Liberalisation from Suffering
4 noble truth; life is suffering, there is a core of the suffering, there is the end of suffering, and this is the way to do so.
More or less that what was repeatedly said by the instructor. For 11 days I’ve been hiatus from the world, and joined a program named vipassana meditation that would help to liberate people from suffer. Notwithstanding of my motivation to enrol this program, I want to share what it is, how does it work and the result I obtained.
Rules and Dietary Suggestion
Just like what Buddha did and did not do in his life, the participant is not allowed to kill any being (human, animal, alien (if they’re really exist)), no lie, no intoxicants (coffee, tea, alcohol, tobacco, etc), abstain from stealing and any sexual activity. The additional rules is to abstain from the internet, from reading, writing, any work or activity outside the schedule. Accordingly, during the meditation program I always turned my phone to flights mode and prepare myself to deep dive into my inner self.
It sounds damn hard, that was why set clear objective for this program is a must, do a self determination, know your own limit, and be relax. Well, anyway, there are three options of vipassana, I chose the most feasible one for me as a white collar worker; workplace warrior. The program would start at 4 in the morning until 8 AM. From at 8 AM until 6.30 PM the participant can work, commute or do their daily mandatory duty that can’t be abandoned. From 6.30 PM the program will start again until 10 PM. During the work time I devoted myself to access internet only for the sake of my work, that’s why I’ve been deactivated all of my social media account due to being discipline.
The dietary suggestion was the best. It called Ohsawa no. 7, in which only consists of brown rice + sea salt + sesame oil. It was an intermittent so the meal time only twice a day. On day 4 until 9 for meal 1 it’s allowed to add avocado and for meal 2 with additional of kimchi. I could not imagine to combine rice with avocado and it must be challenging to keep the ripeness of the fruit, so I skip the avocado and still combine my second meal with kimchi. Why kimchi? Because Ohsawa no. 7 also called a macroprobiotic diet, with the aim is to clean the digestion system in order to help being focus on meditation. Kimchi has the good bacteria that would help the process.
The Methods
“When masters and slaves at the same time, we are masters of ourselves but we’re slaves our conditioning.” Nietzsche, they said.
According to the above-mentioned quotes, the suffer actually came from our own mind, this vipassana taught the ancient technique from Buddha to liberate people from their own mind. They believe in 4 T in life; trauma, tragedy, transmutation, and transcendent. This meditation aims to help how people deal with pain and achieve a transcendental state of mind.
The very first thing, also the most challenging, is anapana. The technique of breathing, focus on breath in a triangle shape (nasal bridge, and corner of the lips) and try to ignore any memory, thought and fantasy. Being the eye of the storm of the catastrophic storm of the mind. The rule is focus on breath and being aware of what was on the mind but then ignore it and react to nothing. Just like when you open browser in your computer and have a lot of tabs, one by one shall be closed so that it can be used for other useful thing. At first it made me feel a little bit dizzy, and the antidote is being relax with the breath, to breath naturally. Well, it took times and needed more practices.
*fun fact: during this anapana practice , when my head was on the pillow after the session end, I fell asleep literally in a second. That was really amazing; my assumption was 1. I woke up too early; 2. I only eat twice a day so that my energy was drained; 3. More draining because meditation actually needs a great energy to control mind. Also, when meditating, the consciousness and subconsciousness is bias.
After mastering the mind, the next step was the vipassana itself. To feel the sense of trauma in our body but still react to nothing. In a nutshell trauma is created by intensity that the body and mind was not ready to deal with. Trauma was memorised by the body, and with this next step we will try to release it. This time the instructor will guide the meditation, start from feeling the sensation from the crown of the head, go down to back, etc, and ended by feeling the forehead.
To feel the inner sensation, after doing vipassana, one can do is single stream method; to breath with mouth. Feel the air in the tip of the tongue to inside of the body. Then do the similar scanning as vipassana but in reverse. I did not feel comfortable with this method because it made my throat dry, maybe because my air conditioner needs to be cleaned.
Next, I could not say it was easy. I even had my sentimental feeling during this stage. I do not really remember the name but the narration goes like this; Buddha asked the monks to mediate in the forrest, but the monks was bothered by the flying heads and bad spirit so that they could not do the mediation. They went to Buddha and he taught how to deal with those bad spirit; love. The bad spirit, I assume, can be a manifestation of pain, suffer, hatred, and so on.
The step was; doing anapana — vipassana — one stream, then recall the unconditional love feeling, such as mother’s love or anyone that love you without any reason. Love as it is. It was okay if the moment came back to the memory, feel the sensation of being loved. As simple as that. So, for the people that gave us pain, and harm us, etc., we could give the love we already acquired in the inner state. As simple as being a love generator not a vending machine (give and take). It’s not above forgive the person that gave you pain, more than that, very noble one, to send love to them once you become love generator or love fountain whatever it called.
Final stage related to transcendental things, talking about universe and so on, I could not really relate so I did not really focus on that. The acceptable thing to me is regarding the concept of replying pain with kindness, so when the bad vibes expect the sorrow and frustation, we could master our mind and do the counter; giving love. Being in the present reality and liberate from pain.
In the last 2 days, the participant practice to mediate by talking to other person, or to the mirror after the instructor gave a topic, but I chose not to do this session either.
Impact and Conclusion
Frankly speaking, not much. The hiatus from any kind of toxic; food, negative news from social media, waiting on something that will never come back from the phone, and being away from the outside world (supported by the self isolation due to avoiding COVID19), well said a very refreshing thing for me as an introvert (or maybe ambivert). For the first time of my life I had smooth digestive system and even odourless fesses and fart. It also helped my sleep quality (perhaps), it’s not a deep sleep but I can sleep as quick as I exhale.
It’s not really effective for me because in workplace warrior I still connected with the people I work with, doing some complicated cases at work, and sometimes it became so challenging to start the anapana because the day rewinded in my head, automatically. So, it was an extra challenge. In addition, I burst into tears in the part of the unconditional love, because I recalled the unconditional love from the people who already passed away.
Overall, the benefit of this meditation is applicable in my life, anapana is not easy but not impossible either to do in daily life, in any situation. The positive consciousness that; people do not need any external thing to be fulfilled. The problem is actually in the head, and how to overcome it other than commit suicide, is mastering it. By mastering the mind, one can realiase the alienation of pain. Hopefully.
