I recently had an unparalleled experience of attending a 10 day meditation course, just outside Bangalore. When I signed up for same, I received a code of discipline that a student is expected to follow which besides things like "no killing, no stealing, no lies" had a requirement of silence - that is the students of the course will remain silent for the duration of the course except for the Q&A allowed with the teacher and any complaints that one may have with respect to facility or food. I thought that this will be the toughest condition to meet and after a lot of courage confirmed my attendance and landed there.
Well...to be honest, silence wasn’t an issue at all because there were bigger, tougher things. For one, getting up at 4 AM everyday...Two, 11 hours of meditation in a day...three, only 5-6 hours of sleep in the day. To top it meditation technique doesn’t really work if you take pain killers as they break connection between mind and body. So here I was, in pain and agony of body and mind. Body - because you have to sit on floor and meditate...have you ever tried sitting for one hour without back support doing nothing but watching breath? Try it and you will understand!
Mind...because your mind doesn’t want to be tamed - between 2nd and 6th day, every day I wanted to run away but I couldn’t because I had signed a written consent to stay within 4 walls of the centre. I think I forgot to tell you about this condition - for 10 days students cannot have any contact with outside world - no phone, e-mail or even newspaper. Forget newspaper, no ipod, not even pen and paper for one to capture her thoughts. Nothing...absolutely nothing else to do. Speak you anyway can’t - so meditate, eat or rest. But there was limit on eating as well - you don’t get dinner because then you won’t be able to get up at 4 AM and meditate. As for rest, the schedule allowed for max 6 hours of sleep.
All in all I would say it was a boot camp - brutal and unreal. But once I am back, I realize how important the whole atmosphere was for us to learn the technique. The technique can't be taught in a day…yes one can receive instructions in a day but one can’t understand them all in a day because one has to practice to understand. That was the focus of the course - practice and experience.
I won’t get into details of technique because there is a reason it’s taught over 10 days and is learnt with practice (that’s why 11 hours of meditation a day). But what I can share is that it is non-sectarian, doesn’t talk about God or Soul, doesn’t ask for rites and rituals, doesn’t require or rather allow words like Om or figures or shapes to be used in meditation. It’s very logical and actually draws lot of parallels from science. The technique is focused on teaching our mind to avoid strong positive or negative reactions like craving or hatred. Once the mind stops craving or hating things, one becomes less miserable. Ofcourse one has to practice it every day to achieve results.
One may ask, what made me go for this course? I wanted to find a way to be happy and I realized that no amount of perfumes and shoes will do the job. So went to this course to get rid of my misery and landed into one of another kind (no sleep, no coffee, discourses by teacher and 11 hours of hard work). All these 10 days I was certain that the place wasn’t great and course was too harsh and I was desperate to get back to my so called normal life. Infact last night at the centre, the thought that next night I will sleep in my own comfortable bed and will wake up when I want to made me deliriously happy (so sleep deprived was I!) On 11th day, as I cheerily said good-byes and left for home, I had no idea that I would feel exactly opposite the next day. Yes, I did feel miserable when I was there and assumed that luxuries of life and extra hours of sleep will make me feel better…but I was wrong. I didn’t realize that I was actually walking back into a life full of misery. No denying that those days were tough and there were numerous times when I didn’t want to be there, but those were also the days when I learnt that there is a way out of the real misery that awaited me beyond the gates of the centre.
I am glad I took the plunge and completed the course. I will definitely go back for another course to work more on the technique I learnt. In summary, those tough 10 days have shown me a path that will liberate me from my misery and I intend to follow that for the rest of my life!
Well...to be honest, silence wasn’t an issue at all because there were bigger, tougher things. For one, getting up at 4 AM everyday...Two, 11 hours of meditation in a day...three, only 5-6 hours of sleep in the day. To top it meditation technique doesn’t really work if you take pain killers as they break connection between mind and body. So here I was, in pain and agony of body and mind. Body - because you have to sit on floor and meditate...have you ever tried sitting for one hour without back support doing nothing but watching breath? Try it and you will understand!
Mind...because your mind doesn’t want to be tamed - between 2nd and 6th day, every day I wanted to run away but I couldn’t because I had signed a written consent to stay within 4 walls of the centre. I think I forgot to tell you about this condition - for 10 days students cannot have any contact with outside world - no phone, e-mail or even newspaper. Forget newspaper, no ipod, not even pen and paper for one to capture her thoughts. Nothing...absolutely nothing else to do. Speak you anyway can’t - so meditate, eat or rest. But there was limit on eating as well - you don’t get dinner because then you won’t be able to get up at 4 AM and meditate. As for rest, the schedule allowed for max 6 hours of sleep.
All in all I would say it was a boot camp - brutal and unreal. But once I am back, I realize how important the whole atmosphere was for us to learn the technique. The technique can't be taught in a day…yes one can receive instructions in a day but one can’t understand them all in a day because one has to practice to understand. That was the focus of the course - practice and experience.
I won’t get into details of technique because there is a reason it’s taught over 10 days and is learnt with practice (that’s why 11 hours of meditation a day). But what I can share is that it is non-sectarian, doesn’t talk about God or Soul, doesn’t ask for rites and rituals, doesn’t require or rather allow words like Om or figures or shapes to be used in meditation. It’s very logical and actually draws lot of parallels from science. The technique is focused on teaching our mind to avoid strong positive or negative reactions like craving or hatred. Once the mind stops craving or hating things, one becomes less miserable. Ofcourse one has to practice it every day to achieve results.
One may ask, what made me go for this course? I wanted to find a way to be happy and I realized that no amount of perfumes and shoes will do the job. So went to this course to get rid of my misery and landed into one of another kind (no sleep, no coffee, discourses by teacher and 11 hours of hard work). All these 10 days I was certain that the place wasn’t great and course was too harsh and I was desperate to get back to my so called normal life. Infact last night at the centre, the thought that next night I will sleep in my own comfortable bed and will wake up when I want to made me deliriously happy (so sleep deprived was I!) On 11th day, as I cheerily said good-byes and left for home, I had no idea that I would feel exactly opposite the next day. Yes, I did feel miserable when I was there and assumed that luxuries of life and extra hours of sleep will make me feel better…but I was wrong. I didn’t realize that I was actually walking back into a life full of misery. No denying that those days were tough and there were numerous times when I didn’t want to be there, but those were also the days when I learnt that there is a way out of the real misery that awaited me beyond the gates of the centre.
I am glad I took the plunge and completed the course. I will definitely go back for another course to work more on the technique I learnt. In summary, those tough 10 days have shown me a path that will liberate me from my misery and I intend to follow that for the rest of my life!
5 comments:
Sounds tough and rigourous. I have heard a lot of this stuff from people I know within the financial services community. I am happy that you could go through the grind and come back feeling good about it.
I for one dont have the heart and soul to get into ito so I envy you.
Best wished for your next such sojourn.
You go girl!!! I hope it helped...God knows I need some help too in taming the mind and telling me that a lot of stuff that we do just doesn't matter.
This seemed tough and you are made of stern stuff as well - let me know how it helped.
Wow - this is impressive. Good for you Iqbal. I can sympathize with the no sleep routine, I don't know if I'd have the courage to do the rest. It's definitely worth trying...
Good for you!
good to see you back on blogosphere. So you went for Vipassana, Do you feel that it has a positive impact on your personality? I have heard a lot about it, and have plans to attend the same.
Nice.... I like the way you jot down all about being non sectarian..
Regards
Gursimran Singh
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