Why go on a silent meditation retreat and how to prepare for it?
What a 10-day silent Vipassana meditation retreat taught me — Part One
I was on a roll with my meditation practice. Since I took it seriously and discovered the many benefits of meditation in my life, I had been practising every day for at least one hour very early in the morning, sometimes with multiple sessions throughout the day.
I was also mindful throughout my day — for instance, I did my daily walks to and from work as a walking meditation practice. The mindful mindset was spreading throughout all other aspects of my life (“off the cushion”, as they say).
I prepared for months for this retreat. Since it was tough to get a place for it, I was in front of my computer the minute the signing up process was open, and I must have been one of the very first people to sign up — back in January, for the meditation retreat in April. Yes, it is that competitive, particularly for the most popular meditation centres, like the one I had chosen.
Throughout those months from January to April, my daily practice was only becoming stronger. I read all I could about meditation and Buddhism, including William Hart’s “The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S. N. Goenka”, written under the guidance and approval of Goenka himself, as well as reviews, comments, hints and tips by other practitioners (I’ll make a list of the more worthwhile on the last part of this series).
I tried as best as I could not to read about the technique itself, though, and actively refrained from trying to incorporate any of the Vipassana meditation guidelines into my daily practice. I figured that, in that sense, it was best if I was as a blank sheet of paper to be able to learn from Goenka as a completely new student of Vipassana, instead of having to go back and possibly correct any improper techniques that I had tried to learn and practice on my own.
Although I was certainly not a seasoned or expert meditator, I had accumulated over 150 hours of meditation practice by the time April arrived.
One of the reasons why I started meditating was debilitating migraines. And I found that meditation was helping with that. Shameless plug: I even wrote an article about it.
When I read Hart’s book, I found out that Goenka suffered from migraines himself, and that was the reason why he learned the Vipassana technique. What a synchronicity, right?
I was ready.
It was going to be great.
I arrived at the meditation centre on a bus, along with plenty of other practitioners. There was a bit of chit-chat on the bus, but most people were quiet. You could feel a mixture of excitement, devotion and (I dare to put it like this) some anxiety or even a bit of fear in the air.
“The goal of meditation is to stop your thoughts”, I overheard a young man behind me say to a lady who sat next to him.
I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of myself, as I knew what he just said wasn’t right.
I thought the same before I started meditating and reading everything about it. But by then, sitting in that bus on the way to the retreat centre, I knew best. It’s not about stopping your thoughts; it’s about noticing them, accepting them and then freeing them, without any attachment or identification. Let them come, let them be, let them go, as they say.
I was definitely ready for this.
It was going to be great.
A 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat includes 10 full hours of meditation every day — 100 hours or more in total! Some recorded discourses by Goenka himself are played in the evenings. And there is noble silence from day one.
Noble Silence means silence of body, speech, and mind. Any form of communication with fellow student, whether by gestures, sign language, written notes, etc., is prohibited.
The day we arrived was “day zero”, so talking and interacting with others was still allowed. We had tea and biscuits while everybody settled in and there I met some of my fellow practitioners.
One of them was quite proud to say that was his sixth retreat, while another guy and I mentioned this was our first time and a fourth man just mentioned he had done quite a few times. The first guy firmly insisted on knowing how many times and, despite his modesty, at some point, he had to give in: he had done such a retreat a little less than twenty times!
When I asked him why he came back yet one more time, he said the technique simply works for him.
Part Two has been published, you can read it here:
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