Vipassana Diary - Day 4

Day 4 - 27 Aug, 2009

Dear Diary,

Today I blew my nose.

I didn't really. When I said Noble Silence is driving me crazy, I meant it. The strangest memories have started popping into my head. Some good, some bad, and some just little trivial snippets of long-forgotten moments.

"Today I blew my nose" is actually an old diary entry of AJ's. Way back in early primary school he was asked to keep a diary as a school project, and showing early signs of the creative powerhouse that he would grow up to become, those 5 words once constituted and entire day's entry. Just one example of the junk that's bubbling up from the depths of my stimulation-staved brain.

I found out in the post-lunch session that we haven't even started practising Vipassana yet! This breath-watching is just a precursor, a foundation, 4 days of ground work, 40 hours of getting ready, basically. Oh, it has a name too, Anapana.

Vipassna is really not all that different. It's basically just Anapana, but instead of just watching your breath, you watch everything. You shift your concentration from head to toe, one square inch at a time, analysing each part of the body carefully. All you do is look for sensations, the touch of your clothing, the breeze from the fans, pins and needles, tingles, heat, cold, anything. You keep your mind focused on a specific spot until you can feel something/anything there, and then you move on.

It might sound easy, but it's not. Trying to pinpoint the slightest of sensations on area like your lower back is near impossible.

All afternoon we practiced the new Vipassana technique and now I feel incredibly drained. I'd never have imagined meditating could be so unbelievably taxing.