Showing posts with label silence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label silence. Show all posts

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Silent Treatment

Closed for Vipassana
Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh

Sorry for my lengthy absence. I have been away at a 12-day silent meditation retreat in Dharamkot. The Vipassana program is well-known. The program requires that you sit for 10-12 hours every day in a darkened room, meditating with about 75 other people.

Speaking or even eye contact with other students is not allowed. There was a beautiful bunch of dogs roaming the grounds that became my therapists for the 12 days.

I can just say it was very worthwhile, very effective and very, very difficult. I almost walked out several times during the first five days. It was really, really annoying that every Indian TV commercial I'd heard in the past month played continually in my head. On the last day, it was even worse - my mental DJ was playing "Living Next Door to Alice."