Round Two Vipassana Meditation- 10 Days Silence
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
207
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Friday, June 26, 2009
We decided to do the course just two days before it was due to start. We knew it was going to be difficult but were ready to surrender to the experience and spend the whole time working hard. The process for the Dharmashringa Centre was to register in a city office then catch a bus up to the site. The Nepal Vipassana Center is located in the foothills of the Himalayas, overlooking the Kathmandu valley but not far from the city
Nepalese ladies
. A family of cheeky monkeys live there and have been known to attack ladies. I saw the chef trying to hit one with his slingshot and stones when they took something from the kitchen. The facilities were paradise compared to the poor centre of Chengannur where we had slept on mattresses on the floor. There is a beautiful golden pagoda with spire on top overlooking the site and meditation prison type cells. Unfortunately we couldn't access the cells because there was a 45day course running whilst we were there. The dhamma hall we used for meditation was octagonal in shape and large enough for us to be comfortable sitting with the 200 other participants who were from different countries including Malaysia, Japan, the UK and Russia. Being old students, Nadia and i were allocated meditation cushions right at the front close to the teachers, there was less distractions up there. There was also many local Nepalese ladies and it was good to have the experience of living close to them, they did alot of laundry and swept the floor alot plus they liked to have a joke. It was probably the first time they had lived with western women and found our behaviours quite hilarious. They loved to watch Nadine eat with her hands Nepalese style and later showed her the correct way to do it.
When we first arrived we went through the usual check in all your reading and writing materials, money, camera and mobile phones and also my flute had to be stored then we were shown to our rooms
Nepalese ladies
. I scored one with a gorgeous Russian angel with our own bathroom and hot water whilst poor Nadia ended up in a dormitory with cold water and lots of people sharing the space. The Russian girl, Ksenia Kubasova had a beautiful Amma doll wrapped in white on her bed, i later found out that she's been staying at Amma's ashram for a few months. I spoke briefly to a Malaysian woman who was on round six and decided she would be my inspiration for the course. Before we knew it we were wishing each other luck, telling each other not to leave and taking the vow of noble silence which meant silence of body, speech and mind, you're not allowed to look at anybody and really have to pretend that you are the only one there.Being on our second round it meant that our food intake was cut back and we got no dinner, just breakfast at 6:30am, lunch at 11am then nothing but one cup of hot water with lemon at 5pm. Being the food lovers we are, we were both starvin marvins by the time 5pm came around and i ended ujp skipping the lemon tea because i couldn't face watching other people eat mangoes and bananas. On the 9th day Nadine had a fruit freak out when she asked for a piece of apple in the afternoon and was told that it was up to the meditation teacher. Last time Nadine seriously didn't do a shit for 10 days because of the excess rice intake, this time we didn't eat it and had no problems. The food was lush vegetarian meals.
The centre was very strict on keeping to all the rules and dhamma workers (karma yoga / selfless service providers / volunteers) would follow us around making sure nobody broke the vows, we were always being watched by someone. You have the capacity to go further into the subtle layers of the mind if you keep to the rules
S.N. Goenka
. Nadine and i would try to talk when we took our food but always got busted. One time Mono loco snuck into the discourse DVD session in my shawl then went out with Nadine for a sleep over and to deliver a note hidden under his retro trekking beanie. Cheeky little monkey. There was a beautiful nun working there who was about 18years old and seemed to have a very good instinct about how we were at all times. There was one lady worker who we thought looked like the daughter of the yellow ghost from the Sivananda ashram. Some of the Nepalese ladies were quite swampy and disrupted the meditation sessions by coughing and burping and making hocking up noises in their throats, it's a common thing in Nepal. Worse, was the two lady snorers sharing a room next to mine who kept me up for hours at night.The course was once again, quite gruelling as we clocked up 100 hours on the cushions. Two ladies left and one fainted in front of me which meant i had to break my silence and get some assistance for her. The evening discourses seemed to make more sense to us than the first time so we were able to fine tune our intellectual understanding. We also knew what to expect and how the technique was supposed to be done so the mystery part of not knowing if we were on the right track was gone and we could concentrate on doing the work to not create any new and to eradicate our stock of old sankaras (bad karmas)
Russian Kisenya my room mate
. Easier said than doen, it was still a battle, our bodies suffered and our brains were strained. On day two we were wondering what the hell we were there for then as the week unfolded, the rewards started to appear and wisdom was gained.The last day was the meta meditation which is all about peace, love and harmony and dedicates the merits of the week to all sentient beings so that they all may be happy. nice one.
All the ladies wanted their photographs taken but nobody really spoke any English so they ran around copying Goenka and sayig "Be Happy".
Nadine's Favourite Goenka's Quote Of The Day:
"the poor fellow, he doesn't know what he is doing" (S.N.Goenka talking about ignorance during a discourse)
For more information about Vipassana meditation go to www.dhamma.org and for details of our first round experience go to travelpod entry number 187.
Be Happy
