Day 176: The Vipassana Experience – The Initiation

The experience continues. Enter sleepless nights and nightmares stage right.

I tell you, when I thought Days 1-3 were hard it was because I hadn’t yet met the wrath of Day 4… Initiation Day. Ok, so perhaps “wrath” makes it sound worse than it was, but it was very difficult nonetheless. Up until Day 4, everything was just a prelude, the preparation for the real deal…the REAL work. All of a sudden the breathing exercises looked like a walk in the park.

On the fourth day we learned what the Vipassana meditation REALLY was. The technique was a rather painful experience of sitting still for not just one hour but TWO. It meant we were to keep our focus and not to bat an eyelash or move a muscle, pain or no pain…for two full hours. Yes, I just said TWO hours…all the while bringing our attention to each and every single body part and to take note of every subtle sensation there. We were essential getting to know ourselves inside and out…literally. It was called the “Sitting of Strong Determination” and is/was the gateway to our freedom from misery.

Personally, I thought I would die. But it wasn’t the sitting and not moving part that was the most painful part, it was the having to sit through the instructions in Thai…which took TWICE as long to explain as it did in English. Don’t get me wrong, I like the Thai and their food. Their noodles are great, but when it comes to meditation, the guy giving instructions was as slow as molasses when saying them and it drove me nuts for all 10 days.

So why am I doing this and what is the point of this specific meditation? Stick around for tomorrow’s post to find out!