Letter 23

Hey there!

We are meeting after 2 weeks. I hope that you are doing great and had a colorful Holi. I am back from my 10 days of Vipassana meditation. It was my 4th Vipassana experience in the last couple of years. Spending 10 days in silence during the Vipassana meditation is an unforgettable transformative experience in many ways.  So let me share the 10 days journey with you with some insights and lifelong learnings, here we go:

Days –

• Day Zero – Silence starts
• Day 1 – Awareness – You start by being aware about your breath. Have to focus on the breath during all day long meditation sessions. And soon you realize that it’s so tough to control the mind.
• Day 2 and Day 3 – You learn to observe your thoughts, feelings and sensations with a bit better control of mind and thoughts.
• Day 4 – This is Vipassana day. विपश्यना – पश्यना means देखना, और वि means विशेष ! So विपश्यना means विशेष रूप से देखना. And the question is to see whom? It’s to see your own self – your own sensations, emotions and feelings – all across your body.
• Day 5,6,7,8,9 – These days are to go deeper in the Vipassana technique with more practice, experience and learning.
• Day 10 – Metta day ( Maitree Divas)

10 Learnings:

1. Awareness – it all starts from being aware. If you want to move ahead in life from your present state, the first thing is to be aware. And that’s what is the first step in Vipassana. You start by being aware of the physical sensations in your own body and then observe your thoughts.
2. Impermanence – Everything including our body and mind are impermanent (अनित्य ). You experience it by noticing your own physical sensations and thoughts during these 10 days and then by having a bigger perspective of life. This one fact can help us to move on the path to our own bigger self.
3. Equanimity – By being equanimous, you see things as they are. You don’t develop any attachment or hatred/anger. This is one of the most important learnings. Instead of भोगता भाव , you watch the situation with द्रष्टा or तटस्थ भाव . And it doesn’t come easy. It will take time and practice.
4. Discipline – All 10 days are well structured and you have to follow a strict schedule from morning 4-4.30am to 9-9.30pm. Simply making us realize that you can achieve nothing without discipline.
5. Clarity – For me, it’s always about getting that clarity in the head. In the 10 days, when you can’t talk, you can’t read, you can’t watch anything, you don’t have a mobile – what are you going do? Think, think and think. This is a great time to reflect, ponder and get the clarity of life.
6. Perseverance and consistency – When you start at day 1, it’s the toughest one. You wonder why you are here and how you will spend 10 days like this. Day1, day 2, day 3 and so on…one moment at a time, one day at a time. You complete all 10 days coming out as a winner. The important thing is to persevere and continue the journey.
7. It’s all within us – People look for the cause of misery and disappointments outside. Whenever anything disappointing happens, it happens inside us. So if it happens inside us then the solution must also be inside us. Changing our life, transforming our life – is truly in our own hands and it starts from within us. The source is within.
8. Dhamma / Dharma – Without going on in any religion debate here, you learn a different aspect of Dharma which is beyond all the religions we know. Real, actual dharma is a superset of all the dharma ( Hindu, Islam, Jainism, Christianity, Boddh etc. ) and it’s universally applicable to all humans irrespective of caste, creed, region etc.. This part is one of my most favorite parts.
9. Present moment – What we all have is the present moment only. Vipassana teaches this very well by focusing on our bodily sensations and thoughts in every moment, every passing moment.
10. Compassion – On day 10 ( Maitree day), you learn to share your positive vibes with other beings. You pray for the happiness of everyone.

Overall, you understand that Vipassana isn’t just a meditation/mindfulness technique but it’s a way of life. At whatever stage of life you are, if you are a seeker then Vipassana will definitely teach you some great lessons of life.

I would strongly recommend this to everyone to experience at least once in life but please be prepared as it might not be easy. Get to know everything well in detail before planning and going. For more details about Vipassana, you can check this link – https://dhamma.org/ . This is the only source to book the course on the centers across the world. And yes, Vipassana is free 🙂