Well i'm going to start this post by saying, doing this ten day course was one of the most amazing but also most challenging things I've ever done in life. I went into this without really understanding what it was, I came out with a whole new view on life and a understanding of what meditation could really be. I’m going to list my experience day by day as we go, to give you a little idea as to what I was feeling on each day. I originally found out about this ten day course from a friend I met while attempting a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail in 2013 and ever since it was in the back of my mind to just go for it. So lets list out the days now.

Orientation day.

I showed up about 2 hours early (poor time management) because I was nervous but also happy to just get things started. As I sat outside the male dinning hall slowly people started to trickle into the center, all with nervous faces but smiling hearts. A few started small talk but the mood of the place on this day was “we are about to start nobel silence don’t look at me or talk to me!”, oh yes I will be listing out the rules that we had to follow for the ten days also. As the registration started we all went inside to find out our room numbers and to read the rules.

to abstain from killing any being;

to abstain from stealing;

to abstain from all sexual activity;

to abstain from telling lies;

to abstain from all intoxicants.

And my favorite Noble Silence!

So we get our rooms then we go to the meditation hall for the first time to watch a video and sit for just a short period. Then it’s off to the races as Day one begins.

Day 1

Alright here we go, in the schedule I posted up top you can see the daily routine we had to follow. So for the first day I woke up at 4 AM and went right to the meditation hall, again not having any idea what I was really doing but just knowing I was going to sit in that hall for two hours until breakfast even if it meant my back and legs falling off. Well my back and legs didn’t fall off and the first two hours of my 100+ hours felt more like a ants in my pants type of game, I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one as I looked around at this early morning crew of sleepy eyes. Everyone was building these amazing pillow thrones that was really an art form in itself. The rest of the day was basically the same as the first two hours as we practiced the technique anapana, this meditation focuses on the natural breath going in and out through the nose. Once we hit the 7PM teacher discourse I was so ready to really get a better understanding as to what the hell I was doing and sure enough S.N. Goenka came on the screen in videos recorded at this center in 1991 to deliver. The first day was a huge positive for me and I was hoping to have this feeling for the whole ten days but as I came to learn that isn’t vipassana at all.

Day 2

Day 2 wasn’t really as difficult as day 1 but I still couldn’t get my pillow combination right yet, but boy I could feel it coming together. My back did fall off this day and I had to move to the back wall to give myself some more support and it helped me out a lot. The meditation got a little more intense with the teachers asking us to focus on a triangle area around our nose to start and feel sensations just in that area, at first I was really struggling with this only because I couldn’t stop reacting to itching sensations. The main thing I got out of day 2 was that I was really in need of some macaroni and cheese… Day 3 incoming!

Day 3

The last day of focusing just on anapana and the start to what I thought was the end of my journey. This day was a difficult one for me and I couldn’t get out of bed at the 4AM morning bell so I slept in until about 6:25AM because of course I couldn’t miss breakfest. At the first group sitting I couldn’t focus at all and all I was thinking about was how to leave this place and why I came. It started to pass after about 45 minutes into the sit and then I thought about going to speak to the teacher later that day to see if I should leave. Well lunch came and passed so during the 11:45-1:00 break you can go speak to the teacher and that’s just what I did, I walked into the room and simply asked him “is this right for everyone?” he laughed and said no not for everyone. We talked about how I couldn’t focus and how I thought it was going to end in me not completing the course but he assured me I could finish and off I went back into the silence of this beautiful place. The rest of the day was peaceful and I really calmed down with the thought of leaving.