Travel Day 1102 – Dhamma Hermitage, Wat Suan Mokkh, THAILAND
After four more days of Vipassana routine and to everyone’s big surprise, our schedule was changed again…
Stillness during Vipassana Retreat Day
Without any prior warning, we happened to see yesterday evening that there was once again a new schedule posted, starting at day 9. Actually the changes were not that drastically, but they came with such lengthy explanations and a really detailed outline of all the many rules that should be especially respected, that after reading through the entire length of new information, nobody really understood what was going to happen today…
The only thing that seemed to be apparent was that everything in our Vipassana was getting even stricter and more focused on meditation than it had been after the first program change on day four. Now all of a sudden even the last bit of Dharma teaching by the cynical British monk, that I had actually enjoyed very much, was eliminated, giving us more time to practice Anapanasiti and insight meditation. While this seemed overall like an acceptable change, the second big change that was announced was that our lunch was also eliminated and that didn’t really seem acceptable to anyone…
Beauty during Vipassana Retreat Day
Fearing the worst and imagining having to survive the last two days of our Vipassana retreat on nothing but the horrible rice soup in the morning, we all started to enter a slight panic mode. Luckily all our concerns were put at ease when we had a clarification session before bed time, informing us that the only meal of the day, which was served in the morning, would in fact be a substantial one. This meant that we actually received the same kind of big meal we would normally enjoy for lunch…
This seemed all quite acceptable to me and actually like the real Vipassana experience I had asked for in the beginning. Having had a two-day meditation retreat at the end of a 10 day retreat before, at Kopan Monastery, I was trying to see this as a great challenge to really test how far I could push myself in meditation. Meanwhile a few other people saw this rather as a great change to pack their bags and get to the cold beer at the beach on one of the islands about two days earlier than initially intended…
Silence During Vipassana Retreat Day
So once more the energy of the whole Vipassana retreat changed while things were becoming more serious and admittedly more challenging. But in the end nothing was really as bad as we had imagined. Not even the one meal only in the morning was a big problem since everyone stuffed themselves beyond reasoning in and then two times later drinks were served, once hot soy milk and once hot chocolate. The extended meditation schedule wasn’t a real problem either as everybody could follow their own practices again after at least 30 minutes of group meditation…
For me personally the greatest challenge of our Vipassna retreat seemed to be become sitting for at least 90 minutes in each session. Usually after one hour my legs started to hurt, leaving me with no other choice but to move around and constantly change positions. But today I tried not to move at all and to rather embrace the arising pain while trying to breathe it way. While a lot of times this did not work at all, today at least it seemed possible for a while, leaving me to think that probably a lot more was possible as well if one continued to train my mind properly and on a regular basis…
Suan Mokkh Vipassana schedule for day 9:
- 4.00 wake up bell
- 4.30 morning reading
- 4.45 sitting meditation
- 5.15 yoga/tai-chi, mindfulness in motion
- 7.00 sitting meditation
- 7.30 sitting, walking or standing meditation
- 8.30 only meal of the day and chores
- 10.30 sitting meditation
- 11.00 sitting, walking or standing meditation
- 11.45 sitting meditation
- 13.00 hot soy milk
- 14.30 sitting meditation
- 15.00 sitting, walking or standing meditation
- 16.00 sitting meditation
- 18.00 hot chocolate and hot springs
- 19.30 sitting meditation
- 20.00 walking meditation
- 20.30 sitting meditation
- 21.00 bed time
- 21.30 lights off
Find all Wat Suan Mokkh Photos here.
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