I hate to say this but my excitement of starting a unique spiritual adventure was kind of taken an initial hit when on the day of orientation, a deep psychedelic male voice greeted 60 of us with a soulful mantras in a music-less-never-heard-before rhythm which oscillates from being husky to funky. It all starts with a prayer and I get a feeling I'm not going to survive the trauma of Pali mantra humming more than a day. After all, this is not what I had signed-up for. I could have rather downloaded the tracks and practiced them from the comfort of my home. But as they say, patience is virtue. Good things, although were distant at that time, was certainly waiting for us.
My quest for searching a perfect nest to find my creative mojo led me to the laps of VIPASSANA meditation center. Why I chose Kolkata from 120 centers is a different story altogether (read: here). On one side, it was my wanabe artistic instincts to have my "Into the wild moment" with meditation as my anchor, on the other end it was the need of a solo backpacker to find peace within himself as that will be the only company he will be enjoying most of the time. Where else could one go but Vipassana, worlds largest spiritual practice purely focused on meditation.
I was pleasantly surprised to find an environment amidst nature on the banks of river Ganges. It was a perfect abode under the shadow of diverse flora, with a royal charm of the palacial ruins. I was among a diverse batch of 60 souls with equal male and female strength. We were accompanied by the divine voice of the master who founded the present form of Vipassana movement. We were guided by the master's voice from wall mounted full size speakers along with 1 teacher and 2 dynamic servers each for males and female participant in addition to several support staff & temporary participants. Set-up was ideal to lead a 10-day period with pure Sattvic meal once a day and sleep among fellow meditators in a dormitory.
However, the path of first 3 days in the 10 day journey is spread with hardship, difficulties and discomforts, period! You have to tread your way through those musical farts and rhythmic burps of tired restless souls, for you shall fight the battle with mind and body which has its own unique confrontations, the mind shall refuse to settle in present in the absence of any verbalization or visualization tool with bare respiration as its only solace while body disregards all your attempt to stabilize. Those midnight-to-early morning calls, late night hunger pangs, intense back and knee pain from 14 hours of meditation in a day or the intense hour long sessions will take its own sweet time to get used to. Things that will keep your ship afloat in those 72 hours are however, limited but truly gratifying. One will start finding the voice of the master chanting mantras in Pali truly divine and soulful. Those short yet beautiful interactive sessions with teacher, the divine mid-day meal with a heavenly spread, those 5 minutes of break between each hour long session to get back your leg's Qi or that 9'o clock crashing to cover the lost hours of sleep; is nothing but an immensely inspirational lifestyle in discipline!
Day 4 onwards, the entire course moves to a new level altogether. Body responds and gets adapted, mind is now focused on present thoughts of discourses, away from all verbal distractions of conscious world with the noble silence showing its ultimate effect, early mornings feel a blessing and are no more a bane. This is where the real teachings of Vipassana begins. Anything more has to be experienced in the environment of the center for I cannot do a justice by translating the stunning feelings in words.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The experience we all know as Vipassana Philosophy which even today is practiced in its purest form under the same name. The personal experience on the so called spiritual philosophy is practical path that is based on the reality of nature and survives the scientific scrutiny of our time.
The roots of this idea could be traced back to the most ancient scripture of the world Rig Veda (recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage scripture). It even find its reference in various other religion but somewhere the practice lost its practical application in life among the rites and rituals. It just remained as a wisdom. 2500 years ago, a personality who goes by the name of Siddhartha Gautam, laid down the foundation of this practice from his personal experience en-route to enlightenment.
The study is all about reengineering our sub-conscious for the practical world to "know thyself". At surface level of consciousness , we all can teach ourselves to be spiritual genius and know the cause and effect of excessive craving, excessive aversion or attachment from theoretical texts or someone else's experience. Yet, we tad to get lost & tense somewhere when confronted with an unpleasant incident of anger, hatred, passion, fear etc. Outside, we may be calm and composed to the world by mastering the spiritual wisdom from scriptures and rituals but how do we calm our inner-self / sub-conscious and stay truly unaffected from the sensual reactions of the conscious world while staying in the same material world? The answer lies in experiencing the world within our own body, exploring the reality within ourselves. By walking the path for 10 days, we test the theory to find the truth by experiencing the reality in our own body and by our own self. It is about the law of nature, one that is applicable to all religion, community, region, cast, color or creed. It teaches us how to be aware of present moment and accept without any preference or prejudice the things as it is. 10 days is all about learning and realizing the root of all misery as the "attachment to expectations" which creates craving and leads to aversion.
It is an universal path that has few principles to support the noble cause of mind purification. We have to realize that our deeds are created in mind, addressed in words and executed in actions and thus purification is required in all 3 parts. One can eradicate all the accumulated defilements by not only getting mastery over mind awareness but also with morality of abstaining from unwholesome deeds of body and speech (any action that harms other or disturbs their peace and harmony is the action that ultimately effects our mind) as well as development of wisdom and insight (for right thoughts, pure and positive thinking pattern with right understanding of experiential reality as it is not just as it appears to be)
To summarize the key takeaway from the ancient priceless teachings of enlightened for our practical life in gist would be all about "observing" our reaction (breath and sensation) to the "action" of others and staying indifferent to them which can only be achieved by moving our awareness from intellectual conscious mind to instinctive sub-conscious level. Respiration is the only bridge we have from the known to the unknown, because it is one function of the body that can be either conscious or unconscious , intentional or automatic. Mind being the most powerful tool in our ecosystem, has to be focused on respiration by taming its wild nature of wandering between past or future, pleasant or unpleasant, craving or aversion. Science of spirituality is all about developing experiential wisdom; outside of the framework of body, truth is only intellectualized. Finally, continuity of the practice is the secret of success.
Personally, it has been an absolutely stunning experience to have practiced the teachings of Vipassana in its purest form. 10 days just helped me to know about the art and science of mind-body complex. I may need several sessions to experience the impermanence nature of sensations and thorough vibrations in my body but you may get the same in 1 session of 10 days only (as we had few cases in our batch). You may or may not agree with few principles but you cannot discard the philosophy all together without experiencing it for 10 days. For me, although, I agree with most of the principles of this philosophy as they are actual reality of true sources of displeasure at intellectual level. However, in our today's material world, we can only try to strike a balance in our spectrum of practical reality and strongly avoid either extremes. A source of perpetual blissful life is a life lived in moderation. Too much or too less is what causes discontent and hollowness / emphasis. For instance, Ambition has always at the center of spiritual controversy. On one hand, it is a never filling vacuum whereas on the other hand this is what pushes the needle and takes the mankind to the next level. How much or how less is a matter of personal choice and priority, it depends how much are we ready to sacrifice for getting or losing it.
I'm quite excited to get myself enrolled for my next dose of inception very soon. Stay Blessed!
SBD
PS: Details of our Dec'13 batch: Out of total number of students applied 116 (Male-72,Female-44) only 59 (Male-30, Female-29) finally appeared and accepted. We had participants from 5 nationalities. Out of the total strength, number of old students were 20 (Male-8, Female-12). We also had few cases of students(Male-8, Female-1) who lost hope and patience midway and quit within first 4 days. Total # of courses per year are 22 (twice a month accept April).
My quest for searching a perfect nest to find my creative mojo led me to the laps of VIPASSANA meditation center. Why I chose Kolkata from 120 centers is a different story altogether (read: here). On one side, it was my wanabe artistic instincts to have my "Into the wild moment" with meditation as my anchor, on the other end it was the need of a solo backpacker to find peace within himself as that will be the only company he will be enjoying most of the time. Where else could one go but Vipassana, worlds largest spiritual practice purely focused on meditation.
I was pleasantly surprised to find an environment amidst nature on the banks of river Ganges. It was a perfect abode under the shadow of diverse flora, with a royal charm of the palacial ruins. I was among a diverse batch of 60 souls with equal male and female strength. We were accompanied by the divine voice of the master who founded the present form of Vipassana movement. We were guided by the master's voice from wall mounted full size speakers along with 1 teacher and 2 dynamic servers each for males and female participant in addition to several support staff & temporary participants. Set-up was ideal to lead a 10-day period with pure Sattvic meal once a day and sleep among fellow meditators in a dormitory.
However, the path of first 3 days in the 10 day journey is spread with hardship, difficulties and discomforts, period! You have to tread your way through those musical farts and rhythmic burps of tired restless souls, for you shall fight the battle with mind and body which has its own unique confrontations, the mind shall refuse to settle in present in the absence of any verbalization or visualization tool with bare respiration as its only solace while body disregards all your attempt to stabilize. Those midnight-to-early morning calls, late night hunger pangs, intense back and knee pain from 14 hours of meditation in a day or the intense hour long sessions will take its own sweet time to get used to. Things that will keep your ship afloat in those 72 hours are however, limited but truly gratifying. One will start finding the voice of the master chanting mantras in Pali truly divine and soulful. Those short yet beautiful interactive sessions with teacher, the divine mid-day meal with a heavenly spread, those 5 minutes of break between each hour long session to get back your leg's Qi or that 9'o clock crashing to cover the lost hours of sleep; is nothing but an immensely inspirational lifestyle in discipline!
Day 4 onwards, the entire course moves to a new level altogether. Body responds and gets adapted, mind is now focused on present thoughts of discourses, away from all verbal distractions of conscious world with the noble silence showing its ultimate effect, early mornings feel a blessing and are no more a bane. This is where the real teachings of Vipassana begins. Anything more has to be experienced in the environment of the center for I cannot do a justice by translating the stunning feelings in words.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The experience we all know as Vipassana Philosophy which even today is practiced in its purest form under the same name. The personal experience on the so called spiritual philosophy is practical path that is based on the reality of nature and survives the scientific scrutiny of our time.
The roots of this idea could be traced back to the most ancient scripture of the world Rig Veda (recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage scripture). It even find its reference in various other religion but somewhere the practice lost its practical application in life among the rites and rituals. It just remained as a wisdom. 2500 years ago, a personality who goes by the name of Siddhartha Gautam, laid down the foundation of this practice from his personal experience en-route to enlightenment.
The study is all about reengineering our sub-conscious for the practical world to "know thyself". At surface level of consciousness , we all can teach ourselves to be spiritual genius and know the cause and effect of excessive craving, excessive aversion or attachment from theoretical texts or someone else's experience. Yet, we tad to get lost & tense somewhere when confronted with an unpleasant incident of anger, hatred, passion, fear etc. Outside, we may be calm and composed to the world by mastering the spiritual wisdom from scriptures and rituals but how do we calm our inner-self / sub-conscious and stay truly unaffected from the sensual reactions of the conscious world while staying in the same material world? The answer lies in experiencing the world within our own body, exploring the reality within ourselves. By walking the path for 10 days, we test the theory to find the truth by experiencing the reality in our own body and by our own self. It is about the law of nature, one that is applicable to all religion, community, region, cast, color or creed. It teaches us how to be aware of present moment and accept without any preference or prejudice the things as it is. 10 days is all about learning and realizing the root of all misery as the "attachment to expectations" which creates craving and leads to aversion.
It is an universal path that has few principles to support the noble cause of mind purification. We have to realize that our deeds are created in mind, addressed in words and executed in actions and thus purification is required in all 3 parts. One can eradicate all the accumulated defilements by not only getting mastery over mind awareness but also with morality of abstaining from unwholesome deeds of body and speech (any action that harms other or disturbs their peace and harmony is the action that ultimately effects our mind) as well as development of wisdom and insight (for right thoughts, pure and positive thinking pattern with right understanding of experiential reality as it is not just as it appears to be)
To summarize the key takeaway from the ancient priceless teachings of enlightened for our practical life in gist would be all about "observing" our reaction (breath and sensation) to the "action" of others and staying indifferent to them which can only be achieved by moving our awareness from intellectual conscious mind to instinctive sub-conscious level. Respiration is the only bridge we have from the known to the unknown, because it is one function of the body that can be either conscious or unconscious , intentional or automatic. Mind being the most powerful tool in our ecosystem, has to be focused on respiration by taming its wild nature of wandering between past or future, pleasant or unpleasant, craving or aversion. Science of spirituality is all about developing experiential wisdom; outside of the framework of body, truth is only intellectualized. Finally, continuity of the practice is the secret of success.
Personally, it has been an absolutely stunning experience to have practiced the teachings of Vipassana in its purest form. 10 days just helped me to know about the art and science of mind-body complex. I may need several sessions to experience the impermanence nature of sensations and thorough vibrations in my body but you may get the same in 1 session of 10 days only (as we had few cases in our batch). You may or may not agree with few principles but you cannot discard the philosophy all together without experiencing it for 10 days. For me, although, I agree with most of the principles of this philosophy as they are actual reality of true sources of displeasure at intellectual level. However, in our today's material world, we can only try to strike a balance in our spectrum of practical reality and strongly avoid either extremes. A source of perpetual blissful life is a life lived in moderation. Too much or too less is what causes discontent and hollowness / emphasis. For instance, Ambition has always at the center of spiritual controversy. On one hand, it is a never filling vacuum whereas on the other hand this is what pushes the needle and takes the mankind to the next level. How much or how less is a matter of personal choice and priority, it depends how much are we ready to sacrifice for getting or losing it.
I'm quite excited to get myself enrolled for my next dose of inception very soon. Stay Blessed!
SBD
PS: Details of our Dec'13 batch: Out of total number of students applied 116 (Male-72,Female-44) only 59 (Male-30, Female-29) finally appeared and accepted. We had participants from 5 nationalities. Out of the total strength, number of old students were 20 (Male-8, Female-12). We also had few cases of students(Male-8, Female-1) who lost hope and patience midway and quit within first 4 days. Total # of courses per year are 22 (twice a month accept April).
