Vipassana Meditation: The Miracle Beyond Science

Generally, I write about puzzles. However, I want to make people aware of the power of mediation. When I attended my first Vipassana Meditation course, a miracle happened to me. This story is about my quest to find the science behind this miracle after my first meditation course. Let's start the story.

Why I joined the Meditation Course:

I love to solve and create puzzles. I have been 5 times Indian Nationa Puzzle Champion and have been representing India at World Puzzle and Sudoku Championships across the world. To solve and create puzzles, I need to have very good concentration. I was looking for some program to increase my concentration power. One of my friends suggested attending the Vipassana Meditation course. However, he also said that this program runs for 10 days and is very hard mentally and physically. He also said this is so tough that many people try to run away from the course in between without completing it. This motivated me, even more, to attend the course as I love to take on challenges. I decided to attend this course with the sole challenge of surrendering myself completely to the meditation technique and completing it for full 10 days :). 

How Much Does this Meditation Program Cost?

As there is said that "There is no free lunch". I beg to differ on this statement. The best things in life are free. The Air we breathe, Sunlight, etc. all the best things in life are free. This Meditation camp is also completely free. Even you don't pay for the food and residence facilities. Then the biggest question is how this Meditation camp has been run for so many years. The answer is that it runs from the donation of the old meditator. If you are able a complete the course for 10 days you are called an old meditator. At the end of the 10 days if you want you can donate for the next batch. So for your batch, the previous batch of students donated, and now for the next batch, you can donate. Also note that if you have not completed a 10-day Vipassana course, you are not eligible to donate here.

Problems before joining the Meditation Camp:

"Is this a religious camp?" This is the first question I asked my friend as I don't want to attend a camp with a lot of religious chanting and discourse. My friend told me that this is around 2500 years of Meditation technique discovered by Gautama the Budha. There is nothing religious about it. Anyone from any religion can attend this camp and there is no religious chanting in this Meditation technique. Yes, he was right. When I attended this meditation course, I found that there are people from all religions be they Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, or Christens attending the meditation course. So there is nothing religious in this meditation camp. It's all about the meditation technique which can be practiced irrespective of your religion.

There was another big problem for me to join this camp. I had a big ligament in my ankle around 5 years back. Doctors told me to get operated on to cure it but I didn't want to go through the operation so was treating it by giving it complete rest. I was always putting a crepe bandage around my ankle to keep it at rest. There were some problems due to this injury e.g. I was not able to run or play any outdoor games. Most importantly, I was unable to sit cross-legging for a long time which was required for the Meditation camp. I told my friend about my ligament tear. He told me that I could be provided with a chair as I had a genuine medical problem. However, he suggested that I should first try to sit down and if it becomes impossible to sit then only ask for a chair. 

Attending the Vipassana Meditation Camp:

I attended my first Meditation camp in Bangalore in July 2011. This meditation camp is for 10 days. I can write another article on my experience on each day for attending this Meditation Camp. In brief, three different types of Meditation are taught in these 10 days. For the first 3 days, they will teach Anna Panna Meditation. On the 4th day, they will teach the Vipassana Meditation step by step till the 9th day, and on the 10th day, they will teach Metta meditation. 

Vipassana Meditation Hall for Group Meditation: Outside View

Vipassana Meditation Hall for Group Meditation: Inside View

For the first few days, it was very tough to cope with the changing environment, and at some point, I thought of quitting in between. However, I have come up with the strong willpower to continue and complete the course. Sometimes it was very painful to sit for long hours because of my ankle injury. However, I was completely devoted to the process of Meditation. Passing through many different emotions during this 10-day Meditation camp, I forgot about my ankle injury and completed the course with full devotion. 

Pagoda Meditation Hall for Individual Meditation

The Miracle Happened:

At the end of this course, I felt very light and happy. I completed this camp by forgetting about the pain of my ligament tear. Now it was time to go home and put back my crepe bandage on my injured ankle. But now the question was "Do I need to put the bandage on my left ankle or right ankle"? I mean "Was the injury on my left ankle or right ankle"? In these 10 days, I completely forgot which of my ankle was injured.  "Let me press the ankle area hard and feel the pain". I tried to press both ankles very hard but could not feel any pain in any of the ankles! OK, let me run and the pain will come back. I tried running but was still unable to find my injured ankle. This was nothing sort of a miracle for me. For the last 5 years, I have been struggling with my injured ankle and now I am not able to remember which of my ankle was injured! Now after more than a decade of my attending this first camp, I still don't remember which one was my injured ankle. It got completely healed naturally!

Positive Experience of Other Meditators:

On the 10th day, the Noble silence is broken. It means that you can talk to each other on the 10th day. Sorry, I forgot to mention previously that in the whole 10-day course you are not allowed to talk about anything :). I will write a separate post on what happens during these 10 days. Anyway, one can share their meditation experience with others on the last day and everyone will tell you about the feeling of positive changes after completing this 10-day course.  You will also meet some experienced meditators here and they will tell you how life got changed after doing this Meditation course. 

Some Unanswered Questions:

For me, many positive changes happened during the 10 days Meditation course. However, for me, the immediate benefit was that my chronic ligament tear got completely healed.  I came from a logical background. So the topmost question in my mind was how attending a meditation course for 10 days could cure my 5 years old injury? What is the science behind this? Can this miracle be explained by scientific study?  I tried to find these answers for the next few years after attending my 1st course. Did I find the answers to these questions? The answer is "Yes". I will write another post on this writing about my finding of the science behind this Miracle.

It will be great to hear from you about this article. Please write down your comments. Also if you have any questions, please write down your query in the comments. I will try to answer these questions as soon as possible.