My Vipassana Experience

Last year in December 24 – 5 January 2009, due to my curiosity on the word of “meditation”, I decided to attend a ten-day residential course of Vipassana Meditation in Klaten, Central Java. Having no prior experience on the so called meditation, my ten day residential course was a totally different experience. The experience was different coz it mixed everything up. I felt sad, happy, inspired during the course. It was not an easy experience to describe in words. At the first glance, I was somewhat interested in joining the course after reading some notes on the net on Vipassana and the information told by my lecturer that Vipassana, that if practiced diligently, rightly, can improve our life better. This is just an example of an experience, and as told by the guru Goenka, himself, that no one ever experiences the same experience. Therefore, this experience is my experience. In the course, I tried to test my endurance toward something.

After riding motorbike for about half hour from Jogja, finally I reached a very beautiful building in Klaten called Dhamaguna Home. I arrived there at 3.30 PM and directly registered my self at the committee. Before submitting the registration paper, I was told by one of the committee to reread the rules and information on Vipassana meditation before deciding to attend the course. On that moment, I told myself that this course was going to be uneasy and different. Actually, I have read those rules on Vipassana several times and have been pretty determined to join the course. But, the woman insisted me on reading the rules and instruction on Vipassana. Afterward, she gave me the form to be filled by new students of Vipassana. Based on my experience, these are several rules in joining a Vipassana course.
a. During the ten day course, every student will follow a strict timetable starting from 4 am to 9.30 pm. In a day, there will be ten hours of meditation time.
b. No more meals after the midday. Each student will only have one meal for the whole day. Meal time is at 11.am. Morning and afternoon will be just tea time or coffee time. All the menus served are vegetarian menus.
c. The most difficult rule is the noble silence. Every student must remain silent for the whole nine days. No communication is permitted. No eye contact and speaking among students. Absolute silent is a must.

Other than these rules, of course there are other rules explained during the orientation time on the noon before starting the first day. But, those rules, in my opinion, are so universal. After joining the whole ten day course, here are the experiences that I felt during the course.

Day 1. On day 1, we were taught to concentrate on our breath that comes in and out. We focus our attention on the area of our nose. The whole day, we observed the coming and outgoing breath through our nose. We observed whatever we felt during breathing. The main point is Observation of the breath. Day 1 was somewhat hard and boring for me. I could not stand sitting for a long time in observing my breath.

Day 2. We were still asked to concentrate on our breath, but we narrowed the area of the concentration. The area was the inner walls of our nose, the outer walls and the tip of our nose. Just the nose. We were asked to feel the sensations we felt during breathing. Day 2 was the most boring day. I started to think of leaving the course because it was so hard of remaining silent and just sat for hours to observe my breath.

Day 3. On day 3, we still did the same things as day 2, but we narrowed our concentration to a smaller area, that is, the area below our nose and above our upper lips. We concentrated on this area and felt the sensations on this part. Whatever sensations must be observed.

All those three days, we were doing the so called ANAPANNA. Concentration on the Breath. In the lecture session every 07 pm – 08 pm, we were informed that Anapana is the basic requirement in doing Vipassana. Only when somebody is successful enough in doing Anapana, Then we can continue practicing Vipassana Meditation. In Anapana, we tried to calm and control our mind. We tried to be alert, aware the nature of our breath.

Day 4. Day 4 is the day where we actually began doing Vipassana Meditation. We started Vipassana by moving our attention to the top of our head. An area, precisely located in the middle of our head. We spread our focus on our head. We were asked to observe every sensation we felt on our head. We started the concentration by observing our skull and each individual part of the head. We felt different sensations such hot, cold, itchy, solidified sensations everywhere on the head.

Day 5. Day 5 is the continuation of day 4. We broadened our area of observation. We moved down to lower parts such as shoulder, neck, elbow, arms. We still observed sensations and told not to react toward any sensations we felt. Just observe. On day 5, we began doing the so called ADHITANNA sitting. Adhitanna is A sitting of strong determination where we sit for an hour without moving our position. This sitting was the most difficult mediation practice. I felt extreme pain on my leg.

Day 6 – day 9, we still observed our body, but we moved down till the lowest part of our body, the toe. We then moved down and up through all parts of our body. The whole ten day course was a worth trying meditation.


Cheers
Kristian