My first Vipassana Retreat

May 23, at 11 am, I carpooled to Dresden. I met with a woman called Kirsten. We were booked to attend a Vipassana Course. She drove us to the Dhamma Dvāra Centre in Triebel. The next day the retreat was to start.

The day before was busy in Leipzig. I packed up the flat and walked things to Bassel’s flat. I helped to clean at Daniela’s. I put in an arts application and cycled between places. I thought that going to the meditation retreat would be a rest. Lie back and listen to dolphin sounds, seems I had that wrong!

Vipassana is one of India’s most ancient meditation techniques. The word Vipassana means seeing things as they really are. One begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate the mind. It is a ten day silent retreat. The Courses are very well structured, and being in Germany, even more well structured! You can talk to the assistant manager volunteer whom is there for the women. Men and women are segregated. In the meditation hall, women sit on one side and men on the other. There is about 9 hours a day in meditation.

A Vipassana meditation course is a bit like running a marathon, it aint easy. It certainly is a life changing journey, well it was for me. Phones, keys, wallets, notebooks and pens are handed over on arrival. Put in safe keeping until the end of the course. The second day of the retreat was hard for me. So was the fifth day. Everyone has a different experience.

I met Mar, we were room ates, in a room of four. And were placed sitting beside each other for ten days. So we spent quite a lot of time together. It was kind of weird to actually speak at the end. I remember one morning, before breakfast we were resting after early meditation, and thinking I had mist breakfast. I sat up and said ‘oh no’ really loudly. Mar looked at me very amused. Meal times were very much looked forward to. Mar is from Georgia, the one in Europe. There are usually many people from many different nations on these courses.

In the food hall one day, I vividly remember looking at her plate with two huge slices of cake. Just a moment before, I had seen the sign that said ‘one piece of cake each’. I nearly burst out laughing, and she too. She gave me a look of pure spirited naughtiness.

It was amazing how much clears out of the body in such a short space of time. This is something I hadn’t seen coming. There can be lots of trips to the bathroom. Seems I am thin, but it seems we store a lot of stuff! The practise really seems to help, it is like scanning the body with the breath and moving it slowly through. I did feel really good and a lot clearer afterwards. To be honest, when the course finished I felt like I was just getting the hang of it. I almost wanted to keep going!

June 4, with a lift back to Leipzig after the course, to stay with friends at their flat. Coming out of the Vipassana is quite a transition phase.