Vipassana

10 days Meditation. 10 days holding the noble silence. It was definitely a unique experience and it was a lot of suffering. basic conditions, no running water, no electricity, maintaining a dayly program from 4.30 am. till 9.30 pm. learning meditiation and not changing your position for hours... it was hard-core, I can tell you. To get used to the basic conditions was the easyest, maintaining the strict discipline was a bit more difficult, the physical pain of the hourly-long sitting in the same position was already quite a task. The tiredness and the hunger - we got only two meals and a snack a day - was hard to sustain. But the biggest challenge was definitely the confrontation with your own mind. The experiences varied widely but for most of us students it was a confrontation with your inner self, with memories, problems, complexes, plans, whishes, dreams, just with anything stored in your mind, consciously or subconsciously, positive or negative, just everything popped up, appeared, disappeared again. My mood changed up and down. I suffered and enjoyed moments of cheerfullness. The tiredness was overwhelming very often and I could not really concentrate on the meditation technique but instead my mind was full of pictures, memories, problems, dreams, it was a purification of mind and soul. It really was. But it was not a complete purification, no, just a first step on learning how to become balanced and on how to improve your living quality. I can recommend it to everyone.
We were a student group of about 30 persons, about 5 of them left earlier. the age of the poeple ranged from 20 to 64 and they came from places like Switzerland (biggest group, how amazing - we overrode the Israelis), Israel, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, South-Africa, England, Australia, Holland and Finland. So mainly western-european but a wide range of different ages.
Still, we could not talk to each other anyway. The first word I uttered after the noble silence was broken??? I was really insecure and was thinking who I should talk to, what I should say... well, suddenly Jorrit my travelling companion stood besides me and started talking to me and I just laughed and laughed. Well, this has also something to do with the common humour Jorrit and me developped after weeks and week of travelling together. It happened very often during the ten days that I looked at his face and almost broke out into laughter because the whole situation just seemed so absurd to me. All these people around me with suffering faces, over-tired and starving, everyone tortured with his inner turmoile. Everyone, including me -excluding Jorrit- suffered like hell. But there were outbursts of overwhelming joy and cheerfullness and I was just happy with everything. For me, the tiredness and the hunger was worst. Apart from that I could handle it and I will definitely continue this technique and try to become harmonic:-)
So, harmony to you all.
Cheers.
Misho.

beautiful ladakh

after more than 10 days retrieving from the rest of the world I finally arrived in Leh in the region of Ladakh, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to in India. The scenery is a mixture of the desert of Negev in Israel and the Sierra Nevada in Spain with the only difference that the valley is surrounded by high peaks of snow-overed mountains in the background which makes it a stunning contrast. Before I came here to this wonderful place I spent a week in the SPITI and the PIN valley in Himachal Pradesh, two isolated valleys close to the Tibetan boarder. The local population belongs ethnically to the Tibetan culture so it doesn's really feel like India anymore. The same is the case here in Ladakh. Spiti and Pin valley were a good preparation of getting used to the altitude of around 4000 m. The alleys are all vast and poor of vegetation but the colours of the rocks, the shapes and features are just amazing and differ from valley to valley. The Spiti and Pin valley have just been discovered as a tourist destination so there is a lot of construction going on but the atmosphere of being in the middle of nowhere still persists. In the Pin valley we stayed in Mudh, the last village in the valley where we stayed under absolutely basic conditions. It was a pure adventure. The second day we visited a GOMPA where a festival was held dedicated to the birthday of the Dalai Lamah. Again, the cultural ties to Tibet were obvious in the dances and the chanting of the monks. It was just amazing.
I am still travelling with Dutch Jorrit and we just left our Israeli companions when we left Spiti Valley for heading up to Ladakh. On the way here we met another Dutch and a Swede whom we are now exploring the town of Leh with. Yesterday I have signed up for a meditations course called Vipassana which will take place in a little village about 50 km from here out in the middle of nowhere. During 10 days we will be isolated from the outer world, live under basic conditions with no running water and no electricity, getting up every day at 4.00 am. doing meditation for 12 hours, having only 3 meals a day and holding the so called NOBLE SILENCE. This means that I will not be allowed to speak for 10 days. Everyone who knows how talkative I am can imagine how hard this will be for me. But it will be definitely a challenge and I am looking forward to it.
The internet here is horribly expensive so I make it short now. So think of me between the 15th and the 25th July when I will be absorbed from any civilization and purify my brain and soul.
Spiritual wishes.
mischo.