Shanti shanti

10 days left alone with our thoughts. A glimpse at the introspective. We leave our valuables and voices at the entrance as we practice Buddhas technique that lives on vicariously through the students of vipassana. The 25 century old teaching shows us how to meditate, how to eradicate, eliminate and replace the misplaced hate with equanimity.
Often we find that we ruminate and contemplate as our minds we manipulate. Unable to break free from old rituals that have become almost habitual in our everyday lives.
The silence at times deafening.
Able to hear your heartbeat quickening.
Your trapped between realities of the past and fixation on the future.
The fatuous mind is vulnerable. As you begin to peel back the thoughts of which are distort, contort in the mind Like a bee without its sting or frodo without his ring.
These have been suppressed, allowed to manifest, as we try to digest this change that will eventually bring us rest. The centre at times resembling a scene from 'one flew over the cuckoos nest'.
Theres the pacing, the mind is racing, we realise the truth that we're facing as the past we are tracing.
There's the q. the you, the I, the me and the my. The patience, the persistence, the diligence and the discourse. All the foundation that means we are 'bound to be successful'.
The bell strikes at 4 as we perch ourselves on the dhamma hall floor.
The congruous chanting, at first infuriating, becomes a melodic mantra that drowns out the vibrations of the gas that echoes throughout the room.bellies growl and bones crunch as we all attempt to perfect our meditative posture.
finally, we are released from the voluntary imprisonment of our own minds. The sweet sound of laughter fills the rooms, the dining hall and the gardens as the centre becomes astir.
Our masterpieces that we have created of others start to run, the images become blurred and new ones begin to form.
We have reached the end of the ten days. But this is just the beginning of a more equanimous life.