{"id":5183,"date":"2020-12-16T09:19:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T03:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/?p=5183"},"modified":"2020-12-16T09:19:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T03:49:55","slug":"vipassana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/16\/vipassana\/","title":{"rendered":"Vipassana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2010 I went for Vipassana<\/a>. I was between jobs. It was Karunakar<\/a>, my mentor, who strongly suggested to me. I was in my early 20’s, hormones kicking, enjoying salaried life on alcohol and consumerism: the advice for meditation retreat made no sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cannot say no to Karunakar: I registered for ten days of retreat in Leh. I think an Air India flight was running directly from Delhi to Leh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leh was a different world for me, not because of the hipster cafes or foreigners crowding the place but the locals. I found people lovable and their acceptance that I am one of them. The dry mountains, bone-chilling wind, and prayers from Gompas were mesmerizing. Walking on the market and waving strangers with a smile and Julley<\/a> was heartwarming for someone coming from noisy, anger-filled Delhi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vipassana center was on the outskirts of some school. The rules were told in advance to me by Karunakar and manuals they had sent. I was wondering how I will survive on two meals of veg food and ten days of silence. Some part of my brain was saying that I forced myself to jail in some touristy spot. The first three days of the retreat were hell. I died every minute because I was scared. I had no phone, people, beer, laptop around. Figuring out: Who am I, with my consciousness and breath was painful. I had nothing to lie, nothing to hide. I was naked with myself. I saw half a dozen folks crying and some leaving the retreat because they could not take it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Waking up early, taking a cold bath, sitting in a lotus pose, and observing the breath for ten days, and listening to Dr. Goenka’s lectures were not easy. My mind was wandering in thoughts, and I was trying to observe it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the retreat got over, it took me a few months to get back to speaking regularly. I continued doing the breathing and other techniques for a few months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I a changed person? I think so; I was less scared of myself, accepting who am I, and started liking my solitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will I recommend others for Vipassana?
I definitely will.
Will Vipassana help everyone?
I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leh market<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
What are they talking?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The touristy spot with few local folks who were at Vipassana retreat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2010 I went for Vipassana. I was between jobs. It was Karunakar, my mentor, who strongly suggested to me. I was in my early 20’s, hormones kicking, enjoying salaried life on alcohol and consumerism: the advice for meditation retreat made no sense. I cannot say no to Karunakar: I registered for ten days of … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Vipassana”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176,100],"tags":[1036],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5187,"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5183\/revisions\/5187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atuljha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}