r/vipassana

Story Time :

One year ago I sat in complete silence for 10 days in Dharamshala. No phone, no talking, nothing.

I went for this 10-day Vipassana retreat not really knowing what I was walking into. No phone, no talking, no eye contact, wake up at 4am, sit and meditate for like 10 hours a day. That's it. That's the whole thing.

First 3 days I genuinely wanted to leave. My mind was ALL over the place. Every thought I'd been avoiding for years just showed up and sat right in front of me. The anxiety. The anger. The overthinking that never really stops. All of it. Nowhere to run.

But around day 6 something just... settled.

Not in a magical way. More like, I could finally see what was happening inside me instead of just being dragged by it. That gap between a trigger and my reaction? It got a little bigger.

I came back home and people noticed something before I even said anything.

A year later I'm not some enlightened person who has it all figured out. But I'm genuinely more at peace with myself than I've ever been. The anger doesn't own me the way it used to. The overthinking still comes, but it doesn't always win anymore.

If Vipassana has ever crossed your mind, that curiosity is there for a reason. Feel free to ask me anything about it. 🙏

#VipassanaMeditation #DharamshalaDiaries #Dhammasikhara #SNGoenka

You can have a look at the beautiful Dhamma Sikhara here👇

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeG7Fr5BvCj/?stkn=MTJicXZsajAyb3pvag==

Hi, I’ve been to 10 days course twice so far. The thing is, for old students they serve only lemon water in the evening at 5-5.30ish after 11.30ish lunch time for the whole day.

First time they served snacks which was fine. Second time I couldn’t hold my hunger that I started taking my evening snacks as well, but they refrained my friend from taking her snacks saying she’s an old student. She cried everyday and teacher was unwilling to let her leave as well. It felt like torture.

Now I’m considering to go third time but centipedes and food is scaring me n holding me back from applying. How did people deal with it?

Hey!
In two days, I’ll be starting my first 10-day Vipassana course in Lamphun, Thailand.
I’ve noticed that the closer it gets, the more anxious I feel. It’s almost as if my mind knows it’s about to go somewhere where it won’t be able to feed on distractions.
I’m 19, and I think being addicted to social media and similar things probably makes it even harder.
Has anyone else dealt with something similar? What was your experience like?

I sat a 10 day course when I was 11/12 weeks pregnant. My baby is now about 3 months old and I'm realizing that the only time I'm going to actually find to meditate is finding small moments when I'm nursing or waiting for him to enter a deep sleep before I lay him down. Because of the short moments available (5 min or so?) if I start body scanning at the top of my head every single time, I tend to only make it down one or two arms of the top of my torso. My question: during his next nap time should I start where I left off earlier in the day to make it down to my feet, or start all over from the top of the head (and potentially just only ever scan the same body parts?) Alternately I could try to do less detailed of a scan and just do chunks of awareness to make it all the way down my body and back up....? Would love to hear thoughts from other parents especially!

I think that happened (unnexpectedly) to me during the 6th day?

I went to my room to sleep after almost 10 hours of meditation and had this crazy energy running throughout my body.

I remember that at day especifically, during the end where they play the one-hours video of Goenka, my body was full of energy, and I remember while I was sat watching the video my body would shake crazily, as if the atoms were vibrating at higher frequency.

I proceed after the video ends to my room, and can’t sleep at all! Felt a sense of deep happiness, contentment, felt excited, even thougj I couldn’t sleep and knew I’d have to wake up soon enough again, it didn’t matter, that sense of excitment was amazing to feel, that state of higher energy was unstoppable, nothing could beat me.

Yeah, I couldn’t sleep properly indeed, but that was new to me, that feeling, since I always experienced life in a heavy, dense way.

It was beautiful to feel that and I’ll never forget it.
I wish that was my standard living mode, I’d be fullfilled for my whole life.

As expected, it lasted probably 15 hours more or less, then I went back to a normal energetical state.

But it blew my mind, what made me feel that way, nothing really bothered me.
My roommate snoring really reeeeeally loud, and me not being able to sleep? It doesn’t matter, It’s what it is.

Did you experience anything like that at all?