Vipassana Meditation Retrospect

October 16th, 2003 at 12:00am

This will be the last entry about the meditation, so don’t stress that I am about to go into another month-long babble about sitting and walking and talking to the head monk. I’ve gotta write this after the fact,’cause I got serious at the end and stopped writing about my experience.

What can I really say about a 28-day meditation course? Well, if you are going to really try to do all the meditating that they ask you to, then it’s not going to be easy. It’s a long time to go without news or conversation, but you can always leave whenever you want.

The last part of the 28-day course is called the ‘Determination.’ During the Determination you stay in your room for 3 days and 3 nights and you are meant to stay awake the entire time and meditate 24 hours/day. The purpose is challenge your mind and thus gain a much deeper understanding of certain concepts about Buddhism. You leave the room once a day to meet with the head monk (to make sure you haven’t fallen off the deep end mainly). Your 2 meals (breakfast and lunch) are delivered to your room by the kitchen staff at 6am each day. It is up to you to make sure that you eat your meals before noon and return the bowls outside your door for pick-up. Also, you are permitted to leave and do your walking meditations outside, but only from 11pm – 4am when everyone is asleep. You keep big water jugs in your room for drinking water.

During these 3 days, you will hopefully gain a much better understanding and let go of any false perceptions of what are known as the ‘three characteristics of phenomena.’ They are impermanence, suffering, and non-self. There is really no point in trying to explain them, because you can’t truly understand them unless you study Buddhism or actually try a long meditation. Plus you are really supposed to go into all this with a full-on trust in the teachings of Lord Buddha, not question anything in the future, and believe that what you are being taught is all you need for the present moment. That is why you aren’t supposed to read books about Buddhism while you are on a retreat. It’s Lord Buddha’s own form of ‘experiential education’ I guess.

So that’s what I did, 25 days of meditation and a 3-day Determination, and then it was back to the real world for me. Would I do it again? Definitely. I think it is a unique experience to be able to separate yourself from the world and focus on controlling your mind and your thoughts and emotions for a significant period of time. It can be much more challenging than any physical achievement. In fact, I think meditation will surely help anyone who is training for any kind of physical accomplishment. That is not so true the other way around. All I can really say is try it. Live in the present moment, recognize feelings and thoughts but don’t attach yourself to them, and you will begin to free yourself from suffering.

One last image from Wat Ram Poeng

Entry Filed under: Chiang Mai,North,Thailand