Vipassaña Meditation
In this unusual retreat, we will spend half our day in silence, engaged in the practice of insight meditation (Vipassaña). The other half of our day we will engage in normal activities, speaking and socialising. In this way we shall be obliged to integrate what we learn in silence, to bring the witnessing state into everyday life. For those who have who have been practicing meditation in the formal way, this approach helps to incorporate the practice into everyday life. For beginners new to meditation practice the retreat initiates you into the formal practices of slow mindful walking plus sitting still and watching the mind.
Vipassaña is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices. The method comes directly from the Satipatthana Sutta, a discourse attributed to the Buddha himself. Vipassaña is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It's a gentle technique, proceeding gradually, yet very thorough. It trains your mind to become increasingly more aware of your own life experience.
In Vipassaña meditation we cultivate the ability to see reality exactly as it is. That ability, which we have to learn, is mindfulness. We learn to smell more acutely, to touch more fully, to taste our food thoroughly—to really pay attention to the changes taking place in all these everyday experiences.
This is a process that is quite different to what we usually do. Normally, we view life through a filter of thoughts and concepts and we get so used to these that we mistake them for the reality behind them. We get so caught up in our ongoing stream of thought that we miss reality, engrossed as we are in our constant activity of pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. We spend our energies trying to make ourselves feel better, trying to bury our fears.
In order to watch carefully our inner dialogue, we will spend a significant part of our day in silence, simply sitting or slowly attentively walking. As we relax our constant search for comfort, real fulfillment arises. Outside of the intensive retreat periods we shall practice retaining what we have learnt in silence, bringing that witnessing consciousness to everyday activities. As we do this over the week, going into silence, coming out to everyday life, going back into silence...we have the rare opportunity to fully integrate practice and daily life.
The retreat is suitable both for those having no previous experience of meditation practice, as well as for those with considerable experience of the path of insight. Self discipline and independence from the teacher are gradually introduced and cultivated over the week, so that the student leaves with the tools to maintain the practice at home.
Gosh Pos grew up in Surinam, Dutch West Indies, and lived for 11 years in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma as a Buddhist monk. In the monasteries he studied Mahasi Sayadaw Vipassaña style with slow motion walking and attention to all movements in slow motion. For the past four years he has been leading Vipassaña retreats in his own hermitage in the forest near Palolem, S. Goa (India). Gosh has taught yoga for 20 years and healing for several years.