Key Learnings From My 10 Day Silent Vipassana Meditation Retreat

Key Learnings From My 10 Day Silent Vipassana Meditation Retreat

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✔️Practise is compounding. 25 years ago when I was first exposed to the meditation technique of Vipassana, I was so bad at it. Over time, very very slowly (and I mean very slowly) my approach has changed and my equanimity has strengthened. What was unbearable in the beginning has now become something I really look forward to. This technique has really helped me to forgive and make sense of my traumatic childhood, and I am so grateful for that. The sooner you start whatever it is that you have an intuition to embody or embrace or practise, the better it is. Make haste while the sun shines and you are still able to move forward, has become my motto. When an opportunity arises, I grab and run with it. 

✔️Meditation is just a tool for self improvement and freedom from negativity. It is a technique which I can access at any time. The real work is in the application of the principles in everyday life. It is all well and good to go on a retreat but if it does not improve my behaviour in any way for the better, then I would have to question the point of it all. (Am I becoming more compassionate, loving and grateful?). So what I have been reminded of this time, is to make a huge effort to keep connected to my breath and my sensations not just when I meditate, but in situations throughout the day. 

✔️Once again I learned how helpful it is to go off the grid as it gives me an opportunity to revisit my priorities and plans and reconfirm what I am thinking and where I am heading. I did not dwell on having these types of thoughts but as a consequence of taking time out from every day life and the conversations and noise that clutters up my mind, taking a birds eye view of my life and seeing it from a different angle happened naturally. 

✔️I also saw past hurts from a new light and have become motivated to forgive and move on, and where applicable reach out, which I have already done since yesterday with an old friend who still means a lot to me. 

✔️I have become inspired to incorporate some new habits such as a daily yoga and stretching practise, as well as my current gym routine. I have noticed that the gym routine is really making a difference to my ability to sit and meditate for long hours, that my core and stamina are in good shape, and that the next move is to bring in yoga again as a regular practise in addition to what I am already doing. 

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It is a rare thing in this day and age to be able to attend a retreat, pay by donation, be served and gifted the teachings of an ancient technique that managed to survive over 2,500 years in it’s pristine purity and now, since 1969, spread around the world and become a global phenomenon. 

If you have any inclination to learn to meditate, release negative mental conditioning, heal from your past, become a better person, take responsibility for your life and see things from a different angle, then this could be for you. The essence of the teachings are centred around morality, concentration and mastery over your mind and wisdom and insight. 

If you would like to try a 10 day Silent Vipassana meditation retreat, here is the website: www.dhamma.org