I have a few friends going on their first ten day Vipassana course and I thought it would be valuable to write down some tips from my experience.
These ten day courses have become very popular around the world. Often you need to book 3/4 months in advance to secure a spot on a course. What’s incredible is that the whole thing is volunteer-run, and supported solely by donations. There’s a great Q&A page on the main website for more details.
My first course really helped me build the momentum to establish a daily meditation practice, and I am eternally grateful for having had the opportunity to attend. I’ve since been back several times to sit and serve on courses, and have recommended it to many friends. Here are some tips to benefit the most out of this opportunity.
Make friends before the course
After ten days of silence, it can be difficult to socialise again. I found introducing myself to people before the course starts by taking the coach service offered from the train station to the centre gave me time to make a few friends. Then at the end of ten days, it was easier to speak to the people I had already said hello to.
Sort out your posture early on
Here are six different postures. Choose the one that is the most comfortable. I find keeping my posture (and number of cushions I use) as simple and straightforward as possible to be the best. You will experience some discomfort, so accept that and drop the search for a ‘perfect’ posture. Also keep in mind that you can ask for a chair (but only if you really need it). New students on the course can sometimes create castles of cushions.
Don’t force strong determination sits
From day four onwards, you are encouraged to sit in strong determination for each of the 3 one hour group sits that happen each day. This means no movement for the entire hour. The way to do this is not to force it. You will not succeed, and you might do some damage to your body. Turn towards the discomfort and see it’s changing nature. However if it gets too much, countdown from 5 seconds mentally and then give yourself permission to change postures.
If I was worried I was doing damage to my body, I would get out of meditation and see if the pain would disappear after five minutes or so. If it did, it was unlikely I was causing damage.
Sleep during the breaks
Drowsiness was a big problem for me during these retreats. I had to discern whether I was genuinely tired, or just being lazy. For me, I found it difficult to fall asleep early (9pm), and with the 4am wake up I often did not get enough sleep. So I would have strategic power naps during the breaks. Forcing yourself to meditate when you are actually tired is just mental torture.
Some tips for drowsiness:
- Open your eyes
- Renew your interest in the object of meditation (become like a curious baby again)
- Stand up for 5 minutes
- Go for a walk and splash water on your face
Be careful of constant rumination
Quality over quantity is very important. Over the ten days there will be about 100 hours of scheduled meditation. How much of that time you actually spend meditating is up to you. I know in my first retreat I had many sessions of sitting cross-legged while ruminating for the entire hour. That wasn’t meditation. It’s not to say you should be annoyed if you are ruminating, but don’t indulge in it. When you notice it, gently but firmly come back to the breath.
The first three days of anapana meditation is designed to quieten the mind. Again, no forcing here. Just gentle training of your attention to come back to your breath every time it wanders away (like training a puppy).
Some common topics of rumination:
- “Is this a cult?”
- “UGH! Why does Goenka have to chant every time?!”
- “Man those girls/boys across the hall are real sexy. Mmm.”
- “I think the teacher can read my mind…”
- “Brown jacket with white shoes dude is definitely a buddha”
Quick note on chanting: it’s more a cultural thing than anything. The course was first run in India. Goenka chants every time you start and end a group meditation. He’s reciting words from the Buddha – on the technique of meditation, offering blessings, dedications and lovingkindness.
Don’t eat too much
You get two meals a day, with a light snack (two pieces of fruit) for dinner. Goenka recommends keeping your stomach only three-quarters full. I found eating too much food led to drowsiness, which made my quality of meditation low. To eat less, I reasoned that because I was sitting all day, I didn’t need much food.
Continuity of practice
Goenka doesn’t mention this until day eight. But I would recommend from the get-go to practice continuously. When you are showering, eating, pooping, walking etc. For the first three days, be mindful of your breathing in every single moment, as best you can. From day four onwards, see if you can notice bodily sensations in every single moment. This really is the secret to success.
Gratitude for the opportunity
The teachers and servers (who sit at the front) are all volunteers. Everyone in the organisation is a volunteer. The course is gifted to you – there’s no expectation or pressure to make a contribution or even volunteer your time. They have a desk in the dining hall and if you feel your cup of gratitude overflowing you can make a donation.
During the ten days, you will experience down days, and it can help to tap into gratitude. I heard in a song once, gratitude and suffering cannot co-exist.
Know the five obscurations
I’ve mentioned some specifics above, but here are the five main obscurations you will come across over the ten days of meditation. They obscure or cover up your ability to meditate (see reality clearly). To overcome them, observe them as objectively as you can.
- Dullness, drowsiness
Sometimes you are genuinely tired, but sometimes it can feel like your mind is very cloudy and foggy, or that you are being lazy. Examine closely, use the tips above to shake the fogginess off. Bringing awareness to your whole body here can help too
- Debilitating doubt
“Does this technique work?” or “I’m not good enough to use this technique.” For the ten days, you’re not going to be able to get all the theory that you would ideally get. If you get serious doubts about the technique, I would recommend subduing them (for now) in order to benefit the most from being on the course. When the course ends, you can then do more thorough research on it.
- Illwill
The silence can make people start disliking the others on the course. Little things might start to irritate you and you begin to develop illwill. Remembering the gift of food, accommodation, and the opportunity to meditate can help with this.
- Excitation/restlessness
They don’t recommend exercise, and if you are used to moving a lot you can get pretty restless. Walks in the woods can help with this.
- Craving/attachment
Sexual fantasies can be a big challenge. Accept that you are not going to get laid in a situation like this, no matter what thoughts you have. Using anapana (mindfulness of breathing) can help with this, to bring your attention back to the breath rather than letting it wander off into fantasies.
Ten days won’t change your life
People come in sometimes with the expectation that ten days will get them over their addiction/depression/mental illness/whatever else they have. It won’t. It might help, but the real benefit comes from continuing to practice.
Goenka recommends two hours per day after the course. Most people don’t do that. I think it’s bad to recommend two hours – people end up either doing two hours, or nothing at all. I would recommend reading about creating tiny habits and making meditation a habit for life. Also the retreat isn’t very good for building a community of meditators. I would recommend searching for local meditation groups or keeping in touch with friends you make during the course to help with that. (Or keep in touch with me!)
If you’ve never done a 10 day vipassana – I would thoroughly recommend it. Hopefully you’ll find some value in these tips. And if you’ve done a course yourself, do share with me how your experience of it was.
I attended 3 ten days course and 2 three days course in maharashtra 5 years ago. Now i am staying in small village in uttar Pradesh. I dosadhana practice both time. Total 80 minutes each day.
Hi Rituraj, that’s brilliant! Thank you for sharing.
Liam
i have done 1 10 day course and 7 3 days course.I feel good after the course. But can not continue the practice and go back to the worldly life of eating anything, sleeping, sex etc.
When ever i get the opportunity or fedup up with materialistic world i go and attend 3 days course.
How can i continue the practice and become regular in it?
Secondly is doing seva in the course give extra benefit because for every course there is a column of doing seva.
I found this phrase recently:
“When it comes to practice, you don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.”
And the more I practice, the more I actually enjoy it. And the more I enjoy it now, the more I practice. There will be an initial phase of discomfort as you go through the “dip”, but if you can work through that it does get easier.
If you are struggling with practicing 2 hours per day as Goenka recommends, start smaller. Maybe 1 hour, or maybe just 20 minutes per day. I believe practicing for a little bit every day is important to keep that streak and habit going.
Wishing you well Satish and thank you for the comment.
Liam
Thanks liamchai for your reply..
However you did not clear about the seva part. Will be grateful if you clarify it
Hi Satish,
Yes there is definitely benefit in doing seva/serving course. For me after my first course I immediately applied to serve because I felt like I wanted a way to give after I received so much from the first course.
I find the serving courses also help with integrating being on retreat and being back in normal life. You do 3 hours of group meditation and the rest of the time you are serving in the kitchen or managing the household. It’s a good environment to bring the meditation from the cushion to our every day lives.
Dear Liamchai
I am fed up with this life. I do not have any aims and ambitions left. No enthusiasm, no motivation factors either. Just passing the days somehow. No relatives or friends. Infact I lost the way. I am suffocating from inside.
Hi Satish,
I feel sad to read a comment like this, but thank you for sharing where you are at. Wishing you well from where I am – where do you live? Is there no body you could speak with at all? Maybe someone on this website: https://www.7cups.com ?
Otherwise if you think it would be of value please email me and perhaps we could arrange a Skype call?
With metta,
Liam
Hi liam,ill be going to vipassana in November,I’m.very excited to finally have this opportunity,
The tips seem useful,but I will let you know w after the course
Silvina
Hi Silvina, that’s great to hear! Good luck! Which centre are you going to be doing at?
Hereford, have you been there? Is the 3 time I enrolled,i cancel the two before,this time is definitely the one
Yes I have. Lovely centre, very large one actually. Yes I cancelled my first one I applied to because of some date clashes. Do let me know how it goes for you Silvina!
Dear Liamchai
Im a bit desperated an full of fear. I want to take it easy and be relaxed. I will have to attend a vipassana retreat, 9 days. It is part of my yoga teacher education I just started in October. I ‚have‘ to do it. My biggest issue is to be away from my kids (6 and 10…one turns 10 those Vipassana-days). Mobile phone is prohibited…I understand that. But this makes me panic. There is a possibility to reach the center all the days, but not every minute…I feel responsible to be there all the time for my kids…there is a father…and parents in-law…one day my mother…
I want to lose the fear because otherwise all the days will be lost..no sense. Do you have some advice that helps me loosing those fears and dont fall into panic. I am angry with myself because I am like this..and so ‘uncool’…thank you very much…
Hey Viva,
Do you have to go on the retreat, or do you want to?
I feel that’s important to clarify first. For me I don’t feel I would’ve benefitted as much from these retreats if I was forced to attend and not really committed to being there.
If you do want to go – not because of your yoga certification, but because you genuinely feel this would be of benefit to you, then it’s absolutely OK to feel fear. 10 days of silence is not easy – and I can’t imagine what it might be like for you to feel like you won’t be there for your young children.
The main thing I would say is to acknowledge your fear, and also your anger at yourself for being “uncool”. It’s absolutely OK to feel these emotions. See if you can allow yourself to feel them without resistance – without pushing them away or wishing they wouldn’t come up.
Then ask yourself if there is an action you need to take. What is the message these emotions are saying to you? Maybe you need to speak to your children and ask how they feel about you being away. They might even be encouraging of you to go on retreat if they knew how much it meant to you. Or maybe there’s something else it is telling you – like something within you that simply wants to be heard.
I don’t know if those words are helpful at all. Sending you big hugs and do send me an email if you want to talk more about it.
Best,
Liam
Hello, thank you for posting. Is contact with the outside world recommended? I am considering leaving my phone off completely during my first retreat coming up in a few weeks.
Hey Vincent, thanks for commenting :-).
Vipassana retreats by Goenka ask you to put your phones in lockers that are unreachable throughout the duration of the retreat.
If it’s not a Goenka retreat I would still highly recommend not having your phone with you at all, especially if you’ve never done that before.
Wishing you well on your first retreat, do post back and let me know how it went!
Liam
Dear Liam,
Discovering your words and your world. Loads of gratitute for all your sharings. We all have the same seeds.
Will start my first vipassana next week in Belgium, excited, scared, curious, determined, grateful….I guess it belongs to the package. Thanks again for your tips, they really help.
Enjoy your path, which reflects so much on mine,
Best,
Swann
Dearest Swann,
What a lovely comment to receive. Thank you for taking the time to write it. Wishing you well for your upcoming vipassana. Exciting, scared, curious, determined, grateful – sounds like the right mix of feelings :-).
Do share if it feels right to express your experience after the retreat. Keen ears here.
Liam
Hello, just completed my first sitting, it was just mind blowing and decided to keep up with a service of another 10 days which is complementary and the continuation to the course. These 20 days brought my practice to another level. And each experience is different and personal. I enjoyed every moment even it is really hard work. But the service was physically harder; the practice of metta was beneficial also for me. I met as well wonderful people and all the volunteers put a lot of love in the cooking, feel grateful and blessed. This experience has changed my life in many levels. There is more clarity on my path, I know now what is my volition.
Swann, that is amazing to hear! Thanks so much for following up and sharing :-). I also did a double like that for my first course – 10 day sit and then 10 day serving straight after. Indeed serving can be quite physically challenging, especially in the kitchen ha. Great to hear on the clarity and knowing your volition.
Wishing you all good things 🙂