General
Meditation is a way to train and cultivate the mind, to develop concentration, mindfulness and awareness. Buddhism offers calmness or concentration meditation and vipassana or insight meditation. Anapanasati or Mindfulness with Breathing, the meditation method taught at Suan Mokkh, covers both, concentration and insight meditation. But during the first days of the retreat we will mainly train you in concentration meditation by focusing attention on breathing. Detailed instruction is given throughout the retreat. All instruction and talks are given in English.
Meditation takes energy and commitment, determination and discipline. Doing a 10-day retreat is,
especially for beginners, not easy. We have to adjust our bodies and minds to the retreat settings:
- We have to get up early and adjust to less sleep.
- We have to adjust to the schedule which everybody is asked to follow completely.
- We have to live on 2 vegetarian meals a day.
- We have to deal with bodily discomfort.
- We may have to experience a lot of "ups" and "downs" during the retreat.
Body and mind are not used to these very different circumstances and they may react with discomfort, with restlessness, with boredom, with doubt, with feeling very tired. For these reasons the daily schedule is not that challenging, tailored for beginners, but still it will take three or four days to adjust to all these new circumstances. After that you should be able to float within your new environment without having to fight and struggle against too much discomfort.