Times of Change: My First Goenka Vipassana

The Morning After 

I awoke early with a blistering hangover and an angry girlfriend laying beside to me. I was too ill to even smoke a cigarette. It was one of many such mornings that I have experienced and I'd had it with this lifestyle, I wanted to change. I simply sat up and started meditating, I did have some previous meditation experience from a retreat in India some ten years before, coincidentally almost to the day. That trip to India was an amazing and transformational experience, but I soon forgot to practice on return to the real world ,and seamlessly slipped back into my debauched ways. This particular morning was the culmination of some heavy karmic action and I knew there was some suffering on the horizon, I also knew that the way I had been living had to change and I stopped smoking and drinking right there and then, my girlfriend also left me that morning. All my vices and crutches were gone in one fell swoop, I was alone in bed, sitting in meditation with a banging headache.

S.N Goenka 10 day Vipassana Retreat

This was the start of a journey that continues to this day but led me very much sooner into the clutches of S.N. Goenka, and a vipassana ten day meditation retreat. A friend of mine after hearing of my experience on that pivotal morning told me that he was going on a vipassana, and invited me along, I was only too pleased to accept as I had such great memories of my time in India and thought this would be a great healing experience. I knew vipassana to be extremely challenging but I was determined to get through it. A few weeks later I was packed in the back of my friends Renault 4 on my way to southern Portugal.  

10 Days Of Silence, No Intoxicants, No Touching

Most people who have heard of vipassana know that it is fundamentally a ten day silent retreat where contact of any kind is forbidden amongst the practitioners, that means no talking, touching, making hand signals, gestures, or even looking each other in the eye for ten days. Personally I loved the idea and couldn't wait to not have to talk to anyone. There was to be ten hours of meditation every day and no food after lunch except fruit for the new students and lemon tea for the old students who had done a vipassana before. The best part is that everything you need for basic living is taken care of so you can fully concentrate on the meditation practice, all the food is prepared for you, all the washing up is done, there is literally nothing to worry about...

The Tough Meditation Regime Starts At 4:30am

The days start at 4:00 am with the banging of a gong calling all to the meditation hall, it has to be said at this point if you are considering a Goenka retreat then take some ear- plugs, it is possible to be in a room full of snorers, I was and I also snore like a bear. Students meditate for the first hour and a half alone and are then joined by the teachers who begin by playing a sound recording of Goenka chanting and giving some teachings, he also give advice on surviving vipassana and leads further silent meditation until the 6:30 breakfast bell. By this time new students will normally be feeling the pain of sitting for so long in meditation, and desperate for some food, I know I was. After queueing for breakfast and eating in silence there is a little time to spare before the next meditation gong at 8 0'clock. This seemed a good time to take a shower but as time progressed I used to shower while the others were eating. Although there is less food available the later it gets, having the shower to myself was preferable. The rest of the day is as follows:

• 8:00-9:00 am Group meditation in the hall
• 9:00-11:00 am Meditate in the hall or in your room according to the teacher's instructions
• 11:00-12:00 Lunch break
• 12-1:00 pm Rest and interviews with the teacher
• 1:00-2:30 pm Meditate in the hall or in your room
• 2:30-3:30 pm Group meditation in the hall
• 3:30-5:00 pm Meditate in the hall or in your own room
• 5:00-6:00 pm Tea break
• 6:00-7:00 pm Group meditation in the hall
• 7:00-8:15 pm Teacher's Discourse in the hall (a video of the charismatic Goenka)
• 8:15-9:00 pm Group meditation in the hall
• 9:00-9:30 pm Question time in the hall
• 9:30 pm Retire to your own room--Lights out

Now that is a long day believe me but I highly recommend going on a Goenka retreat although I personally have found other traditions more beneficial, I think this is a great way to try meditation, it's a real immersion experience that will no doubt have a profound effect on your life. Have a look at this book Meditation Now: Inner Peace Through Inner Wisdom written by S,N Goenka

Look At The Best Meditation Cushions...

                                  Vipassana music,mp3,cd 

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"Through meditation one accesses a feel or a state of mind entirely different to every drug and different to the ordinary sober state. living a meditative life, one breathes to a different music ...I feel that at some point in the future we will see musicians drawing us closer and closer to a profound stillness and detachment with their music". Vipassana music. 

Look At The Best Meditation Cushions...