Vipassana Meditation

Day 276 / 366

Vipassana Meditation is a form of meditation that is taught at certain locations in a 10-day course. But there is a catch. The whole time you are there, you cannot communicate with anyone else. This obviously means no internet or cell phones. But it doesn’t stop there. You cannot even talk to the other students there or make hand gestures or eye contact.

I know 2 people who have been to such a retreat, and both have positive things to say about it. I have always been tempted to go there, but I am certain I will never be able to survive even a single day without my phone, let alone 10 days.

I am not sure how much of the results are due to the isolation, rather than the actual meditation. In today's world where we are so connected 24x7, I think we have forgotten the importance of spending time just with ourselves. We avoid it because being alone with your own thoughts can get scary. And so we resort to messaging or calling people, or wasting time watching reels and whatnot. Anything that we can do to not face our demons.

But when you can’t do that, you just have to sit there and acknowledge all of those thoughts. My friend told me how much time he spent there just crying by himself. But then a time came when there was nothing left in his head to cry about. All of the fog was lifted and he could see clearly again.

Back when I was a morning person, I used to have a fraction of this experience every day when I woke up at 4 AM. No one else I knew was awake, and I knew I couldn’t waste my time watching reels. So I used to meditate, write, and plan my day in absolute silence. Vipassana might not be feasible for me, but I hope I can go back to being a morning person some day.