Vispassana Meditation: Journey to a Healthy Mind

by Petta Hulme
(Lincoln, England)

Wat Ram Poeng Temple

I have always been interested in meditation and knew it’s a lot harder than it looks. What attracted me were the benefits it can bring to life, creating a gap in the relentless traffic of thoughts in my mind.

Having spent five months in Thailand traveling round, the attitude of the people left a big impression on me. There laid back nature and high regard they have for one another is largely due to the countries religion, Buddhism.

Now, my knowledge of Buddhism is very limited, but I was aware that Vispassana Meditation is practiced buy monks, nuns and people alike. Vispassana means insight in the ancient Buddhist language of Pali. When the opportunity arose for me to attend a ten day retreat at the Northern Insight Center I jumped at the chance.

Wat Ram Poeng is a large temple on the periphery of the northern city of Chiang Mai. For a donation Westerners can learn Vispassana meditation in a much disciplined environment. Accommodation is supplied by way of simple rooms with a Thai toilet and mat for sleeping on the floor. All meals are provided and are eaten with the monks, nuns and the Thai public who also attend for meditation and guidance.

During your stay you are expected to follow the same rules as the monks and nuns. White clothes are to be worn with no dark underwear underneath. No alcohol, drugs or sex. Killing of creatures, listening to music or writing is also strictly prohibited. No contact with the outside world and above all no talking to people around you. Now is the time to look inside yourself, we are told.

Students have an opening ceremony with traditional Pali chanting and offerings to the Abbot of the Wat, Brah Ajarn Suparn. He will be giving us instruction and the benefit of his guidance. He tells us how this meditation cleans your insides out and promotes happiness. It is a mental purification which allows us to face life's tensions in a calm and balanced way.

After the ceremony a monk shows us how to do a sitting meditation. He explains that they believe it helps us to see things as they really are, without delusion.

It heals human suffering by eliminating the three main causes which are desire, aversion and ignorance, the basis of Buddhist teaching. Also it promotes being in the present moment and self awareness, every thing we are told resonates with me and makes sense.

We are to alternate between sitting meditation and walking. It’s just walking in slow deliberate way with all your attention on what your feet are doing. Timers are given out, timing the length of your meditation is important. Students are told to start with fifteen minutes sitting, then the same walking. We are encouraged to do between six and eight hours on the first day, then increasing it slowly throughout the ten days. By the end students sit one hour, and then walk the same for approximately eleven hours a day. It sounds like a lot but the more you do the better you feel in the end.

The day’s routine starts at four in the morning. The bell rings and time to start two hours of meditation before breakfast at six. It’s a large dining hall with low round tables no chairs just a mat to sit on. You pick up a tray get your serving of noodles from the ever industrious nuns. Move to your table, kneel and prostrate three time to the large Buddha in the corner of the room and wait for the all the monks to be seated.

Chanting in Thai and Pali takes place, the content of the words saying that food should be eaten for survival and not beauty.

After washing your tray you then go back to your practice until the bell rings at midday for dinner and everyone goes through the same process again. After dinner no one eats till the next morning, less sleep and less food induces mindfulness.

The technique used for the sitting meditation is to acknowledge thoughts as they arise. So if I feel bored in my mind I say “bored, bored bored” or “angry angry angry” or “peace, peace peace”. If my mind starts it usual theatrics then you say “thinking, thinking thinking”. Through this technique we are able to identify the thoughts in our mind before we get caught in the drama, so being detached. Students are encouraged to stay present between meditations, repeating observing, observing, observing so you watch the scene impartially rather than being involved. If at any time students are not sure what they are feeling or seeing then they are instructed to repeat knowing, knowing, knowing.

One could say that the teachings are telling the students that thinking is bad. Again this resonates with me. After all aren’t most of our worries never realized yet we suffer just as if they were happening for real and not just in our minds.

As the time of the sittings increase so does the pain. Back pain and hip pain being the most common. On complaining to the Abbot at my daily report I am told its part of the process. “You must invite pain in as your friend, it will teach you compassion for your self and others” Every student goes through this, it becomes like an endurance test but with tenacity the pain does subside.

For me, I am dealing with boredom, apathy and laziness. Euphoria and absolute despair. Thoughts from the past come back to haunt me and a fear about the future. I learn things about myself in a light bulb flashing kind of way. But for the most part an inner peace and a revived sense of excitement about life. I can feel a difference as I come to the end of my ten days.

At the closing ceremony the Abbot wishes us well. He tells us the only thing that stops us from sitting is our delusion with ourselves. The world being in the state it is today for us all to think before we get angry. If I could be anything like this kind almost childlike man I think I would be happy.

Now after ten days, a crash course in Vispassana meditation if you like, you won’t reach nirvana. But, you have a very powerful tool to help cope with the extremes of modern life. According to the Buddha this is the remedy for universal problems. An art of living that one can use to make positive contributions to society and with continued practice to help make the most of each and every moment. Sounds good doesn’t it.