To silence and back

I have returned from a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Although I tried to resist comparing this year's version to last year's, it was inevitable that my mind would do that. But the stuff about no one stepping in the same stream twice is really true.

The biggest difference is that I recovered much faster this time. Previously, I was shying away from loud noises and crowds for days after the retreat, and felt like my brain was slow for a couple of weeks. This time I recovered in a couple of days.

It was the same teachers, but a different group of retreaters, so the tone of the retreat was different too. It doesn't matter that we aren't speaking; there is definitely a tone established. And, of course, I was different, so my voyage over the 10 days had some different turns. Same overall pattern, but the details were way different.

So what is it that I do?

The practice I do is called vipassana. It's a Buddhist practice that draws largely from the Theravadin tradition, but also a bit from Zen and even Tibetan Buddhism. The meditation is very simple: focusing on the breath to steady the mind, and engaging in a technique called mindfulness to observe the workings of the mind. Everyone's mind has different content, but functions by the same process. The destination of one who undertakes a vipassana journey is profound inner peace.

The instructors for this particular retreat are fabulous, and have a big influence on its success. They are:

Gil Fronsdal, teacher at the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City

Mary Orr, teacher at Vipassana Santa Cruz

John Travis, teacher at the Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Grass Valley

These three teachers did their early training in Asia several decades ago. Then they did their teacher training together at Spirit Rock Meditation Center under the guidance of Jack Kornfield, one of the founders of American Buddhism. They have the easy familiarity of siblings, and provide excellent support to the retreaters.

Vipassana retreats are silent. Retreaters do not talk to each other or make eye contact. The teachers talk, and students can talk to the teachers, both during formal "interviews" (15 min every other day) and during one public Q&A session (15 min per day). Each day of a vipassana retreat has a schedule of sitting and walking meditation from early morning (5:30 or so) until evening (9:30 or so), with breaks for eating, yogi jobs (work meditation), interviews, and one dharma talk per day. With so much of the social context removed, you really get to focus on your inner work, and the teachers are there to guide you as much as you need.

Here's the schedule I did for 10 days:

5:15 am - wake-up bell
5:45 - sit
6:30 - breakfast
7:15 - work period or break
8:15 - sit, with instructions for the day given
9:00 - Q&A
9:15 - walk (there is a special way of doing walking meditation)
10:00 - sit
10:45 - walk
11:30 - sit
12:15 - lunch, followed by a break
2:15 - sit
3:00 - walk
3:45 - sit
4:30 - walk
5:00 - sit
5:30 - light supper, followed by a break
6:45 - sit
7:30 - dharma talk
8:30 - walk
9:00 - sit
9:30 pm - go to sleep or stay up and meditate more

I find on retreats that I don't need much sleep, so I would often get up hours before the 5:15 wake-up bell and sit on my own in the meditation hall. It was a beautiful hall done up in full Tibetan style, with lots of red and gold. The buddha statue was big and gold and so stately looking. Very inspiring. He lived 2,500 years ago, and we are still following the path he discovered.

I find the practice enormously satisfying. I meditate every day as well as go on retreats. Vipassana is flexible and integrates well with the rest of life, and yet it has already brought very positive changes to my life in just a few years of practice. And there's so much more coming...