Completed my 10 days meditation retreat at a meditation center located up in Hinokiyama, one of the many beautiful snowcapped mountains framing a beautiful countryside scenery in the outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. And as promised, here’s my update of what happened!

The meditation retreat, a “Vipasanna” meditation course to be exact, teaches an untainted form of meditation directly passed down by Buddha, the very same one that helped him achieve enlightenment, around 2500 years ago. “Vipasanna”, a word in Sanskrit, literally means “insights into the true nature of reality”. Sounds very deep doesn’t it? I thought so too, but read on.

The course was actually recommended by a very good friend of mine back in Singapore, who attended a same course in Cambodia, before I left for my travels last year. Not having done anything like that before, I was intrigued and decided to sign up for the next available course (there are many Vipasanna centers around the world but I chose Japan as I thought it would be quite a romantic notion to do it over there haha) with only one expectation, to get some solid quiet time alone, away from all the hustles and bustles of my life. I also thought it would be a good challenge for myself, that is to be totally technology free for 10 days and to undertake a course-mandatory vow of silence as the icing to the cake. Little did I knew that those two things were going to be the least of the challenges I was going to face in my time there.

It took me a whole day journey by bus and train to get to the center, all the way from Tokyo. The sky was already turning into a deep dark blue by the time I stepped off the shuttle bus, and into the midst of towering and magnificent pine trees around a small cluster of quaint yet simple wooden buildings that stood right before me. A was really a picture perfect setting, totally right out of a fairy tale story. I was immediately overwhelmed with a sense of awe and anticipation bubbling inside of me. What will the next 10 days be like? I took a deep breath from the cold evening air and hoped for the best.

To cut a really long story short, the duration of my time there was mentally and physically painful. The days seemed simple. Meditations, meals and sleep. For a city boy like me, it was hell. Having to wake up at 4am and sleep at 9pm everyday, sit and meditate in a single posture for hours on end, simple vegetarian Japanese meals for the first two meals of the day (6.30am and 11am) and only fruits for dinner (5pm), it was torture to me, in every sense of the word.

The only thing I really looked forward to was the video lessons in the evenings, where the enigmatic teacher, S.N.Goenka, the man who re-popularized Vipasanna meditation back into the world in the late 80s, taught us on the technique of Vipasanna meditation in a nurturing, humorous and engaging way. I was always super attentive, back straight, and chins up. i do have to admit however, that this was partly because it was the most interesting thing that happens every day. Lol

However, as each day painstakingly rolled by, I slowly found myself changing. I didn’t realize it at first but slowly became more and more apparent.

From a person with a chip on my shoulder for the world, I was turning into someone who didn’t feel the need to change the world to be happy. I learnt the impermanence of all things that exist and to accept reality as it is. I learnt how to let go of things and move on. I learnt to be more experiential instead of blindly following things without truly understanding them. I learnt how to be truly be happy, not for the everything around me that changes with time, but by my own merits and the equanimity of my own mind and body. It was in short, life-changing.

To fully share how and what I learnt in its entirety during this time however, will simply not do this method of meditation any justice. I would seriously recommend to experience it for yourself. Don’t doubt in its authenticity. I can personally vouch for that (if you take it seriously of course). Take a leap of faith, find the time and just do it. If you think about it, you really have nothing to lose. This method, in all honesty, isn’t a Buddhist meditation, or any other religious practices in any rhyme or way. It is in essence, a universal method of understanding and loving all things around us, and most importantly, ourselves.

All In all, I feel thoroughly blessed to have gone for this course and to be able have the opportunity to take this journey of self discovery and self love this year. Have I achieved my goal? Not yet, not by a long mile. But I know I have taken the first step in this journey. The only thing I need to concern myself with now is path that lies before me, and that is all that matters.