10 days of Solitude

A casual chat with a friend led to chance knowledge about Vipassana. I had never heard of this before and when I came to know about this, my curious mind got active and I looked it up in Google, went to their website and enrolled myself in one of their 10 days workshop. I wanted to explore and experience meditation and the effects of the same.

Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was taught in India more than 2500 years ago as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art of Living. Unfortunately, this practice got lost in India but was practiced in it's purest form in Myanmar. The practice has been handed down through Guru-Shishya parampara over centuries and was brought back to India in 1968 by Mr. S.N. Goenka and is being practiced all over India ever since. Adorned with this information, I land up at their meditation centre, Dhamma Ganga located at Panihati (West Bengal) on 3rd May, 2023 and register myself. There were people from all walks of life and various age groups, starting from 18 and going up till people in their 70s. I was pleasantly surprised to see how youngsters had come in search of spirituality. 

Day 0 - Once registration was done, we had to put our valuables and mobile phones in lockers assigned to us and deposit the keys to the Management, which would be returned to us after 10 days. Imagine, 10 days without phones and disconnected from the outer world! That was the first challenge. We were assigned our rooms and after that, we gathered in the dining area for the last meal of the day at 6.00 pm. After dinner, we had an orientation session wherein we were briefed about the system, rules and regulations to be followed in the following days ahead. We were to practice noble silence which included any communication through gestures as well. We were to consider that we were living all alone. Another big challenge! The only communication would be with the volunteers (sevak/sevikas), which too is minimal, for help you might need, and with the teacher for anything related to the meditation. After the orientation and a brief introduction to meditation, we retired to our respective rooms for the day. 

Day 1 starts with a wake-up bell at 4.00 AM. By 4.30, we gathered in the meditation hall and the training process started. The first task was to concentrate on your breath...inhalation, exhalation and how and where your breath is feeling in your nasal cavity and the area around it. One needed to stay focussed right there and the mind, the playful nature that it has, was eager to run around all over. One had to forcibly put a leash on it to stay focused. The game of playing truant went on for 2 hours before we got our first break at 6.30 AM. Breakfast was ready at the dining hall and we self-helped and ate in silence in our designated place. After breakfast, we went to our quarters for bathing and other personal chores and had to be back at the meditation hall at 8.00 am to continue meditation till 11.00 AM, when it is time for lunch and rest break. The break was till 1.00 PM. Well fed and well rested, we all scooted to the meditation hall at 1.00 PM to start back to back sittings till 5.00 PM for yet another break which was a very welcome relief from the arduous routine. Back at the dining hall for tea/milk, puffed rice and a fruit, this was the last meal of the day. After eating and a short walk around the campus, I used to go to the room to stretch my back until the bell rang again at 5.50 PM to gather in the hall. By then, the backbone was screaming in protest for making it sit ramrod straight the whole day. But I was there and I had to do what I came for. The evening sessions started at 6.00 PM for an hour long meditation session followed by a one and half hours of discourse, where they showed recorded video of Mr. Goenka addressing us about the technique, the purpose, the process. This was the most interesting part of the whole day and I used to look forward to this sessions for the next 9 days and believe me, I am not a patient person to sit and listen to someone speaking for more than an hour but these talks really managed to keep me hooked. This was followed by another 30 mins meditation session where you are given a glimpse of what you are expected to do the next day. The day ended at 9.00 PM and we retired to our respective rooms, ready to hit the bed.

What a day! Who would have expected that I would endure 10+ hours of sitting, focusing on myself in one place and falling asleep by 9.30 PM. I was discovering myself, wasn't I!! 

This went on for the next 10 days. Through the technique that is taught here, you are first expected follow discipline and the codes of conduct laid down. This helps one to calm their mind and stay focused. Next is to focus on your breath and gain mastery over your mind through that. On the fourth day, when the mind is calm and focused, the practice of Vipassana is introduced : observing sensations throughout the body, understanding their nature, and developing equanimity by learning not to react to them. 

This whole process is too surreal to explain. You introspect yourself at the molecular level by directing all your focus inside of you. Feelings and emotions which are buried deep inside surface out and your body reacts to it, either in the form of sadness or happiness but you are expected to witness it in a neutral way, like a bystander. Sounds weird right? But you actually can and once you do it, your heart feels light, liberated, as if you have just untied a knot. I have witnessed different people reacting in different ways. This is the beauty of the practice, your findings are through your own experience, not influenced by what others have felt. Finally, on the last day participants learn the technique of spreading love, kindness or goodwill towards all through meditation, in which the purity developed during the course is shared with all beings. 

The 10th day had another reason to look forward to. We were given our phones back at 10.00 AM and our silence comes to an end. We get to talk and oh boy how much we talked with strangers who had become family by then. After making calls to our family, we all gathered and started getting to know each other. The routine was slack unlike other days, so we had ample time to talk. The dining hall, especially, which used to have pin drop silence came alive with continuous chatter. To sum it all up, this workshop was an eye-opener in many ways. The takeaway, apart from the learnings, was getting to know a wonderful bunch of people and a few lifelong friends.