DAY 10 – A Breath of Fresh Air

Yea!! I made it to the course finish, or at least through all of the hard parts.  We have discourse for the rest of the day and we still have to do our one-hour sittings.  Today has been really positive.  Once we were able to break Noble Silence we all burst out with incessant chatter. If you want to hear some motor-mouths talk to a big group of Vipassana meditators at the end of their course!
We watched a movie this afternoon that was actually pretty interesting. It was a documentary on the implementation of Vipassana Meditation centers at Tijar Prison, one of the hardest-core prisons in India. The course teachings really focus on a person taking personal responsibility for their own misery and suffering and by practicing this type of meditation you are able to begin to implement a technique that limits personal reaction to pleasure and pain with craving and aversion. Goenka recons that craving and aversion are the root of all misery and personal suffering because of the law of impermanence—nothing in this world is permanent and if you crave it then you are bound to cause yourself misery when it is gone.  There is a lot more to the philosophy but basically Vipassana is a way to free yourself from some of your misery if you practice. This technique is the first step on the path toward full Enlightenment according to Buddha.
I don’t know about all of that, but I do know that I have come out of all of this feeling lighter and more able to cope with both positive and negative situations with a really balanced reaction. I don’t know how much I will actually keep up with the recommended two hours a day of meditation, but I am going to try—I like the positivity that has infused my soul right now.
:)    BE HAPPY!