How much 10 days can change your life...

hello beautiful people

I have just come back from a 10 days Vippassana meditation course and simply wanted to share with you how much this has meant to me and really changed quite a lot inside of me...

For those who have never heard of it go to www.dhamma.org if you want further info.

practically it is 13 hours of meditation a day
4 am wake up
4:30 till 6:30 meditation practice in your room or in the hall
6:30 till 8 am breakfast and rest
8 till 9 am group sitting in the hall
9 till 11 am practice in room or in the hall
11 till 1pm lunch then rest or possible to ask questions to teachers
1till 2:30pm practice in room or hall
2:30 till 3:30 pm group sitting in the hall
3:30 till 5 pm practice in room or hall
5 till 6 pm tea
6 till 7 pm group sitting
7 till 8 pm dhamma discourse
8 till 9 group sitting
9 till 9:30 possible to ask questions to teachers or get rest
10 pm lights out

all is done COMPLETELY in silence verbal silence but also no eye contact or body language.

How can I express how it felt ? or should I actually express it ? because the feeling for me will be completely different from the one you will feel should you decide to join a course , cause we are all so different with different stock of misery and issues...

basically though, the meditation consists in 3 days of anapana meditation which is basically concentrating on your natural breath while opening yourself to feeling sensations on the area below the nostrils till the upper lip. learning to have accurate feelings of sensations in such a small zone then helps you understand and improve drastically in Vipassana meditation.

Day 4th is when you start learning Vipassana meditation itself. basically it involves sitting down, concentrating on the moment and observing sensations throughout your body with equanimity.

the postulate is that all our life we are slaves to our reactions to sensations. sensations occur throughout the body when one of th 6 senses is stimulated (they count mind as a sense)
we react to a pleasant sensation by craving and attachment and to a bad sensation by aversion and rejection.

re programming your body and subconscious to stop overeacting all the time and be able to simply observe instead of drowning into a I ME MY PAIN MY PLEASURE vicious circle is what they work on,

it sounds simple and really logical ...
to me it was, at least intellectually

but the first day i was so bored, incapable of concentratingm thoughts rushing at 250 MPH.. then came anger for not being able to do things then dispear, then anxiety and aversion for incredible incredible pains I was feelign while sitting in the group sitting where you are not supposed to move a toe for one whole hour. then tears and smiles and learning slowly but surely ... learning soooo very much...

learning above all that we are entirely responsible for our miseries not because noone ever does anything to harm us but because it is entirely up to us whether we react, overreact or let go of it...

those ten days are mind blowing... just a first step on teh way but so important...

To me it is the most precious present I have ever given myself... and I truely hope that if you feel interested , even just a bit, you will give it a chance...

And for the ones who know me personnaly and know what a chemney i am after smoking for 17 long years of abd addiction, I have quit smoking and I know that there are two major factors to that : a silly but efficient book that Dom got me ( stop smoking by Allen carr - thank you Dom I love you) and those ten days of cleansing of teh body and soul...

With soooo much love and respect for all of you
Shine on
cass

have been wanting to go on this myself for over a year now

am looking at it in the next month

friend was on on ehere in the blue mountains resently one of the girls on it with her had to be taken away to hospital because her body rejected not being able to comunicate physicaly

there are many great places of study here for you to continu yuo learning when you get here cass one of the best if in gipslands near melbourne have meet and talked to the master there very beutiful hart he has

Ta Brainstorma, i ahd heard of the center but did not know if it was doable from melbourne without a car ????

and yes it can be intense and not everybody can take this course... see www.dhamma.org for more details...

love and light
With metta
cass

Wow Cass, sounds amazing. I've heard a lot of talk about this course before and how good it was. That link you posted was the push I needed. I just submitted an application form on-line.
Thnx Cass!!

Much love and light to you Jessica, let me know if you wish how things go after your course

shine on
cass

bumping it up cause I would really to share some feedback form other fellow Hopers as i cannot imagine I am the only one here who ahs done it ???

shine on
cass

YAY! I love my silent retreats, I'm off on another one late october! Cant wait!

I just got my confirmation back - I'm going in November. I can't beleive you can get such an amazing experience for free.

In fact i really think that the fact taht it is free and that none of teh workers there are paid is an important part of it. It avoids many problems sects have about money power etc ...

anyone can have access to it... later if you wish you can donate money of course for otehr students to discover Vippassana but you can also donate time and come give a hand for 10 days if you still have no money.

the fact taht you do not pay is important also so that you can not express your ego so much I PAID FOR IT I WANT .... it puts you in a similar place as the monks who need to beg for food and it is a very good thing...

Burning Byron, would you care to tell us a bit more ? i mean where and all ? am very interested to havign more feedback.


Too bad your login now involves a word i am not allowed to say outloud cause it makes me sick (long live Nutella ) but I am sooo happy for you and the retreat. is it a ten days one ???

shine on
cass

Woah... I have heard so about the Vipassana meditation retreat as many of my friends have done it in the blue mountains. Seeing and feeling their shift of energy after such an exploration of themselves was amazing enough to make me want to do it. I remember seeing my friend for the first time after he got back... and I was drumming with a group of frirnds on the beach and without even knowing he was walking towards us... his clear and vibrant and POSITIVE energy drew us to all turn and look at him. I've never seen anybody look so beautiful... and I think it is because what makes us physically unattractive is all internal and the way we are feeling on the inside is mirror externally ... and his presence and renewed energy made him so wonderful to look at and be around. The facinating thing I think about Vipassana is that it isn't catogorised into one religion and your not doing it for a God or anything like that... but awakening the creator within you! And feeling the divine life force that is inside all of us, once we release ego and distracting 'cycles' and circumstance that we fall into. It main message I think is to be 'real' and to completely emmerse yourself in the moment. Hopefully I can do the course when I get some time! I'm so happy for you Cass... to be feeling such clear vibrations within you after surrendering all the deep pain that gestates inside us as humans.

Peace

wow cass, sounds like ur on to something there....

i understand completely the concept of meditation but have only tried it a few times, complete silence was not a possibility at the time but this sounds like a whole other world!!

glad to hear ur enjoying all ur experiences and im looking forward to cing u in london babe!!!

take care of ur gorgeous self!!

R xxxxx

uhh, I don't mean to be a jerk when I ask this, but if this is a silent retreat, and you said silance all the time right?, how do you ask questions? sorry, just kind of curious. It sounds amazing, I don't know if I could do it but it definitly sounds amazing.

is that dirty word that you cant say MARMITE by any chance?

nutella is also all good of course

jello,

i imagine all the questions will be asked and answered mentally, the power of the mind is a truly amazing thing, when you think that Shaolin monks can break bars of steel over their heads without so much as a mark then you can begin to appreciate it.

when you reach a certain level of mind control you can start to do things like this, im sure im only scratching the surface and there will be people here who can explain it in far better detail than i have but i hope this explains a little..........

jello you can break silence for those two purposes : talk to management if you have problem with practical thigns and talk to teachers if you have question about practice. the most important thing is NOT to talk to fellow meditators to not disturb them.

you also find quickly taht you want to speak the least possible cause it is a hard excercise...

Startign to talk again after ten days was soooo weird, even not so pleasant ... small talk seems so useless... but little by little ...

Kurobei we will talk about it when I come to London OK ? YAY i cannot wait

fairy the center in the blue mountainst is it far from Sdney ? can one go there without car ????

Shine on
cass

You can borrow my car anytime you want sweetie. I rarely use it during the weekends or vacations, just don't return it with an empty tank.

Cass - It is a ten day one. And stop slagging off Marmite - I love Nutella too - but Marmite rules.

Kuro - Where have you been? Do you have any idea who I am?

Cass-i read your thread longingly as i am not in a position to do something like that right now .Then i found a book in a charity shop where a guy describes the same sort of meditation in tibet.Sort of wot i needed to read!!

Cass...

I'm not really sure about the whole blue mountains thing to be honest, but I think its an hour or so from sydney. I've realised that the closest one to me would be at Pomona, which is just outside of Brisbane, heading towards the Sunshine Coast.

You wouldn't beleive what an earth angel you are for posting this Vapassna Meditation thread on HOP. I have been wanting to do the 10 day retreat for so long and I've been using the 'I haven't had time' excuse extensively... but I started telling my dad about it, and thinknig that he'd think it was a bit 'far out' (as most of the crazy things my lifestyle involves) he was eager to do it WITH me!!! Yay. YOU have brought a father and daughter closer together, and because of your divine guidance and leading me to the website, so much healing and transformation is going to happen... Thank you so much sweet sista for pushing me closer towards my dreams

heya cass - you can do the blue mountains one without a car no worries at all - it's sort of on the train line

I couldn't do it. I just couldn't.

People talk about how they could never do the things I do what with medicine and all, but I could never do this.

Jessica you will find that there is a whole history of nutella versus marmite which i started a loong time ago (i think more than two years ago now ... damn taht is a long time ... so do not take it personnaly at all )

Fairy I am very thankfull for your words it really makes me glow. I hope you will tell me a bit about it when you do it.

may I point out taht most centers are completely segregated between genders which IMO is really good.
I think it is amazing that you and your dad plan on going through that experience but be aware that being with someone you know is not always going to be the easiest thing. But I think if the center is organized right it will be fine and I really wish you both light and peace

Woodnymph, when i first heard about it it was REALLY not the right time in my life eitehr... i thought I just cannot fit it in my schedule, but in fact my whole being was not ready for it anyway , so it was all for the better read, dream, fly, shine and then when the time comes i wish you ten days of noble silence and noble truth (do I sound like a cheap guru ) I mean it though ...

Ade thanks for the info . have you done it ???

Mike I am curious why you think you could NEVER do it ? is it the silence ? the fact that it is a buddhist form of philosophy and meditation ? the hours ? Just really interested to hear you

shine on
cass

That, to me, sounds like somebody who needs to spend 10 days in calm!

Kuro has been away contemplating the finer points of life!!

Dirty Marmite Spider - hey Jess, how ya doin, its been a long time huh? hope yer all good n fluffy and still smilin babe

cass my angel, have been thinking of u sooo much and hoping you've been having fun around the world, im soooooooooooooooo looking forward to seeing you again

so im coming down on the 29th, not sure if im gonna be staying but i'll let u kno when i find out. muchos hugs to u beatuiful!!

[ 06. October 2003, 01:40: Message edited by: Kurobei ]

Dom, you see, when there's been a multi-vehicle accident and there are three patients in the trauma bay, all of whom are severely injured and all of whom have different needs, that's when I'm at my calmest. It's almost a meditative state that I find myself in, where my thoughts become a calm stream that runs through the procedures that need to be done one at a time.

I seek calm in chaos. I panic when it's too quiet. That's part of why I decided to become a doctor.

I can totally relate ...
my first day at the cehnter I was sooo bored it was ridiculous ... o much for teh spiritual glamour... I am very talkative, i love pressure cause i respond well to it, I like fast... I also have always loved being alone asa counter blalance for the rush...

i personnaly beleive you have to be comfortable alone in order to be really comfortable in society... and so i was willing to experience silence and not doing anything to challenge myself as well... being the hyperactive bouncy girl that i am

I think that the aim of it is to enable you to be at peace and ballanced in every situation, no matter what and this is one of the things that seduced me ...

Kuro WAHOOHEY... same goes for you Dom baby

shine on
Cass

*blows the dust and cobwebs off the thread*

just thought i might breathe a little life into this and get discussing with some people that my have done this course as i am thinking about doing it soon here in melbourne.

what did people get out of it? what is the hardest part of the course? do you still practise?