Tufan Bhattarai
It was December 2013 when I had my first 10 day Vipassana experience. It was truly awesome and helped me realize how suffered I was and how much pain my body had stored. Since then, I was into a whole day long meditation. So the email to fill up the form for one day Vipassana with Rudra dai really excited me. I filled up the form on my own will and excitement. I went to bed early that night so that i could reach on time the next day. The next day I woke up early in the morning and reached the office premises by 7:05. I met Nitish dai, Netra dai, Sanjay dai,Raksha didi, Shikshya didi, Pramod dai and many other participants. We had some good breakfast in 109 degrees restaurant which included fruits and tea. After having the breakfast, we started our first meditation session in 8 AM. Rudra dai was already in and ready. Pramod dai showed us the empty seats and we sat there. As Rudra dai started the meditation, the timer was set by Pramod dai and we closed our eyes and dived into the world of breath. We were instructed to focus on our breath and watch it in its natural condition without any judgement. We did the same. It was being difficult for maintaining the correct posture for many of the participants who had no practice and were attending for the first time. Rudra dai helped them maintaining the postures by teaching different ‘Aasanas’. As I started focusing on my breath, I noticed how monkey minded I was. The stream of thoughts made me distracted. I was focusing on my breath but in no time I was into some random thoughts of my past events and worries of the future. But gradually I improved my concentration and very few thoughts distracted me. I started feeling sensations of various types, some were shuttle tingling sensations whereas some were gross and painful. As Rudra dai had said to focus on the sensation no matter how pleasant or painful they were and slowly everything will go away, I did the same. When I focused on the sensations, the shuttle sensations went away in no time but was a different case with the gross and painful sensations.However, taking in mind the law of impermanence i.e., ‘Nothing is permanent and everything is temporary’, I kept on focusing on the sensations no matter how painful or pleasant they were. And they gradually disappeared as expected. After the first 90 minutes session was over, everybody went out for the break. We were told not to speak with others and maintain noble silence. Half of the participants had run away after the first session break and the number gradually decreased up to the final i.e., the fourth session. In every session, we focused on our own body as the Pali word ‘Vipassana’ says i.e., ‘Vi’ meaning the self and ‘Pasyanaa’ meaning the entering. We entered into the self with minute observation. The last meditation session turned out the best for me as I was able to fully concentrate and feel the sensations in every part of my body and I was very less distracted. When the final bell rang, I felt like staying more but the session was over. So, we all woke up, stretched our bodies and legs looked at each other and smiled. Everyone was smiling and I could see a sense of achievement in everyone.

After this, we bade good bies and left with immense happiness. I found the day was a very good investment for our own benefit. I expect to attend such one day sessions soon again.

LIST OF MEDITATORS