Comments on: My Three Days at Vipassana

By: Anamika Anyone

Anamika Anyone — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 06:39:35 +0000

I came accross your blog while googling about vipassana. I’ve registered for a course in Jan. I’m feeling kinda scared after reading about how intense it is. I’m a novice in meditation, and I’m now wondering if I can handle such a course. But I guess it’s pointless to worry; either I will do it or I won’t. Thanks Tynan, for your account of the retreat, and also for the advice from the commenters. I’ll consider practising meditation regularly starting with 15 mins a day, ramping it up gradually. This might be some basic preparation.

By: Nargis Fakhri

Nargis Fakhri — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:43:24 +0000

i stumbled upon ur blog, and it was a great read. i was actually supposed to head out to a Vipasana center today but i ended up getting sick and my driver never showd, i was totally bummed out becuz i have been wanting to do this for a while now, but after reading your blog, i realized that maybe its not my time yet and i may have left on the 3rd day as well.. anyways glad you posted this and im glad i found it. maybe u’ll try again someday! all the best!
cheers.

By: Rainbowbody

Rainbowbody — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:36:59 +0000

[...] Tynan.net – View Latest Post [...]

By: Rose

Rose — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:34:25 +0000

This is great.. I did almost the exactly same thing.. the breaking point for me was the morning of the 5th day when I was told to ignore all back pain and focus on the nostrils!! Had to leave at that point!!

By: Serge

Serge — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:59:06 +0000

Hy Tynan,
While I have no experience of 10-day meditation courses, I have attended shorter courses and practice meditation occasionally. I believe, you need to read about the subject of Vipassana meditation and meditation in general in order to get some motivation. Many books or discourses simply hit wrong buttons in the mind of a Westerner with already “enlightened” mind as Jake above said. The minimum you should sit in a stable upright position is 40 minutes – with 20 minutes you’ll only bring yourself to the moment where more-or-less serious meditation begins. Practice if you wish for 20 minutes just to train your back and legs. It is said that the end result is englightenment. It very well may be, but who can really tell you what this is and why you should care about attaining it? Well, focus on an intermediate goal – to stabilize your mind for various revelations about your life may be grasped by your attention. Also, one of the main goals of meditation is to bring about the Awareness of the Self. You might know what you wish and care for in life and what makes you happy, but another thing is to know what “real you” feels about the whole thing. Concentrations on breath, sensations, etc. serve the purpose of dulling your mind, i.e. eliminating the flow of thoughts. Simply sitting and thinking about RV will eventually bring you to the same state of mind. I also believe, and sorry for telling you this, that your quitting the course will haunt you – so no happy future. You will always think that either something is missing from your life (particularly after the strong affirmations in Pali – though you did not put your heart to it) or that you simply confirmed to yourself that you are weak-minded. Of course, you were not prepared then. You, probably, won’t have to take the course again, but will have to live through a similar experience again. When you are done, you’ll be a freer man.

By: tanya

tanya — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:33:02 +0000

Oh no! Wish you finished it. It’s as life changing as it is difficult. By all means, decide if it’s for you or not, but first give it a full and fair try. Everyone wants to run away. So did I. But I stayed on, and it’s the best thing I ever did.

By: IM

IM — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:28:12 +0000

I did the course last month (all 10 days) and you’re right on — computers are distracting. If you stayed on till the end you’d have learned more truths. FWIW the course provides an extremely suitable atmosphere for meditation. A creative and analytical mind is greatly beneficial for meditation.. so really, you are ideal person for meditation. Meditation teaches techniques to focus one’s abilities (creative or otherwise) very much required for abilities to actually be of any use by not being scattered. Meditation per se can’t be taught.. you either think on the problems at hand or don’t. But Vipassana etc teach the techniques to get the most out of your time spent thinking (the 10 day course is just an introductory chapter). I discovered vipassana techniques independently about 10 yrs back and it mostly correlates (I used heartbeat instead of breath, and “graduated” to sensing my thoughts as they arose).

By: Nick Stebbings

Nick Stebbings — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 16:33:05 +0000

No wonder you didn’t reap the benefits of Vipassana, the first 3.5 days are just concentration exercises to prepare you for the actual meditation.

One of the main benefits of the actual meditation is that you learn to just observe things that are happening rather than react to them – become equinamous.

You say you are relaxed and happy, which is great, but your life sounds pretty good at the moment. The true test of how much meditation can help you is the extent to which you react to the negative things in your life. If you lose a lot of money do you dwell on the fact or do you accept it and move on quickly? It is easy to be equinomous when things are going well.

I hope you try it again sometime, as there are a lot of benefits to be had from completing the course.

For the people that say this is brainwashing or a cult: the people who operate it are a charity, they don’t charge and you can easily go there and stay for free. They are run off donations from people who have done the course and derived benefit.
I was concerned about the vulnerability of the position I was in at times (not preparing my own meals etc.) but there was never any hint of conversion or trying to get money out of me. They just want people to give the technique a fair trial. I did donate in the end because I found it enormously beneficial and wanted to pay for someone else to have the same experience.

By: The Bucket List Version 2.0

The Bucket List Version 2.0 — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 04:36:43 +0000

[...] Attend a Vipassana Retreat. This one scares me a little bit, but I would love to see what would happen if I couldn’t [...]

By: Makri

Makri — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:07:33 +0000

It was really interesting reading all the above comments. I am planning to go for a 10 day retreat this month. I have heard about this quite a bit and a friend has done it. There is this great eagerness to attend but at the same time a little freaked out. Sitting for 10 hours!! man! thats long. But then what else are you supposed to do.
If any of you get a chance read J. Krishnamurti. I can’t tell much about him except he lived from 1895-1986. Google him, there are some video shots as well.

I am going to attend this course. And will try my best to complete it. After all, what am I so afraid off! They can preach what they want, we have a clear mind with logical and fair thinking nothing can influence you. We are what we are made up of our past experiences through sounds, visual images and accumulation of sensory experiences over the years.