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The 10 Day retreat
Current mood:  thankful
There is so much I'd like to share, but it's so hard to explain this experience.
It IS worthwhile and I'd reccommend it to everyone. Vipassana is I think the only 10 day retreat you don't pay for. Free food and accommodation. Imagine!
The only thing you have to do is work - work hard, on yourself!
Wake up at 4 am and going to bed round 9 pm
And most of all, it was pretty hard on the butt!! I felt my bones sticking out.
I had 3 cushions with me(see previous blog), and I ended up with a total of 8. My butt's still sore after 4 days. (oh holy)
All the time, you just follow your breath coming in and going out the first 3.5 days. However it's not breathing technique. You follow your natural breath.
First you focus on the triangle of the nosebridge and corners of your upperlip. Later the triangle formed by the upperlip and the entrance of the nostrils. And it seems like a boring task, but it's really exciting. After a while you can feel the slightest sensations.
Then on day 4 the "real" Vipassana technique starts. From top of the head to the tip of the toes the body is scanned part by part by the awareness. What do you feel? Cold, warmth, itching, pain, ease, irritation, anger, nothing maybe? And later you linger on the places you don't feel any sensation for a minute or so. And it's very interesting what surfaces... You remove the lid of the shit-bin so to speak... (very ouch...).
Realizing by experiencing this body scanning, that everything is just temporary.
It arises and then goes away again. Everything!
This is a surgical operation on yourself.
It goes deep and there is no anaesthesia provided. But there were Jumbo boxes of Kleenex thank God.
This is surrender and accepting what is, now.
This is a coming home in self, our vibrational core.
It's finding peace and love within.
Feeling and recognizing the vibration of life-force that is everywhere and if we allow it, we can resonate with it in harmony and feel peace in every situation, whether we name it good or bad.
All the things I've been doing for decades I found here, but the difference is that this meditation tool glues it all together.
All the tiny ropes are woven into a big solid one.
It's a foundation to prevent us to sink into the illusion.
This is silencing the ego and know that we are not our thoughts that are always telling us all kinds of (nasty) stories.
Hopefully it makes sense. I could go on and on and come up with a load of examples, about what I experienced, but these are MY experiences. Everybody walks his/her path (dhamma) so everyone goes through his/her own (e)motions during these 10 days of silence.
The result is however the same. It brings us home to love and peace. Period.
I thought I would miss listening to music, reading and writing. But you don't miss anything. Too busy with working and experiencing and step by step, flowing towards peace with more ease!
I do hope to keep my peace more by meditating on a daily basis.
And not to feel rejected, unloved, disappointed by whatever happens.
Not exploding like a beautiful erupting volcano when I feel I'm being (or feel )wronged/disappointed/attacked or just do my mother of tsunami act and just flood everything with a devastation of preposterous proportions.
I think some people will miss my fuming and I will maybe miss doing it too. So now and then I will fall back and be judgmental and pissed again when I see things around me that just make me mad. Like senseless agression, wars, injustice, unkindness, etc.
But more and more I do hope I can look at everything with love and compassion and realize that all is well, no matter what. If *I* start vibrating peace, love and compassion towards others, things can't but change for the better. Like a tiny pebble thrown into a pond, that makes ripples and spreads out further and further and effects everything it touches.
This is a gift everyone should give to themself,
for at least once in a lifetime.
As usual I'll close off in loving kindness with wishes for love and peace.
May all beings be happy.
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For information about about Vipassana meditation click following link.
VIPASSANA
There are 120 centres worldwide. And yeah: all for free. You can give a donation at the end of the course. Everyone who follow the retreat is there because of donations that have been given in the past by others.
That alone is an act of love.
There are 2 documentaries about Vipassana. entitled:
** Doing time, Doing Vipassana(about prisoners in India)
** Changing from inside (about prisoners in Seattle)
I bought both before I went up there. They made me cry.
It was very moving and delightful to see and hear how these people who were in the deepest of shit, experienced this 10 day and how mindchanging it was for them.
11:12 AM
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