Liberation and pain, pain or liberation?
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.
- Helen Keller
Apparently that goes for Vipassana as well -
Vipassana is a succession of lessons
(endless if you ask me)
which must be experienced to be understood...
I did not have the memory of Vipassana
as that painful.
But it's the same everytime.
When you go there and realise that,
you ask yourself:
"God, WHY AM I DOING THIS? This is torture."
...But at the same time blissful.
And the blissful memory is what stays behind. Luckily.
Otherwise i don't think I would go back.
When you are at Vipassana you wish the pain (I'm referring to the physical since you sit for 11 hours each day and aaaaall your old injuries and mental problems is being brought up to surface again) to go away, that is, you wish the retreat was over because that's the only way to stop the pain.
When you are away from Vipassana you wish you were back there...experiencing it all again. Because you realise that this is the only way to be liberated and free.
And this time the sound of the gong gong 4 o'clock in the morning felt comfortable. I was actually welcoming it. Getting up early in the morning to sit and meditate, falling asleep from time to time in that painful yet peaceful experience of meditation. You realise in Vipassana that pain is not harmful, it's not dangerous. It's disturbing and you want to free yourself from it, but the pain itself is not killing you.
But the most important lesson I bring with me, once again, is that EVERYTHING CHANGES. Everything.
Even the mountain will change in time.
And of course you, made of flesh and blood.
The only thing we know for certain is that WE WILL DIE.
And yet, people are so so afraid of it.
And your mind will change.
Your attitute and your temperament, your wishes and dreams, they keep changing.
So the pain I expereinced in so many ways in so many days
are now switched into joy and happiness.
I'm relieved. I'm not that stressed out.
I'm actually looking forward to things that concerned me a few days ago.
And that's victorious.
A wise man said:
Buddhism
is a product of Buddhists,
Dhamma
is a product of Buddha.
Follow Dhamma.
- S.N. Goenka
I follow Dhamma...
...follow it with me
- Helen Keller
Apparently that goes for Vipassana as well -
Vipassana is a succession of lessons
(endless if you ask me)
which must be experienced to be understood...
I did not have the memory of Vipassana
as that painful.
But it's the same everytime.
When you go there and realise that,
you ask yourself:
"God, WHY AM I DOING THIS? This is torture."
...But at the same time blissful.
And the blissful memory is what stays behind. Luckily.
Otherwise i don't think I would go back.
When you are at Vipassana you wish the pain (I'm referring to the physical since you sit for 11 hours each day and aaaaall your old injuries and mental problems is being brought up to surface again) to go away, that is, you wish the retreat was over because that's the only way to stop the pain.
When you are away from Vipassana you wish you were back there...experiencing it all again. Because you realise that this is the only way to be liberated and free.
And this time the sound of the gong gong 4 o'clock in the morning felt comfortable. I was actually welcoming it. Getting up early in the morning to sit and meditate, falling asleep from time to time in that painful yet peaceful experience of meditation. You realise in Vipassana that pain is not harmful, it's not dangerous. It's disturbing and you want to free yourself from it, but the pain itself is not killing you.
But the most important lesson I bring with me, once again, is that EVERYTHING CHANGES. Everything.
Even the mountain will change in time.
And of course you, made of flesh and blood.
The only thing we know for certain is that WE WILL DIE.
And yet, people are so so afraid of it.
And your mind will change.
Your attitute and your temperament, your wishes and dreams, they keep changing.
So the pain I expereinced in so many ways in so many days
are now switched into joy and happiness.
I'm relieved. I'm not that stressed out.
I'm actually looking forward to things that concerned me a few days ago.
And that's victorious.
A wise man said:
Buddhism
is a product of Buddhists,
Dhamma
is a product of Buddha.
Follow Dhamma.
- S.N. Goenka
I follow Dhamma...
...follow it with me
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