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Vipassana and my first 10 day retreat.
Makarov
Explorer
Dear Readers,
I have just registered for my first ever retreat. I will be going in April to a 10 day Vipassana, Silent Meditation retreat at Dhamma Pasaka near Rockford, Illinois. I am very excited but also have that normal fear of..."Oh my God! 10 days of silence!?"
Have any of you done such a retreat? (I'm sure many of you have) I am looking for any advice or tales of your experiences either positive or negative.
I have just registered for my first ever retreat. I will be going in April to a 10 day Vipassana, Silent Meditation retreat at Dhamma Pasaka near Rockford, Illinois. I am very excited but also have that normal fear of..."Oh my God! 10 days of silence!?"
Have any of you done such a retreat? (I'm sure many of you have) I am looking for any advice or tales of your experiences either positive or negative.
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Comments
It's bliss!
"Go placidly amidst the Noise and haste and
Remember what Peace there may be in Silence......"
(Desiderata.)
Is it a SN Goenka style retreat? If so, I have not done one myself.
I have been on a number of retreats, however. Advice... don't expect too much. The mind will be unruley, the body will be uncomfortable and sore from sitting, and it will take a few days to really begin to get used to the whole experience. After that, it should become more fruitful. To really benefit from meditation retreats, you need to do as many as you can while having a regular meditation practice at home [as well as keeping all the precepts: sila (virtue) is the foundation of samadhi (concentration)]. To develop the concentration that prepares the mind for the arising of insight simply takes time.
In the mean time, you can oberve the body and contemplate the three characteristics of dukkha, anicca, and anatta. Meditation retreats are perfect for focusing on painful sensations in the body. Watch them arise, move, change intensity, and then cease. I find that this is the best way to deal with pain. Focus all of your attention right at the very center of the painful feeling, and watch it, think about its characteristics, try to "picture" it, and pin it down. Where is it coming from? Why does it hurt? Who experiences this feeling? What does the feeling "feel" like? Is it sharp? Is it dull? As horrible as that makes it sound, you'll want to come back for more! You will be amazed at what kind of insights into the mind and body you can gain simply from sitting.
I hope that you have a wonderfully fruitful experience. I always do.
Jason
I have done several ten-day silent retreats. I found them to be very rewarding experiences. But as Elohim says, the first few days can be difficult, and if the retreat involves a lot of mindful sitting and walking, your body will find lots of creative new ways to ache!
What type of retreat is it? Is it Goenka?
Best wishes,
B.
On that particular retreat, I followed instructions and found a wholly different attitude of mind. "This is the place where I am. It is not between anywhere. It is here and I am in it." Very centring.
The advice about expectations is precious: leave them outside. That way, each moment can be experienced without their distorting lens.
I wish you much fruit, as we used to say in the noviciate before the Long Retreat.
I never knew Springfield, MO. was Bible Beater Central. In my bible beating days, I never got there. But then I lived in the San Francisco area as a Bible thumper. HMMMM. No wonder I had no fun.
I have to agree with Jason on maintaining a daily practice before the retreat. You will be in a better state mentally for it. I have only been able to do day retreats, but you should learn a great deal.
By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with the Goenka Centers...I have not yet gone so I can't speak from experience as to how it is but I can tell you that the 10 day retreats are offered in about 10 different locations in the US, are open to any one, Buddhist or not and they are FREE! That's right! Their philosophy is that one should not pay for something before knowing first that it will work for them. They are however clearly convinced as all of their centers are funded by donations and the staff are not paid for their services! Once your 10 day retreat ends they will happily accept donations on the spot or later by mail, if you should decide to do so.
I've done two Goenka retreats and really appreciated both.
Best thing would be to sit as much as you can in the time before the retreat.There is a bit of masochism about it too i feel.The silence is great though and you will have plenty of insights along the way.I too will do another 2 or 3 retreats this summer.Good luck.
often i have head folks get 'high' in goenka retreats, probably due to endorphins or something
in my first 10 day retreat, my mind tasted a peace, i cried
find peace (not machismo)
just try your best.
Talk to the teacher if you have questions.
When you cannot sit still, struggling, and you look around and everyone seem sooooo peaceful and still, you think you are the only one struggling.
You will have fun the last day when you can talk with people, and realize that everyone were struggling very much.
When i finish mine a little more than a year ago, it was more like a challenge. Can i survive 10 days without talking? it will be so difficult to just sit and meditate all day long etc..
My state of mind was similar to going to a wild camping trip in the middle of nowhere.
Now i want to go again, but this time i want to go because i can get away from all of those things. from talking, relashionships, tv, job etc...
Many people go more than once.
Overall don't worry too much about preparing, there is nothing much you can do as your experience will be deeper than what your mind can prepare for right now.
Just do your best.
One of these time is kind of funny situation, on the fifth day, i got a migraine (which i have since im 3 years old) and i ask the teacher for some medication. (I never went without prescribed meditation for more than 1 hour before)
The teacher ask me to wait a couple of days and try to meditate the migraine.
I thought i could endure the pain a couple hours, but a couple of days?
As soon as he said that, tears started rolling uncontrollably...
After a few hours of meditation, migraine dissipated. I imagined i could perhaps survive it and not freak myself out if i meditated hard and concentrated very hard, but i would have never imagine it would go away.
I didn't have a migraine ever since. It's been a year +, it's a miracle
I live less than 150 miles from there and have been reading over thier website. I'm very seriously considering this.
I am still trying to work on my posture and having a hard time getting myself situated comfortably, but once I do I think I may do this very soon.
I sit on a chair. Often I experience nodding, head at an angle, slumped over, etc. (all the hallmarks of baaaad naughty posture). I don't care, I know that the best thing I can do for the body is to be gentle with it and not try to control it. When I let go of the body at first I might nod more, lean to one side, or other bad naughty unorthodox things. But after a while (maybe 10 minutes, maybe an hour) the body tends to straighten up naturally and with no aches or pains at all and the mind is very bright once the sloth and torpor has left in its own good time.
As Ajahn Brahm has suggested in his book "Happiness Through Meditation", if you try to fight sloth and torpor and control your body, you may very well overcome that sloth and torpor - but in its place your mind will be restless. Therefore, the best approach is to make peace, be kind and gentle. (...oh yeah, and be patient)
Many of the people who go have little or even no experience with meditation at all before going to the retreats.
It's also a course in meditation.
You can have 10 coussins if you want, you can use little bench so you can knee down, even get a chair...
Just register and go, it will be an experience you will not forget any time soon.