Entries this day: After_Vipassana Dreams Leaving_Vipassana_center Zzzz_today

After Vipassana

after Vipassana

Wow

My experience at the ten day silent meditation lies beyond my ability to describe
textually.  It was realllllly realllly amazing.

The first 9 days started out great, and went downhill, downhill, bad, worse,
terrible, give up, forget this, I will never ever ever ever do this again.

The 10th day started out at the same level of terribleness... but then our vow of
silence was lifted and the speaking began.  Most people started chattering; I
stayed in my own space, crying..  the nightmare was finally over; I had done it. 
Finished.  Done.  Wow.

I engaged in conversation once I felt basically better, but assured people I would
never again take the vow of NO WRITING.

During the 10 days I had become so so so so Amazingly Distracted with things I
wanted to _write_: dreams, emails, computer programs, until the desire just
consumed my every available brain cell.  No way I could meditate in that crazy
nightmare of brain activity.

(( A good point of even that experience: I have found quite an ability for my brain
to memorize / visualize a lot more than I guessed I could. ))

However,

once I had expressed my desire to write, it sorta went away.. during the 10th day,
as I was connecting with my co-meditators turned new friends Will and David....
things got better.  And better, and better

(though I was still not allowed to write because the course ended on the morning of
the _11th_ day)

until in the last 1.5 hours of the entire course, on the 11th morning, everything
transformed: I will absolutely do this again and hugely recommend it for anyone who
wants to change their life and is realllly willing to work.

http://dhamma.org

I wanted to give back to the organization, and was blessed with the perfect
opportunity: the very next day after our course was a 1-day kids' course: 3 boys
and 3 girls (children of parents who have done at least one 10 day course)
participated; I was able to support their first steps into Vipassana meditation. 
Plus we had a lot of fun with summer camp type things: name games, painting,
sculpting clay, watching a puppet show, running around outside, sprinkled around
four 15 minute meditation periods.  It was really great!

--------

Today I plan to ride north to the Japan Sea, where there's a famous bridge that
must be viewed upside down: Amano Hashi Datte.  I've heard it's one of the three
top viewpoints in Japan.

It's about noon now, as I'm sending this; I doubt I can get there before dark, but
I'll check it out tomorrow, hopefully with clear weather!

I'll probably be back in Tokyo within about 2 or 3 weeks, depending on innumerable
factors.

I hope everyone is fantastic!

   Blessings
   - Rob 

Dreams

11:27am JST Monday 08 May 2006 (day 13193)

I remember having four dreams during the first 3 or 4 days of the course. I don't know how much I remember of each..

Cuddling on the couch with janette, noticing the fish in the tank had swam out and into the plant in the corner of the room. I recognized it must be a dream and was like, "I'm really glad we are dreaming so" and I was planning to say so we could see the fish swimming in a plant, but just started bawling crying, "so I can be with you cause I just miss you so so so much" crying crying crying crying over janette.

- - - -

In a shopping mall where some YRUUers were going to camp out for the night in the camping section of a large sporting goods store. Walking to the location through a wooden railroad display of the kid type railroad with various curves and hills that all fit together with simple interlocking pieces, but entire sections at a time had been removed from the display to allow walking space; I could see where the different sections ended abruptly and which pieces could be used to reconnect them into a working system.

A guy came up and confronted us offhandedly to his friend, "these kids are trying to camp out and probably leave the store in ruins,"... and then looked at me accusingly, "and there's the ringleader himself..." and I noted that I was naked, though no one else cared, so I didn't worry too much about it, but once we started walking again, I casually closed my bathrobe.

We got to the store and saw Shunji, the genki 74 year old student from CDF on 49th voyage, who was getting into a space capsule on the side of the store that turned out to be an escalator folded up out of the way until it was needed. He said hello, but that he had to go, and stepped into the escalator (like into an elevator, but it was an escalator).

- - - -

Walking along some railroad tracks, a woman on a scooter riding on one rail zoomed by, then her husband, then their daughter, but the daughter had huge (HUGE) wheels on her scooter and couldn't fit through the tunnel they had used. She had a great deal of gumption and got through.

- - - -

(this dream is from just last night:)

At an inn / museum-ish restaurant, I learned that janette was staying there, and was in the back garden! Super excited, I ran sneakingly around the back and saw her sitting on the wall.. I planned to run up and surprise her, but she saw me before I got super close.

Or maybe she didn't see me; she didn't react. I got up in front of her, "HI!!" and I could see why she didn't react. She was pissed. "Do you know what it feels like to have " something something something something.. and I couldn't understand what she was saying; I couldn't understand what could have upset her... I was certain I hadn't done anything wrong since we last talked very happily.

I remembered part of Vipassana training and remained calm amidst her storm of anger, and then slowly woke up.

Leaving Vipassana center

1pm JST Monday 08 May 2006 (day 13193)

(transcribed 1:20pm JST Monday 15 May 2006)

Leaving Vipassana center shortly and headed to the Sea of Japan.

3:58pm

Left the center around 2:20 and have ridden slowly, taking in the counless rice (?) farms all being processed with small tractors axle deep in water, waving slash greeting all who notice me.

Zzzz today

23:16pm JST Monday 08 May 2006 (day 13193)

(transcribed 1:23pm JST Monday 15 May 2006)

Stopped to meditate in a cool street slash mall and did 30 minutes. Then ate a smiley-face onigiri made by someone who did not take credit for the work, and delivered by Akira. Received a magazine map of the area after asking a man if he could help me locate my present location on my Mapple book. The magazine map they gave me includes detail of this area and Amanohashidate. Perfect!

Rolled on, and didn't try to sleep at a temple (one rejection was enough today), but enjoyed the chorus of frogs for miles of rice fields. Stopped again on an elevated sidewalk on a left hand curve on road 281(?) but not pinpointed on a map yet. About 8km from Yura Beach, which I was hoping to reach, but just can't now. Fell asleep on stairs during meditation, and now it's nearly midnight. Bedtime. Haven't locked TJ Bike today: MiniMart with cat, 安国寺 temple, shopping area meditation, now.