Day 44: 11 Insights From Vipassana Meditation Retreat: Part 2

6. Be aware of pain centre.
At Vipassana, there is about one and a half hour of video discourse by S.N. Goenka. In one of the discourses, he mentions a strategy to deal with pain and be more aware of it. He suggests that we don’t run away from pain or ignore it but rather observe and be equanimous to it. More specifically he suggests that during meditation, observe where the centre of the pain is, how is the pain distributed around that centre, what else is there other than pain; if there is heat, vibration or any other sensations. In one of the sessions, intense pain arose near my right knee. I started observing it and looked for the pain centre. An amazing thing happened. It was nice to know the pain on a deeper level. There was a pain centre in which there was pressure whose intensity was synchronised with my heart beat; then there was distribution of that pain around the centre and there was heat all over in the background. It was quite easy to be equanimous to pain when my awareness of it increased.
Now this insight is applicable not merely to physical pain but also for various life situations. For example I used to mentally bash myself for being shy. But that was a ‘pain’ of which, I wasn’t aware of the centre. The centre point for my shyness was this (apparent) inability to initiate conversations and keep them going. Now that I am aware of the centre point, I can work from there and be more empowered to deal with this situation.

7. Remember the compassion story and be inspired by it.
In one of the discourses, S.N. Goenka suggests that one must strive to develop the qualities of the person one claims to be a devotee of. He says merely ‘following’ and appreciating someone’s teaching is blind devotion; real devotion is to strive to walk on the path showed by that person. He shares this highly inspiring story about Gautam Buddha’s compassion that almost brought tears to my eyes. In that moment I committed to always remember this story and be inspired by it. Here is that story:
Prince Siddhartha set out to find the Ultimate Truth and at the age of 35 He became enlightened. From that moment onwards, He spent every moment of His life compassionately teaching others about the path that leads to liberation. He started with 5 of his fellow seekers. Soon there were 5000 people following his teachings and eventually millions of them. He travelled around spreading the message till the age of 80. At one point He declared to one of His attendants, Ananda, that He will leave His body in three months. The days passed and finally the night when He was about to leave came. Ananda thought to himself, “I must let some people know, else they will feel so unfortunate that the Enlightened One was there in their city during his last breaths but they couldn’t pay their respect to Him.” So he went to the city and told a few people. Soon the news spread like fire and a huge crowd got gathered around the place where the Buddha was breathing His last. Ananda couldn’t figure out how to manage such a huge crowd. He asked the crowd to form a queue and one by one meet the Buddha, pay their respect and leave. In a few moments the Buddha was about to leave His body but still there was a huge queue. There came one man and he started arguing with Ananda, “How can I just pay my respect and leave? I want to learn the path from the Buddha himself. I don’t what His followers will teach when He leaves.” Ananda said, “Brother, there are so many people here, the Buddha will leave at any moment, just pay your respect and leave.” The argument continued and it reached the Buddha’s ears. His heart got filled with compassion, he said, “O Ananda! Let that man come. This man is ready to receive the teachings.”
In his last moments, the Buddha shared His teachings with that man. Every moment of His life, He spent compassionately sharing his message.
This story fills me with inspiration to develop compassion towards my brothers, sisters and all beings.

8. Be aware of sensations before sleeping.
I have had difficulty in sleeping since quite a long time. I lie down on my bed to sleep but thoughts start coming up and I end up spending a lot of time ruminating, fantasising etc. Here’s a very effective way to sleep peacefully that I learnt from one of the discourses at Vipassana.
When you want to sleep, lie down on your bed comfortably and just be aware of sensations in your different body parts. Don’t get anxious if you don’t feel sleepy, just keep lying down and observing sensations. Soon you will fall asleep. Even if that doesn’t happen, your body and mind both will get adequate amount of rest because the body is in a comfortable and relaxed position and the mind isn’t busy in thinking.

9. Relax to use the power of the sub-conscious mind.
All kinds of challenges, issues and problems arise in life. But there is power and ability within us to rise above all those challenges. That power remains hidden. That power becomes inaccessible if we get anxious, worried and start overthinking and overanalysing. If however, we relax and remain equanimous, we can access our hidden power and come up with ideas, insights and action plans to deal with any challenge and rise above it. That power is the power of the sub-conscious mind. Most of our life, around 90% of it, is controlled by the sub-conscious mind.
There is no source of entertainment at Vipassana. All one has to do is meditate and stay quiet. So one is bound to get bored. I used to keep myself amused and motivated by imagining comedy movie scenes. But the challenge was every time I tried to consciously remember any scenes, I couldn’t do that and even if I could remember and imagine a scene, it didn’t make me laugh. That was because I was trying so hard. In one session I decided to relax and intended to laugh and be amused. That’s all I did. I relaxed and set up an intention. The sub-conscious took over and I had a laughter riot for around 30 minutes. I wonder what those around me would have thought, we were supposed to meditate and stay equanimous even if we got bored. Who laughs during meditation anyway? I do. 😀

10. Follow to lead.
This one is a random insight; not related to Vipassana but is important for life and success. I have always wanted to be a leader. Nobody is born with leadership skills, they are developed. For a long time, till I reached my 20s, I didn’t bother to think about leadership and developing leadership skills. But then the need and the desire from within arose. Since then I had been trying very hard to become a leader and develop the necessary skills. What I realised during one session is that one must learn to be a great follower in order to be a great leader. For example, in order to learn the necessary leadership skills, one must follow and observe how great leaders act, behave and execute. One must ‘follow’ the examples of great leaders; their teachings from whatever source one receives them; be it books, videos or direct contact.

Now, these are 10 insights. I originally published 11 insights but I had to remove the eleventh one because I couldn’t stick to my commitment towards it. It was about celibacy. Will write and talk about it when I am ready for it.

See you next time, until then,

Keep Improving, Joyfully! 🙂

Day 43: 11 Insights From Vipassana Meditation Retreat: Part 1

These are a few insights I had from my third Vipassana meditation retreat. I intend to integrate these into my nature and I am sure these will be helpful to anyone who sees the truth in them.

1. Recognise the impermanent nature of everything.
At Vipassana, the day begins at 4 am and ends at 9 pm with 10 hours of meditation in between. I used to keep on motivating myself to sit through the various meditation sessions. Sometimes after a session I felt highly motivated and as if I could accomplish anything in my life. There were other sessions after which I used to feel like life has no meaning and it’s worthless. My moods used to swing between these two extremes. And then I paid attention to a key element in the teaching. Vipassana teaches to recognise the impermanent nature of everything by observing various body sensations. At any given moment, there is one session or another happening in our bodies which we are usually not aware of. Sensations can be of different types ranging from those of heat, irritation, itching, palpitation to those of pleasure, ecstasy, relaxation etc. The one thing all the sensations have in common is that they arise and pass away. The point of recognising this nature of impermanence is that it is intelligent to be detached from something which arises and passes away, which is basically everything; our moods, motivations, relationships, money, possessions etc.

2. Be equanimous especially when feeling high.
There are two kinds of emotions; positive and negative. We usually face more negative emotions in our lives than the positive ones. Thus we get good at dealing with negative emotions. But when positive emotions appear, when we are flying high on the emotional sky, it gets highly unstable. At vipassana there was this one session in which I was very focussed. After that session I was feeling high, invincible, ‘I can do anything’ feeling. In the next session I chose to sit in an uncomfortable posture just to challenge nature with my invincibility. Nature won. I was in pain. The lesson was learnt. It’s easy to maintain stability when a car is moving slowly. It’s when the car is travelling at a high speed when we need to raise our level of awareness.

3. Deep breathing.
This one thing is magical. Ever since my childhood I have been receiving this same insight over and over again through books, people, videos and many other sources. David Deida mentions this in The Way of The Superior Man. Anthony Robbins in Unlimited Power. Robin Sharma and Jed McKenna in their books. Pranayam in Ashtanga Yoga is majorly about this one thing.
There was a time I was having a high fever and was lying on the bed. Suddenly I ‘received’ this thought about deep breathing. I breathed deeply for about 10 minutes and my temperature dropped to normal. Now, this may not be a ‘cure’ for every ailment and it worked only that time when I didn’t know that it worked. The subsequent times I tried deep breathing with an intention of bringing my temperature down didn’t work. Still, I know, I have absolute faith, that there is something very magical about deep breathing.
At Vipassana, in one particular session I was feeling a lot of pain and emotionally low. At one point I again ‘received’ this insight about deep breathing. I started doing that. The pain disappeared, joy appeared, the session transformed from pailful to awesome.

4. Set very clear intentions.
Every time I used to sit for a session, I used to set some very clear intentions. Here’s a sample set of intentions:
I intend to sit absolutely still, keep my eyes closed and focus my awareness on the sensation caused by my breath +- 5mm from my nostril base until the session ends. I intend to be self loving, self motivating and self amusing; I intend to be absolutely diligent, patient and persistent.
Now, during every session, I was reminded of my intentions whenever I wasn’t aligned with them. Anytime I would feel like giving up, my intention to be diligent, patient and persistent will come up. Whenever I used to get aware of not being focused on my breath, my intention would bring me back on track.
At one point on maybe 5th or 6th day I didn’t feel like setting up clear intentions before starting a session. In that session I did everything but meditate. I fantasised, visualised, imagined, sang songs internally; my mind wandered all around.
Here’s the lesson; setting up clear intentions helps in increasing focus and utilising the power of the sub-conscious mind. Make it an intention to set intention for your life, your year, your day and before every action that you take. For example I set an intention before I began writing this post that may this post add value to others’ life, along with some other intentions. And I am again and again getting reminded of that and thus adding various stories and elements that may add value to a reader’s life.

5. Give value to yourself and all others.
Life is about giving and receiving. Plants give us oxygen and receive carbon dioxide from us. We receive oxygen and give out carbon dioxide. At Vipassana, there are about 4-5 dhamma servers who give service with an intention of helping others meditate and ‘walk on the path of liberation’ comfortably. In return, it is said, and I believe so, it helps them on their path.
This happens because whatever intention we hold for long becomes stronger. Now, if a dhamma server is serving a 10 day course with a positive intention of helping others get established in meditation, their own intention towards meditation gets stronger.
Whatever we have abundance of in our life, we are giving out. If there is a lack in our life, it’s because we are holding that thing within us and not giving it out. Ever since I started creating these videos and blogposts, my own growth and improvement as a person has gained momentum. If someone has a lot of love in his/her life, it’s because  that person is loving others a lot. If someone has a lot of money, it’s because  that person is adding a lot of monetary value to others’ life. If someone is very happy, it’s because that person is making others happy.

Remember these insights and intent to integrate them in your nature and life.

Keep Improving, Joyfully! 🙂

Day 42: My Vipassana Experience; The Four Most Important Lessons.

I returned from my third ten day vipassana meditation retreat on 17th. It was an amazing experience. It was way different than my first two experiences. While I practiced the vipassana meditation technique in the first two retreats, this time I went with an intention of rising up in willpower, giving my best and to be an inspiration for the entire universe. I also decided that I won’t practice vipassana because on some level I believe that vipassana won’t liberate me until my mind is completely and utterly single pointed i.e. as focussed as it can possibly be.

I succeeded in sticking to my intentions of rising up in willpower, giving my best and being an inspiration for the entire universe. I used to sit for every session and all in all I missed less than two hours of the whole 100 hour meditation period.

A little bit about vipassana. It’s a 10 day meditation retreat where there’s 10 hours of meditation everyday. Also one has to take a vow of noble silence for the first 9 days, which basically means not communicating with any fellow meditator in any way including the avoidance of even eye contact. Also one has to observe five precepts. More information about vipassana can be found on this page.

Here are the four most important lessons that I learned there:

1. Be self-loving; self amusing and self motivating.
Vipassana is a tough course. 10 hours of meditation a day means one will go through a lot of physical pain and emotional resistance. In my second retreat I realised the importance of self-motivation. I needed to bombard myself with positive mental statements else I would have backed off from being consistent in my sittings. So I use to keep motivating myself. This time I added the element of self love and it improved my consistency manifold. I used to repeat, ‘I love myself’ constantly while taking walks, during sittings when I felt like giving up, whenever I started cursing myself for going on the retreat or practically whenever I was awake and doing nothing else.

2. Take small steps only. Grow, expand and improve joyfully.
On the third day I had an amazing one hour sitting. I felt high. I felt invincible. I thought I could take on any pain in the world and be equanimous to it. The next sitting was an aadhishtaan sitting in which one is supposed to sit still in one posture and not move any part for one complete hour. Now, I had already sat for overall 200 hours in aadhishtaan sittings before that point. So this time, because I was feeling high, I decided to sit in a bit ‘advanced’ posture. Lo and behold I had one hour of excruciatingly painful sitting. At times I felt my body was going to burst. But I persisted and didn’t give up; I kept on motivating myself and successfully sat for one hour without changing my posture. Why did I do that? Why did I persist even though I could have given up? Because I knew it was worth it. I wanted myself to completely integrate an important lesson.
Midway, I was reminded of what I consider the most important lesson for growth and improvement. Take small steps. My Day 2 video is all about this lesson. I had very well learnt that lesson but I think I needed this painful experience to fully integrate it as a part of me.
Here it is again. Take only small steps. This ensures that you grow, improve and expand joyfully. Be patient. Trying to move forward way to quickly will hurt you and hinder your progress or maybe halt it permanently.

3. Be consistent. Show up in every session and give your best.
I set this intention very clearly in my mind to show up in every session and to give my best. I sat for every session and didn’t get up until it ended. Note that it is not necessary for everyone to sit through a sitting for the whole duration unless it’s one of the three group sittings in which, no one is supposed to go out. One is allowed to go out and wander around a bit. But my mind was clear. I was committed to being consistent and that ensured that I got the maximum possible benefit I could have got. I gave my best. That also inspired others around me to give their best. On the tenth day when noble silence was over, many people told me how much I inspired them.

4. Practice diligently, be patient and persistent.
The part of the audio recordings, the instructions that are played there during various meditation sittings, I like the most is when the speakers says, “Practice diligently, patiently and persistently.” I consider these to be the three pillars for achieving excellence, greatness and genius. I love these three words. Diligence. Patience. Persistence.

Here’s a short poem I wrote today:

I am in Love.
True Love it is.
With my breath.
She is always with me.
I am always with her.
If she leaves me, I’ll die.
If I leave her, she’ll die.
It’s true unconditional love.
I am in Love.

Keep Improving, Joyfully! 🙂

Day 41: Back From Vipassana

I am back from the ten day vipassana meditation course; I went to the Sohna centre. I had an amazing experience. I learnt a lot of important life lessons and gained a lot of clarity and insights.

Everything seems a bit more different. A huge change has come within. The perspective is shifted by a significant degree and thus life is different. I will share my experience, lessons and insights in the subsequent posts and videos.

Nothing much to add to this post. Just two small things that I want to share.

First, watch any of my previous videos and compare it with Day 41 video and you’ll notice a huge difference in the vibe. Every video that I create has an improved version of me. 😀

Second, I watched Kamal Ravikant’s talk in the awesomeness fest on youtube. In that talk, he shares a story of one of his friends. She asks, this question, “What if this is heaven?” I have watched that video a couple of times but this time it was quite different. Just think about it. What if? Maybe, we have got it all wrong. 😀

Anyway, this post was just an update about my return. The journey continues…

Keep Improving, Joyfully! 🙂

Day 20: Flying High on Success

Success requires one to pay the dues. It often doesn’t come without struggle and hustle; in case it does, it doesn’t stay for long. Thus the journey of achieving success prepares one mentally to handle the struggle, pain, fear and remain equanimous to these. But it’s only after achieving success one learns how to stay equanimous to it.

When we fly high, we need to be very alert and attentive. Because at heights, stability is decreased. Also, falling from a higher place is more painful.

Similarly, when we achieve success, we need to learn how to remain balanced, equanimous and calm. It takes effort, time, facing failure; often a long and painful wait to reach one’s goals. Once a goal is successfully achieved comes the excitement and happiness of finally ‘making it’. This excitement and happiness often becomes a cause of losing the success, if equanimity is not maintained.

Our lack of equanimity, towards both failure and success, is quite glued to our nature. One of the purposes of life and sign of growth and evolution is rise in equanimity. Equanimity towards success and failure, good and bad, happy and sad… but on the deepest level towards craving and aversion.

This is the fundamental of Buddha’s teaching of Vipassana meditation. I have attended two of 10 day vipassana courses and here’s what I learned there. Vipassana meditation technique is about observing the sensations in your body. These sensations fall into two categories; those of craving and aversion. Now, what I have experienced is, it is quite easy to learn to stay equanimous to sensations of aversion. A possible reason for that is that for a major part of my life, I have been in ‘undesirable’ circumstances (undesirable being a label created by the mind). Thus, I have learnt to deal with i.e. be equanimous to undesirable situations, and thus towards the sensations of aversion. In my opinion, that is true for most of us.

So what happens is we get quite good at dealing with undesirable situations, failure, suffering etc. But that’s not the case with desirable situations, success, happiness, excitement etc.

Here’s what we need to do: we need to realise that success, like failure, is temporary. Everything in nature is impermanent and it will pass away sooner or later. The intelligent thing to do is to remain detached and observe the sensations, situations, emotions etc. as they arise and pass away. If we cling, we will fall.

Here are three ways to get established in equanimity:

• Meditation
  Meditation, in my opinion, is the most efficient and effective way of rising in equanimity. When we sit for meditation, the mind wanders away again and again. This causes mental turbulence, emotional ups and downs during a meditation session. The more we get established in this practice, the more we become aware of the impermanent nature of sensations and emotions. We become aware of how these impermanent things arise and pass away and thus learn to remain equanimous to them.

• Following your passion
  Following one’s passion, doing what one loves, is an amazing journey that one can undertake. It’s a roller coaster ride which is full of pain, failure, pleasure, success; the bad and the good. It’s a journey of very high highs’ and very low lows’ and thus trains one in remaining equanimous to everything that happens.

• Life
  Life itself is a teacher of equanimity. We have all kinds of things that happens to us. If we pay attention, we will learn the most important lessons. Life itself is a meditation. Get good at it!

Keep Improving! 🙂