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Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

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Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#51

Post by javajosh »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #40

I've been to a 10 day Vipassana retreat. I appreciate people say it gave them great benefits, but it did not sit well with me, so I share my story in the interests of balance. At first, things were fine. I adjusted to the silence quickly enough, the food was simple but nutritious, and didn't mind the meditation (other than the pain in my legs and back, but my request to sit on the back wall was granted). However, mid…

>At this point, I freaked out. I was worried that I'd done damage to my brain.

That freakout, and that worry (which you apparently have since discovered was unfounded, I hope :) is precisely what the meditation helps you deal with, among other things.

And yes, it kind of sucks that the teachers can't speak more at liberty with you. But there's a lesson there too: in the end, the answer to any trouble you might have is to simply find the craving and the aversion. Find the ignorance in your misery. You were safe and taken care of, and you felt you were at risk. You were wrong.

Blaise Pascal famously claimed that all of man's problems stems from the inability to sit quietly in a room, alone. And we are not able to do it, either. Vipassanna is the rather upsetting path toward learning to be able to sit quietly in a room, alone. And it's very simple, but not at all easy.

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#52

Post by easternmonk »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #39
enraged_camel wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the point though. I have around 2 hours of free time on the evenings, and I spend that time in the gym. I definitely do not have an additional 1-2 hours for meditation. That said, gym is a very therapeutic experience for me. It helps me empty my mind of all stress-causing stuff in my life (e.g. work) and I get to focus on just one thing: lifting weights. I also gain additional benefits such as being strong as…

> gym is a very therapeutic experience for me. It helps me empty my mind of all stress-causing stuff in my life (e.g. work) and I get to focus on just one thing: lifting weights. I also gain additional benefits I had the exact same experience with lifting. But I've found an even more powerful vacuum-cleaner for the mind: racing sportbikes. Squeeze the throttle, hear the engine climb above 10,000 RPM, and feel the mig…

Gym has worked with me in similar fashion.

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#53

Post by novalis78 »

DenisM wrote: post #12

My take on Vipassana, in a nutshell (having gone through one 10-day course): An experience gets memorized based on its emotional strength, so, for example, a strong negative experience (a trauma) will get memorized quite well. Later on, in a sort-of realed situation one gets to recall and relive such stored experience - the brain sort of "believes" it's important to remember. If the re-living is also strongly emotion…

"sarkana" should probably read "sankhara", correct?

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#55

Post by novalis78 »

Here is an interesting blog post on the principle behind vipassana:

"He sees the impermanent form thus “impermanent”.This is his right view.Seeing correctly he becomes disenchanted.With the waning of delight wanes passion. With the waning of passion wanes delight. With the destruction of delight and passion the mind is de-tached. “Fully de-tached” thus it is said. (Nandikkhayasuttaṃ, Samyutta Nikaya)

http://tinyurl.com/vipassana-quote

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#56

Post by visarga »

DenisM wrote: post #12

My take on Vipassana, in a nutshell (having gone through one 10-day course): An experience gets memorized based on its emotional strength, so, for example, a strong negative experience (a trauma) will get memorized quite well. Later on, in a sort-of realed situation one gets to recall and relive such stored experience - the brain sort of "believes" it's important to remember. If the re-living is also strongly emotion…

This is a great description of what happens, but only tells part of the story. Besides dissolving bad memories Vipassana also has an effect on the depth of your consciousness. Compare this with the upgrading of computer screens from 800 x 600 to the 1920 x 1200 resolution sported by many of them today. Everything is more detailed, more vivid. So is the effect of Vipassana: emotions are more "real" and makes the feeling of being alive more vibrant. We see kids and pets being this way and that is why we like them, the are always fresh and enthusiastic, they know how to enjoy every second with nothing pulling them pack (an effect of not having those negative memories weighing on their brain). It is a profound change in the most intimate place of our being - the consciousness.

Then there is also an expansion, a feeling of infinity, eternity and something that could hardly be described by "radiant space like consciousness" or "luminous mind" which is really what meditators are after. This experience is the enlightenment sought by all religions and spiritual paths. You doubt it's existence? Just remember what your brain and body can do: bliss (orgasm), body buzz (marijuana high), extremely intense feelings of love (young people in love have this sometimes), total serenity (right after we when we wake up, before we start thinking about stuff), dissolution of the ego (we can all have this if we simply participate in a large gathering of people in an emotional state, like, a protest or a football match). Imagine an experience of which bliss, serenity, buzz, inner light are just aspects.

We do have the hardware for enlightenment, we just don't know the API. Vipassana is such an API.

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#57

Post by delackner »

gesman wrote: post #7

I loved about the course: - Amazing food - Donation/karma-driven sustainability. Sort of Open Source Meditation :) - Silence (no bullshit talking and no bullshit listening for 10 days) - Heightened sense of creativity achieved - Heightened sense of humor achieved - Great attention to needs to everyone from organizers. - It's funny - I always gave funny nicknames to everyone. I didn't mind: - Goenka parables. I didn't…

A lot of people discussing the 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour before bed requirement. I also found this impractical, but lately I have been pondering something that Goenka said on this subject: If you don't have enough time, sleep less. When I heard this, it sounded ridiculous, since sleep is so important for the body.

A theory I have been developing is that perhaps meditation that achieves a no-mind state for a long period of time, may allow the practitioner's brain and body to enter the same kind of restorative repair cycle that it normally only enters during unconscious sleep (the only time a normal person's mind is truly shut-off).

A variety of experiences have lead me to suspect this, most profoundly being the night AFTER my 10 day retreat ended, when I was quite tired from a long day, having stayed up past midnight, despite having gotten up at 4:30 am that day for the final day of the retreat.

When I lay down to sleep, exhausted, I fell into a deep meditative state. I got up and opened my eyes, took a walk around the block, went back to try and sleep, and immediately was back in a meditative state. Gave up and just went along with experiencing being in that state all night, since I was totally aware, yet in the morning felt very rested despite having not slept a wink.

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#58

Post by Daniel_Newby »

xk_id wrote: post #28
DenisM wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>'Maladaptive neuronal connections' That's a mouthful, and just as obscure for most people. Might as well go with "Sarkana" - it's easier to pronounce. Besides, the script worked well for a few thousand years now, there is hardly a reason to change it now. But yeah, if you're scientifically inclined and the ancient Indian mythology is rubbing you the wrong way, you can safely skip it, and it still makes perfect sense…

(following up on uberuberuber's reply) > Besides, the script worked well for a few thousand years now, there is hardly a reason to change it now. Imo, that is a big fallacy. I believe religious beliefs can no longer provide sound ground for adjustment in today's world. It is harmful to have within your semantic environment both "spiritual" factors such as the notion of "aetheric body", and scientific factors such as…

> This contrasts with our modern scientific assumptions, that there is just an organism-as-a-whole-in-an-environment, which functions as such.

The rubber hand illusion shows that mind and body are far from unified.

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#59

Post by hosh »

If you have that secret smile from your vipassana practice, I want to share another practice that complements it. It is written in a book called, "Feeding Your Demons", authored by Tsultrim Allione.

In some ways, this method works well to prepare people for vipassana. Yes, yes, I know, you can always note any experience out; but some people are so habituated to their trauma and were never put into a situation where they dedicate themselves to doing nothing and observing everything. They will stare at you incredulously as we babble on how awesome vipassana is.

Re: Vipassana: 10 days of solitude and insights gained from it

#60

Post by hosh »

uberuberuber wrote: post #15
DenisM wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>'Maladaptive neuronal connections' That's a mouthful, and just as obscure for most people. Might as well go with "Sarkana" - it's easier to pronounce. Besides, the script worked well for a few thousand years now, there is hardly a reason to change it now. But yeah, if you're scientifically inclined and the ancient Indian mythology is rubbing you the wrong way, you can safely skip it, and it still makes perfect sense…

I should have fleshed out that thought more fully. I agree it's a mouthful, but I was trying to convey that we no longer have to believe in such strange (bad) ideas because we have a new set of strange (better) ideas (connectomes and such) that actually have evidence underlying them. The way the course described Sakarnas was as 'bad non-physical spirits/objects/states' that were generated by the body, and that medita…

I wouldn't be in a hurry to be so dismissive. Attachment to bad ideas is the same as attachment to better ideas: they arise, they pass.

Sit long enough, and you will encounter all the interesting attachment surrounding the notion of rationality.

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