My First Vipassana Retreat: 10 Days of Silence
General ·Recently got back from a retreat where I learned to practice Vipassana. It’s a serious deep meditation technique where you sit completely still and observe sensations in your body. And I loved it!
About five years ago, I found out that meditation is good for your health and boosts productivity. Mindfulness practice was recognized by the WHO as an effective tool for helping with depression and anxiety. This whole self-development thing has kept me interested ever since.
I’ve had serious sleep problems for a long time — I sleep in 3-4 hour chunks. Sometimes there’s a sleepless gap of 2-3 hours between them. If I need to wake up early or at a specific time, I often don’t get enough sleep and it really messes me up.
I tried reading some mindfulness book, bought a Headspace subscription, tried other apps, and never managed to build meditation into my daily life. Yeah, I started using what I learned more often and it even helped me fall asleep sometimes. But it was never a system — just spontaneously remembering once a week or when things got really rough.
And then the stars aligned and I went on a retreat. Picked the nearest meditation center in Spain following S.N. Goenka’s program. Had no particular expectations, didn’t prepare for anything, didn’t read anything. I love getting a pure, unfiltered experience.
You have to strictly follow the code of conduct and behavior rules:
- vow of silence: no communication with other students whatsoever; even eye contact and touching are forbidden
- no killing (even insects), no stealing, no lying
- no sex
- no substances, cigarettes, alcohol
All of this lasts 10.5 days. Only on the last day is the vow of silence lifted, with a light decompression before returning to the regular world.
Men are strictly separated from women. You only cross paths during group meditation in separate parts of the hall. There were about 130 people total + 20 staff (the staff meditates with everyone three times a day)
Accommodation in small rooms, resembles a regular hostel. Surprisingly, the conditions are unobtrusive, you can calmly filter out the unnecessary. The author constantly emphasizes that the essence of the entire philosophy and technique is the FOUNDATION. Meaning it’s valid regardless of religious preferences.