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232 hours of silence and 117 hours of meditation is now over! I feel so relaxed and happy, I feel peaceful and balanced. It wasn't easy. So many mixed feelings and a roller coaster of emotions.
Punta Zero in Putaendo was such a beautiful place. I felt the zen immediately when I arrived. And best part was to see how fast the spring had come, apple and peach trees blooming, lady birds and dragon flies flying all around. We had private twin rooms and very nice garden and fish pond to walk around on our breaks. But lets get to the course.
Vipassana meditation, how to control your mind. Dhamma is teaching you how to get rid of missery, sorrow, sadness, cravings, guilt,.. And how to enjoy real peace, real harmony and real happiness. Reminding that you are the one responsible for your own happiness, not others. Reminding that only judge your own actions, not others. Reminding that you can only change yourself, not others. And this is what I needed. For me, it is sometimes so hard to understand how someone can act or say things they do. I try to fit everyone on my own patterns wether it is their style of life or not. I learnt to be compassioned with these thoughts and realiasing it is not away from me if someone else does things that I don't approve.
Every morning we got up at 4am to start our meditations. Followed by breakfast and little break before continuing. My second and last meal was served at 11am and after that I was allowed to have glass of lemon or ginger water at 5pm. Yes, I was hungry! But not that hungry as you could imagine. Body gets used to it quite quickly. But the food wasn't as goor or nutrious as in Nepal. One girl ate only kiwis and mandarins in every single meal. Don't know how she managed :) I found it, that the afternoon lessons were the hardest ones. It was warm outside, sun was shining and light kept coming to the meditation hall. People were turning, moving, changing position, couching, sneezing, farting, coming and going,..
Best part of the day was 7pm discourse. I was the only non spanish speaking white person, so I had private session with N.K. Goenka himself (on video). He talked about the day and gave new instructions for the following day. Almost everyday some questions had come to my mind and every night Goenka explained them without me even asking. If you had problems, after our last meditation at 9pm you could stay and ask questions from the professor. I stayed once but it didn't help, there was a huge language barrior between us.
I really think everyone should take a moment of their day to meditate as it will help you to realize many things much better. And also feel better about yourself. I feel like a new person once again. Last time it lasted 6 months before I was back being an old me judging and feeling bad about myself. This time I will really keep practicing so I won't loose it this time. I met so wonderful, open, good hearted people that I am really going to miss. We only had time to chat with other people few hours before the course started and less than 12 hours after the course, but still manage to make good friends.
