Many friends are curious about my 10-day meditation experience. Some of them even worried that I would become a nun after these 10 days.
10 days of meditation? What do you do besides meditation? Just sit and meditate the whole day? And you can’t talk at all in these 10 days? Not even during lunch or dinner?What? You don’t even have dinner? Oh my god… You sure you want to do this to yourself? Girl, you will go crazy… (and on and on my family and friends worried…)
We are often amazed by how quickly time flies when we look back to past events. Yet, this is not the case for my 10-day meditation experience.It’s loooong! While a day of 10+ hour of meditation passed by unexpectedly quicker and easier than I had imagined, 10 days of meditation with the same daily schedule (except Day 4 and Day 10) passed by killingly slow. I noticed how everyday passed by.Even though it was the same daily schedule, the material learned, my feelings about this course and of myself were very different everyday.There were times I was grateful that I made it to this course, and there were times I felt like crap and wanted to escape from this prison-like camp.
Day 1 (Meditation = Nap Time?)
Day 2 (Getting into the Meditation Mode)
Day 3 (My Subconscious Wanted to Call It Off?)
Day 5 (Hey, Sit Still and Be Quiet!)
Day 6 (Feel Like Quitting Again…)
Day 8 (Continuity of Practice)
Some Interesting Facts & Trivia
yoo… sandy, nice to know you’ve gone through (and really completed!) the retreat journey. don’t forget to share your first hand experience with me when we meet next time~!
ya. that 10 days were darn looooooong!!! haha
definitely would love to share with you venus
when will i meet up with u? r u very busy w ur phd thingy recently?
Hi traveloncloud9,
Very Good narration and funny cartoons..
I was thinking to attend on vipasana meditation in Singapore.
Now i get a clear picture of the course..
Subscribed to ur blog
Thanks..
Yes Siva, thanks for sharing and letting me know! that’s one of my main reason of putting up my Vipassana experience here – to share and give a better picture of the course to anyone who is interested.
I am happy my posts help, very encouraging
Cheers!
Siva, please keep in mind that everyone has her/his own unique experience with Vipassana, so your experience wouldn’t be exactly like mine. Yet, it surely will be a very cool self-discovery process anyways.
Give it a try! And please share with me your experience after the course
Thanks Sandy. That was very helpful.
I am looking forward to my Vipassana course next month. I truly hope that turns out to be a useful thing for me like for many others.
Cheers.
Hi Saby,
I am happy that you have found my sharing helpful
Please share with me your experience with Vipassana after the course next month.
May all beings be happy
[...] Experiences: Barnaby De Palma from Australia — Sandy Song from Hong Kong — Spencer Isaac from Vancouver, Canada — Smita Poudel from India — [...]
Thanks for sharing your experiences! I’m looking for stories about the 10-day retreat because I’m worried about the physical results of sitting for long periods. I used to have chronic knee pain, so I wonder how long you have to sit on end?
Someone told me that you only have to sit still for 1 hour max, and you can choose what to do besides that, like staying in the meditation hall or going for a walk, or go to your room …
Is this correct? 1 hour of sitting still at a time, that I can do, but not much longer.
Hi Omnipleasant,
Yes, there is an hour session which the participants are requested to sit still. For all other times, you are allowed to walk around or meditate somewhere else. At least this is how the Vipassana center in Hong Kong works. I would suggest you to give the center a call and ask for the details. In addition, if you are physically challenge and cannot sit for long hours, let the center know about it. They may be able to make some special arrangement for you (eg: let you sit on a chair instead). Have fun!