Vipassana - don't just mediatate, vibrate! (part 1)

Dear fair and balanced reader


It is a strange thing spending ten days in absolute silence, stranger still sharing it with 80 people that you will never look in the eye, never greet or acknowledge in any way. at least for for 24/10. nil by mouth, nil by eye, nil by hand. nada contactico. The outside world is, like romeo was to juliet "ban-i-shed". shed being the key syllable here. shed, rid, metamorphosis. the external is irrelevant, the internal your only concern. They make this very clear in the hour before silence is introduced like the new kid at school - someone you are forced to befriend and show around but hardly want to share your lunches with. that honour is reserved for you as you spend your three mealtimes staring at a wall that has long been shedding itself of its institutional beige paint. (its probably down to its primer already.)



And for the next 10 days you will work harder than any painted wall or padded cell to rid yourself of your layers and layers and years and years of accumulated attachments and experiences . (and sometimes the process is so slow and painful that you would rather watch paint dry). You will wake up at 4am and do 11 hours of seated meditation in 2-hour and 1.5 and 1 hour stretches. you will ache, fidget, fight your drifting mind and generally feel a world of pain and discomfort and a significantly smaller amount of sheer elation. but the 5:1 ratio is worth it and the odds get better as you "even" out.



Vipassana is slightly different from other meditations in that it believes that the root cause of all misery happens at a sensory level. Every day, every minute we are reacting to external stimuli, creating either attachments (cravings) or repulsions (aversions) to them. they believe it is from these millions and millions of sensations that we form our deep seated habit patterns and that by practising Vipassana, which is to simply call up and observe these sensations, we can break our habits at the deepest level and thus free ourselves of any and all attachments. so in the 10 days you first learn to meditate and then to go deeper and observe the vibrations (sensations) in the body. and it's incredible but you really can. you can feel yourself pulsating with energy and sensations. of course by the second hour these sensations collide with your severe pins and needles, back and knee ache and a cracking pelvis but even this pain is possible to disassociate from and simply observes...but only if you have managed to go into this deep state. If not, it's just a world of pain and persecution that your brain fights and you give in to it eventually.



But the mind never gives up. this is one constant. The body is a big woos. she will ache and complain and fail you at every turn. she will bring on a cold or refuse to wake up or go to sleep but it's so blatant and pathetic that you just give her a stretch or slap and she submits right away. what a putz. but the mind, the mind is a true visionary with a singular mission - to have you bend to its will. and the problem is it has the conviction and skill to have its way. 99% of the time. you got to hand it to it, it has the biggest stock library of moving images outside of CNN's offices. Barry Ronge would be impressed by the number of movies, TV shows, adverts, even detailed arbitrary scenes that my mind can recall at any given second. (But with more repeats that an eTV weekend.) Hey i was impressed. And then there's the most distant childhood faces and places I had to spend hours trying to tag and bag. Like i was putting together a scrapbook. Me a scrapbooker! But then, when you have finally made it through this stockpile, your crafty mind has an even bigger aresnal awaiting you....the big idea. and not one but millions of them. Business, creative, personal...the ideas just come rolling in and you grab at them and repeat them you are scared you will forget them. because you cant write them down (no writing or reading allowed) and of course your mind knows this all to well.


But that's not all it knows to do...

(end here or see part 2)