The Chartered ferry arranged by meditation commitee fetched all the meditation-goers at Marina South pier to the island. It took about 30mins the ferry to reach to the island. Below is outside of Centre where there is boundry and no transpassers are allowed inside the compound during these 10days.
Once you just stepped into the island, even before meditating, you'd feel relaxed, calm down and forget all worries about life by seeing very greeny scenery and breathing pleasant clean air surrounding the whole clean environment.
This is the site of bungalow where we do the registration and is also the place for breakfast and lunch. There are several similar bungalows for sleeping hall, for the kitchen, for the discourse etc,. All men and women are staying in the separate bungalows even for the couples or families. The beddings are arranged side by side in complete set for a single person to sleep comfortably. The rooms are pretty spacious and good ventilation.
As a mundane human nature and as there are a lot of people coming from different countries around the world, the place for meditation is very important and I'd say this is the one of the best centres with complete facilities and nice environment for one's mind to find out about the peace and harmony in oneself. Another important thing before meditation is that to follow their discipline exactly so as not only benefit fully for oneself but also not disturbing others. The most essential discipline for a meditator is keeping noble silence and no communication between individuals and as well as outsiders. This can increase faster and better concentration to reach the goal.
Before going to the timetable, let me remind you, don't be so discourage of seeing or counting the time to sit still. We all know that we all can work infront of computer for several hours and year by year without complaining. Compared to that this is only 10days and if you can challenge yourself for this 10days, you'll see the return totally invaluable. Everyday, people are busying with a lot of things and when you start doing nothing, no talking and just sit still is a very imaginable kind of difficulty. Most people like mine are having problems with sitting on the floor and because normally our body is intensed and stiff with anger, greed, ignorance and which make more difficult to meditate. However, our mind is trainable and my mind started to calm down after 3days and then totally relaxed and focused day by day.
At first, I didn't believe that I could make this 10days and achieved what seniors told me they had. I just tried to follow what Guru Goenka taught us and I can feel and see things differently and felt like all the things clogged in my chest were taken out even after 6th days of meditation and at the end of the day, my whole body was shaking with joy and I believe that this 10days was the most worthwhile challenging days I spent for my entire life . All the people I've talked after the courses felt the same way as I did. This 10days course was filled with about 150 people around the world. As the course was no contradition with the nature of law and it's so scientific and non-sectarian, whatever organized religion or sectarianism, can freely participate in it.
It is simply the process of self- purification by self-observation. One begins by observing the natural breath to concentrate the mind. With a sharpened awareness one proceeds to observe the changing nature of body and mind and experiences the universal truths of impermanence, suffering and egolessness.
The timetable for the course has really been designed to maintain the continuity of practise. The wakeup call is at 4am in the morning and then meditate either in the hall or own room at 4.30-630am. To have better result, I'd recommend to sit in the meditation hall as much as you can so that the distraction is lesser than you sit on your own bed. Then the breakfast time is 6.30 to 8am.
After that group meditation starts from 8 o'clock for one hour and then another two hours of meditation can be either in the hall or in own room according to the teachers' instructions. Lunch time is 11-12pm. After that if you have any question, you can ask the teacher or else can rest for 1hr.
After that afternoon meditation starts again at 1pm till 2.30pm. Another group meditation is again from 2.30pm until 3.30pm. Meditators are not allowed to go outside of the hall during those group meditation hours. Then again there is meditation at 3.30pm to 5pm before having session for tea or fruit juice at 5-6pm.
Another group meditation is at 6-7pm and then teacher's discouse at 7-8.15pm. There are three different languages you can listen, burmese, english and chinese. For english, you can watch S.N. Goenka DVD and others' are translated into different languages. This is the most effective way of improving the meditation practise after the whole day of lots of practising sections and also getting back to the motivation mode. After this is the question time and can rest at the sleeping hall. At 10pm, the lights are out.
If the time favors me, I'd surely be going to this meditation centre again either to contribute as a volenteering for the food service or to take another 10day course. If you have any recommendation or experience, please share with me.
If the time favors me, I'd surely be going to this meditation centre again either to contribute as a volenteering for the food service or to take another 10day course. If you have any recommendation or experience, please share with me.
The latest news I got from the Vipassana committe is that due to the heavy rental expenses of St.John island meditation centre, the committe decided to purchase the land in Johor Bahru, Malaysia which is border to Singapore and only when there is enough money to purchase the land in Singapore, then the meditation for Singapore will be then local. I'll update if any more information about the meditation, so please come this site again.
May all be filled with Joy and harmony in your life!! May all have time to meditate and achieve the best quality of life!!
Best Wishes,
May KT
