Logistics

There was a fixed schedule to stick to: waking up at 4am, getting to sleep at 9:30pm. It was not easy to get out of warm bed (yes, August mornings are already chilly at this part of the world) at 4am and even less easy to fall asleep before 10pm. Some blogs I read claim really good quality of sleep when the exhausting day is finally over, but this doesn’t work for everyone. We were all exhausted but some could still hardly fall asleep. I tossed for half an hour on average, only followed by a full night of dreams so vivid that I could recall all details the next morning.

10 hours of meditation was scheduled everyday, either in the group mediation hall or at own room, according to instructions. Meditating outdoor was not allowed — although eventually you are supposed to be able to meditate in all circumstances, to be able to progress as a beginner, distractions are to be minimised. 6 official hours of sleep is too little for me and sitting for hours on the floor in whatever position was straining my back. Luckily no one checked when I “meditated” in room lying down

We had DELICIOUS vegetarian food!! For the 6:30am breakfast, oatmeal and date/raisin soup were served, and the 11am vegetarian lunch was absolutely delicious. I allowed myself one bowl of food at breakfast and lunch each. At the 5pm tea time, some fruits were served instead of dinner, and 1/4 of a small apple and 1/3 of a banana with some camomile tea was largely enough for me. I know some managed 3 whole fruits, which I totally could too on normal working days, but I figured early on that I wouldn’t be able to handle hourlong sitting on a full stomach.

I stayed in a room with two other girls around my age. In general the attendees’ ages range from 18 to around 70, with a significant proportion of young people — there goes my aspiration to pull down the average age. A number in their early 20s. The three-story residence is cut into male section and female section with separate entrances. Turns out K and I both stay on the middle floor in rooms with attached bathroom. We guestimated that they made the younger ones occupy the ground floor with shared bathrooms, like in youth hostels. The top floor, with one or two-bedded rooms was occupied by “old students” who have done this course before.

No sports were allowed but legs and back and shoulders did scream of pain all the time. So we took all opportunity to walk rounds and rounds and rounds in the garden like hamsters. Lovely green garden in August made it an enjoyable activity, with squirrels hugging onto their prized pine nuts, mice chewing on an apple fallen from the tree, flies stopped at the window ready to be grabbed by fingers— what Vipassana animals

I made the mistake of not bringing enough warm clothing, waterproof jacket or umbrella, which proved to be essential. Mid-August doesn’t mean anything in Belgium-Netherlands border: there was more rain than sun, more wind than warmth. Miraculously I didn’t fall sick. There were enough blankets in the meditation hall and in the room

Importantly I accepted to invest in my hard work without having to accept the theories of Karma and Past/Future lives. One does not have to alter any religious and cultural belief in order to benefit from practising dhamma. I appreciate the secular nature of this course. Indeed, there was even a Muslim lady in headdress who was there as an “old student”.

We enjoyed the course, lodging and food free of charge. The whole organisation runs purely on donations from past participants. We made donations at the end of the course to pass down the benefit to future participants.

Lessons

All lessons were conducted in audio recordings, in English and a local language, in our case Dutch. The teacher‘s name is S.N.Goenka, a successful businessman-turned-meditation master, passed away in 2013. Vipassana centres all over the world keep the exact same schedules and recordings from him. There are two local teachers who sat with us during group sittings, who teach absolutely nothing except answering students questions individually if any.

Every evening we listened to a discourse from Goenka, who explained the techniques and philosophy behind in a relaxed, storytelling way, inevitably with a heavy Indian-accent. Blessed with experiences of working with Indians, I understood well, and those who don’t would opt for local language translations. Together with Goenka’s off-tuned mesmerising chanting, this discourse constituted my only entertainment during these 10 days.

The practices were simple but not easy. An example would be to KEEP YOUR ENTIRE ATTENTION ON YOUR BREATH for the next two hours, without counting, deliberation in changing your breathing, chanting or thinking of any mantra. Just, simply, breathe naturally and focus on it! Later in the course we learnt the body scan, finding subtle sensation in each and every part of the body. I can see why people don’t get the point of doing this, but for me, it is a really effective way to train my mind so that I can gain control of it in other areas of my life.

Sitting for one hour without moving or opening eyes. This is also very difficult. Sometimes I succeeded and sometimes not. I learned to forgive myself when things were not working as well as I wanted them to. When my thoughts kept running away and wouldn’t focus for even a minute straight, I stayed unashamed. It is important to be able to forgive oneself before one is able to forgive others — lifelong lesson to acquire.

Noble silence was observed , meaning no talking was allowed. Of course exceptions were allowed when one has questions for the teacher or for the staff. Believe it or not the silence helps in quieting down one’s mind. Going through an entire day without talking has never been a problem for me, and I did appreciate the respect that everyone accorded to everyone else. Together we ensured the silence even though it was not easy for everyone.

When mood was right, I was able to focus on breathing for a reasonable duration and feel subtle body sensations all over. But that was NOT the objective of Vipassana. The real aim is to achieve an equanimity of mind, free from all cravings and all aversions, so as to free oneself from all sufferings. As a technique, Vipassana taught us to stop craving for desirable sensations and stop aversion of undesirable sensations, with the aim to eliminate all cravings and aversions in all aspects of life. I really agree with the theory that our sufferings come from cravings and aversions. Eliminating those will eliminate suffering and bring eternal peace of mind. At the theoretical levels, these are just words floating above our normal day to day life. But as Goenka says, without actual practice and many hours put in, we won’t be able to actually appreciate its significance. The surface of words is unable to justify the wisdom conveyed so I am at loss of words for this.

Why I liked it:

It’s been more than a month that we are back home and we haven’t stopped practicing. We made an effort to sleep from 10pm to 6pm everyday, waking up early to exercise or meditate. We try to meditate for half an hour before going to sleep as well. It really calms me down and sets me in positive light-hearted feeling to the day ahead. As an interesting side effect, we picked up jogging in the morning. For those who know us, we were famous in our youth for always being the last in the class for running. So it’s a late but welcomed change in our life!

Some are afraid that meditation is just a venue of escape from reality and the non-reaction to external stimulus makes one a passive individual, losing all motivation to thrive and to make an effort. I affirm that it can’t be further away from truth. Vipassana is realism plus workism (yes, employers have interests to encourage all employees to practice). It is about the recognition of what one is experiencing right now and the fact that the nothing is perpetual. It allows the mind to focus on working out the solution where there is a problem to be solved, without being bogged down by panic or worry. If nothing can be done about the situation, it also allows one to get passed the present sensation, excitement or sorrow, with the recognition that everything is continually moving on. There is no use in dwelling in the past.

Again these are theories that everyone knows. As we say in Chinese, I know all the theories, but I still can’t carry out my life as it should be. Well I think I have found one solution for myself: the art of living called Vipassana. I hope it continues to fill me with peace and energy that it has in the past month, so that I will be able to contribute to the society and spread the loving-kindness.

May all beings be happy.

Useful links:

To find out about courses all over the world
https://www.dhamma.org/

Courses in China are available here
http://ng.81355.net (a dubious looking site address, but a valid one^^)

The weather was still pleasantly warm and we had long walks, explored the christmas market (with its numerous food options) and experimented with christmas cookies.

Having my 5y old nephew and 3y old niece around made gift exchange so much more exciting – and a nice excuse for the older kids to “help” with all the Lego constructions

For New Year celebrations we gathered with a few good old friends (and their five children) in a small city in the Ruhr Area (“Ruhrgebiet”).
This massive historic coal mining area was once an important pillar of the German “Wirtschaftswunder” after World War 2 and the population in the area exploded to 5 million, blurring all city lines and creating one big connected urban area.

Staying in Herne and going to a zoo in Gelsenkirchen while planning dinner in Bochum sounded like a crazy lot of travelling but turned out to be just a change of neighborhood.

German coal ultimately lost its competitiveness in the 60’s, but the government decided to subsidize coal mining and allow a gradual phase out of the industry. The second last German coal mine had just been closed a month ago and the last one is scheduled for 2018.
Even though this was a quite expensive endeavor it avoided mass unemployment and ghost towns in the whole area and seemed to have worked out pretty well.
We visited one of the older mines, now Unesco world heritage and large museum plus culture site, and had a great guided tour through the refurbished coal extraction facilities.

We continued north to visit my brother with his family in Hamburg. Within the short train ride the temperature dropped remarkably from +10 to -5 and weather remained very chilly for the next days combined with typical coastal winds.
We limited our city explorations therefore to short trips and spent more time with my nephew and niece.
Hamburg is a wealthy trading town which despite being the second largest city of Germany never feels crowded and has a relaxed pace.
A lot of its history relates to trading and it’s big port, still second biggest in Europe. Many sightseeing highlights are therefore related to the water, from a boat tour of the harbor over Fischbrötchen (fish sandwich) at Hamburg’s fish market to a visit of the Speicherstadt (revibed historic warehouse district) and adjacent modern Hafencity with the infamous new philharmonic hall, Hamburg’s new 800million Euro city symbol.

The warehouse district continues to be used with traditional lift mechanisms:

The area is filled with many other new wannabe attractions of which only the Miniaturland stands out. The model railways has become the biggest in the world (as well as tripadvisor’s number 1) and impresses with incredible level of  details. They had a small exhibition on the history of Germany, which alone kept us two busy for an hour!

If you are at the harbor anyway also have a look at the old Elbe tunnel! Built in 1911 it is accessed by four big lifts. It’s purpose has been taken over by bridges and a new, more convenient tunnel, however it continues to be used by pedestrian, cyclists and even cars. You need to be a good driver though as the single lane road is so narrow it only leaves a few centimeters of space for modern sized cars.

I have added a little map of our travel itinerary to the blog, which you can find in the menu drop down in the upper right corner – check it out!

After three months of blissful traveling without any insurance “contamination”, Yang Ke and myself had to painfully realize how fast our next exam dates are approaching ;(
To avoid spending a lot of full time on studying and instead try to have a good balance between traveling and boring reading, we had to urgently get going! We had a strong kick-start over the last few days to get into the right (?) study mood, spending our “free” time behind insurance texts.
Unfortunately this also means we are a bit lagging behind with our blogging, but hopefully can catch up soon!

We had a little set back, as Yang Ke has only one full page left in her passport and despite several attempts we didnt manage to get her a new one. We are therefore forced to return to China or Singapore to get her a new one and till then cant visit any more countries requiring visa for Chinese (as we need to keep one page free for a possible transit visa on the return).  Which basically rules out whole South America and leaves only very few (mostly uninteresting) options on this side of the ocean. Luckily there is still one friendly communist country remaining, which had been high on our travel list anyway

Our current plan is therefore to spend another month in Peru, relaxing one more week in beautiful Arequipa and exploring the north of Peru, and then spend a month or so in Cuba.
We also have to time our journey with Yang Ke’s exam on 1st October, where we have to be at one of the exam centers. The list is again very limited in South America, but then we spotted some interesting places close to Cuba    We are currently hesitating between Bahamas and Jamaica. Anybody has a recommendation?

Many greetings to everybody and hasta luego!