What’s 20 days in a lifetime ? Yet when I tell people that I made a 20-day meditation retreat, in complete silence, they are chocked : “What ? 20-days with no speaking, without your phone, waking up at 4AM, meditating 10 hours a day and no eating after noon ? How can you do that ?“
“The silence […] is not an absence of noise but a presence. In the company of silence, people hear more clearly the presence of eternity” – Paul Fleischman, Cultivating Inner Peace
Since I started practicing Vipassana meditation, I meditate every day and I do a retreat at least once a year. This regular practice changed my life. I now live a very simple and peaceful life, in harmony with my friends and family and closer to mother nature.
“Meditation focused on purification isn’t something we do to overcome our day, but what we do to overcome our day towards sustainable peace of heart” – Paul Fleischman, Cultivating Inner Peace
Before doing a 20-day retreat though, there are a few requisites : among others; to have completed five 10-day retreats and one “service.” Vipassana meditation is free of charge. The courses are possible thanks to the donations or the service of old students (people who have done at least one 10-day course). To serve a course is as beneficial as sitting. One develops love and kindness and deflate his ego.
“The smaller we are the more awestruck we become and the more precious our days” – Paul Fleischman, Cultivating Inner Peace
Isn’t all this worth “wasting” a few day of your life ?