My Biggest Learning from ten-day Noble Silence Meditation Retreat
In 2020, just before Covid outbreak, I attended ten-days noble silence meditation retreat where I woke up at 4 AM, practiced 11 hours of meditation per day and abstained from any form of communication, exercising, reading, technology and other things. In simple terms — I was totally cut off from the outside world and I had the luxury to pay full attention on my inner-self.
What is this noble silence meditation retreat?
It’s called Vipassana meditation retreat and for beginners it is a ten-day course. The meditation practice is focused on enhancing mindfulness. If it is something that you find yourself intrigued with, simple google about it and you’ll find its official website. There are centres all over the world. The best part is that it is free of cost ( unlike others wherein one has to pay to be part of such retreats). The only tricky part is to secure an available seat and sometimes waiting time extends to few months.
My Biggest Learning
Everyone has different experience and learnings from this 10-day course. Some may become more self-aware of their thoughts and emotions, some may learn that it is possible to stay disconnected even in today’s world and for some it can be a realization that work goes on even without them.
For me, the biggest learning has been to accept the fact that ‘nothing is permanent’.
Impermanence — Nothing is permanent in life
This is the key learning that has stayed with me post the course completion. This single learning had a profound impact on the way I approach my life. During those 10 days of meditation, we were asked to observe — how we breathe, what we feel on every part of the body. As we progressed in this course, I observed and felt that my sensations were changing with every breath. This is referred as ‘Anicca’ which means Impermanence. As an example, we were asked to focus on the stress points in our body keeping in mind that nothing is permanent. The outcome was that even such stress points were healed. I applied this technique many times during the course and experienced it and this has been such an eye-opener. My physical body, my body cells are changing from moment to moment that I was never aware of.
Additionally, this Law of Impermanence is applicable not just on our physical state but also to our emotional state. Our thoughts, our emotions are ever evolving. Hundreds of thoughts come to our mind and disappear and the cycle goes on. Similarly, we all know that humans take birth, live and die. Death is the ultimate truth. But somehow, when we live our lives, we forget or fear this truth. We have our attachments. There are certain sensations we like and certain ones we avert, certain people, things and situations we like and others we dislike. And all this leads to some degree of emotional misery. Through Vipassana, I realized to see good and not so good sensations and situations objectively. Meditation helps to train the mind to respond to different sensations, different emotions in a similar way. At personal level, this is still work in progress. But I have realized and accepted it that attaining such a state of mind is possible and it is not just a feat treasured by few spiritual Gurus or teachers.
My Present Practice
As I practice Vipassana meditation daily, I observe my sensations and accept the reality as it is. It helps me to be in present moment. Every moment, the world is changing and I learn to stay in this moment rather than wondering mindlessly in the future of illusions. There’s some adventure in the unknown and I let my life unfold its mystery to me without stressing too much. I cannot avoid negative situations but I am being mindful on how I respond to it. In such bad situations, Vipassana meditation serves me as a reminder that nothing is permanent and this too shall pass.
Final Thoughts
I found Vipassana to be a great technique to practice mindfulness. It helped me accept one of the biggest reality of human life — Impermanence, that everything is changing, nothing is permanent. It has changed my perspective towards life and how I want to lead it.
As always, I would love to know your thoughts on Impermanence and how easy or difficult you find it accept it. If you have attended Vipassana, please don’t forget to share your experience and learnings from it.
