I attended Vipassana in April (15th-27th) of 2023 at the Gaya Vipassana Center in Bodhgaya. It was a 10-day full-time meditation course that introduced the Vipassana meditation technique. It was also my first course with any type of meditation. I was open to learning and made sure I went with a completely open mind.
The 10 days of abstinence was fine. Really!
I was feeling alright without my screen time, reading, or any other abstinence the course demanded. In fact, my friends were scaring me for this part of the course with all their efforts to cancel my plan for a meditation course. I did well with this part because I was at a point where I was trying to escape my high exposure to online content.
So, there was no urge to break any of those rules, no trials to read the packaging, or anything else. We submitted all our valuable belongings in the locker and got the key to keep with us. I was committed to giving my 100% and exploring meditation in a structured way.
The meditation part was pretty intense.
The first two days, I questioned my decision to do this course. Not just the course, but the center I picked was Gaya, which is pretty far from Bangalore. I was a bit insane to choose Gaya during the peak summer, and the scorching sun made me book my return flight on the first day itself before I handed over my phone—all travel plans after the course were canceled!
We spent most of our time in the meditation hall from 4:30 in the morning until 9 at night. There was a break every 1 hour and a small break for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After the breaks, we returned to the hall and meditated. This was the routine.
The halls for men and women were separate, and there were two teachers in our hall—one male and a female teacher. Since the male meditation hall was overflowing, a couple of male students were in our hall. All of us were assigned a place with a mat and a cushion, and we were in the same spot for all the days of the course.
Another rule was to keep complete or noble silence; therefore, none of us talked to each other except to the teachers in case of any doubts. There were routine sessions with the teachers to discuss our progress between the group meditations.
Since I was dedicated to learning meditation, and partially because I booked my return flight, I successfully dodged my urge to run away after the second day. But on the third day, I distinctly remember laughing at myself after a meditation session. This was the day reality hit me, and I was grounded from all my expectations.
Why no flying dragons yet?!!!
Before going to meditation, I had very supernatural expectations about meditation. I was always excited about the prospects of experiencing supernatural colors, teleporting to my past lives, and so much more during meditation!
I would say I was still holding on to those expectations for the first two days. On the third day, I came to reality and realized how difficult the process was for me. It took immense concentration and energy just to catch the sensations under my nose.
It was the third day I could actually sense a breath, and that day, I left the meditation hall smiling. It was not a gesture of achievement but rather uncontrollable laughter at my expectations from a meditation course.
From there, I could see things getting better, and I was happy I decided to stay. Every day after the last session of mediation, there’s a discourse, which is a recorded lecture by the teacher. These lectures explained the technique we learned that day and cleared up a lot of doubts. They also motivated me to come to the mediation hall the next day.
I consider myself an intermediate Hindi user, but the language used by the teacher is pure Hindi, so I chose English discourse from day 1. Some words and explanations were very difficult for me to understand in Hindi.
The rest of the days, we were taught the technique and initiated into Vipassana. The course progressed steadily from there, and it was an excellent experience. I was happy to spend most of the time inside the hall and not sleep during the sessions.
I won’t go into all the details of the meditation but the experience was really good. I am happy the way the entire course was structured and the way it progressed through the days. Nearing the last days, I was pretty into the practise and loved how it worked.
When it comes to my expectations and experience, I didn’t experience any electricity-like energy flowing through me or, any drastic transformations inside me. I was just more connected to the reality around me. I was more into the present moment, and it felt good.
To make things better, it rained a few times. I must say, it was really special. The food was also well balanced and good. So, there was hardly anything that came as an obstacle for me to get distracted. By the last day, I didn’t want my phone back.
Even though I was present and aware of many things, I didn’t want to get hold of my phone and check what is out there. The experience was so surreal, I was just feeling happy within and a part of me had changed.
However, if you had asked me that day if I was planning to continue to practise Vipassana, I would’ve said no or maybe. I was confused and unsure about it. Well, it wasn’t the meditation I wasn’t sure about but the rules that came with it.
I’m okay with practicing meditation for 2 hours a day or at least giving it a try. However, I didn’t want to give up on a few things. For example, even though I’m not into alcohol much, I do enjoy some drinks at times with my friends and family. Little things like that made me think twice about fully committing to a lifelong practice. I’m someone who would like to observe every part of the practice, so it mattered to me.
On the last day of the course, we get to talk to the fellow mediators. It was also a pretty good experience. Meeting people from different stages of life and different stages of mediation sharing their experiences after 9 days of complete silence was pretty intense. Everyone had very different experiences from the course.
I would say it was more about sharing our experiences rather than comparing them. Some of them got to relive some events from their past to some of us, like me, who didn’t have any major incidents during the course.
The last day was pretty cheerful. Everyone parted ways, smiling. I went with two others to see around before coming back to Bangalore. I was wondering about practicing meditation after coming back to Bangalore. However, my plans were altered most of the time.
This is my very first blog on this website. Let me wrap it up here! If you’re interested in following my journey with Vipassana, I will share them in the coming blogs. Do stay, and I would like to hear from you as well 🙂