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100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

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Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#21

Post by thinkling »

rohunati wrote: post #12

I've done the course a few times now, and I would say the hardest part is integrating meditation into daily life. Goenka recommends meditating twice a day, one hour each sitting. Sometimes this isn't possible, so I just try to meditate however much I can. I have heard from others that serving a ten day course (as opposed to sitting a course, as the author here did) is more beneficial as you are able to talk with fell…

I haven't served either, but my impression is that the servers are supposed to limit themselves to functionally necessary talk only. So serving a course will be less isolating, but I don't think you're supposed to discuss meditation, or your feelings, or the weather.

Agreed that meditation in real life is hard to maintain. I find that I quickly lose the ability to do the body-scanning technique effectively, and with that I lose the motivation to put in the 2x 1 hour.

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#22

Post by nether »

patrickdavey wrote: post #11

I did a vipassana retreat. It triggered a manic-psychotic (bipolar) experience. More at: http://livingvipassana.blogspot.com Now, admittedly I had done very little meditation before hand, but _please_ don't just jump into this course like I did. And no, there was no history of manic depressive behaviour in my family so this came as quite the shock. 10 days of total silence (no reading, no writing, no eye contact, no…

I did a 7 day retreat at Deer Park Monastery (affiliated with Thich Naht Hanh) in San Diego. It was pretty laid back, you could talk, fraternize at will between sessions. I don't think any sitting session was longer than 30 minutes. There were also talks on mindfulness, and training in different forms of meditation. The day started at 5 am, but they warned us not to try to adhere to such a schedule at home (they said it would just cause pain). Overall it was a really positive, peaceful experience.

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#23

Post by somlor »

I would highly recommend anyone interested in doing a 10-day vipassana retreat, particularly their first, to look into Insight Meditation Society[0] (outside Boston, MA) or Spirit Rock[1] (near Marin, CA). They're not free, but you get access to extraordinary teachers and impeccable guidance.

  [0] http://www.dharma.org/meditation-retreats/retreat-center    
  [1] https://www.spiritrock.org/retreats

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#24

Post by rohunati »

thinkling wrote: post #21
rohunati wrote: post #12

I've done the course a few times now, and I would say the hardest part is integrating meditation into daily life. Goenka recommends meditating twice a day, one hour each sitting. Sometimes this isn't possible, so I just try to meditate however much I can. I have heard from others that serving a ten day course (as opposed to sitting a course, as the author here did) is more beneficial as you are able to talk with fell…

I haven't served either, but my impression is that the servers are supposed to limit themselves to functionally necessary talk only. So serving a course will be less isolating, but I don't think you're supposed to discuss meditation, or your feelings, or the weather. Agreed that meditation in real life is hard to maintain. I find that I quickly lose the ability to do the body-scanning technique effectively, and with…

Yup, I have trouble doing the body scanning technique also. I recently came across Sam Harris' interview with Joseph Goldstein, who I believe himself began with Vipassana. He has a guided meditation on youtube that I found very helpful, though different from my Vipassana experiences.

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#25

Post by rattray »

0xCMP wrote: post #18
logfromblammo wrote: post #3

A selection of meditation resources for hackers: OpenEEG ( http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/ ) OpenSensors ( http://sourceforge.net/p/opensensors/home/Home/ ) Brain Refactoring ( http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Const... )

I see what you did there... "refactor your brain" to a bunch of programmers... (I. am. so. sorry. hn. I couldn't help my self)

HN has a very different tone than Reddit; this type of humor is less appreciated here. With that, though, welcome!

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#27

Post by codezero »

Is there any selection bias at play for these kinds of retreats? Are there certain kinds of people who are able to set aside 10 days in a row for something like this?

I can't remember the last time I had 10 days I could free up.

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#29

Post by orasis »

codezero wrote: post #27

Is there any selection bias at play for these kinds of retreats? Are there certain kinds of people who are able to set aside 10 days in a row for something like this? I can't remember the last time I had 10 days I could free up.

Probably. Most serious yogis have something they're dealing with that they want to "solve" and that drive to solve the problem is exactly what leads them to success i.e. awakening.

Re: 100 Hours of Meditation in 10 Days

#30

Post by kenrick95 »

I'm a Buddhist in Singapore (a member of Nanyang Technological University Buddhist Society) and have been explained by monks that the chanting purpose is to remind us about the qualities of the Buddha that is good for practice. Since the chanting should have it's meaning, those who chant should know the meaning. Without knowing the meaning, it will just become a meaningless ritual. Hence, when chanting in my society, usually below the pali text there is English text which help the chanters to understand the chanting.
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