Rules of the 7 Day Meditation retreat

I had heard a lot about meditation before, but as many of you, had no idea what it really meant. I had heard of these retreats called 'Vipassana retreats'. After a little more explination I decided that I'd try it.


So off I went to Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha. After inquiring I had heard the best place to do it was at the Burmese Vipassana Retreat Center. I arrived in the morning and told the head monk, a German, that I wanted to learn to meditate.





The Rules





Here are the rules of the center


No tobacco, alcohol, or drugs


No lies


No killing of living things (all living things! Including mosquitoes)


No sex


No stealing


No high or luxurious seats or beds


No dancing, singing, listing to music, or wearing of jewelry/make-up


No talking (except to the monk or nun)





The difficult rules





Then came the more difficult ones and more directly related to Burmese Buddhism


No eating of food after 12:00 pm


This meant that we ate two meals a day. One at 6:00 am, and one at 11:00 am.


Be mindful at all times


This is a little more difficult to explain. Being mindful meant that you had to know, and state, what you were doing, at all times. Since life is fast that would be impossible but since life at the center is slow, it could be done. Everything was to be done in slow motion; walking, eating, brushing your teeth, making your bed etc.


And as I said everything was to be labeled.


Here would be a typical morning


(Everything here is said in your head)


You wake up


"Waking up, waking up"


You want to get up


"Getting up, getting up"


You walk to the bathroom


"Lifting, moving, pushing, (first step). Lifting, moving, pushing (step 2) and this continues with every step you take until you get to the bathroom. You can guess what happens there.


So just by acknowledging everything you do, you are forced to do everything slowly.


Next you were meant to always be concentrating and not give into any sensual pleasure. A sensual please can be anything from looking at the beautiful sky to smelling a fragrant flower to listening to a bird sing. If you did slip and looked at the flower you were to state it, "intention to look, looking, looking".





Sitting and Walking Meditation





Since sleep is not a necessity we were asked to sleep at most 6 hours. The day was to be spent meditating. Since one can not sit for so long it was broken into sitting meditation and walking meditation.


The sitting meditation was focused on watching your breathing "Rising, falling" and being aware of what is happening in your body and labeling it "Pricking pain, pricking pain" you were told to not think about the feeling, weather it was good or bad, but just label it and watch it.


Walking meditation was just focused on the sensations of the feet. As I mentioned before, (lifting, moving, pushing,) and only concentrating on this.





The Schedule





So you were supposed to be up 18 hours a day. The wake up' gong' was at 4:00 am. The first hour would be sitting and the next walking meditation until breakfast, then in continues like this until lunch. After lunch it continues until the Dharrma talk, which focuses on Burmese Buddhism. Then the schedule continues until 10:00pm. You are given a half hour break after lunch.

And thats the course