My 3-day vipassana retreat experience at Wat Atam

Jason

My 3-day vipassana retreat experience at Wat Atam

I_AM_THAT

Thank you for sharing... I enjoyed your thoughts and experience since I too had just done a 7 day retreat at Wat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai Thailand. I know what you mean about your knees and back giving you some complaints during the retreat, for I too had the same issues. I am curious if you felt if the 3 day was too long or not long enough. My feeling is that 7 days was not enough and one should do a minimum of 15. I say this because starting on the 5th day I was finally getting comfortable with the meditation techniques both mentally and physically. I heard from many other meditators as well as monks that 15 days should be the minimum for any retreat.

Thanks again... and much appreciated.

Jason

I_AM_THAT said:

Thank you for sharing... I enjoyed your thoughts and experience since I too had just done a 7 day retreat at Wat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai Thailand. I know what you mean about your knees and back giving you some complaints during the retreat, for I too had the same issues. I am curious if you felt if the 3 day was too long or not long enough. My feeling is that 7 days was not enough and one should do a minimum of 15. I say this because starting on the 5th day I was finally getting comfortable with the meditation techniques both mentally and physically. I heard from many other meditators as well as monks that 15 days should be the minimum for any retreat.

Not long enough. I much prefer 5+ day retreats, which is what I used to go on. But 3 is definitely better than nothing. I mainly thought it'd be helpful to share my most recent experience so that people going (or thinking about going) on their first retreat will have at least some idea of what to expect.

Plus it's just nice sharing stuff like this every once and while.

vinlyn

I_AM_THAT said:

...I too had just done a 7 day retreat at Wat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai Thailand. ...

That brings up a good memory. The first year I went to Thailand I went up to Chaing Mai to visit my Thai-American roommate's family. They took me out for some sightseeing, including the then hard to get to hill tribe village on Doi Suthep (I think now there's a paved road, but at that time you could only get to the village via a deeply rutted and very muddy (as in 6" deep in some place) road (will sort of a road).

Then they brought me back to Wat Doi Suthep, and over an hour's time talked to me about many of the different ceremonies and temple features. It was better than you might expect, because the father had become a monk for 3 months (for the second time) after his wife finally had a child after they had been told they could not have children. Although I had already spent some time visiting the more "touristy" temple sin Bangkok, this was an opportunity to spend a little insight with a lay Buddhist, and for me it was the real beginning of the spark of interest.

sova

That's really cool! I want to go on a retreat now. There are 2-day retreats here in Ohio, but I would really like to go on one longer than that.. Thanks for sharing your experience, it sounds like it was a beautiful one.

sova

and just a head's up, I can't view the enlarged versions of the photos.. just a temporary technical dealie no doubt

I_AM_THAT

I forgot to add the web link to IBC center at Wat Doi Suthep;

fivethousandyears.org/

tmottes

"where they eat and receive visitors"

@Jason I am glad you didn't get eaten during your retreat

Brian

I fixed the image links. Sorry about that!

karasti

How wonderful, thank for sharing it, I finally got time to sit down and read it today. I enjoy your photos as well! I hope someday soon to go on such a retreat, so far I can only manage 2.5 day retreats close to home. I would love the idea of a longer retreat, later in life possibly even for a few months, but having young children it's pretty hard to get away alone for more than a weekend.

jll

I attended a 10-day vipassana retreat.
just want to point out that vipassana is just one of the many buddhist meditation style. I found the vipassana unsuitable for me and have moved on to other types of buddhist meditation methhods.

Jason said:

My 3-day vipassana retreat experience at Wat Atam

tmottes

jll said:

I attended a 10-day vipassana retreat.
just want to point out that vipassana is just one of the many buddhist meditation style. I found the vipassana unsuitable for me and have moved on to other types of buddhist meditation methhods.

Jason said:

My 3-day vipassana retreat experience at Wat Atam

What type of meditation techniques did you move on to?

DairyLama

Jason said:

My 3-day vipassana retreat experience at Wat Atam

It looks like a really nice place - will you be going again?

Jason

karasti said:

How wonderful, thank for sharing it, I finally got time to sit down and read it today. I enjoy your photos as well! I hope someday soon to go on such a retreat, so far I can only manage 2.5 day retreats close to home. I would love the idea of a longer retreat, later in life possibly even for a few months, but having young children it's pretty hard to get away alone for more than a weekend.

Thanks for reading.

Jason

PedanticPorpoise said:

It looks like a really nice place - will you be going again?

It is, and I will if I can ever find another ride. (It's 3 hours away and I don't own a car.)

Citta

jll said:

I attended a 10-day vipassana retreat.

just want to point out that vipassana is just one of the many buddhist meditation style. I found the vipassana unsuitable for me and have moved on to other types of buddhist meditation methhods.

Jason said:

My 3-day vipassana retreat experience at Wat Atam

It might be worth pointing put that there are several varieties of Vipassana.

aewbarnes

Thank for you for such a complete account of your retreat. Very much enjoyed reading it. just like to add a comment on the question of how long a retreat should be.
I attended a Goenka based vipassana retreat here in Uk a couple of years ago. It was a 10 day retreat and I too found that I could have done with longer. Getting to about the 7th day was a struggle but from then on, I really started to reap the benefits and felt I would have liked another 10 days to take this further and really cement the practice and technique in place, as it were.
Metta
Andy

Jason

This past weekend, I attended another meditation retreat at Wat Atam. This time, however, the retreat was led by Sakula (Mary Reinard), the spiritual director and teacher of Portland Friends of the Dhamma. The retreat itself was relatively similar to the one I attended at the end of September, but it was unique in that it was the first retreat I've been to that's been led by a lay teacher instead of a monastic. It was also special in that it was the first retreat Sakula has led, and it was nice to be a part of that, especially because this particular retreat has helped to build a bridge between the Wat Atam community and that of the Portland Friends of the Dhamma.

While Ajahn Ritthi, the abbot of Wat Atam, gave a couple of Dhamma talks during the retreat, Sakula ran the show, and this retreat was as fruitful for me as the last one. Sakula is an experienced meditator who's led Portland Friends of the Dhamma for a number of years, and I think that experience served all of the retreatants well. She created an atmosphere conducive to practicing meditation, and gave guidance that was simultaneously encouraging, gentle, strict, and applicable to all types of meditators. Some, for example, really benefited from her talks on having a friendly attitude towards ourselves and how that can impact our practice and those around us, while others (like myself) benefited from her suggestions to hold our posture as long as possible and resist the mind's tendency to exaggerate and proliferate around painful sensations.

Being a somewhat regular member of Portland Friends of the Dhamma (I usually try to make it to their Friday night meditation session and Dhamma talk), I was happy to see that Ajahn Ritthi and the organizers of the retreat were impressed with the retreat and the conduct of the retreatants, many of which were also from Portland Friends of the Dhamma. Ajahn Ritthi said that it's not just the job of monastics to teach the Dhamma, that it's also the duty of lay followers to teach, and that he and Sakula were relatives in the Dhamma. It's that kind of sentiment that I think will help further strengthen the growth of lay groups like Portland Friends of the Dhamma, as well as help breakdown the resistance of some to seeing lay teachers as legitimate Dhamma teachers.

In short, the retreat was a success on many levels, and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to attend. It was the first retreat led by Sakula and another step forward in her evolution as a Dhamma teacher. It acted as a bridge, connecting two Buddhist communities in the Pacific Northwest together and helping open up new opportunities for Portland Friends of the Dhamma by expanding their presence and giving them a well-organized venue for Sakula to possibly teach more retreats in the future. And on a personal level, it was successful in helping me learn more about what I need to do in order to improve my meditation practice, as well as helping bring me closer to the Portland Friends of the Dhamma community.

Just thought I'd share.

federica

:thumbsup: :clap:

Thanks Jason. Lovely 'report'.

roger

Attended the September 28th retreat in Woodinville, waiting for the weather to warm up before heading back.

lobster

Is it ever warm enough to return?

anil286

If you want to try the Vipassana meditation by sitting in your own place here is the great article that it can help to you. It is best for those who are beginners to Vipassana meditation technique:
http://www.buddhafame.com/buddhism-articles/meditation/get-started-buddhist-meditation-techniques-for-beginners