Vipassana- meditate on this (part 2)

Dear faithful reader

Ready for round 2?

Now all this practice of disattachment makes the mind hungry to attach itself like a parasitic tick. the big fat grey kind that feeds and feeds until its head is so deeply wedged into its host that it is accepted as a necessary appendage. well that's the mind for you. All you have done is taken away its comforts (talking, reading, writing) but you cannot (this reminds me of the william wallace Braveheart speech..."you may take away our pens, rip out the pages in our books but you will never take our freedom {of association i presume}) rob and pillage its right to imagine and connote and denote.

You may not have been introduced to your neighbours, but that doesn't stop you from forming ideas and opinions about them from the smallest details (even from a slight side angle view). and this is how the daily dialogue goes....interesting bone structure. must be European perhaps eastern. it's quite sharp and pronounced. def northern hemisphere. the skin is very clear and soft for her age. cooler climate for sure. aah and the smell of her facial products. expensive. Clarins? Chanel? must be upper middle class. but look at the way she dresses, the way she knots her scarves is more french but the sensible shoes more German. could go either way. the french roll has got me stumped. just old fashioned? (she was German) .

And this happens with every slight encounter. To your mind's eye (it really is) every stolen glimpse is the opportunity for "insight" every sign or symbol another piece in the 10-day puzzle. They are not your neighbours. they are not your friends or fellow mediators they are the straight-backed ballerina who sits in front of you, they are the former athletes who know how to stretch their hamstrings. What's that i hear? an ankle bracelet? hippie. and what about her? never a hair out place no matter the hour. always neat, even walks with exact precision. organiser. teacher? so not much insight, just the most random stereotypical connections. but it keeps the mind fed.

Mealtimes are another interesting social experiment. When that gong brings you round from your deep-seated physical pain and mental positivity (these coexist quite nicely) you know that there will be no gathering of social circles or creation of egalitarian squares. you will simply follow the shuffling, shivering, aching limbs into the dining hall with your stainless steel plate, spoon and cup in hand and claim the nearest available plastic chair.

But life has a funny way of befriending you and dealing with the issues at hand simultaneously. the lighting was such that your shadow head was projected onto the wall in front of you. sometimes two of them. how apt. of course on those "high humour" days you can just imagine the opportunities for shadow puppetry. sometimes you just cant help your nature, no matter many meditational hours you spend purging yourself of those std- issue habitual patterns - mental attachment, always living in the past/future. on a whole we are a very unoriginal species.

The one thing that Vipassana tries to teach is that these laws, these practices are universal, not religious and not sectorial. They exist in nature as clearly as human nature, and its propensity to form rites and rituals, exists in all of us... german, hippie, householder or nun.

And that truth, i discovered, is always made clear to me in a simple and humorous way. Like on this one meditation morning. the usual routine. we had just finished our 4.30-6.30 session. we were tired and stiff and came limping out of the Dhamma hall to walk off our stiffness, our blankets shielding us from the morning breeze. As i emerged from the dark hall, the nun (the only one on the course) was already on the pathway leading to the pagoda. Her shaved head bowed, her purple blanket hiding her grey uniform. As she rounded the corner the sunlight shone through her blanket, just for a second or two but just long enough for me to read the inscription woven into her blanket. " Thai. For cabin use only" How similar we are.
A second later, i laughed the laugh of a practicing vipassana mediator.... not suppressed, just observed, and with no attachments.