I recently went to a 10 day meditation seminar. It is called Vipassana. One of the hardest things I ever did.

Arrived on a Wednesday. The whole thing started that night and we entered what is called Noble Silence for the next nine days. Noble Silence means no talking or communicating in any way with others. You could speak with the teacher or course manager if one needed to handle a material matter. There is no cell phones, computers, books, writing materials. No contact with the outside world.

I quickly realized I was on a journey that would take me within. Little did I know how much turbulence I would encounter on this trip.

The next day started at 4am. That is when we woke up by the sound of a loud “gong”. There was another “gong” at 4:20am. That was because at 4:01am we had pretty much all hit the “snooze button.” Now we had 10 minutes before the first meditation session.

From 4:30 am until 6:30 am I had a choice between meditating in the Meditation Hall or in my room. We had received instructions the night before as we would for the next 10 days on what to meditate on.

Day 1: Instructions: Observe our breathing and sensations in the area around and inside the nose. Do not control the breathing. Allow the breathing to do what it does. Simply be aware of sensations in this area.

Breakfast was served at 6:30am. I really looked forward to meals. I had from 6:30am until 8am to eat, rest, walk around a bit and get ready for the day.

From 8am until 9am everyone was required to be in the Meditation Hall and Goenke(the head teacher who taught via DVD) guided us into and out of a meditation session.

From 9am until 11am I had the choice to continue meditation in the Hall or In my room.

11am lunch was served. This was the “big meal” of the day. It was very good. The entire diet was vegetaraion.

I had until 1pm to eat, walk, rest, get cleaned up and do whatever else I could think of.

1pm until 2:30pm I had the choice of meditating in the Hall or in my room.

2:30pm until 3:30pm everyone was required to be in the Meditation Hall for a guided meditation.

3:30 until 5pm I could continue working in the Hall or in my room.

5pm was the tea break. Tea and Fruit was available.

6pm to 7pm everyone was required to be in the Hall for a guided meditation

7pm until 8:30pm we watched a DVD presentation from Goenke called the Day’s Discourse. These Discourses were very good and we were given instructions on how to meditate for the next day.

8:30pm until 9pm we meditated using the “new” technique.

9pm to 10pm we retired to our rooms.

10pm Lights out.

Each day followed this schedule.