I said to my friend: “I want to stop wrestling with my restless mind.” He suggested I attend a Vipassana retreat at the Brahma Vihara Arama Monastery near Lovina, Bali. Vipassana is a non-sectarian meditation practice conceived by Gautama Buddha 25,000 years ago. Commonly referred to as ‘insight meditation’, Vipassana cultivates an awareness of the direct relationship between body and mind, moment to moment. The technique is simple: Place attention on the breath, rest in the belly, welcome and watch all thoughts, feelings and sensations that arise. I signed up to attend this eight day silent retreat.
The guiding meditation teacher, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, a visiting monk from Burma, feels the purpose of meditation is to understand defilements: cravings, aversions and delusions in their many forms. Vipassana guides us to consciously choose to change directions with our life: We learn how to stop running away from our defilements and begin to accept and understand them. Vipassana meditation invites us to take a journey into self-transformation.
Daily we emerged out of silence for group interviews. Mealtimes proved to be challenging for the majority of us. “When you eat, do not hurry. When you are eager to eat you will loose mindfulness. Greediness tends to come in as soon as a meal begins,” Sayadaw explains.
This greediness is a form of craving.
How do we get rid of this craving?
Vipassana teaches how to get to get to know this craving mind. We want to make friends with our defilements so that we may more intimately understand their nature. When we reject our defilements-worry, sadness, anger-we strengthen them. “Don’t look down on the defilements; they will laugh at you!” Sayadaw informs us.
Hirok Ghosh, a Singapore businessman and 15 year Vipassana practitioner shared a personal story:
“I was teaching a university class. I saw this woman that I was attracted to speaking to a man. Anger arose. I allowed the feeling to be present and I kept on teaching. Throughout the class I maintained a watchful awareness on my anger.”
Hirok watched and inquired about this anger for four days. Eventually his insights led him to the awareness of the origin of his suffering: Expectations. Hirok held expectations about giving and receiving love. With this understanding he was able to make a conscious choice on how to act based on knowledge and wisdom.
Vipassana asks us to remain with a disturbing feeling, thought or physical sensation as a loving mother sits with a hurt child. Sayadaw cautions us to refrain from taking a journey into the story of the disturbance. “If a pain from the past arises, it is not old. It is now. It is new.”
As we sit, and observe we cultivate a forgiving, detached view. Our restless mind begins to rest. Out of this restful view curiosity arises. We begin to wonder and inquire: “What is this? Or “What is happening?” These questions lead us into insights about the origins of the disturbance. From insight arises awareness and understanding. We may encounter and welcome the disturbance many times, with various insights, before true understanding arises. The practice of Vipassana can become a life-long companion.
The right attitude is an essential tool for our journey: Sayadaw explains: “Right attitude allows you to accept, acknowledge, and observe whatever is happening – whether pleasant or unpleasant – in a relaxed and alert way. Every experience, whether good or bad, gives you a learning opportunity to notice whether the mind accepts things.”
Brahma Vihara Arama’s deliciously designed gardens, stupas, and water features is the perfect setting to nurture agitated retreat students to dissolve into a relaxed rhythm of moment to moment awareness. The monastery was built in 1970 and is the only Buddhist monastery on Bali. Vipassana mediation retreats are held throughout the year with visiting teachers from around the world, and are offered on a donation basis.
There are a variety of spaces on the compound where students can get to know and understand the mind. The upper tier of this four tiered compound is a magnificent grassy open space with stunning views of the sea and surrounding mountains. This green space sits in front of a replica of the stupa of Borobudur on Java. The Dalai Lama attended the opening ceremony for the Tibetan stupa. Next to this stupa is a carefully contained alcove with a statue of Gautama Buddha sitting underneath an imported Bo tree. This is the tree that Buddha sat under when he attained his enlightenment. A practitioner can sit for hours cocooned in the netting of individual meditation huts set along a jungle ravine area.
The monastery remains open to tourists and pilgrims throughout the retreat. This allowed us to discover how to maintain a continuity of mindfulness within the diverse conditions of daily life. “Continuity is vital for this practice, for meditative mind work. You need to remind yourself to be aware all day long. Don’t forget to watch yourself from the time you wake up until the time you fall asleep.” Vipassana shows us how to sustain inner tranquility no matter what arises.
This inner equanimity is our radiant True Nature. It expresses itself as joy. Sayadaw is an excellent example of how continual cultivation of a restful mind en-lightens us up. His heartfelt teachings are transmitted on the edge of laughter.
What is the right attitude if we are in a love relationship?
“Laugh! Whatever happens. Relationship is a powerful practice. Keep laughing!”
