Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

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TopHatFox
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Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by TopHatFox »

I am scheduled for a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat with free room and board starting this Wed. This will take me to July 2nd.

I have secured an apartment in White Plains, and visited it yesterday. I am now back in MA. I still need to consolidate and pack my stuff into 3 suitcases. I also need to sell my two bikes and bike trailer, and buy a new bike and bike trailer once I'm in WP. I also need to buy a push-scooter and have it arrive before the job starts. I need to buy a rain cape, navy suit, 2-3 polos, 1-2 more slacks, 2-3 more ties, and a few more dress socks. I need to buy a mattress alternative. I need to go and try out a few orthodontists/orthognathic surgeons in WP to see which one will deliver the best service. I'd like to send an e-mail to the job and ask what the best way to prepare for the job is before it starts. I'd like to begin to reach out to friends from College in NY, to potential new people through OKc, and to new activities through Meetups.

The job starts on July 17th.

So, I'm trying to figure out what to do: do I go to the retreat for 10 days and try to do all of the above from Jul 2 to July 17th? Or do I get all the stuff done now and relax once July 1 comes around? I know some of you have done Vipassana before, so please chime in!

TopHatFox
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by TopHatFox »

Ideas? Thoughts?

Delayed gratification is leaning toward bailing, Super-delayed gratification is leaning toward going.

Stahlmann
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by Stahlmann »

Are you kidding me guys? :lol:

People are paying for "opportunity" to not have contact with other people/"outside world" ?!

Religious/spiritual hustling has very long tradition :lol:

I am bit cynic there, but ...
I think I gained personally enough experience in solitude (with depression conotation) that that kind of activities are rather "amateur", sorry to tell you that.
Hope you will enjoy stay there anyway.

[rest of the post will be in recent topic of Zalo]

Scott 2
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by Scott 2 »

Do you have a regular meditation practice?

The stuff you listed would not stop me from going. Meeting all the new people at work, you need some interesting, recent stories. The retreat is a good one. It'll also probably be years before you can do something like that again. I bet a lot of your list seems less important with time away, as well.

What would make me a little nervous, is your thread about depression. If the feelings are modern life induced, they may do better with a meditation retreat. All good.

For some people with depression, however, pretty much the worst thing you can do is force them to sit alone with their feelings for 10 days. Especially if it's that special pairing depressing and anxiety. Meditation can be a panic attack inducing experience.

I'd probably give it a try, but have an exit strategy, and be ok with exercising it.

OTCW
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by OTCW »

Getting ten days off in a row once you start your working career may not happen for a long, long time. Something to think about when you are making your decision.

BRUTE
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by BRUTE »

brute thinks meditation is pretty useless.

Lemon
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by Lemon »

Why do you need more than 15 days to do all the other things listed? This isn't a shortage of time issue on that front! (At least to me, I have to move across an admittedly smaller country and start work in a new location and job with...10 hours to do so around the same time as you. Perspective)

Can confirm that stretches of time that long off are rare in work. Even as someone working in more socialist europe

thrifty++
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by thrifty++ »

Hell no. Forget it. I tried it once. Extreme discipline and deprivation. I lasted 3 days which I will never get back. It was shit as. Dont do it. I would only ever do something like that again if I had fuckloads of time available. Like actual retirement. Or at least 6 months off work. Time is scarce. You dont have such time being about to enter the corporate world. You will regret having wasted so much time on this. DONT DO IT. Enjoy the rest of your time off. It will be the last you have of such time off in many years. Do fun things. Relax. Enjoy yourself. Forget going somewhere to do nothing for two weeks. Where you are not allowed to talk, not allowed to eat after lunch, not allowed to exercise, not allowed to read, not allowed any technology, stay in a stinky little bunk bed somewhere etc. ....

frihet
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by frihet »

I would go. Been 2 times to Goenka and many times to other traditions.

If you go in with warrior spirit and sit through the first hellish days, before the mind settles, the likely hood of you going away feeling better than ever is very big.

I've seen your threads and if you bring the spirit you have in ERE to meditation amazing stuff will happen.

Just follow the instructions and relax....

Who knows you might catch the vipassana bug and become a travelling monk ;)

Vipassana practiced with dedication makes your mind travel trhough "the progress of insight map" . From a 2000 year old text https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visuddhimagga

It can be good to know this map beforehand so you understand that it's normal to go through feelings of disgust, anxiety and so on. You need to pass through these stages before the good things happen.

This book is free and goes through them. Written by a practicing emergency room doctor and hardcore practioner Daniel Ingram

http://integrateddaniel.info/book/
One of the most profound things about these stages is that they are
strangely predictable regardless of the practitioner or the insight
tradition. Texts two thousand years old describe the stages just the way
people go through them today, though there will be some individual
variation on some of the particulars today as then. The Christian maps,
the Sufi maps, the Buddhist maps of the Tibetans and the Theravada,
and the maps of the Khabbalists and Hindus are all remarkably
consistent in their fundamentals
But you need to do what your heart/gut says. Maybe it's better for you to become ERE first before doing intense spirutual practice. It can be heaveanly blissful and insight full but also deeply destabalizing, ultimately you're challenging your belief in a separate self. There is also energy currents that can awaken and make you feel very ungrounded. That has happened to me personally and that is why I keep spirutuality on a backburner and focus on ERE for now.

Dragline
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by Dragline »

Sounds like another false dilemma. Why can't you go on a three, five or seven day retreat and use the other days to take care of what you need? Or recognize that there is no reason you need to do all those tasks before starting your job?

But I seriously question why you have not sold some of that stuff and sent some of those emails and stuff already. Seems like manufactured drama.

TopHatFox
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by TopHatFox »

Tbh, a large part of me is leaning to wanting to chill, go on hikes, explore the city, etc.

10 days of growth is nice and all, but it sounds pretty painful in the moment. I'm afraid that it'll require gargantuan discipline and I won't want to put in the work.
Last edited by TopHatFox on Wed Jun 21, 2017 10:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

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fiby41
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by fiby41 »

Dragline wrote:
Wed Jun 21, 2017 8:20 am
Why can't you go on a three, five or seven day retreat
+1

Just like system 1 & 2 thinking, the decision has already been made. This thread is just to gather evidence in support of it and rationalize it.

TopHatFox
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by TopHatFox »

Sadly the retreat is only offered for 10 days, at least in this center. Sometimes the decision has been made to some degree, sometimes not.

Is the system 1 or 2 terminology from a systems thinking book?

Dragline
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by Dragline »

It's from Daniel Kahneman's book, "Thinking, Fast and Slow". Its a model to describe the human mind works, with System 1 (Fast) being governed by heuristics or rules of thumb that are cognitively easy to fall back on or fall into and System 2 (Slow) being the part that actually analyzes a problem in detail and takes some cognitive effort.

Your premise in the OP is a variation of the heuristic known as WYSIATI -- "What You See Is All There Is". Its also a form of Framing. In effect, you have described two choices and then pretend that there are no other choices. This is cognitively easy approach (System 1), but often misguided as a System 2 analysis reveals.

frihet
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by frihet »

The retreat is 10 days for a very good reason. That gives you time to cycle through the difficult stuff and reach insight knowledge "Arising and Passing Away", sometimes called "mini enlightenment". Something Goenka retreats are famous for doing in "pragmatic dharma" circles.

Or if you get even further time to pass through the dukkha/suffering stages and reach equanimity before the retreat is over.

The structure is very well thought out and proven through time.

But it sounds like you have made up your mind. There is no point in going to a retreat like this without a strong willingness and purpose.

Enjoy nature, kick back and relax if that is what you feel like doing :)

slowtraveler
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Re: Should I go to a 10 day Vipassana meditation retreat? Or finish prepping for my move/new job?

Post by slowtraveler »

@Stahlmann it is free

@Olaz
My advice-don't go if you're not all in. Sounds like you're clear so enjoy the stunning views in nature and energy in the city instead. Don't second guess it, it's hard to make it through.

After the first 10 day, you can volunteer for a 3 day or go to local 1 days but the 10 days feels about right to actually get the hang of it.

The meditation helps a lot to calm the mind down, especially towards not being stressed, feeling clear, and at peace. That said, your options are win-win either way.

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