20 Day Vipassana Experience

Oct 31, 2019

Difference between 10 Day and Long Courses:

Note system to communicate with male/female managers
Assigned seating for meals
Asked to monitor food – middle path – I was the hungriest I’ve ever been on a course!
Look 2-4 steps ahead to go deeper, not even looking at nature
No checking as per 10-day, 2x private interviews with teacher and noon interviews with teacher available should you need.
Morning chanting as per 10 day but then complete silence till 6pm group sitting
Discourses are audio only. I think this not engage the eye sense doors so you can go deeper into practice.
Annica (awareness of Impermenance) – annica vidya (awareness of arisig and passing away)- Continuity of practice in during non-seated mediation. Meditate continuously – Sanjapao
Meditation cells – My thoughts on this is that it is not that dissimilar to a meditation cave. No other activity is done there. Dark – sensory deprivation to go deeper?

Similarities:

Schedule
1/3 of course time dedicated to practicing anapana
Practice – technique is the same but your experience of practice will change as your awareness and equanimity develop.

Discover real peace and harmony within yourself, naturally this will overflow to benefit others
S.N. Goenka

Post Course Integration:

Vipassana courses in the Goenka tradition always have the last day of the course as metta day. Noble silence is lifted and there is always no physical contact at any Vipassana centres. I never really understood why this but it is there for good reason. Students are very sensitive after a course as they have work at the deepest level of mind. Obviously the longer the course, the deeper you go. Metta day is actually a very important day that I didn’t fully appreciate in the past. The “shock absorber” as Goenkaji puts it.

My practice is becoming a practice that continues in life. Obviously, I’m not aware and equanimous 24/7 – I still have a very long way to go! But, my awareness thought the day in all my activities has certainly increased.

My twice daily sittings have been interesting as the past few days, I’ve been rather agitated. I suspect deeper sankaras are arising which is a wonderful opportunity for me to work with and keep clearing…

My mind is sharper and there is no doubt more clarity which is very helpful in decision making, communication (listening) and also self awareness. I’ve recognised certain self-defeating behaviours and nonsense that I do and am actively working on them. One being organisation.

My mind feels different and I’m not too sure how to explain it – From a neuroscientific perspective, breaking the old habit pattern of my mind or old neuropathways – but in Vipassana you don’t rewire. I guess its because as soon as you rewire you create another habit pattern which facilitates more unconscious behaviours or habits. Hmmm something to ponder…Perhaps its so the mind can consciously choose from any possibility or potential in the field and isn’t limited. Any neuroscientists/ meditators out there please comment, your input is always appreciated.

Dispenza vs Vipassana

May 15, 2019

Before I answer your question…

Dr Joe is great at demystifying meditation; explaining what happens during practice from a scientific perspective; and making meditation more accessible to everyone as it is not associate with any particular tradition.

It was actually Vipassana that led me to Dr. Joe as I had changed so much after 2 years of daily practice and several retreats (especially after serving). Dr. Joe initially talks about rewiring the brain or as Goenka says ‘breaking the old habit pattern of the mind.’ Here was someone that could feed my intellect and give me a satisfactory explanation about the changes I had experienced and continue to experiencing with Vipassana.

However, Dr Joe then moves into a more yogic influenced teaching with a major focus on kundalini. Pulling the breath from the base of the spine to the top of the head or crown rather forcefully. In the advanced workshop (now called the week-long retreat) this breath is practiced a lot! At the workshop I experienced kundalini rising from my root to solar plexus stopping there. The experience was orgasmic and it really felt like a serpent moving with incredible force upwards. I was fascinated by this experience and wanted to know more…

I enrolled myself (and Anthony) in a kundalini yoga teacher training and booked flights to India. We didn’t learn kundalini yoga in the Yogi Bajhan tradition and I feel we would have gained a much better understanding of kundalini if we had. The teacher training we attended lacked in may ways but it did introduce me to the publications from the Bihar School of Yoga. I bought every Bihar book that would fit in my suitcase and buried my nose in them. The most comprehensive book I’ve found on kundalini yoga so far is Kundalini Tantra.

The more I learned about kundalini, I knew Dr Joe’s approach was not for me. I firmly believe forcefully raising kundalini in the way Dr. Joe teaches is not the way to go. The body needs to be adequately prepared to be able to withstand that energy. Think of the body as a wire being able to hold say 240Volts and Kundalini energy being at least 100 times that. The wire (or body) would get fried and even the few people that manage to raise that energy will not be able to hold it/ sustain the energy for any length of time.

Another thing that Dr. Joe Dispenza misses is having a solid foundation. In yoga this is what’s known as the Yamas and Niyamas or for Vipassana the 5/8 precepts. Diet and lifestyle is also overlooked. In engaging with any yogic practice caution should be exercised and the correct preparation is so very important. However, this is so often overlooked. It can be dangerous and cause serious harm if that solid foundation is not there.

Don’t get me wrong, Im really glad I went to Dr. Joe’s advanced workshop and had a wonderful time. I met people that were healing themselves from serious illnesses which was incredible to witness. It fed my analytical mind and having my brain mapped before during and after mediation was a really cool experience. I learned a lot from Dispenza and his work sparked my curiosity to explore yoga in its true form. But, at the end of the day Vipassana is in a league of its own. It is a complete practice, slow but complete.

Thanks for reading and do let me know if you enjoyed reading this post by sharing and clicking the love heart

Much Love, Sharol xx

Dr. Joe Dispenza’s Advanced Workshop

Mar 1, 2018

I have so much LOVE for this man!!

After 3 years of daily meditation for 1-2 hours per day and many 10-day Vipassana silent retreats, I knew I had changed. How? The way in which I showed up in every aspect of my life was fundamentally different, something inside of me had shifted. I was no longer reacting in the same way to the people, circumstances and environment around me. Rather, I knew I was 100% responsible, not just intellectually but experientially with every cell of my being. More often than not I was able to access a space in which I could pause and respond consciously, instead of simply reacting (check out my post about Vipassana here). I was beginning to access the power within (every single one of us can develop this faculty) and had broken the habit of being myself.

The change was so profound, I wanted to know what exactly had happened and continues to happen to me. This lead me to Dr. Joe Dizpenza. What an extraordinary human!! The man (a chiropractor and neuroscientist) healed his spinal chord injury with thought alone and has since dedicated his life to researching and explaining the mind-matter phenomenon. Finally, someone that could feed my analytical mind and explain what I was experiencing is such a practical, scientific, factual way. While still watching one of his interviews, there I was on another tab Googling this man. I don’t believe in coincidences but, I do believe it was fate that he was coming to Perth, Australia for his Progressive Workshop that was 2 weeks away. Anthony and I booked our tickets, watched the 8 hours of video content in preparation for the workshop and waited in anticipation and excitement. What this man was saying was so damn on point and after the 3-day progressive workshop, I bought all his guided meditations and rain, hail or shine, we were going to one of his Advanced workshops.

Fast forward 3 months and there we were in Bonn, Germany getting our brains mapped with an electroencephalography (EEG) as we meditated amongst 1500 people at his Advanced Workshop (his largest event yet). The energy of the collective was INCREDIBLE and together we went on a journey of breaking our self-imposed barriers and overcoming ourselves over and over again. The local newspaper called us ‘The Walking Dead‘ as we went within for our walking meditation along the Rhine connecting to the divinity within us. It was beautiful walking up to the park to see silhouettes of magnificent humans as the sun was rising knowing that we are all so interconnected and so much a part of nature. We took advantage of raising serotonin levels by beginning the pineal gland meditation at 4:30am. At the workshop, this meditation went for over 4 hours and I swear, you would not have known.

There was a beautiful elderly woman there, Rita, who had legions in both of her breasts that weren’t healing, a tumour in her cheek, no movement in one arm and limited movement in the other. After the four days, up she got on stage and shared her story of how she overcame herself. One legion has completely healed, the other was starting to, the tumour in her cheek had shrunk, she had limited movement in one arm and full movement in the other. Rita had all 1499 of us in tears as she shared her story of self-healing. This beautiful soul, ‘ordinary’ human reminded us of how extraordinary we really are. Too often many of us say ‘I’m just human,’ completely unaware of the immensity it is to be human.

One of Dispenza’s lines that stuck with me (and there are many) is ‘Who are you pretending to be?’. I regularly as myself that question and encourage you to do the same. Being human is a tremendous possibility, if only we realised.

Love and Light,

Sharol xx

Learn More:

Attend Upcoming Events / Workshops:

Dr Joe Dispenza regularly holds events and workshops around the world. If you are considering going to one, check out his events page as it is constantly being updated.

Guided Meditations:

Dr Joe Dispenza also has a whole range of guided meditations available for purchase. If you’re stuck on which one to start with, send me a message and I’d be happy to help. Generally, I feel his app is a great starting point for beginners as the meditations (morning and evening) are much shorter.

Read:

Dr Joe Dispenza is a NY Times best-selling author and his books do an extraordinary job at explaining the science behind meditation (for the lay person). If you’re just going to get one ‘You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter‘ would be my pick.

The Purpose of Meditation – Why Meditate?

Apr 17, 2017

Meditation is an incredibly beautiful practice that can literally change your life. Charles R. Swindoll stated, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” Therefore learning how to react or more accurately ‘act’ in a purposeful and intentional manner has the capacity to empower you in every single aspect of life, teaching you, the art of living.

My introduction to meditation began in 2014, on a trip to Nepal. I heard about a friend of a friend’s dad who attended a meditation retreat in Thailand and completely lost track of time. I was fascinated and knowing nothing more, I searched and searched until I stumbled upon Vipassana.

Prior to my first Vipassana, I had dabbled in various methods of mindfulness as a natural extension of practising yoga. These methods predominantly focused on regulating the breath or focusing the mind on an object/word/or image. Whilst fantastic for quieting the mind and developing awareness for me it was only half the equation.

Meditation is a practice whose purpose is to develop a person’s faculty for both AWARENESS and EQUANIMITY (non-reactiveness) simultaneously. Awareness is the ability to directly know, perceive, feel or be cognisant of events (i.e. a state of consciousness) whilst equanimity is being in a state of calm and composure. Developing both awareness and equanimity is equally important as it teaches a person to maintain the balance of their mind in every situation.

Research has proven that experienced meditators have a reduced cognitive and emotional automated reactivity to stimuli (Cahn, Rael, and Polich. 2009). In plain English, this simply means that experienced meditators have increased the gap between stimulus and response. Therefore giving them time to make a conscious decision and choose how they want to respond rather than responding with their default unconscious response. Hence they widen the gap between the stimulus and response.

Stimulus _______The Gap _______Response

You may be wondering why widen the gap? One of the most well know survivors of the Holocaust Viktor E. Frankl put it so eloquently “between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” The gap is where our true power lies.

If 90% of life is how we react to it, wouldn’t it be great to be able to choose our response? For example when we receive criticism, instead of immediately feeling defensive what if we could consider the other possibilities and choose how we want to respond. For example, we could:

Most of us would naturally choose option 1 or 2, however options 3 and 4 are the responses that can lead to growth. Meditation open’s our mind to possibility and we reclaim our true power in choosing an intentional response, and therefore an intentional life. This is the essence of the art of living.

References: Cahn, B. Rael, and John Polich. “Meditation (Vipassana) and the P3a event-related brain potential.” International Journal of Psychophysiology 72, no. 1 (2009): 51-60.