Before and After Vipassana Retreat.

[DEV]

Hey Guys,

I'll be attending My First Vipassana Retreat from 15 october.

I know that All have different experiences but I wanted to ask How your Life has changed after your First Vipassana Retreat.

Please share How were you before and changes you observed After the retreat.

And also, How many of those changes became "Permanent" in your Life?

This time hoping to hear from Sir @Leo Gura also.

*Especially I'm talking about the Personal Character changes and not the Enlightenment experience. But you can share them too.

Thank you!!

[Recursoinominado]

I had a HUGE ego backlash when it was over, spent months gorging in unhealthy habits, foods, drugs, couldn't meditate at all. Today i understand that i probably had a kundalini awakening there which forced my third eye to open way before my other chakras making me ungrounded as fuck (i was spacey, confused, full of anger, anxiety). Took me a year to learn what just happened because nobody could explain to me why i felt worse after the retreat and all advice i receive was "keep meditating" which i couldn't because it made the symptoms worse every time i tried. 

BUT, i highly recommend it, its a giant challenge, i had a glimpse of how fucked i was once i was stripped of all distractions and "forced" to meditate 10h a day for 10 days. It was hardcore to say the least. Later i went back as a server to work in the kitchen for another 10-days retreat and i plan to sit in another one next year. 

[PsiloPutty]

Don't expect a whole lot of HUGE changes in your life after one retreat. Retreats are an accelerator of progress, not a portal into a changed person.  You probably already knew that.   

I had a lot of emotion come up at my retreat earlier this year. Like going back to my room, getting on my hands and knees and bawling my eyes out a couple nights. It wasn't even sadness or pain, in fact I felt like I was watching it all from a relatively happy place. Something about no communicating with anyone at all brought this about in me. It forced me to go internal for everything from chit-chat to serious inquiry. 

I had very real ego backlash for a few days after the retreat let out, which proved to me that something got monkeyed with (in a good way) in my head. I also could meditate at the drop of a hat for a couple weeks afterward. Like sitting down and becoming totally locked onto my breath in less than a minute. 

Met some great people there, too. 

[Girzo]

Just do it.

36 minutes ago, DEV said:

Especially I'm talking about the Personal Character changes and not the Enlightenment experience. 

This Enlightenment practice, not a magic pill. You shouldn't expect such changes, they might happen, but if you focus on that during the retreat, you will lose time.

You will become a better meditator, that's for sure. And maybe meet a few cool people.

[Freakyboo]

Yes, don't expect miracles in your first retreat.  I have done 7 Vipassana 10 day retreats and the absolute best thing is the inner silence that comes towards the end, which is then ruined when you have to go back into the outside world.  But just experiencing that for a while is marvelous .

Another awesome benefit is the experiential lesson that suffering is completely and utterly in the mind.  Because you are tuning in more and more to subtle energies, you begin to see all, including pain in your body (as you sometimes have to sit for one hour without moving a muscle) as merely sensation.  Pain is a heavy sensation, other sensations are lighter and lighter - and you realise that 'pain' is merely a label we put on what feels like a heavy sensation.

I have never seen lights/colours or had an 'awakening' while on Vipassana, though I have seen people's auras.  And the benefits do not last unless you continue the practice at home, for which is proscribed 2 hours of meditation per day - too much for most.

Good luck and I hope the retreat is beneficial for you.

[Peanut]

Hi! 

I meditated daily between 30min-1.5h for a year before i went to my vipassana retreat about a month ago. Before going i was doing very well in this work imo, except for my meditation practice i was also, doing yoga every day for atleast 40 min, i was jogging 5/6 days a week for atleast 30 min, i was eating healthy, reading books, taking only cold baths, contemplating daily and so on. Was almost completly free from gross addictions, previously i had been addicted to video games, porn, junk food, drinking, tv, and so on. I was pushing my self hard and i felt i was abel to deal with ressistance alot easyer due to having raised my awarness. I was peaking in terms of consciousness and health before i went to my vipassana retreat. 

At the retreat i kept pushing my self to follow all the rules and try my hardest during all the sits and also kept trying to stay aware during the breaks. On the last day of the retreat i started to get sick. 

Once i got home the first days i was doing fine, i was sick but did not have an ego backlash or anything. I got home just as my course in philosophy was was starting so i was going to that. But i kept getting more sick. So i had to stop going to the lectures and was just staying home laying in my sofa. Then after about a week or so after i got home i watched a few movies while sick, then i watched more and more and I started watching series, i kept up my meditation some what but some days only for about 20 minutes, all other practices fell of mostly due to feeling sick. Now it's been abit over 1 month and im still fking sick. And struggling to let go of addictions to tv and now the world championship of league of legends is starting wich i used to be HEAVILY addicted to so im struggling not to watch that. Wether my mind is causing is tricking me that im sick or not as apart of some kind of ego backlash or not i cant really tell, i truly feel sick and cant take a walk for more than 15 min where as before i used to run 10 km.

Anyway, i deffently felt a big boost in awarness after the retreat and i loved meditating at home that first week after getting home. But the ego backlash was very real for me and coupled with getting sick im now in worse shape then before i went but that will of course change and i am finally starting to get back on my feet. And i am still happy i went there, it was a great experience and i grew alot as a person and in terms of consciousness from it. 

I wish you all the best at your retreat and i encourage you to keep up meditation practise everyday, it's truly amasing what can happen in only one year of daily meditation coupled with a retreat. But as others said don´t have to high expectations of the gains from only doing a retreat, you must keep up the daily practise. Sorry for writing so much...Good luck on your retreat<2!

[luckieluuke]

@DEV I understand why you ask this questions but the answers will only bring you expectation which your ego will value and you will have a more distorted / less "true" experience on the retreat.
If you have a history with mental illness or you are currently in a bad place in life, it might be good to come somewhat prepared but if not, go with eyes and mind open

@Peanut Thanks for you story! I have some addictions as well (such as starcraft) but the way I dealt with it is to let myself game if I really wanted to, but before gaming I´d become really aware of my situation, I asked myself "is this really what I want to do?" - Consider the long term effects. If then the answer still is yes dammit! I really want to play a few games! then I´d let myself. But more and more often the answer becomes no.
Some people can quit addictions just like that. Not me, it takes time. But I let it take time so it´s ok.

@Freakyboo If you´ve never had an awakening after 10 Vipassana retreats what makes you go back? I´ve only been to one and I can relate to your text. Nothing special happened but there was alot of small changes in my attitude after. But I am having a hard time going back to a retreat if that is the only effect. I think I´d have the same effect going on a trek in the woods or some other relaxing vacation which is actually fun. Vipassana is hard work! (at least for me)

[PsiloPutty]

@Peanut    What are you sick with?

[Peanut]

@luckieluuke  Yes that approach deffently works for getting rid of addictions and it works when you fall back as well also just trying to stay aware while doing the thing you are addicted helps, kinda hard tho as most addictions do involve tricking your self in a way.          

@PsiloPutty Just the cold like soar throat, runny nose, couching, sneezing, small fever etc, the degree of sickness has been varying but ive not been completely well since i got home about a month ago. I went to the doctor and they just said i probably got the flue two times in a row. 

[Girzo]

18 hours ago, Freakyboo said:

And the benefits do not last unless you continue the practice at home, for which is proscribed 2 hours of meditation per day - too much for most.

That's why there's Kriya Yoga! Takes only 20-30 minutes everyday and works way better than Vipassana in a non-retreat conditions.

@Peanut Flu sucks! Hope you get better.

[Mirror of Confusion]

@Girzo I came back from a vipassana course 2 weeks ago and just knew that I will be doing kriya yoga from now on. Vipassana is a mighty technique but you have to invest a lot of time and the benefits compared to kriya are rather small. I asked a practitioner who came to the course for the last 10 years at least twice a year and I asked him if somebody got enlightened here and he just laughed my question away and said “this takes lifetimes“.

 

@DEV

I also had a small ego backlash. Mainly  craving unhealthy sugary food and porn. 

The benefits are that I see my emotions way more objectively (detached) since then.

Nonetheless I would recommend it to everyone who wants to know him or herself better and who wants to improve their personality.