ararat
Holofractale de l'hypervérité
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- 8 Juin 2006
- Messages
- 3 374
has anyone of you taken one of those courses by S.N. Goenka? I took a 10-day course starting from 28th of december and it was crazy.
you accept a few rules, you shouldn't talk to other people, verbally, bodily or otherwise, you cannot take any books, mobile phones or mp3-players with you, etc. etc., it's all there: http://www.dhamma.org/en/code.shtml
the first three days you do anapana meditation, that is, you concentrate on the natural flow of your breath as perceived at the entrance of your nostrils, and then you do 7 days of vipassana, in which you scan your body part by part, piece by piece and perceive whatever you feel there, pain, tingling, heat, cold, sweating, trembling, pulsating, anything. the idea is that by feeling your body you go to the deepest, or at least a deeper level of your consciousness, the unconscious one. by equanimously feeling these feelings, which they say are impurities, they will be purified. at first I thought it was a whack thing to say, but I tried it and seeing is believing... the first few days I had lots of pain in shoulders, but it went away. the first time we did vipassana I sweated so much, everything was stinging and trembling. I think this is because of all the anger I had been accumulating. and lo and behold, it went away. later in the course I got really really tired and disinterested in meditation and everything else for that matter, and I told the teacher, and he said that it's probably some old tiredness and that I should pull through it. again, it went away. afterwards I had wonderful experiences in the forest. hard to describe, but it was a lot like tripping on lsd actually. the whole thing was a lot like a lsd trip diluted on 10 days.
the first two days were pure hell, I was so confused, I thought I ended up in a brainwashing place (kinda true though :lol: ), the third day all I could think about was SEX SEX SEX, with every and anybody, girls from 5 years ago popped into my head etc. the whole program. on the fourth I decided that I am my own person and that I was going to leave. I told the managers that I was going to leave, 10 minutes before we had the first vipassana meditation. they said I should at least attend the first vipassana, and I thought, oh well ok, in god's name, why not. and BAM I was struck by a lightning. it's really hard to describe, but it felt like a shell of anger and other stuff was blasted away by the power of some divine energy. it sounds cliché to write about it like that, but it's the best I can do to describe it. it was a very humbling experience, it also opened my gaze to the immense suffering of other people, something I have strangely been unaware.. it was then that I decided to stay and do the whole course... the other days were kinda mixed. from disinterestedness to nondual states stumbling around in the forest smelling all kinds of things, eating oranges and remembering the whole absurdity of life, that we all run after some goal, while life is so much more like music or dance, it doesn't go anywhere, it does it for its own sake.
the point is, it's an interesting endeavour to attend one of those courses. not all of it is good though, you always have to listen to this goenka guy and I swear his voice annoyed me so much :lol: he also talks about some stuff that I don't really agree with, but that is fine with the people there, they recognize that you have every right to believe other stuff. he talks about reincarnation and all that buddhist stuff and so on. I'm not too much into that, but hell, I'd be lying if I said that I know. in the beginning I though that they are a bit sectarian, but that may also have been paranoia of the ego, knowing that it is in dangerous terrain
or I'm brainwashed now :lol:
anyway, I wholeheartly recommend to try one of those courses if you are sincere about psychonautism. it's very very interesting, and they are available world wide. what's more, they don't charge any money for it, it is on donation basis. people who stop the course in between are not allowed to give away money for it, and those who complete it pay according to what they think is apt, so that they have the means to make these courses available to new people.
you accept a few rules, you shouldn't talk to other people, verbally, bodily or otherwise, you cannot take any books, mobile phones or mp3-players with you, etc. etc., it's all there: http://www.dhamma.org/en/code.shtml
the first three days you do anapana meditation, that is, you concentrate on the natural flow of your breath as perceived at the entrance of your nostrils, and then you do 7 days of vipassana, in which you scan your body part by part, piece by piece and perceive whatever you feel there, pain, tingling, heat, cold, sweating, trembling, pulsating, anything. the idea is that by feeling your body you go to the deepest, or at least a deeper level of your consciousness, the unconscious one. by equanimously feeling these feelings, which they say are impurities, they will be purified. at first I thought it was a whack thing to say, but I tried it and seeing is believing... the first few days I had lots of pain in shoulders, but it went away. the first time we did vipassana I sweated so much, everything was stinging and trembling. I think this is because of all the anger I had been accumulating. and lo and behold, it went away. later in the course I got really really tired and disinterested in meditation and everything else for that matter, and I told the teacher, and he said that it's probably some old tiredness and that I should pull through it. again, it went away. afterwards I had wonderful experiences in the forest. hard to describe, but it was a lot like tripping on lsd actually. the whole thing was a lot like a lsd trip diluted on 10 days.
the first two days were pure hell, I was so confused, I thought I ended up in a brainwashing place (kinda true though :lol: ), the third day all I could think about was SEX SEX SEX, with every and anybody, girls from 5 years ago popped into my head etc. the whole program. on the fourth I decided that I am my own person and that I was going to leave. I told the managers that I was going to leave, 10 minutes before we had the first vipassana meditation. they said I should at least attend the first vipassana, and I thought, oh well ok, in god's name, why not. and BAM I was struck by a lightning. it's really hard to describe, but it felt like a shell of anger and other stuff was blasted away by the power of some divine energy. it sounds cliché to write about it like that, but it's the best I can do to describe it. it was a very humbling experience, it also opened my gaze to the immense suffering of other people, something I have strangely been unaware.. it was then that I decided to stay and do the whole course... the other days were kinda mixed. from disinterestedness to nondual states stumbling around in the forest smelling all kinds of things, eating oranges and remembering the whole absurdity of life, that we all run after some goal, while life is so much more like music or dance, it doesn't go anywhere, it does it for its own sake.
the point is, it's an interesting endeavour to attend one of those courses. not all of it is good though, you always have to listen to this goenka guy and I swear his voice annoyed me so much :lol: he also talks about some stuff that I don't really agree with, but that is fine with the people there, they recognize that you have every right to believe other stuff. he talks about reincarnation and all that buddhist stuff and so on. I'm not too much into that, but hell, I'd be lying if I said that I know. in the beginning I though that they are a bit sectarian, but that may also have been paranoia of the ego, knowing that it is in dangerous terrain
or I'm brainwashed now :lol:anyway, I wholeheartly recommend to try one of those courses if you are sincere about psychonautism. it's very very interesting, and they are available world wide. what's more, they don't charge any money for it, it is on donation basis. people who stop the course in between are not allowed to give away money for it, and those who complete it pay according to what they think is apt, so that they have the means to make these courses available to new people.