S. N. Goenka’s 10 Day Silent Meditation Retreat
No electronics, talking, or eye-contact, with nothing but meditation from dusk to dawn.
What is Vipassana?
Vipassana is an ancient form of meditation that dates back to India more than 2500 years ago. There is an increasing amount of scientific research showing its long-term ability to strengthen the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for attention, impulse inhibition, prospective memory, and cognitive flexibility. The American Vipassana movement marks a recent surge in its popularity since the 1950s.
Restrictions
No electronics, talking, eye-contact, or masturbation, with nothing but meditation from dusk to dawn. Males and females are separated and the living quarters are twin beds in a long hall with a shared bathroom. Every evening you receive group instruction, and every day you have the option to ask the instructor a few questions in private.
Food
They serve Indian themed Mexican, Italian, and Asian vegetarian dishes in a buffet setting. The food is authentic and delicious, and the coffee has caffeine in it. Meals are served at 11 am and 5 pm. Ginger tea is a unique beverage with slightly intoxicating effects, served with fruit between meals.
Instruction
Most of the instruction comes from audio recordings of S.N. Goenka himself, who goes into great detail on how to master the practice. Every day you have the option to talk to the instructor in private after lunch. He answers questions about the practice, what you should and shouldn’t be doing, and is warm and friendly throughout the interaction.
People and atmosphere
If you talk to some of the other students you’ll find that most of them are either college students or people from strict religious backgrounds seeking alternative forms of spirituality.
Why is this retreat free?
The saying goes, if you aren’t paying for the product, then you are the product. Goenka sanctioned retreats provide the entire package — housing, food, and instruction — completely free of charge. This is a great way to explore the practice without making too much of an investment. As someone who has read about Vipassana before going to this retreat, I might be able to explain why.
Instructs a limited branch of the practice
If you’ve read Mindfulness In Plain English, which many consider to be a defining book for beginning meditators, you’ll find that the techniques taught at this retreat differ significantly. If you want to build a lifelong relationship with Vipassana, you might not want to build a foundation on one of the less popular forms of its practice.
Elements of a cult-like pseudoscience
The beginning and end of every meditation session is marked by a recording of S.N. Goenka’s sacred chant —it’s just 10 minutes of him making grumbling noises. Many of the insights are examples of common sense repeated in a proverbial and metaphorical manner. There is an incredibly complex and detailed hierarchy describing the path to transcendence, with the only backing being self-referential.
My Personal Experience
Vipassana is supposed to be the practice of becoming acutely aware of and handling sensations within the body. During the retreat, I spent a disproportionate amount of my mental faculties doing anything but that. I would spend a day or two endlessly deliberating on a subject, usually a person or future endeavor, before moving on to the next subject. While this is normal and encouraged, it makes me wonder what the monks on decade-long retreats think about. The ultimate goal is to be mindful of your body in the present moment.
As my mind wandered, I started to become more aware of bleak and negative aspects of life often discouraged by popular culture. After a mid-day meditation on the fourth day, I felt like I had just taken a small dose of alcohol or marijuana. It was light but certainly noticeable.
I personally felt like I had a much more difficult time completing the retreat than the other students. I felt extremely agitated at times and left many of the meditation sessions early. I also wondered how the other students were able to maintain the posture and withstand the back and leg pain— a few days in I ended up using a chair like many of the older students. I feel that almost anybody can gain value from this retreat, but it is extremely difficult to complete correctly.
Long Term Takeaways
It has been almost 2 years since I attended the retreat, but I still carry some of the insights I gained today. The most prominent one is the concept of balance —the emphasis on balancing good and bad equally boldly defies a culture that blindly peddles good after good. Since the retreat, I’ve become more aware of silver linings in seemingly absolute negatives, and caveats in positives. Vipassana naturally promotes a more horizontal perspective on growth and value. I don’t practice the daily 2 hours of meditation recommended, but I definitely want to return to better grasp and practice parts of the teaching I missed the first time.
