I got back on Sunday from my ten day Vipassana meditation course. It was way more enlightening than I ever expected. The funny thing was that as much as I was looking for a spiritual experience I found the experience to be all about the connection between the mind and body. which in the ned was incredibly spiritually enlightening. Some of the basics of the course are absolute silence alsocalled noble silence, which means no talking, singing, touching of other people, making eye contact or communicating with other people in anyway. The men and women are seperated for the duration of the course and the participant must agree to not take any intoxicants for the duration of the course. There are other rules as well but I'm not going to get into them right now.
The schedule for the first 3 days is as follows. Wake up is at 4am and meditation starts at 4:30 and goes til 6:30, students can meditate in their rooms or the Dhamma Hall. Breakfast is from 6:30 until 8. Then it is back to meditating from 8am until 9am at the Dhamma Hall. At which point there is a short 5 min. break and students then come back to the hall where they are given a few short instructions. The students are then given the choice of staying in the hall to meditate or back in their rooms until 11am. From 11 until noon is lunch and from noon until 1pm is rest period. After rest period students have the option of meditating in their rooms or in the hall until 2:30pm. At 2:30 all students are to be in the hall for meditation until 3:30pm. From 3:30 until 5pm students have the option of meditating in their rooms or the Dhamma Hall. At 5pm their is a break where old students are allowed to have tea and new students may have some fruit and tea. As a new student I had fruit with my tea the first 2 days but after that I went just with tea, it just felt better for me. At 6pm all students go back to the Dhamma Hall for a 1 hour meditation. There is then a short break before an hour and 15 min. discourse which is given via video by S. N. Goenka. After the video there is a short break before all students return to the hall for a final half hour to 45 min meditation. At 9pm students go back to their rooms for any bed time prep and lights out is at 10pm.
On day 1 students are taught Panna, which is focusing on the breath as it goes in and out of the nostrils an emphasis is put on not controlling the breath but just feeling the breath, This was a difficult day for me as sitting for over ten hours while just focusing on my breath wasn't so bad but sitting was becoming very painful. We were instructed to notice whatever sensation arose in the body but not to pay any attention to them as we were supposedto focus on the breath. My ass, knees, back, and neck were not enjoying this and I moved and fidgeted about a lot during my meditation.I also made a point of meditating in my room whenever possible so that I could lean against a wall and put my legs straight out in front of me. While this helped the discomfort somewhat I was still in pain and on top of that a lot of guys in my dorm would sleep during meditation time and snore. Fortunately, I had ear plugs but the distraction was still there.
On day 2 we were told to focus on the sensations in the triangular area of nose that starts at the bridge of the nose and encompasses the area above the upper lip. While this day was a little bit better I was still experiencing a large amount of pain throughout my body.
On day 3 we were instructed to focus on just the sensations in the area above the upper lip and below the nostrils. It was this day that I wasn't sure if I was going to make it through all 10 days as my body was experiencing pain almost everywhere almost constantly, I had never sat for over 10hours a day for 3 days before, it was intense.
Day 4, Vipassana day. This day almost broke me. The schedule had a slight change in that they wanted all students at the Dhamma Hall at 2pm rather than 2:30 in order that Vipassana be taught to the students. Vipassana was taught in what seemed like a painstakingly slow way. The basic premise is that the meditator starts at the top of the head feeling for any sensations and then slowly works there way down the body part by part: neck, right shoulder, right arm, right hand, left shoulder, left arm, left hand, right side of the chest, left side of the chest, right side of the back, etc.etc. until they reach their toes and then start all over again until the alotted time has expired. The importance of this looking for sensations was to not label any sensation as being good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant, pleasureable, painful whatever. It is just a sensation feel it and then move on to the next part of the body attach no aversion or attachment to each sensation. If there was a blank spot on the body then just stay a little while longer and see if you could get a sensation while attaching no label or emotion to the searching for feeling. We were also intstructed that the meditation times of 8am til 9am, 2:30pm til 3:30pm, and 6pm til 7pm where now going to be Sittings of Strong Determination. Sittings of strong determination meaning you shouldn't move, no eye opening, no leg moving, no hand opening. The position you took at the beginning of the hour was the position you should have at the end. I was breathing very hard and my mind was freaked out at this point, I did not think I could accomplish this task. The first sitting of strong determination was not as bad as I thought but it was still very difficult.
Day 5 I did my morning meditation in my room on my bunk and I was surprised to see that I made it throught 1 and 1/2 hours of the 2 hours without moving, and this was with a lot of my dorm mates snoring and fidgeting about. But of course this was with legs straight out in front of me andmy back against a wall. The first sitting of strong determination that moring I made through the whole hour with only adjusting my back to sit up straight so essentially I did it. This is where stuff got interesting. My body was feeling increasingly better the more I meditated by the end of the night I felt like going for a long run as I had no aches and pains any where,which is friggin amazing considering I had been sitting almost 50hours over the past 5 days. We were not allowed to exercise so I just chilled but I was hopping straight out of my meditation pose on to my feet at the end of each sitting and then I would bounce out of the hall. I noticed a lot of the guys all slow to get up and then stretching this way and that as well as looking tired and just miserable.
Day 6 We were instructed that after we got done scanning our whole body from top to body that we should then scan from bottom to top, toes to head. I got this technique down fairly quickly and I was experiencing a sensation throughout my body which was just awesome.
Day 7 We were instructed to go top to bottom and bottom to top symmetrically both arms at the same time both sides of the chest etc. I was really feeling it now. the funny part is that I had been doing everything just prior to the daythat it was taught, I was always relieved when they taught whatever it was I was already doing. I was feeling great on day 7.
Day 8 we were instructed to scan the interior of our bodies. I now know what every single part of my body feels like inside and out. It is amazingly cool to truly experience sensations throught the entire body. I could feel any blank or obvious sensations internally or externally with ease. I have a few interesting ones inside that I scan a little further and stuff came up emotionally that I will not divulge here.
Day 9 I was just scanning the body and experiencing free flow sensations through out my entire person. Except for the morning meditation, 4:30 am to 6:30 am, in which I saw almost my whole childhood from the age of until about the age of 12. This I am quiet sure came about after having scanned an odd blank area which lies inside of my body on the left just above my hips. I will be exploring it further while I am here at home.
Day 10 The vow of Noble Silence is lifted at 10am and students are able to talk and communicate with each other. When talking about my meditations, apparently I am a bit of a rare case for a first time student to have such a wonderful experience. I think a lot of it had to do with my willingnes to meditate at all meditation times and not sleep. Which I know a lot of my dorm mates did not do. I felt absolutely no pain anywhere on my body and I felt so refreshed, excited and recharged. It was bliss but I made sure not be attached to the feeling because it, like everything else will also pass. This is the law of the universe nothing is permanent. I also made a point of not even labeling it as bliss, just another sensation.
An interesting side effect of getting so in touch with the body is how much emotional and mental stuff just comes out when noticing the obvious or blank physical sensations of the body. I have learned so much about myself that this simple blog just does not do it justice. It is truly liberating.
I am going to put the link to their site in case anyone is interested in checking it out. The organization is stricly donation run and they do not want donations from anyone that has not completed a 10 day course.

www.mahavana.dhamma.org/

May all beings be happy.