Vipassana Meditation Experience's

I have been meditating on silence and practicing mindfulness. I never really understood vipassana (Some people say they understand something, in their mind, but its a completely different thing to understand in your heart) but lately I finally figured the puzzle out. I would just practice mindfulness and relax my body during my busy life. Even learning to trust in the universe. I have also looked back on my own experiences for the last year and found two key emotions that have gradually began to surface. One is a sad feeling of doom from inside me. One day I just looked back to when I was a child walking in the night home and told myself back then that it would be alright and experienced a shift in myself after that. Another feeling is a feeling of anger and I just wanted to scream and hit someone.

Thich naht hanh taught me that when destructive or sad emotions surface that we should just watch them without bias and never let them get the best of us. I am currently in the process of reading his book 'The art of power". Im so terrible when it comes to books Im not very future oriented more concerned about present pleasures and such so reading is kinda torture to me. But I must tell you this Vipassana meditation is really something else I've never felt peace, and powerful emotions of fear sorrow and anger.

Anyone ever do this type of meditation in the retreats that are all over? I heard of 10 day retreats and also heard of 1 40 day retreat. I am really stoked to try something like this out. I wish I could do it now it would be so awesome to know myself like this.

Thank you for sharing your thread. I recently have been meditating at night before I get ready for bed, and it has been such a release for me from time to time. I have not tried this type of meditation that you are talking about, but just got done reading about it and it sounds great. Here is a link that I found that said the courses you are talking about are offered for free, paid for by the people who just got done experiencing Vipassana Meditation. I don't know anyone that has done the course either, but would like to hear if anyone else has. Thanks again. Star & Flag for you.

Hi,

I took part in a Vipassana meditation 10 day retreat at the age of 16 in Australia, roughly 10 years ago. I don't think I was ready for that kind of training at the time, but it was, for me the only kind that provided results. If you think you can manage 10 days of social dislocation and self observance, I say go for it. I really appreciated it, and believed it was true in some sense since all Vipassana courses are free and donation based, which I fully agree with, as opposed to paid courses. And on a plus note, the food is amazing, but that's besides the point.

Day One was pretty much a meet and greet, say hi, introduce yourself to the other students, etc. After that you pretty much are instructed to not speak to anyone, look anyone in the eye, etc. There are exceptions, as in you can only speak to your teacher and his assistant if you have questions regarding the meditating.

Depending on the retreat location, I know they allow people to camp around the facility or share some sort of cabin with another student. It's up to you, they separate the men from the woman naturally.

Every morning they would sound a gong, roughly 4 or 5am, this is when you make your way to the main meditation hall for your first 2 hour session. There are three or four of these intense 2 hour meditation sessions per day. In the hall, a video was played frequently of one of the masters from India, walking you through the techniques. He was quite funny and modern about it, which was unexpected but a relief.

There are three laws, the first is the most important for beginners: the 'law of impermanence' (or Anicca), ie; nothing is lasting, life is one fleeting moment to the next. We'd use this in meditation, for example, if you had a thought in your mind, rather than avoid it or try to push it out, you would observe it indefinitely until it passed/ceased to be, which I found actually worked. Another way is that you would focus you mind on sensations on your body, like an itch. If you do not scratch it, it'd eventually go away, regardless of how intolerable it became. You'd then focus on two spots, three then four, etc, until you were 'scanning' your body up and down from head to toe. It sounds tedious, and believe me it is, but it truly is an amazing sense of being if you take the time to get that far. I've OBE'd a couple times after doing this a lot, hours at a time mind you. I won't get into the other laws, it should all be on the Vipassana website.

Anywho, you do all of this, hours on end for 10 days. It's tough, we had people who couldn't take it just leave, you just kinda knew since people just started not showing up for meditation. I don't know if I could do the 40 day courses... seems a little too die hard for me.

It's not easy, but I think the benefits/lessons are life lasting. I highly recommend Vipassana to those looking for a true practical meditation course. Even though it's not required, I also suggest you donate what you can, or rather what you feel you received after it's over. It's all volunteer based, and the people really do their best to make it an amazing experience for the participants. I would like to do it again at some point.

Hope this was informative and not to all over the place. I can answer any questions from what I know also, feel free.

-3:05am

ps; you also must refrain from killing bugs and the like as this goes against the teachings. i had a wasp nest in my cabin... you can imagine how that was, but in the end they never bothered me