Yesterday I returned from completing a 10 day meditation at a Vipassana center. The center was located on a farm outside of the town of Pecatonica, Illinois. It was beautiful area with nice rolling hills and a wildlife preserve across the road. The Vipassana trust purchased the farm a few years ago. So there are still some old barns and silos around. Three ponds, that are fed from a natural artesion well, sit in the middle of the property. Then there is a farm house which was converted into the meditation hall, a large garage was renovated for the dining hall and a newly built dormitory sat up the hill. Overall it was a very peaceful and pleasant and the accommodations were more then generous.
There were about 15 students who attended the course. 9 men and 6 woman. At the begining we were asked to undertake five precepts and observe Noble Silence for the duration of the course. Noble Silence means no talking, gestures, or eye contact with any of the other students. We could ask the assistant teacher questions at specific times but that was to be kept to a minimum. At first I thought this was a little extreme. We could not even call home for the whole ten days! But after the course was over I really understood why the Noble Silence was so important. If we had been allowed to communicate it would have been very distracting and these distractions would have made it impossible to calm down the mind enough to learn and practice the meditation. The precepts and any other reading or writing of any kind were also prohibited.
The five precepts were:
1. to abstain from killing any being
2. to abstaing from stealing
3. to abstain from all sexual activity
4. to abstain from telling lies
5. to abstain from all intoxicants
The timetable was also very strict. We would wake up at 4 in the morning and start meditating at 4:30. Our meditations never lasted more than 1-2 hours without a break. Some of the breaks were five minutes while the breakfast and lunch breaks were longer and allowed about an hour’s worth of rest. We would have 3 one hour group sittings through out the day that we had to be in the meditation hall for but otherwise we could either meditate in the hall or in our room. There was an hour long discourse in the evening on video of S.N. Goenka (the founder of the current Vipassana Centers) speaking about the benefits of this technique of meditation. They were always very inspiring and funny. He is a great storyteller. Then after the discourse we would meditate for 45 minutes and then go to bed by nine o’clock. The schedule was always the same and it came to about ten and a half hours of meditating everyday.
The food they served was all vegatarian. Alot of steamed vegatables and rice. There was always an available salad to make with all of the fixings. They did have some traditional eastern dishes with tofu but one day they even made macaroni and cheese. All of the food was very good and thank you to all of the volunteers who cooked the wonderful meals. I do have to say that sometimes it was very difficult to maintain the “Noble Silence” after eating all of those vegatables! In the evening there was no meal, the new students were allowed to have some fruit and tea, while the older students just had tea.
Now after reading all of this, this question might arise, “Why?” That is a very good question and one that I asked myself many times especially during the most difficult moments. But after making it through and completing the course I am glad that I did. It was challenging both mentally and physically. The technique of Vipassana is very old and it is based on the teachings of Buddha but it is also rational and scientific.
Basically the technique is a way of purifying the mind of any negativities, depression or unhappiness. When a negative thought arises in the mind our breath loses its normal rhythm and we start breathing at a slightly harder pace. So one of the first things that we were taught at the course was to observe our breath. Observing without visualizing or manipulating the breath was important because the more that we would practice the subtler the breath we could observe. Eventually we broadened this the area of observation to the whole body. At a much deeper level, a biochemical reaction starts happening that will result in some sort of sensation on the body. This sensation is either something positive and pleasureable or negative and resulting in something unpleasant. Our natural tendency is to crave the pleasant sensations and avoid the painful ones. This constant habit of craving and avoiding only leads to never being satisfied and ignorance. With the practice of observing the sensations, one develops an acute awareness of how one is feeling and what the causes of the feelings are. With this awareness combined with the mental discipline also practiced with the meditation one can become equanimous with any complication or challenge in life.
The whole experience was difficult and it took alot of discipline to make it through but the rewards are more than worth it. The technique was not meant only to be done for ten days be really should be practiced on a daily basis. Already I feel more focused and patient in dealing with things in my life. I have had many creative ideas run through my mind. Including some larger scale wood sculptures. I feel that it has also really helped to make my relationships with Brandy and my friends even stronger. It was great and wonderful!