A lot of the new students may not know, that there’s actually an underground library under Harper. It’s locked now, but there are still some ways to get in (which you have to figure it out yourself.) However, once you get in, you are in a totally new world that has never been…
4:30 a.m., K came to wake me up (again, I did not hear the gong.) Every one gathered at the dining hall to listen to Goenkaji’s discourse for one last time. The ambience was more relaxed. Then we proceed to the Dhamma Hall, for the last group sitting session of the retreat. After breakfast,…
We could start talking to each other this morning at 11, for the first time since the meditation started ten days ago. We would also learn a new technique of meditation, Metta, the meditation of benevolence. Tracing back to 10 days ago, I kept counting the days till the end of the retreat: why…
I was late again this morning. I did not hear the first strike of the gong, but I heard it the second time. One server came to gently knock on my door, then she left. When I got up, I realized that every one was already at the Dhamma Hall. With the thinking of…
I thought the gong has not struck yet when I woke up, so I stayed a bit longer in bed. But then I realized the sky just got brighter a bit too soon. I must have been late then. Generally, if you had not got up by the second time the gong stroke, the…
Woke up in the morning, I found out that I have bug bites everywhere on my legs. It’s annoyingly itchy. I got bitten during the days before, but not so many as now. I had the mosquito net up, and I saw no mosquito in the net. It’s getting quite frightening with the detailed thought…
Today, a new sensation got in – I felt dizzy. Then my body started to hurt from head to toe. Weirdly, when you actually observe these pain carefully, you realize they are changing instantly – it’s different pain every little second it passed by. All the pains that feel the same are actually different –…
During the afternoon sitting, my knees and legs were hurting so badly. I’m forcing myself to not move – as the teacher told us. After the first session in the afternoon, I suddenly felt so upset. There was no reason for it. I tried to think what was the origin that caused my sudden sadness,…
The first three day of the 10-day course is just the preparation for the actual Vipassana meditation, which is called Anapana. The fourth day is in fact the first day of Vipassana. My mind started to wander and my body hurt again – and I was aware of that. I was used to focus all…
It’s getting better. I was moving less and less, but my mind was still wild. I don’t know why, but weirdly some annoying thoughts started to appear and get stronger. The only thing I can do is to try my best to focus on the nostril area. I thought this could prevent me to have…