I want to share about my experience at the Vipassana Meditation Center but I have been wondering what exactly I can share that will best translate what I experienced during my 10 days of retreat and am still experiencing now. I feel there are no words (or maybe it is my perfectionist side that stops me!) I feel I have a responsibility to make sure you understand the impact of this 10-day silent meditation retreat so you will be inspired to embark on such a path for yourself …
Something happened Sunday evening that made me understand the benefit of such an experience: meditating 10 days, 10 hours a day, in silence, alone with myself and this very special technique called Vipassana, a practice discovered by Buddha to achieve enlightenment more than 2600 years ago. What happened made me realized how my awareness had become so acute and how sensitive I had also become. I realized that my practice had made me so much more conscious of the present moment, not in a nonspecific way but rather in a very detailed way.
While kissing my hubby, I suddenly felt pain on my upper lip, like it was on fire, after feeling one of my husband’s two-day beard hairs entering my skin (I am not joking!). The experience was so vivid. I am very serious. I felt one specific hair entering my skin like it was a needle. Then, the moment right after, what was an unintentional (I think) touch on my thigh felt like bliss, the kind of bliss we feel when we are discovering touch with our first boyfriend as a teenager. I felt a tingle all over my body.
That is the result of practicing Vipassana. Becoming aware, conscious of each single moment, one after one, and ultimately making the most of them. In order to make the most of each moment, it is so crucial to be conscious of that moment. Make sense?
The course taught me the importance of equanimity in front of whatever is in front of me: pain or bliss. While sitting 10 hours a day in meditation, I sometimes experienced a subtle flow through my body. At other times, I felt painful blocks. Through a 75-minute discourse during the evening, I learned intellectually that everything (really EVERYTHING) is impermanent. Through my practice (my 10-hour sitting), I learned it viscerally. Everything being impermanent anyway, the idea of keeping serenity under any circumstance makes total sense. I know! Easier said than done. That’s why I commit myself to practicing on a daily basis.
At this point, I will let you do your own research and reading. I really recommend you take the time to do this. A good first step is to go on the international website of Vipassana at http://www.dhamma.org. You can also go to http://www.pariyatti.com, a nonprofit resource for books and other materials about Vipassana meditation. Through your reading, remember that the beauty of this gift is the visceral experience of the truth, the law of nature, the impermanence of things. My advice to you is not only read about the experience but experience it yourself.
By the way, this invaluable teaching is FREE. Yes, free! To maintain the integrity of Buddha, who believed that everyone should be able to have access to the technique to understand the origin of suffering and to learn a path leading to the cessation of suffering.
Until next week,
Lots of Fun, Joy and Peace for you!
Cathy
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