Once again mind, thought and programming!

I went for 10 days Vipassana meditation course. Its been long time that I wanted to do this course. At last, I did this course in Canada and not in India. My father started Vipassana six month back. He again recommended me to go for it as early as possible.  It is wonderful opportunity for those who like to understand mind and gain control over emotional stress. Most importantly what amazed me is that it is free course. It is completely run using donations and volunteers. I completed this retreat at Ontario Vipassana Centre (http://www.torana.dhamma.org/) named as Dhamma Torana.  At the center, I talked with course participant on the first day and asked them why they have interest in this. I was curious to know that what are the possible reason for a person to come for 10 days long meditation course.  I was surprised to see the participants from different countries and various religion. It is written on the website about introduction to Vipassana as it is one of India's oldest techniques of meditation, first taught 2,500 years ago. It is a practical method of self-awareness that allows one to face the tensions and problems of daily life in a calm and balanced way. It is based on the Gautam Budhha's teaching. You have to follow few code of discipline. It is rrequires hardwork. You need to have patience and determination to learn to have calm and balanced mind. Everything is changing, it is "Anitya" which you will hear every now and then during the course. The main teacher of Vipassana Meditation is Mr. S.N. Goenka. All the instructions and discourses are given by him. His voice is commanding. I liked all the discourses mainly because it resembled my opinion about all those subject which were discussed. However, I did not believe in few things which were discussed in the discourse. 

My experience in that 10 days course was wonderful. First three days were annoying. I kept on struggling with unwanted memories and thoughts. It is challenging task to force your mind to concentrate on certain task without remembering or thinking about any other thing. Second challenge is to develop ability to sit for long hours. How wonderful it is to think that both these challenges are only linked with your mind! You have to be determined and patient to overcome both these challenges.  Within three days, I was able to gain control of my mind to certain extend. I was able to sit for 1 hour without moving. I realised that we work based on what we tell our mind. Before starting meditation, I was telling my mind that I have to sit for 1 hour. Once that hour was finished, I couldnot resist to change my position. I told myself that I will do 5 rounds of task and then I will stop. I did not count it. I realised that it automatically force me to change the position after 5 sets. I started defining non-time frame task. It helped me to improve my sitting. Its profound realization that what you tell to yourself or others tells you has deep impact on your performance. We know this very well, it was demonstration to myself.I understood this lesson through my own experience.

We were given instruction about the meditation technique and how it works. Everyday there were some chanting and repetition of few concepts such as everything is changing. Your reaction causes suffering, you can achieve balanced and equanimous mind through this meditation technique. First day it self, I was stuck with one thought that when Gautam Bhdhha were searching reason for unhappiness. He started wandering and met few saint who taught him meditation. He was looking for the truth. He found it for himself. He passed his understanding to other people. Now, if this meditation technique were taught without telling what a person is going to experience. How it will work in that scenario? Before starting of each meditation sitting, I was told again and again that any reaction generate craving or aversion. I have to learn to control reaction which in turn will stop craving and aversion. If I was told that you have to experience the sensation in your body. Learn to focus your mind on the sensations and dont react on these sensation. With this information, if I was told to spend those ten days then I guess that I might have had something different experience.

When you meditate that time you go through different stages. At one point you feel energy flow through out your body.  I was wondering that what this energy flow is and how to link it to the physical and biochemical reaction. I have experienced it only twice. I am curios to explore this phenomena of mind and matter. I had strange experience. After thirds day, I realized that my mind became very sharp and focused / sensitive that when I was closing my eyes, I was able to see HD quality colorful images. Usually, when I close my eyes, I can create black and white or grey shade pictures. As soon as I closed my eyes, I was seeing natural beauty such as tress, ocean, sea plants and animals etc. I never saw any known person or human being. These images were like video. Mind was generating some beautiful and colorful movie. I was able to see all colors. When I was trying to focus on sensation and forcing my mind to stop that imagination, it use to create a standstill image like pause in a video. If my focus was again shifted to that image then it was starting that movie again.

How you can control your conscious mind and get control of your subconscious mind? Our mind is very delicate, it is constantly trained through all sensors which we posses such as eye, ear etc. Conscious mind collects data and transfers to subconscious mind continuously. Our reasoning ability is build over the period of time. However, this reasoning ability can be changed very easily. Most of the time, it is changed with any small event. I am analyzing all these things to understand myself.  When we start observing sensations and try to stop reaction, I was wondering that what way it is linked to nervous system and brain function. I started analyzing its link at biological level where and how this meditation works in real life.

I thought about so many things through that period. I am happy that I did this course. Hope to go for it again