Zip it.

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Checkin’ off my India prep list with lightning speed. Even an aching arm to show for my last round of immunization shots.

You’d think that after three Hepatitis B shots, two Hepatitis A shots, two Typhoid shots, and Tetanus, Yellow Fever, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Polio shots, I would finally be over my fear of the prickly metal things.

But no…still I whimper, whine, sigh and suck it up for needles.

And speaking of fear…guys, I’ve really done it now.

I signed up for it weeks ago, but I think that just tonight I realized that the next ten days are going to be some of the hardest of my life.

Forget armed robberies, cliff jumps and amoebic dysentery…what I’ve got planned for this week has REALLY got me shakin’ in my boots.

Tomorrow morning, I’m driving up to a retreat center in Washington for orientation to a 10-day Vipassana Meditation course.

“Vipassana is one of India’s most ancient techniques of mediation, rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago, with the aim of self-transformation through self-observation.”

I’m not totally clear on all the details, but what I do know is this; of the 10 days I am at the retreat center, I will spend 10 hours and 45 minutes of every single day in mediation, half of each day spent fasting, and the entirety of the 10 day retreat in complete silence.

Zip. Zilch. Shh. Zip it.

NO contact with the outside world. No contact with fellow retreaters. No contact with books or paper or pens or music or song or body. No even thinking about having “no contact.” No contact No.

Did I mention the part about meditating for 10 hours and 45 minutes every day? Yeah. That would be the part that’s suddenly making acupuncture look like a really cool hobby.

So the truth is, I don’t know if I’ll survive this adventure. But be sure and return around the 9th of February and check this site for a pulse.

In the meantime, if this craziness sounds like it suits you, check out www.dhamma.org for a Vipassana retreat center near you (it’s by voluntary donation only).

*whimpers, whines, sighs and sucks it up*

*****

“The teachings of the enlightened Buddha embrace much, they teach much – how to live righteously, how to avoid evil. But there is one thing that this clear worthy instruction does not contain; it does not contain the secret of what the illustrious one himself experienced – he alone among hundreds of thousands. That is why I am going on my way – not to seek another and better doctrine, for I know there is none, but to leave all doctrines and all teachers and to reach my goal alone – or die.” — Siddartha, Herman Hesse

*****

(I will be completely offline until February 9th.)

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3 Comments

  1. Maria Howard July 10, 2010 at 3:12 am

    acupuncture is good for a large number of bodily disorders, i use it to help me ease my rhinitis.`:’

  2. Ava Davis May 1, 2010 at 12:48 am

    Acupuncture helps me in my allergies. I have hay fever ever since i was a kid.-‘.

  3. Daniel Evans April 29, 2010 at 11:04 am

    I got mumps last year and it was really very painful. I have to take some pain killers to ease the pain. “.

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