VIPASSANA experiences

[Guest guest]

Elle,

 

I'd love to hear about your experiences after the meditation retreat, anyway the

controllers are at Sosltice, so while the cats away.... only joking Gordon!

 

Krishan Shiva Kaur

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

hee hee! Quick! Start posting off-topic emails before they get back!!

 

I received several requests for my Vipassana rant, so here it is for

everyone!

 

The following is what I wrote about a month after my 10-day course last

year. What I should add to it sometime, is the accumulating effects of my

regular practice since the course, which has been amazing. I am slowly but

surely developing a more level head, reacting with a more rational and

peaceful mind to life's surprises, twists and turns, accepting life and

life's terms more, and also increasing my awareness, focus, and stamina both

during meditation and in daily life and my yoga practice. And the list goes

on... but here's the beginning of it: !!!

 

 

"...I didn't do a lot of research before I went to the course. I knew

that it required absolute silence and a lot of meditation, but that

was it so I had a very open, beginner's mind going in.

 

The Noble Silence (silence of body, speech, and mind) surprisingly

turned out to be the easiest and most refreshing aspect of the

course for me, and absolutely necessary to benefit from the intense

study. However, it was apparent that others were having more

difficulty with it and took advantage of being able to speak with

the teachers and managers about what was going on with them.

 

The most difficult, and shocking, part of the course, was finding

out that ALL hours of meditation were spent sitting! That is 10.5

hours a day for 10 days, plus one evening and one morning. I naively

assumed there would be walking meditation or other relief during the

meditation blocks. It was quite painful, and I suspect also quite

unhealthy for the body. The only exercise permitted is walking,

along with some light stretching, but they ask you not to practice

Yoga or any other exercise while you are there. The pain never

subsides -- you do not get used to it, nor does it get easier to

physically sit for so long day after day. You do eventually learn to

meditate upon your pain and detach from it, but it is a slow and

grueling process that doesn't necessarily resolve in just one 10-day

course. Everyone I spoke to after the course had the same

experience. So why do it?

 

The meditation experience is absolutely incredible! The Vipassana

technique is unlike anything I have ever experienced -- in

meditation or otherwise. The first three days are spent

concentrating on the breath, which is the most common type of

meditation I have been taught. I had little problem with it outside

of the physical and mental endurance it required to keep it up for

long periods of time. There is some variation: first you concentrate

on the area of the entire nose and upper lip, then eventually narrow

the concentration down to the opening of the nostrils, but basically

it is typical of breathing meditation. After three and a half days

-- about 40+ hours -- of concentrating on the breath in various

ways, the mind has become sharp enough to observe the most subtle

sensations in the body. Vipassana meditation is basically just that:

observation of the sensations in the body.

 

What does that mean? If you do not go through intense training of

the mind, you can only be aware of gross sensations. Right now,

observe your body and identify the sensations you are feeling. Such

as the chair underneath your seat... the touch of cloth against your

arm... glasses on the bridge of the nose... etc... These are common

gross physical sensations that anyone can feel. But once the mind is

sharpened with this intense breathing meditation training, the list

expands greatly, to include the flow of blood through your veins,

subtle vibrations in your ears, and more. Eventually, you are aware

of activity in your body at the subatomic level -- feeling actual

kalapas (subatomic particles) vibrating from the surface of your

skin, into your innermost organs! It is pretty cool to experience,

but then what is the point? Here is an explanation from the

Vipassana web site, http://www.dhamma.org:

 

"There are two aspects of the technique:

 

"The first is breaking the barrier between the conscious and

unconscious levels of the mind. Usually the conscious mind knows

nothing of what is being experienced by the unconscious. Hidden by

this ignorance, reactions keep occurring at the unconscious level;

by the time they reach the conscious level, they have become so

intense that they easily overpower the mind. By this technique, the

entire mass of the mind becomes conscious, aware; the ignorance is

removed.

 

"The second aspect of the technique is equanimity. One is aware of

all that one experiences, of every sensation, but does not react,

does not tie new knots of craving or aversion, does not create

misery for oneself."

 

It is one thing to know this intellectually or theoretically, it is

another to experience it, and that is another important teaching of

Vipassana. Of course, there are even deeper philosophies that result from

this meditation, and even more intense long-term results... which just take

time and practice to fully realize."

 

Please contact me if you want to know more! And I'd love to hear from other

Vipassana people -- off-list of course!!

 

NAMASTE!

Elle

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Sounds cool Elle, where can I check for retreat near me, is there

a website?

 

Brad

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Brad and all other interested souls,

 

This morning during Sadhana I was using the technique that you (Brad)

suggested. I was categorizing thoughts as they came to me. Instead of ( I

am using your example), "sexual thought" categorized as "lust", the mind

started making the connection to Wahe guru. (I was doing sodarshan chakra

and counting using wahe guru). The categories that you mentioned (lust,

gluttony) had a pejorative connotation to them. I don't know if that was

intended. When I connected the thought to the infinite, everything changed.

The though just floated away and all the compulsion associated with it was

relieved. It was quite amazing to watch (as the observer of mind). I

didn't go into a deeper mediation (that I noticed) but the complusive

feeling that accompanies "broken record" thinking dissappeared. What a

relief!!! The feeling was very different from my normal "prying my mind

away from compulsive thoughts.

 

Sat Nam Gian (Ellen)

[Guest guest]

I have a question related to this. I've been following Ellen's posts,

as well as Brad and others regarding meditation and 'wandering

thoughts' etc. I think I may be missing something though. Sometimes,

on this board and in some of the books I have, it says when the mind

begins to wander, bring the attention back to the mantra. Other times

I read (or should I say 'understand') that when random thoughts

arrive, don't ignore them (which I interpret as changing focus back

on the mantra) but rather acknowledge them and release them or let

them go.

 

When my mind wanders, which it often does, it usually also generates

images/thoughts. So to me, wandering minds and random thoughst/images

are one in the same. With that said, which way is the best to deal

with them. Bringing the focus back to the mantra (which to me means

ignoring them) or addressing/acknowledging them (which it sounds like

what Brad and Ellen are describing. I have been trying to ignore them

by focusing more intently on the mantra, but I always feel like I'm

fighting against myself for my minds attention. I'm not sure that

makes sense.

 

Christa

[Guest guest]

Christa,

 

Short answer is sometimes we need help 'going back to the mantra' because

we are only aware of one thought at a time, so to speak. Anything that isn't

mantra

gets a label, this way your mind is aware it is off mantra, and that will be

soon returning. You're actually doing both. I think that in the

manuals sometimes they

leave out handy tricks that can help. Some people don't have any problem

staying or getting back on a mantra, others have to work at it

 

It evens out with practice. Once you get the hang of the above technique you'll

understand. At some point you'll 'feel' what's going on and these 'techniques'

will be seamless and automatic.

 

Sat Nam

 

Brad

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Gian,

 

Congratulations!! Meditation is like that, you have to experience to be

able to

advance.

"It was quite amazing to watch (as the observer of mind). I

didn't go into a deeper mediation (that I noticed) but the complusive

feeling that accompanies "broken record" thinking dissappeared. What a

relief!!! The feeling was very different from my normal "prying my mind

away from compulsive thoughts."

 

--Its the action of constantly 'prying' away, that screws up a meditation. The

better

you become at returning to the mantra, the sooner you'll be staying on the

mantra.

Alot I think, depends on how active your mind is going into the meditation,

thats

why what you do before --yoga-- is so important. You've been going through alot

of problems at work and that stuff tends to go with you into the

meditation.

 

Yyyiipppeee, Gian's got it!

 

Blessings

 

Brad

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam

 

In working with the mind and meditation I acknowledge the thought as

"thought" or "thinking" and let it float by and this seems to works best for

me. It's as if I acknowledge but do not get involved with thinking. If I

don't acknowledge the thinking I get caught up in the thinking, but if I

label the thought then I'm free to let it go and return to the breath. Is

this too simple?

 

Lucille

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam!

 

Interesting to hear all your techniques. Personally, I refrain from

"labeling" thoughts because that is just adding more chatter to my mind.

When I meditated at the Shambhala center, they taught me to actually say the

word "thinking" to myself on the exhale when catching my mind wandering

away. That just doesn't work for me because of all the associations with

that word itself, plus what I am trying NOT to do is reduce my thinking, not

emphasizing it by talking to myself about it! But I do see how it may work

for others as a method.

 

I think of the waves of thoughts in my mind as I am trying to meditate as

"thinking without words" and just come back to the breath to clear the slate

when words begin.

 

In Vipassana meditation, Goenka stresses not to use any techniques like

labeling or mantra. That is, while you are practicing Vipassana do ONLY

Vipassana. I like mantra meditation alot as a separate practice actually.

 

Namaste!

elle

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Elle,

 

Good to hear from a Vipassana angle. Acutally when you learn to

the technique you find you don't really need it anymore.

I rarely used it for Sodarshan. I cut my teeth on one minute

breath, and once you get to advanced stages, you don't need those

tricks anymore. Higher self takes over.

 

 

Blessings

 

Brad

[Guest guest]

Sat Nam Christa,

 

I don't know if this is an anwer to your question because I am not really

reading the guide books. I know that the mantra represents the infinite,

but then there are no words to the infinite. There is nothing and there is

everything. Living and thinking of the world as the infinite takes constant

reorienting for me. Just saying wahe guru in my mind does not take me

there.

 

I'll be concrete about the re-orientation that I have been going though: A

political power grabber is making my life miserable. So I have an unhappy

thought about him during my meditation/pranayama time. In response, I

consciously shift the thought of him to the wahe guru world and suddenly my

experience with him and his existence seem part of a blessing, not a curse.

On a very thought-based level, I think, "the universe disciplines us all.

There is an intellegence to this whole situations although I may not

comprehend it." In Quaker terminology, I am seeing him and myself "in the

light." I am considering the situation through the neutral mind. In other

words, I am using some general wisdom as a reorienting thought. Suddenly

the hold that that unhappy thought has on my conscious mind is lost. It

just floats away. As I get used to doing this, I think Brad is saying that

the whole meditation will be wahe guru and the thoughts will float off

before I even realize that they are there. So in effect, both "techniques"

will take place. I am not sure that I am really using a technique with all

the "art" and artificial implications. I have a feeling that they are

happening. If I were not so uptight and goal-oriented, they would take

place naturally and nothing would be said.

 

Sat Nam Gian