Sunday, April 5, 2015

10 days Vipassana!

I've been to Vipassana course at Igatpuri, Nashik on 14 Jan 2015 and then visited the pagoda at at Gorai on 22 March 2015

This blog aims to make your experience at Igatpuri as pleasant as possible, by focusing on preparation for the course than facing problems during the course. If you carry all the stuff and prepare beforehand, you will be focusing on meditation than facing discomfort with stolen towels! (yes, that happened with me!) Please bear with me for the poor photography. 

"Dhamma brothers" Left to right - Rahul, Akash, Vishal, Sumit, me and Mahesh

I would like to thank my "dhamma brothers", the group of guys i met on the first day of the course, right at the Igatpuri station! They were a great moral support at the beginning and a nice company to hang out with 

Before you enroll yourself for 10 day course.

First of all read all I strongly recommend you to read what the course is about from the official Vipassana Meditation site here at www.dhamma.org
This site covers all that you need to know about Vipassana, along with several excellent FAQ section

This blog tells about my personal experiences about the preparation and undergoing Vipassana course. I wont be focusing on the spiritual experiences I had during the course. This is up to the individual to experience. 

Once you have visited the site, you will need to enroll yourself online. In order to do this, visit this page.
When I registered myself for the course, there was a long waiting of 3 months!  Therefore it is recommended that you plan your trip in advance.

Sitting practice :
I was glad that I was registered and I had 3 months to prepare.On the day of preparation i sat at my home in Mumbai for straight 45 mins, just to see if I can sit cross-legged. I arranged a thin yoga mat and sat facing away from the window. And they were the worse 45 minutes of my life :P I mean, my legs fell asleep and my back ached. For a minute i felt I did a mistake by registering for this course! Then I decided to practice sitting everyday. I decided to sit for at least an hour everyday for next one month. But in the first month I could not even sit for even half an hour straight! Then gradually I realized that if I stop fighting with my urge to get up and keep peaceful thoughts. By the end of second month I was able to sit for one hour straight, without changing my posture. This practice came to be very handy during my days at Igatpuri

Here are some of my learning during my sitting practice
1. Keep at least an hour between sitting and meals
2. If you cant sit in lotus posture or even half lotus posture, this is OK. 
3. While sitting you dont have to meditate. This you will experience during your Vipassana course.

Packing for the course
I had packed the following items
- 3 loose t-shirts and 2 track suite trousers
- 1 windcheater (which I had since my days at Leh army camp trip, and it was cold at Igatpuri)
- 2 pair socks (Used to keep my feet warm when we sat in the meditation hall)
- 1 pair shoes (Did not use at all!)
- Slippers (must carry! because you need to remove them everywhere you go! removing and wearing shoes is time consuming and pointless. Slippers can be purchased from course office as well) 
- 3 handkerchiefs (used only 2 during the entire course)
- 2 hand towels (served me during hours long meditation)
- First aid kit along with painkillers, anti-acidity medicine, analgesic, pain balm, and water purification tablets (Though I used only the analgesic once when I came under the weather)
- 1 bed-sheet (did not use, because I was provided one by the institute)
- 1 blanket (did not use, because I was provided one by the institute)
- 1 towel (used everyday)
- Torch (My old torch from service. Served me well, because it gets very dark in here and there are snakes in the bushes! I have seen one myself)
- Typical toiletries such as comb, nail cutter, toothbrush, tooth paste, soaps, face-powder, etc
- Lock (It is mentioned in the registration e-mail that you should carry your own lock. This is must because the doors have no locks on them! Or anyway, you can buy one there before the course starts)
- 1 stainless steel water bottle (must carry, because they provide hot ginger water to help digestion) 

Things I should have packed!
- Spare socks (Due to wearing and removing everyday, my old socks wore out)
- Clothespins! (when you dry your clothes outside your room on clothesline, sometimes they tend to fly away!)
- Ribbon (Slippers are not allowed in meditation halls, so you are asked to remove yours and keep them outside on shoe racks. Everyone has same types of slippers here and I needed ribbon or something so that I could identify mine quickly) I used bandage stirp from my first-aid kit for this purpose! 
- Cleaning cloth. (You often need to clean your bags, slippers, etc, because there is lots of dust everywhere)

Reaching Dhammagiri
I stay at Thane, so I had booked a ticket for Tapovan Express which departs from Thane at 6.50 am and reaches Igatpuri at 9.35 am. This is the best decision I had taken! 

I strongly recommend Tapovan Express to those who are travelling from Mumbai or Thane.

I reached Igatpuri station at exactly 9.50 am and without wasting much time, I ran outside to find an auto-rickshaw. Though the Dhammagiri is just about one and half km from the train station, it is a good hike up the hill. I could have walked, but my friends who had visited Dhammagiri earlier suggested an auto-rickshaw. There are several shared auto available outside and this is where I met my 'Dhamma brothers" pictured above. 

Again, I strongly suggest to reach the course registration office before 10 am. This is because, my friends theorized that the good rooms are allocated in the beginning. My registration number was 4 :P

My registration card!

Rules for depositing stuff at the course office on the rear of the card.

They will ask you to fill up a form. Keep a ball pen handy. And then you will be facing a short interview by one of the assistant teachers who will scrutinize the information written in your form and instruct you on how to go about the course. You will be then be given your course registration card. Some Rs. 300 will be charged as a laundry deposit and you will be given a long, thin rope with your roll number attached. You can tie this rope around the clothes that you wish to give for washing and drop it every morning on a bench kept near the lunch rooms. The laundry service is very reasonable and they wash and iron your clothes and return them the next day! 

Then, you will be instructed to deposit all your valuable in course office, including your cell phones, rings, money! They asked me if I was a Brahman and wearing a sacred thread, and politely asked me to remove  it. I could have said no, and they would not have forced me, but I did surrender it none-the-less

You will get back your belongings on the last day. This is the time I got my phone back and took all these awesome pictures :P 

I was allocated a single occupancy room to my great delight! Though some were allocated a shared room or even a hall! I am yet to figure out on what basis they make such allocation. 
"Requests" posted on the inner door of the room

Insides of a double occupancy room

Things you can buy at the institute
As you enter the institute, you will be asked to deposit all your valuables and cash in the course office strong room.  I strongly recommend that DONT surrender all your cash. Keep at least a Rs. 200 with you. If you feel, you can buy essential supplies such as slippers, soaps, torch, clock, tooth brush, lock on first day only! Chances are you might have forgotten to pack some essential item, or you might have deemed some item such as torch unessential. 
Alarm clock you can buy at the institute for Rs. 50

Rechargeable torch you can buy at the institute for Rs. 50


Regular torch you can buy at the institute for Rs. 50

Door lock you can buy at the institute for Rs. 50


Slippers you can buy at the institute



Should you wear a watch or  is the giant bell sufficient !?!
I didn't wear a watch when I went for this course, but I debated a lot over this
- During this course, the institute rings a bell for everything. Right from waking you up, meditating and eating time, all are communicated using a huge bell! If you dont wear a watch, you have to keep an eat open for the bell. This distracted me in the beginning. 
- On the other hand, if you wear a watch, you might be tempted to look at it during your meditation and say "Oh man! Its just 20 minutes I am sitting here! 40 more minutes to go!" 
I could never really decide whether wearing a watch for this course is a good idea or not!

The great bell they ring to remind you that its time to wake up, time for breakfast, time to meditate, etc. No need for a watch :)

The funny towel incident
I was given a single occupancy room and there was a clothesline right outside my room. There is an extremely affordable laundry service, so I used the clothesline only to dry my towel and nothing else. On the 3rd day, when I came back from breakfast, and had collected freshly laundered clothes, I noticed that my towel was missing from the clothesline!! I was stunned, and since I was under the oath of noble silence, I could not even ask the guy next door. That day I used my and towels to dry myself after the bath. I was glad I carried two of them. And I knew that for next 7 days I would have to work only with these. Miraculously on the same evening, I found my towel neatly drying on the clothesline with a clothespin nicely anchoring it! I never carried clothes pin and neither did I dry it there. I was just laughing away that day day :D

The exterior of the rooms at Igatpuri. They have attached toilet.


Exteriors of another room on the campus
Exteriors of 'K' hostel block

Meditation 

There is strict segregation between male and female students. 
Female area cordoned off

The meditation is mostly carried out in the Dhamma Halls. I was assigned to Dhamma Hall 2, pictured below. Here about 150 to 200 students can sit comfortably on specially designed mattresses. If you are unable to sit on the mattress and require back support you will be provided wooden back rests as shown below. 

Dhamma Hall 2 as seen from outside
Dhamma Hall 2 exteriors with the shoes racks and notice boards
Special mattress for students to sit on during meditation. This is where I meditated. you could see my registration note attached to the mattress. I could rest my back against the pillar, but the clever architect had made the pillar in octagonal shape so the edge would hurt my back, and therefore it was futile resting against it anyway.  
Daily schedule posted outside the meditation hall

Dhamma Hall 2 as seen from inside
Dhamma Hall 2 as seen on the last evening discourse
Such backrests are provided to students who cant sit upright without back support.
Meditation in Pagoda
Inside the pagoda there are rooms of about 1 meter by 2 meter for meditation away from disturbance of the meditation hall. 
The pagoda as seen from outside. Those small circular 'windows' are for individual meditation room called 'Shunyagar'.
Rules to be followed inside pagoda. 

Interiors of the pagoda. Each door leads to corridor where the meditation rooms are located.

The meditation room inside the pagoda assigned to me. This was my scariest episode during meditation. It was so silent , dark and cool inside the room that i barely managed to sit inside for only 2 hours. With my teachers consent, which I obtained that very noon after lunch, I never entered it again! 


 Drinking water
Reverse osmosis plant on the campus
The institute has scarcity of water, but the drinking water is purified by reverse osmosis! Rest assured that it is awesomely clean! Dont forget to carry your own water bottle, otherwise you will be forced to use one of the disposable packaged drinking water bottle for rest of the course.

One of the several drinking water outlets on the campus

Yes, they are not kidding, if you are found touching the leaves or flowers, one of the dhamma helpers will come and ask to you step away! 

Hot ginger water after lunch! It is really helpful for digestion 

Hot water outside the lunch room

Filtered cold water outside the lunch room
Food
As per the schedule, your day begins at 4 am. And after about two and half hour meditation, breakfast is served at 6.30 am. Make sure to reach the lunch room on time, because there is often only limited breakfast. Same applies to lunch at 11.00 am

 Here is the breakfast menu for the ten days to the best of my memory
Day 0 : (evening snacks) : upma
Day 1 : pohe
Day 2 : dhokla
Day 3 : sooji
Day 4 : sabudana usal
Day 5 : idli
Day 6 : upma
Day 7 : mutter pohe
Day 8 : dhokla with tamarind chutney
Day 9 : sooji

Along with this, brown bread + tea, with/without sugar + milk + amla achar are served everyday

For lunch there is simple chapati, one cooked vegetable, plain rice and dal. 

There is no dinner, instead there is evening snacks for new students and lemonade for old students
Evening Snacks : banana and rice puffs (with ten percent of corn flakes, chick peas and groundnut)

I craved for nice spicy food on first 3 days, but then it stopped bothering me and I realized that the simple meals there tasted even better than the best food I had ever tasted! That experience was amazing :)

On the last day we were provided with awesome luch of sweets and pulav!
Lunch on the last day

Lunch room on the last day. It was quite and very disciplined on the days during course. Now all of us are sitting and chatting since the course is over!

Return Journey
On the 11th day I had booked the ticket for 01082/Bhusawal-Dadar SF Special This was not such a good idea, because I reach Thane full 1 hour late!. Institute had arranged State Transport buses till Kasara station from the dhammagiri. I will opt for this one next time. Then board a local from Kasara.