Vipassana, near Nagpur, Maharashtra

Well... being surrounded by 70 beautiful women who are not to talk (the Noble Silence)… What can I say? I loved it!!!  :-) The intensive rainbow colour of their saris and kamiz completed perfectly the greenery that surrounded us. It was a remote countryside with chirping birds all day long, crickets accompanying you to sleep, butterflies in all colours, always present lizards... Apparently there were also snakes and scorpions but I didn't have pleasure to meet those fellows.

And trains! Frequent, fast and loud...promising the journey - meeting a long time not seen relative or friend...or visiting far away places, places to be discovered... I loved to listen out for and watch them from my tower. 

Yes, I spent most of my time on the water tower. In the morning and afternoon I snoozed there and at noon I was having a regular intake of vitamin D with the sun, just for 20 min. 

We were to remain not only silent but also without any kind of communication: gestures, touch or even eye contact. Not needed anyway. The communication is happening just by being in this community. The togetherness creates connections that are stronger with some then with the others. How? Is it the energy of every single person floating in this absolute causing the move in the energy of another creature? Is it the universal low of a tribal living? By the end of 10 days I gave the names in my head to most of my fellows and non of them was unnoticed :-)

And I never stopped talking.... in my head... We had great conversations: me, myself and I, and Violetta joined as well. We spoke English, Polish and even some French.


When the ladies started to talk, that's what it gives: 

Again I was the only white in the crowd, friendly called "English". I've always wanted to be born English mother tongue. See how India is a "dream come through" country, not only the America. 

 Another similarity with the US is that you eat food with your hands. Here you mix thoroughly the flavours of different freshly prepared dishes with rice/chapatti; in America greasy, ketchup dripping, carnivore burgers. Another reason why I'm in India...

 













My manners here are being challenged. During Vipassana I was presented with quite frequent burping, cleaning one's throat and nose in, let's say, spectacular way, equally in dining and meditation hall. I'm not there yet and maybe I'll rather focus in perfecting my eating technique rather than other habits. My way of fingering the food might be equally repulsive for them as their burping for me. First of all I still use my left hand to tear the chapatti, while it is the "dirty" hand that serves rather the other end of digestive system. Secondly, I'm not very coordinated to shoot the food into my mouth so it sometimes misses the goal... Well, I'll ask Molly Kotchamma, Lizzy's mum, to teach me some table manners. 

But what about Vipassana itself? 

At the beginning my mind was rushing like a wild horse. For the first 2 days I was trying very hard to canalise this roaring stream of thoughts. I could not stop it! I was like in surrealistic state between dream and reality. Whenever I closed my eyes (which was for about 9h a day) I felt like Alice in Wonderland: the past was mixing with the future, real with not real, joy with sadness. My mind was working also during the night and I was waking up from violent dreams, sweating. It is astonishing how we are possessed by our own mind. You think you are the master but the mind has a live on its own...

So for 10 days all I was doing was sleep, eat and meditate. Imagine the comfort of being provided with everything and all you need to do is to dive into a depth of your own mind and try to tame this wild horse. It's a hard work, I can tell you! 

Now I feel clearer in my mind. It's like somebody took off a lid that was covering my head (I'm not sure it wasn't belgian gray sky) and gave a way to an endless space where one can breath freely and calmly. I'm not sure if it is not an Indian climate rather than Vipassana... ;-) 

 
I didn't manage to follow Goenka's philosophy. It's too...flue for me. I translated it into Mindfulness terms. The technique after all is the same.

For me it was intensive crash course of Mindfulness. The conclusion I drew is one and simple - meditation is to my mind like brushing to my teeth. I need to incorporate it into my daily routine. And I manage to do since.