Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The 10-day Vipassana Meditation Retreat (My Comic Experience)

Think about this. Ten days of silence: no books, no writing, no music, no talking. Ten days of doing nothing but meditation, meditation, and meditation for about TEN hours per day. Isn't that awesome? That's the Vipassana Meditation retreat, a life-changing experience (but it can also be a comic experience. lol).

The Vipassana meditation technique taught by Goenka during the 10-day Vipassana retreat is a simple but powerful technique. In my opinion, comparing this technique to the teachings of Yoga, and the experiences of the Indian yogis, can help us understand its benefits even better, such as the mental purification.

One thing that I love about my experience with the 10-day Vipassana Meditation Course was the opportunity to observe the mind. I had several different experiences. Some were pleasant, others not so pleasant, but the best was a mental clarity that I'd never experienced before.

Although I learned a lot from the Vipassana meditation course I had some internal conflicts during the first days. I came to this retreat not because I wanted to learn a new technique. I simply wanted to have the opportunity to practice meditation 10 hours a day for 10 days. However, I encountered several things that I disagreed with.

The iPhone 4: Best Travel Gadget Ever

I'm not a geek and this is certainly not a technology blog but traveling in India with an iPhone 4 has made such a big difference on my trip. It is really such a cool thing that I feel the need to share it with others. I'm sure any other smartphone would work just fine as a travel gadget, they should all perform more or less the same functions, but I've only used the iPhone 4 and I love it! And honestly, all other smartphones that I've seen looks like cheap copies of the iPhone. I prefer to go for the REAL thing.