Meditating in Sravasti, India
Once upon a time, I went for a one week retreat. A group of us had taken a bus one night and had left Taiping in the north for Johore Bahru which is at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Our bus reached there very early in the morning and from there, we went to Kota Tinggi, a place famous for its waterfall but it is not the waterfall that we went to but a white house at the fringe of a jungle. That was where we spent our whole week meditating. The whole week was spent doing walking and sitting meditation, that I am very sure. Perhaps, we did wake up early too each morning at maybe five, do some chanting, have breakfast, meditate, have lunch, meditate, meet the resident monk to report on our meditation experiences, meditate again, have dinner, meditate, attend a dharma talk and do more meditation afterwards before hitting bed at twelve and the process repeated itself the next day and the next and the next. Attending a retreat is definitely no joke too. No unnecessary talking is allowed and the only time that one gets to talk is during the interview with the monk. Here, you can really hear a pin drop and it is definitely not the place for a chatterbox!
Once upon a time, I went for a one week retreat. A group of us had taken a bus one night and had left Taiping in the north for Johore Bahru which is at the southern tip of Peninsular Malaysia. Our bus reached there very early in the morning and from there, we went to Kota Tinggi, a place famous for its waterfall but it is not the waterfall that we went to but a white house at the fringe of a jungle. That was where we spent our whole week meditating. The whole week was spent doing walking and sitting meditation, that I am very sure. Perhaps, we did wake up early too each morning at maybe five, do some chanting, have breakfast, meditate, have lunch, meditate, meet the resident monk to report on our meditation experiences, meditate again, have dinner, meditate, attend a dharma talk and do more meditation afterwards before hitting bed at twelve and the process repeated itself the next day and the next and the next. Attending a retreat is definitely no joke too. No unnecessary talking is allowed and the only time that one gets to talk is during the interview with the monk. Here, you can really hear a pin drop and it is definitely not the place for a chatterbox!
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