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Sonata Mused posted:The Mindfulness in Plain English ebook was amazing. Thanks for posting it in this thread! Yep. I went on a 10-day Vipassana retreat a while back, and plan on doing another one soon. Highly recommended. Don't forget about this book: http://www.interactivebuddha.com/mctb.shtml
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Jun 18, 2013 03:51
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WAFFLEHOUND posted:I've really wanted to do this for a while, mind sharing any more? The course I went to was instructed by Goenka (not in person, but via audio/video). You can sign up for these courses at dhamma.org (although you'll have to do it weeks/months in advance, especially if you're a girl, because they seem to be in demand.) The courses are 10 days long, non-denominational, and most importantly, free. If you make it to the end, they do accept donations, which will go toward the next course, and toward building more facilities. During this time, you aren't allowed to communicate to anybody else but your instructor. Yes, that means giving up your cell phones and gadgets for 10 days to a storage locker. I suppose you could get away with something though; it's not like they're going to frisk you  .The majority of the people there were probably college-aged kids, with some older Indians filling the remainder. Men/Women are separated to prevent distraction, and the only time that you see the opposite sex is in the meditation hall, although you're not really supposed to look at them (I probably did.) Basically, you meditate for ~10 hours a day either in the hall or in your room when given the option. You're day goes from 4:30a to 9:30p, although most will sleep-in during the first two hours, because it's 4:30 in the goddamned morning when the gong sounds. Don't cheat yourself here if you can help it. The sessions are 1 to 1 1/2 hours long, with breaks in between. You'll know when a session is wrapping up because they play a CD of Goenka chanting something for a couple minutes. Seems weird at first, but you get used to it. Eventually he tells you what the hell he's saying. At the end of each day, they play an (old) video of Goenka himself talking about what you are experiencing. This guy is actually pretty entertaining, and you'll look forward to listening to his stories every night. I should point out that there's really very little talk of beliefs and such things as reincarnation; this course is all about a mental exercise with perhaps a dash of philosophy. There are two instructors there who don't really do much except ask you how you are doing periodically. They also have what I call "office hours" after lunch where you can go talk to them. This is where I go to complain about my rear end hurting after 5 days of sitting; but they are extremely helpful and will answer all of your questions. That leads me to another point: You are going to f'ing hurt after a few days of sitting. They do have some chairs, meditation benches, and some extra cushions, and boy are people piling that poo poo up by the end of 10 days. You can also lean against the back wall, assuming someone else hasn't already built a cushion fort back there. I recommend you bring a bunch of cushions and whatnot, because you'll need it unless you've been doing this for years. I can't sit cross-legged and keep my back straight, so I stacked cushions under me and put my knees forward. People were thanking me at the end for showing them that position .On the last day, you're allowed to communicate again in order to get re-acclimated to normal life. This is always a fun time because you get to talk to people about things you've experienced over the past 10 days, including things like "Why did that girl freak out on day 3?" and "What's up with that one dude that kept farting out loud?" Anyway, my meditative experience went as follows: For the first 3 days, you practice concentration meditation, and for the other 7, Vipassana. Day 1-2: By the end of day 2, I was able to focus on my breath/nose without my mind wandering more than once for the whole hour. Pretty incredible, considering that I couldn't manage it for 5 seconds when I first started. Day 3: My face kind of feels like it's melting off to the side. Also, feeling tingling sensations on my face (what they call 'vibrations'). Day 4-5: Scanning my whole body now, feeling some vibes here and there, drat my knees are starting to hurt. Day 5-7: I can feel vibrations over most of my body, even though there are a few "blind" spots. I can't believe this is real. Day 8-10: drat the physical pain, getting pretty angry, why doesn't Goenka shut the hell up that stupid jerk. Overall, very interesting, and I would say *crucial* to anyone who wants to try meditating. Trust me, most of you'll probably get bored of trying to meditate on your own for 30-60 minutes every day if you're a beginner. It really helps to take one of these courses to jump-start your practice. Because I didn't manage the physical pain very well, I didn't progress as far as I could have; however in the weeks following, I started to witness incredible things. I once found myself meditating within a dream, and felt like I was going to explode, which is both terrifying and awesome. I can honestly say that I've stumbled upon something profound and life-changing, and I'm only scratching the surface. Sorry for my terrible writing. qwerasdf fucked around with this message at 07:18 on Jun 18, 2013 |
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Jun 18, 2013 06:56
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