Vipassanna Meditation a bit of background
Ten day Silent Meditation, no speaking, no eye contact or sign language, just meditate.
Why would anyone want to do this? seriously ten days of no speaking, is this even possible?
I had to know more, like what do you do, just meditate? How long, how many times a day? Are you allowed to eat and sleep? Are you secluded or have people around you?
Is this a cult? Where did it start? How old is this practice? How much does it cost?
Oh, I would soon learn and all my questions would be answered. I first learned of the Vipassanna
Meditation November 2010 from a client who had done this course. My first reaction was “That’s crazy, I can think of a lot of better things to do for ten days than just sit around and meditate” Yes, it sounds extreme, was her reply, but it actually is quite good and you are a better person after you have completed this ten day course. I highly doubt that, I thought to myself, after all I am a pretty decent person, hard working, loyal and highly motivated. Always trying to make everyone happy, always doing the best possible job at everything I set my mind to. How in the world would this silent workshop make me a better person.
Ok, I’ll start with what does this Vipassanna cost? Nothing was the reply, oh come on, nothing in this life is for free, everything has a price and a cost, how can you run a center with out charging any money?
It turns out that the Vipassanna Center is run by donations, really, i just can not wrap my head around that, Donations? This place must just be scraping by then I asked? The answer, No No just the opposit, there are so many people who attend and donate that the Center is always expanding with new meditation halls, larger dinning & sleeping quarters.
How big is this place? It is world wide and growing. Fine, I can accept that, but who started it, is it a cult and how ling has this been around? As it turns out Vipassanna Meditation is one of India’s most ancient form of meditation techniques. It was rediscovered 2500 years ago by Gotama the Buddah, and Vipassanna is the essence of what Gotama practiced and taught for Forty five years of teaching.
During Buddha’s time many people in India were freed from suffering by practicing Vipassanna, this allowed the people of India to attain high levels of achievement in all spheres of life. Over time this practice spread to Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries.
Five centuries later the true form of Vipassanna Meditation had been pretty much lost and the purity of this form of meditation would have been completely gone forever if not for a few dedicated teachers in Burma, India who devoted their lives in preserving and continuing the True form of Vipassanna. By preserving the original form, the technique has survived and is now reemerging as as a strong growing practice world wide.
It turns out that Shelburne Falls, MA. is one of the nicest centers and the only Vipassanna Center in the NorthEast! S.N. Goenka reintroduced the practice and starting teaching in 1969. A decade later more than a 1000 assistant teachers trained by S.N. Goenka conduct ten day courses all over the world. Over
one hundred centers have been established with over 100,000 people attending the retreats.
Ok, so it's a legit old world practice that bring happiness & enlightenment. This does not sound to bad, but why Ten days of silence? Does one sleep and Eat?? I need to know more.....
