose and the upper lip, let everything else fade away."

We were on on our third day of a ten day meditation course. The morning wake up bell sounded at 4 am and we proceeded to meditate for ten hours each day, with short breaks in between sessions. My mind wandered from my respiration to girlfriends, movie making ideas, regrets from the past, plans for the future, and then again back to my respiration until interrupted by a tricky monkey who tempted me with sweets to leave my cushion. My mind left my body a few times, but I never stood up.

On the fourth day we left the focus of our respiration to engage a head to toe scan of our sensations for the next sixty hours. Our challenge was to feel the pain, the joy, the energy, and whatever else pulsed through our body. We were instructed to observe reality as it is, not as we would like it to be...No judgement, no craving, no aversion and perfect equanimity. This is no easy task. I was feeling the pain of knots in my back and thinking about how I would go get a massage upon return to kathmandu and work out the tension. But then I realized...I was indulging in a form of both craving and aversion. Desiring aversion from the pain and craving an external solution to the sensation, I returned my attention back to my sensations, letting go of the judgements. Eventually the gross pain dissolved into a whole body vibration which shook my entire being from head to toe.

According the Vippassana technique, sensations all have a similar characteristic....they rise and they fall. They are impermanent, as is life. By training the mind to observe without attaching judgement we can begin living an equanimous life which does not overeact with pleasure nor freak out with pain. Both come and go...I can certainly attest to this in all aspects of my life.

The Bhuddha first taught that we must observe our sensations 2500 years ago. According to our teacher, the technique of Vippassana was polluted and lost to India after some time but retained it's purity in Myanmmar.

And today, Vippassana Centers can be found around the world.
I felt a great sense of gratitude to be sitting in the lush reatreat center overlooking Kathmandu, surrounded by flowers, birds, and the Himalayan Mountains. I will come here again one day and volunteer as a food server. This deepens the practice by selfishly giving others the sustainance which they require to enter the realm of Dhamma.

And with the joyful words of S.K Goenka,
"May all Beings Be Happy"

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