Vipassana Meditation 10

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    Vipassana Meditation 10-Day Course

    This is the last part of a3-part serieson meditation, its benefits and how

    you can learn to meditate yourself. Part 1: 10 Reasons You Should Meditate

    Part 2: How To Meditate In 5 Easy Steps

    Part 3: Vipassana Meditation 10-Day Course

    (Originally written and published on Jul 13, 2009)

    I just returned from myVipassana 10-Day Meditation Course! The past 10

    days has been some of the most well-invested 10 days of my life. After some

    100 hours of intensive meditation (think continuous, non-stop meditation

    (save for a few breaks in between) from the wee hours of 4:30am all the way

    till 9pm every day for consecutive ten days) Im now feeling filled with an

    inner sense of calmness or equanimity, which means a balanced and even

    mind. Im in quite a zen and peaceful state as Im writing this post now.

    (On a separate note, I am now faced with an overflowing inbox ofnearly 200

    emails though,so thats going to be a large piece of clutter to deal with!)

    The most important thing is, this is not going to be a one-time effect that will

    dissipate afterward something common in many motivational and spiritual

    courses alike. While Im now back in the real environment where there are

    many consciousness-lowering noise and clutter (as compared to during the

    course, when we are kept offshore and away from the hustle and bustle of city

    life in the serene recluse ofSt Johns Island), the course has equipped me with

    the knowledge and skill to practice the technique by myself, so I can continue

    reaping the benefits as long as I keep up with thedaily habit of practicing it,

    albeit in a less intense manner.

    Since I found this really beneficial, I decided share my experience with

    Vipassana meditation, so others who have not participated in the course

    before can consider if they wish to do so after reading it. If you have not heard

    of Vipassana or you have not experienced it before, I highly recommend you

    to join this course to experience for yourself. Of course, if you have no interest

    in meditation whatsoever, please skip this article. Otherwise, read on!

    http://personalexcellence.co/blog/10-reasons-you-should-meditate/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/10-reasons-you-should-meditate/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/how-to-meditate-in-5-simple-steps/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/how-to-meditate-in-5-simple-steps/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/vipassana-meditation-10-day-course/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/vipassana-meditation-10-day-course/http://www.dhamma.org/http://www.dhamma.org/http://www.dhamma.org/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/effective-email-management/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/effective-email-management/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/effective-email-management/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/effective-email-management/http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/sji.htmhttp://www.wildsingapore.com/places/sji.htmhttp://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/sji.htmhttp://personalexcellence.co/blog/effective-email-management/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/effective-email-management/http://www.dhamma.org/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/vipassana-meditation-10-day-course/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/how-to-meditate-in-5-simple-steps/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/10-reasons-you-should-meditate/
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    Before you continue though, I should make clear two disclaimers -

    1) Im not being paid to write this; neither am I affiliated with the organization

    which conducted the course. This is probably pretty obvious, but its good to

    highlight it anyway.

    2) This course is not affiliated with any religion or any sect of any sort. I have

    an acquaintance who, much to my surprise, mistook this course as part of a

    religious group when I told him I was going on a meditation retreat. Its really

    quite the opposite. This course is not linked with any religion, sect,

    denomination, order, cult, or communion of any sortand does not

    involve conversion or denouncing of religious faiths. It doesnt matter whether

    you are Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Atheist. Its for any

    person who wants to self-improve and live a better life.

    Meditation as a practice has never been limited to a particular sect or religion

    anyway it is a universal practice which all the great spiritual leaders,

    religious or not, have always been practicing. Over the centuries, certain forms

    of meditation started to become sectoral in nature due to the certain rites or

    rituals they are performed with, but this is not the case for Vipassana

    meditation. Its a non-sectoral, non-religious meditation technique.

    The intent of this 10-day course is to teach you the fundamentals of the

    Vipassana meditation technique so you can apply it and experience the

    benefits. Thats the reason why this course has been so popular among people

    from all walks of life, religions, nationalities and social classes, because its not

    secluded to a particular community or sect of people. All these people have

    attended the course before and walked away experiencing tremendous benefits

    from it regardless of their values or belief system.

    Personally, Im non-religious; I seek whats the highest truth, based on my

    own conscious exploration and experience. To date, I havent written anything

    explicitly on religion on the blog, because religion typically involves deeply

    rooted beliefs and values, which results in very sticky discussions beyond what

    I wish to be handling at this stage. For now, I want to be focused on the more

    immediately applicable frameworks of self-improvement.

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    If you have been reading the blog for a while, you will know that I actively

    encourage you to always consciously evaluate what you see and hear, including

    what you read here. Decide for yourself whats your truth. It is not my place to

    convert you to my viewpoints nor do I desire anyone to unconsciously buy into

    what I say.

    Ill share some background on Vipassana meditation and its benefits in the

    first half of this article and cover the details of the course in the second half.

    What is Vipassana Meditation?

    The term Vipassana literally means to to see things as they are. It is said this

    is the meditation technique Buddha used to attain enlightenment. Inmyprevious meditation post,I highlighted 3 main categories of meditation

    still/mindfulness meditation, moving/walking meditation or concentration

    meditation. Vipassana meditation falls under still/mindfulness meditation.

    To be honest, before attending this course, I thought I had kind of read and

    seen it all when it came to meditation. Sure, we can use meditation to

    concentrate our mind, remove the clutter, heal ourselves, visualize the future,

    communicate with our subconsciousness, and a whole series of other benefits.My original intent when signing up for the course 2 months ago was to

    sharpen my meditation skills and permanently instill the habit of meditating

    into my life through an deep dive into it. Little was I expecting to learn a

    totally different meditation technique with a different purpose to purify the

    mind and body, at the fundamental particle level. Thats what Vipassana

    meditation is about.

    Purification of Mind and BodyWhat does it mean to purify? In our daily life, we experience different

    emotions, ranging from pleasant to unpleasant ones. The untrained mind

    deals with these emotions with a sense of attachment, or clinging. This results

    in craving for pleasant experiences and aversion toward the unpleasant ones.

    Over time, peoples happiness becomes hinged by external events. When they

    achieve a certain outcome, they are happy. When they dont, they become

    miserable.

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    However, these are just objective occurrences. If something happens, it

    happens. If it doesnt, it doesnt. The negativity we generate are really a

    product of our own creation.

    Based on the philosophy of Vipassana, every negativity we generate creates a

    form of impurity in our mind and body. Bit by bit, these impurities

    accumulate. It was never directly articulated during the course, but the

    insinuation is that over time, these impurities manifest outward in the form of

    physical ailments or diseases. Common solution is to use medicine but thats

    just dealing with the problem at a symptomatic level. Sometimes they dont

    work; sometimes they work. When they do work, the physical problems return

    again later on, since the original framework of the mind that creates impurities

    (due to attachment, craving and aversion) was never dealt with.

    Thats where Vipassana comes in. It lets you purify yourself at the particle

    level. When you purify your mind, your body starts becoming purified as well.

    To do that, you have to stop generating attachment, cravings or aversions.

    Meaning, a completely objective state of mind to anything that happens i.e.,

    equanimity.

    The Technique

    How do you do that? By becoming an observer of yourself and the reality as it

    is. During the meditation, you turn your observation, inward, and objectively

    observe your respiration (as it is, not through regulating your respiration in

    any way) and sensations all around your body.

    Being an observer of the reality means that if theres any unpleasant sensation

    during the meditation (perspiration, aches, pain, numbness, itch, external

    disturbances etc), you observe it without generating any form of negativity or

    aversion. If theres any pleasant sensations (cool breeze, nice music, etc), you

    observe it without generating any form of attachment or craving. When you

    achieve the state of perfect equanimity regardless of whats there, the

    impurities of your past will start clearing away, layer by layer.

    No chanting, verbalization or visualizations take place because these involve

    alterations of reality which deviates from what reality truly is. This is why the

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    technique is different from the mainstream healing techniques. Those

    typically involve being a creator of some sort, through visualization or

    imagination such as white light surrounding your body.

    While it sounds simple, there are several steps to take before one can

    accurately do so as the technique requires. During the course, they trained us

    to be objective observers during the meditation, without resorting to

    verbalization or visualizations of any sort. Then, they taught us how to sharpen

    our minds focus such that we can sense minute level sensations in our body.

    We also learned how exactly to go about observing our sensations. There is a

    good balance of theory and practice during the course.

    Because the Vipassana technique is more complicated than your regular run-

    of-the-mill meditation techniques, full explanation of what it involves and how

    to apply it is beyond what can be done with an article. If you are interested, I

    highly recommend you take the 10-day course and experience it for yourself

    under the guidance of the teachers, its facilities and controlled environment,

    so you can reap the most benefits. The cost is free and donation based anyway,

    so if you dont like it, you canchoose not to donate at the end. Ill share more

    on the course later in the article.

    Benefits of Vipassana Meditation

    Of course, the course does not directly claim to be a remedy for illnesses or

    medical conditions, though there have been many cases of people whose

    physical and mental problems became remedied after they practiced the

    meditation technique.

    I havent mentioned this before, but since the past year, there were often times

    I couldnt sleep totally flat on my back. Whenever I tried to do that, there

    would be an unbearable pain on the base of my spine. I think it was partially

    due to my previouspoor posturewhen working at the desk, which resulted in

    pressure in my lower back. Because of that, I usually sleep every night on my

    side or curling up.

    Since I didnt know about the background of Vipassana even till the day

    leading to the course, I only learned about it as the course was unfolding. I had

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    no knowledge on its lauded benefits of this technique or experiences of others

    so I wasnt holding any specific expectations other than the standard increased

    mental clarity and concentration from regular meditation. Physical healing

    was definitely one of the last things on my mind.

    Yet during the first few sessions of meditation, I started to be able to lie on my

    back at times. It happened so naturally that I didnt even realize that this was

    an abnormality until after a few days. Towards the end of the course, I started

    being able to lie completely flat on my bed fully, something which I very much

    welcomed .

    During the course, the teacherS.N. Goenka(you can check outhis wiki profile)

    shared that he experienced acute migraines many years ago while he was still

    in his previous profession as a highly successful businessman. Consultation

    with many top doctors around the world brought fruitless results.

    After that, he sought out Vipassana meditation as a last resort for his

    migraines. Somehow, after practicing it, his migraines went away. Just like

    that. Since then, he has since committed himself to a life of sharing and

    spreading the technique to others.

    This probably sounds ludicrous if you are a very pragmatic person. How can

    this even be possible? Some will be quick to say that its just all in the mind,

    like its all made up or imagined. Probably a placebo effect?

    All I can say is, dont take myword for what I say here. Try it out and

    experience it for yourself. The truth can only be experienced on your level.

    Thats something I really like about the course. S.N. Goenka repeatedly

    emphasizes on discovering the truth as you experience it, not because he

    teaches it. In no stage did I feel like I was imposed upon with any of their

    views.

    There were also other benefits that came out of it, such as increased

    concentration ability (probably an output of all forms of meditation), being

    present to the moment, inner calmness from having cleared all the chunks of

    clutter in the past 10-days (about 100 hours of intensive meditation!) and an

    increased sense of objectivity or equanimity. I had quite a few deep revelationsabout myself during the ten-day period, though some are more of a result of

    http://www.dhamma.org/en/goenka.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/goenka.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/goenka.shtmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Goenkahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Goenkahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Goenkahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._N._Goenkahttp://www.dhamma.org/en/goenka.shtml
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    being given time alone to think rather than from the technique. Ill be sharing

    these over time through future articles.

    While Vipassana meditation is very powerful, I still see the benefits of other

    different meditation techniques though, such as for problem-solving,

    tobrainstorm,to consult our subconsciousness and so on, so Ill still be using

    the other techniques as the situation calls for it. For now, Ill start using this

    for my morning and night hourly meditations, until I know of a technique that

    is gives even better benefits. (By the way, if you havent cultivated the habit of

    meditating regularly, perhaps its a good time to stop reading about it and start

    doing it now through the21-Day program!)

    Different Vipassana Techniques

    After Buddhas time, Vipassana continued to be widely taught in India and

    countries for many centuries, until people started altering the technique and

    the original technique became lost. According to Goenka, the purest form of

    Vipassana continued to be taught and passed on from a limited line of teachers

    to pupils only within Burma. It was only a few decades ago when the

    Vipassana movement got triggered and spread beyond Burma, extendingacross Asia and even to the West.

    Today, there are many different variants of Vipassana taught by different

    groups all around the world. One of the participants previously went to

    another retreat which taught the Vipassana technique which was different

    from what was taught in the course. Goenka claims the Vipassana technique

    he teaches is the purest form of the Vipassana technique as taught by Buddha.

    Frankly speaking, it seems to be legit, and I dont see any reason for him to lie.

    To date, the technique has delivered a tremendous scale and depth of benefits

    for tens of thousands of people since he started teaching it about 40 years ago.

    If you have learned Vipassana meditation from a different group, it is likely a

    variant form. The best way to contrast the benefits is to try out this 10-day

    course yourself.

    Information on the 10-Day Course

    http://personalexcellence.co/blog/25-brainstorming-techniques/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/25-brainstorming-techniques/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/25-brainstorming-techniques/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/cultivate-a-good-habit-in-21-days/http://personalexcellence.co/blog/25-brainstorming-techniques/
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    If you are interested to take part, heres some information which might be

    helpful.

    Location

    While the course I went to is in Singapore, its offered all around the world,

    including US, Malaya, Burma, Indonesia, Taiwan, Europe, Australia). You can

    check more at thefull list of locationsat the official site. There are different

    languages offered, based on the location. The retreat locations are typically

    located in a rural and quiet place away from noise and clutter typical of city

    life.

    FrequencyThe frequency is dependent on the location. For Singapore, its held thrice a

    year in April, July and November. In some countries like Taiwan and

    Malaya, it occurs as frequently as once a month or even twice a month. Check

    the site for more details.

    People

    The size of the course batch varies based on the center you are having thecourse and the number of people who apply. They definitely try to take in as

    many people as possible. In my course batch, there were about 80+ course

    participants in total, half male and half female. Almost half of them were

    Burmese (since this course is already well-known in the Burmese community),

    and the rest were people of different nationalities. There were numerous old

    students as well people who took it before and were retaking it again, to

    reestablish themselves in the technique or as a regular retreat practice.As for the people running the course and the assistant teachers, they are all

    volunteers who took time out of their busy schedules to help out. Extremely

    kind and benevolent people who have a nice harmonious aura around them. It

    was a pleasant experience taking the course in their presence.

    Food

    I thought I should mention that the food was really quite amazing,

    notwithstanding that the course is free to begin with! I was probably eating

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    better and more variety of food during the course than in my regular meals.

    When I was talking to one of the volunteers after the course, they revealed that

    there was a regular chef who would cook for every retreat. The recipes are

    specially catered to suit local tastes. For example, the Singapore retreat

    typically has Burmese and Chinese participants, thus the menu is dominated

    with Burmese and Chinese dishes. Quite a lot of effort has been put in just to

    maintain the welfare of the people.

    By the way, the food served is vegetarian, in adherence with one of the moral

    codes of Vipassana, which is not to kill living beings. Since Im a vegan, I didnt

    have to make adaptations of any sort, though it shouldnt be a problem even if

    you are not vegetarian. Most, if not all, of the participants are non-vegetarian

    and found the food to really amazing as well. Some of them told me they felt

    really clean and clear in their stomachs from the dietary change in the 10-days.

    Meat-based food take longer to digest than plant-based food.

    Fee

    As mentioned above, the course is entirely free and run solely on donation

    from previous course participants. Even all the food and accommodationprovided throughout the 10-days are free, which I thought is very gratuitous.

    At the end of the 10-days, you can make a donation based on your own

    capacity and desire from your own experience. It is entirely voluntary the

    donation box is never handed individually for donations.

    If not limited by financial reasons, I dont see any reason why one wouldnt

    donate the course is well run, the people are great, the food is amazing and

    most importantly, the meditation technique taught has invaluable benefits. If

    anything, its really quite priceless.

    All the money donated goes directly to running of future courses. Neither the

    volunteers nor teachers are paid.

    More Information

    If you are interested to read more about Vipassana meditation, you can do

    sohereand in theQ&A on Vipassana.Information on the course and how to

    sign up can be found at therespective country sites.If you do join, let me know

    http://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/qanda.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/qanda.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/alphalist.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/alphalist.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/alphalist.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/qanda.shtmlhttp://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtml
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    how it goes for you Im sure you will get wondrous benefits out of it as many

    have too.