3 Reasons to do 3 Days Silent Meditation

This week I Locked myself away to notice my breath for about 10 hours a day.

Why did I do this? To get closer to this question, Who am I? I get lost in the differences of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects and tend to come out with — ‘I’m energy or I’m nothing/everything!’ I watched a film on Vipassana meditation:

The Dhamma Brothers

Hearing the prisoners loved ones say they could actually see a difference in their faces. I wanted to see for myself. Unfortunately with Covid and the popularity of the 10-day course in the UK, I was looking at spring or later before I could complete the course.

One might consider that Vipassana is what many of us have been thrust towards with a reducing experience of the adventure of life, less/no travel, less/no interaction with others, and for many of us, a new experience called unemployment.

I watched a Vipassana preparation video and decided I could do it myself!?

Vipassana day 1

I will summarise this 70-minute video;

1. Follow the breath at the nostrils,
2. do not control the breath,
3. develop more and more subtle observation of the breath,
4. purify the mind (do not try and control the mind)
5. notice; Agitation, Attachment, Ignorance of the truth, Repeat actions, Tension, suffering, etc
6. notice who this “I” is that one talks about… the breath is the key
7. notice what I try and control and what I cannot control, get closer awareness of what is not in my control

Rules — No reading, no writing, no absorbing anything other than attention on the breath, eat only 3/4 of a full meal, eat only twice a day breakfast and lunch, wake at 4 am, sleep at 8 am, do not sleep in the day.

The 3 Reasons I give you for making this commitment to yourself.

1. You will do 3 days of silent meditation find out who you are. Whether it’s noticing that you exist without the controlling drivers of the mind/ego/superego etc and how those voices drive who you are outwardly through to how frequently you move from present to past and future. These all help. Awareness may be everything in this practice. Once one can see where the drive is coming from, one can make adjustments, perhaps even smile and accept the challenge of the mind and motives.
2. Realise life is simple, yet it is hard to live simply! One has made life complicated through the following of the mind, the society, the dialogue of wanting, and averting. Putting yourself into a 3-day process where you can’t escape yourself, no distractions, no way of moving away from the darkness inside there will be moments of bliss. You will see the beauty of what I felt. The flow and unity of life energy. The key is the breath, this is the connection we have to the eternal and we can watch it and control it. It felt like the doorway for me.
3. Accept what is. In life, one can choose so many things. Do I eat avocado, chocolate, crisps (chips), ice cream, toast, or all these things? Do I reply to the emails? Do I explore social media for hours, watch a film, a documentary, read a book. Do I work at home, from a coffee shop, the office? What car would I like… In Vipassana there is only space for acceptance, choice is reduced to how one sits, where one sits. One has the choice to walk out, this is not after all a prison?! Of course, you will learn very little about yourself, what acceptance is and the potential you have.

The experience is one that I will return to and with acceptance of the journey be in the full 10 days next year.

Wishing you all peace and joy.