Vipassana, part 2

My good friend Seb asked me a few questions about the retreat which made me realize I want to add a few things about the experience. For example, the two attached pictures. The building is the Vipassana Centre just outside Sutton. It is set on top of a hill which overlooks a valley. Beautiful view and very interesting place, because the weather was so changing. I thought this was very fitting, since Buddhism is all about realizing that everything changes and so we have to bend with the wind like a reed.

There were also cabins in the woods, which were used by returning students, whereas the new students like myself lodged in the main building. It seems Blogger's not letting me attach a second pic, if anyone knows how come, please let me know!

Vipassana retreats aim to put students in uncomfortably close proximity with themselves... All distractions are eliminated: no communication with others (either verbal or through eye-contact), no exercise, music, reading, writing, sex, drinking, etc. I think the retreat is designed this way in order to help people be with their minds only. Patterns become more noticeable when you just sit and have no distractions. I noticed that my mind would get in a rut for hours at a time and then move on to another topic or desire. For example, I might spend half a day thinking about what I want to do for the rest of the summer, or about a conflict situation with someone.

The mind wanders a lot and we're told to simply bring it back to the technique every time we notice it's gone off on a tangent. For me it's easy to get frustrated with how fleeting my mind is, but this also is a habit pattern, and something to be acknowledged. It also is impermanent, ie it comes and goes. All thoughts and emotions come and go.

The retreat ended almost two weeks ago already, and although I don't meditate two hours a day, which is what the teacher says we should do, I do sit every day and I find this very grounding. I also notice my thoughts and emotions more throughout the day, and perhaps I'm a little more accepting of them. It's so easy to have cravings and aversions (attachments), but they always come with pain because they keep the reed from bending, and an unbending reed is an unhappy reed! The point is not to want nothing, but to observe your own mind and accept what happens in there, and remind yourself that all the thoughts that come to you are fleeting.