10 Days Isolation — Experiences from Vipassana Meditation
Lessons learned of spending 100 hours meditating, no phone and pure silence.
4:24 am. Night. Slight fog is covering the ground. The first rays of the sun appear at the horizon, breaking through the darkness. Silence. A few persons can be seen in the terrain — walking like shadows. Slowly. Without direction. A bell starts ringing, breaking the silence. The silhouettes slowly turn their head towards the sound. After a moment of hesitation, redirecting their movements towards the origin of disturbance. Like an army of undead, marching through the darkness.
What could have been a scene from The Walking Dead, was the first day of my meditation course. Located in the beautiful nature of Lantau Island in Hong Kong this meditation camp was going to be my home of choice for the next ten days.
I have been meditating for over four years now — more seriously since the last two years. I usually spend 10 minutes every morning and evening trying to calm my mind. Like so many others, apps like Calm and Headspace were the tools of my choice.
Still, I felt stuck — lost in the rat race of working, learning and trying to achieve more and more. A friend of mine told about the ten-day Vipassana course with the words “it’s ten days without a phone, no communication and meditating 10 hours a day. You must go crazy”. That’s where I got excited.
The search of meaning did not drive my intentions of taking part in such experience, but rather practicality. It was pure curiosity, the desire to improve on my discipline and merely to get out of my comfort zone.
I got all that — and so much more.
About Vipassana
Vipassana is a 2,500-year-old meditation technique developed by The Buddha to help improve seeing the reality of how it is. All hyper-successful people practice some meditation. Vipassana is very popular among those high-achievers. Ray Dalio (Bridgewater), Yuval Harari (best-selling author) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter) swear on the benefits of Vipassana.
The theory beyond is that happiness is only possible with the abstinence of suffering. Suffering has two reasons: craving and abortion.
- Craving. We crave for things we do not have yet and the feeling of ’not having it’ leads us to experience negative sensations. It is like walking in the city and suddenly smelling delicious waffles. You want them — right now.
- Abortion means avoiding unpleasant experiences. It is like moscito bite— we want to stop it immediately and start scratching unconsciously. The problem with that is that we will always encounter unpleasant experiences in our lives, it is impossible not to do so.
It is just the way we react to the external influences which determine if we live a fulfilled or unfulfilled life. What seems obvious and can easily be understood and accepted by everyone, is hard to apply in our daily lives. Spending 10 days just doing that is a good kickstart.
Vipassana is considered both the simplest and most challenging meditation technique. The instructions are laughably easy: all you need to do is sit still, observe your breath, be aware of sensations on your body, and allow your thoughts to flow with zero judgment. But as I would discover over and over again, these instructions are complicated to follow, especially in our rushed and noisy world.
Course
The course is taking place in a dedicated meditation center — isolated from outside influence. The rules are strict and schedule extremely tough. No connection to the outer world is allowed. Which means no phone, reading books or taking notes. Communication is forbidden as well, including body language and even eye-contact. There is a strict separation of women and men.
The schedule is the same every day and pretty intense. The day starts with the first meditation session at 4:30 am and ends at 9 pm — totaling 11 hours of sitting meditation just interrupted by two meals.
Experience
Everybody perceives this intensive course it very differently, so please keep my subjectivity in mind.
Food
The nutrition consists of 2 vegetarian meals every day, plus fruit and tea in the afternoon. Being used to eating a lot and wherever I want, I expected this to be hard — but it was not. Your activity level is low, so you do not need much nutrition. The vegetarian meals were essential but still tasty. No problem.
Sleep
I am used to sleeping around 6 hours a day and managed to create the habit of waking up at 6 am every day. Initially, I thought waking up 2 hours earlier will not make such a difference. Well, it did. Not precisely the waking up at such early hours was hard, but the length of sleep. Meditating so long and with such intensity is challenging as you are always in a stage of high-concentration. Expect to be exhausted — mentally and physically.
Communication
Friends describe me as a very outgoing and talkative person. But there are also times where I want to spend time alone thinking. Ten days of silence is a different level. Still, I enjoyed it. Most communication we encounter in our daily life is superficial and not adding much value. There were a few times where I felt the urge to talk to somebody. One day I went a bit crazy and started singing in my head. Overall, it was enjoyable not being forced to talk for the sake of talking.
No phone
I admit it: I am addicted to my smartphone. I use it frequently throughout my day, starting in the morning to complete my morning ritual, learning Chinese, checking news and keeping in touch with friends. In average I spent almost 3h per day just with my phone which is pretty crazy.
Still, throughout the whole ten days, I did not feel the urge to get it back. A few times I wanted to google a few things to understand more about, but that was it. At the final day, I expected to have missed a lot. Apart from being flooded by a vast amount of messages and emails, there was nothing of high importance. I learned that I need my phone less than thought.
Meditation
The course takes place in two parts. From Day 1 to Day 4, you are spending your whole time observing your breath and the area around the nose. Becoming aware of the sensations happening in the body is crucial.
From day four onwards, you learn the real Vipassana technique. You are expanding the area of observation from your nasal space to your whole body. It is tough to put it into words, but this was one of the most incredible feelings I have ever heard. It feels like an electric current running over your body. Every part is vibrating. Very pleasant.
There are three sessions each 1 hour every day where you are practicing this kind of meditation technique without moving your body — not even your fingers. You will encounter a lot of pain in the back, your feet get numb, and you feel the urge to move. Still, do not give in.
The whole idea of Vipassana meditation is based on becoming aware of these sensations but not reacting to them. After some time when you examine the areas of pain more in-depth, the unpleasant feelings become weaker and weaker. Soon, you will not have a big problem sitting without any movement for 1 or even 2 hours.
People
I expected the stereotypical spiritual and esoteric people. I was surprised by finding out that most of the participants were cool, sharing the same curiosity and desire for self-improvement. After being allowed to talk again on Day 10, we had some deep conversations. After the course, we met up again and enjoyed our new-acquired freedom in the bars of Hong Kong.
Organization
What impressed me most was the whole course solely run by volunteers. People spend ten days of their lives to serve us by cooking meals and helping us to focus on our meditation. I talked to a few of them afterward, and all of them stated that the course used to be a fantastic experience for them and they want to give back. I am incredibly thankful for their commitment!
Costs
It is entirely free of charge, including accommodation and food. The donations of former participants finance everything. At the end of the course, you can donate as well, but it is not mandatory. I did not at that time as I wanted to detach emotionally from donating, clearly dividing the taking and giving experience. It should not feel like an exchange. After running a thorough analysis afterward, I decided to support the meditation center in Hong Kong with a monthly contribution. But again, this is totally up to you.
Back to reality
This 10-day course was one of my best experiences in the last years. Not only had I the opportunity to learn a proper meditation technique, but I also learned about how my emotions drive me and how to break out of this slavery. Even a few days after the course has finished, I feel much happier than before, always running around with a big smile.
Out of 21 male participants, four left before the end. That’s 20%. The conditions are harsh, and a lot of self-discipline is required. There was one guy who never meditated before and still finished the course. It is not about your experience but rather a matter of mental strength.
Going through hell acts as an anchoring point. Whenever I am struggling now, I will always think back to the time where I spent ten days in pure isolation and not only survived, but got stronger out of it. The world is a competitive place, but how can somebody beat me? It is impossible for anybody who never left the comfort zone.
Conclusion
The course is not a retreat — if you are seeking relaxation better spend your time in a spa hotel.
Going through the experience of over 240 hours of isolation and pain is indeed very challenging — but now acts as a source of strength for me. Throughout the ten days of no distractions, you are forced to think about a lot your past and future — pleasant and unpleasant. It can be hard sometimes but I perceive it as cleaning of my mind.
How has this adventure affected my life? Two weeks after, I still meditate for one hour each morning and evening. Two hours a day is a huge time investment and I am still struggling to put into my busy schedule. Still, I set my priorities. What are two hours a day compared to more happiness in your life?
From what I experienced so far, these two hours are actually giving me time back. I need less sleep now as I am essentially recovering already two hours a day. Furthermore, my level of concentration increased remarkably which helps me to get work done much faster.
It is hard to measure, but I also feel less driven by my emotions. Instead of reacting without thought (as I used to), I become more aware of my physical sensations and try to stop reacting immediately. It is a very long journey to master this but I took the first step.
I am already looking forward to doing my second course. How about you?
