2,500 YEAR OLD BUDDHA TEACHINGS IN OUR OWN BACK YARD

It is Vipassana and it means ‘To see things as they really are’.
I signed up, bought a comfy little meditation cushion, waved goodbye to my husband and entered the gates of this beautiful one hundred and forty acre compound just south of Barrie. Once inside you’re there for ten days – no leaving, it’s not allowed, really.
No eye contact was permitted, no talking, no writing, no reading, nothing but meditation sunrise till sunset. I shared a cabin; my roommate and I slept three feet apart, we passed each other through the door, never looking at each other, never disturbing ‘the work’. Wholesome vegan meals were served. We ate, sometimes six to a table, silent, alone in our heads. But ‘silence’ was the easiest part of the course.

With instruction from the current international teacher, S.N. Goenka, followed by one hour increments of quiet meditation in the meditation hall, it took a few days to shoo away the monkey in the brain. What a pesky creature that is. Then we mastered focusing. This was serious hard work. I realized how little control I actually had over my conscious brain, how wacky I was.

Once more calm, we observed sensations throughout the body and I was able, at one point when I had a burning pain in my thigh from long hours of sitting, to not react to it, to not indulge in its discomfort. The pain was there, I felt it, but I didn’t feel the sensation that pain triggers. This was only for a few seconds though and then my thigh hurt like h... again! But I had mastered equanimity, albeit brief, and that, for me, was profound. What more could I control of this brain? I’ve put that concept to excellent use since then.

I was liberated in Vipassana just south of Barrie within the silence of my mind, within the space between my thoughts, in the control room of my consciousness. I plan to go back to the centre to help out with its operation and to once again practise for an hour, a day, three days perhaps, to shoo away the monkey and to remind myself that I understand.

“Through direct experience of Vipassana, the nature of how one grows or regresses, how one produces suffering or frees oneself from suffering is understood.”

Vipassana was the most gruelling, exhilarating, self-fulfilling, and difficult thing I have ever done – I recommended it to everyone.

Contact me if you have any questions or visit www.torana.dhamma.org/index.html