Saturday, April 14, 2012

The truth: I'm scared of myself.

For the next 10 days, I will be in complete silence; no speaking, reading, writing, listening to music or even making eye contact with others in the Vipassana course. 10 days of 10 hours a day of meditation,  just me and my mind. The purpose of this Buddhist meditation is self-observation, mindfulness, and introspection, in hopes of seeing things as they really are and achieving a sense of simplicity. In theory, this is accomplished through cognition of the senses, discrimination of the type of sense, experience of the sensation, and the mind's response to the sensation. 


My schedule for the next little while looks like this:

4:00 a.m.                             Morning wake-up bell
4:30 – 6:30 a.m.                 Meditate in the hall or in your room
6:30 – 8:00 a.m.                Breakfast break
8:00 – 9:00 a.m.                Group meditation in the hall
9:00 – 11:00 a.m.               Meditate in the hall or in your room
11:00 – 12 noon                  Lunch break
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.               Rest, and interviews with the teacher
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.                 Meditate in the hall or in your room
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.                 Group meditation in the hall
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.                Meditate in the hall or in your room
5:00 – 6:00 p.m.                Tea break
6:00 – 7:00 p.m.                Group meditation in the hall
7:00 – 8:15 p.m.                 Teacher’s discourse in the hall
8:15 – 9:00 p.m.                Group meditation in the hall
9:00 – 9:30 p.m.                Question time in the hall
9:30 p.m.                             Retire to your room; lights out