Success vs. Joy
- LIV -
No Pain, No Self-discovery
I recently attended an 11-day Vipassana course. Vipassana is a very effective meditation technique, which was discovered by Gautam Buddha to gain enlightenment.
The course involved remaining silent for the entire 11 days. This included no visual or physical contact with anybody. It was a time to go inward, to rediscover the joy of the connect with the self, and to reinforce the worthlessness of petty anxieties, insecurities, and feelings of envy.
On the third day we were asked to sit in one posture for one hour without moving our limbs. Whichever posture chosen, there was an intense pain in many parts of the body after 35 minutes. The last 10 minutes of the hour were particularly excruciating.
The first time I tried this, I found that there was an intense pain in the left part of my head and my intellect was trying to ignore the pain. My mind attempted many tricks to divert itself and not feel the pain but after 50 minutes it gave up and succumbed completely. I did not move my body or uncross my limbs, but my head drooped as I suffered the last 10 minutes with pain the only sensation in my entire being.