My 2-Day Experiment!

It's been quite a while since I've blogged about life, but I felt compelled to do so because I just engaged in a 2-day life experiment. After having trotted the globe domestically and internationally, from Boston, to LA, to Italy and back, I was in great need of some inward solo time. Seeing that no upcoming 3-day Vipassana sits were approaching, I just decided to simulate a 2-day solo sit at my home in Cupertino and oh yes, while having my parents around. I laid down the ground rules for them which basically was, "no talking to me for a 30-hour period." I purchased the necessary fruits, vegetables, and grains, for a veggie-based diet. In fact, I ended up juicing the fruits (strawberries, oranges, bananas, including the pulp and orange peel-big mistake!) and veggies (zuchinni, carrots, onions, celery-pulp included) from my recently bought JackLaLane Juicer to make for a nutritious, balanced, and incredibly digusting liquid-based breakfast and lunch respectively! I then, printed out the Vipassana timetable to serve as a structural guideline for my meditation, and then just let it all unravel within.

Here are my post 2-day impressions:

First of all, I highly recommend it for anyone who feels confused or mired in chaos, needs time for themselves, wants to cleanse, is short on cash, and needs more self-loving. What I don't recommend is juicing your fruits and veggies for your cleansing process! While healthy and quick, those juices did quite a number on my taste buds. I could barely swallow it. In fact, I tried to swallow it directly so I didn't have to taste it. 2 slices of wheat bread with peanut butter and a glass of milk, was the highlight of my 2-day diet-it was my dinner! :) I of course, got my needed Vitamin A, C, Betacarotene, Boron, and Natural Aspirin from those juices, but the process of getting them was so painful! It truly was super-nasty!! I think I was just too excited about this juicer I got from this infommercial that I thought this 2-day was the perfect time to inaugurate the machine. While the machine itself worked well, there was quite a discrepancy between how the fruit and veggie juices were described in the infommercial (i.e. they said it "tasted great,") and the reality of their taste!! Vipassana got the diet part right. Their food was good and thus, getting through those meditation sits, provided a comforting reward when meal time came. Sadly, I couldn't experience the same joy. I found my green tea with honey and jugs of water to be my liquids of comfort! Oh well! I did live and learn through it! Next time.

Okay, enough about food. Back to the actual sit.
This is what I initially felt&wrote after my sit:

I have just emerged from my 2 day sit. It was quite a life experiment. In fact, I ended up looking at my home with a fresh perspective, (literally from different angles during my breaks, when I would head outside in our backyard, lie under the sun on the grass, and stare at our lovely peach-colored Mexican-styled home). I did things I had never done before (like, take a bubble bath lol). I just immersed myself in introspective silence and read Krishnamurti's 'Reflections on the Self' during my tea and meals breaks. I even did an exercise I learned from a Korean-based yoga workshop I had recently done (where you stare at yourself in the mirror for 10 minutes). This exercise was random and rather comical for me. I ended up being really goofy during that part and making funny expressions. ;) Anyways, as far as the actual sit goes, I did roll through a range of varying thoughts, trying to connect with my breathing, mapping out my next life phase, surrendering, producing minimal tears, and showering myself with 'metta' or wishes of love and kindness to myself by sending nourishing positive thoughts my way.

One cool thing that arose, the night before I sat down on my meditation blanket with my multi-colored shawls to meditate, was that I felt like I had a sense of my passion and what I truly want to do right now in this chapter of my life--that is teach kids at the J. Krishnamurti school in Chennai. I feel in so many ways, that ever since I left India in '06, I've been desperately trying to make my way back there (or my intuition keeps telling me that, and there are so many subtle and not so subtle reminders that keep signaling me to as well). Now, I feel I have a purpose in returning to India, not just to contribute the lives of others, but to grow internally, to feel how those children can enrich and contribute to my own, and because ultimately, it is the only thing that makes sense for me right now, when I reflect upon my life and how I want to live it.

Another interesting point to note is that my parents had to adapt to the unusually silent environment for a 30 hour period. You can even ask my parents about their experience as witnesses to the experiment. In fact, they had to creatively orient themselves to the new environment their daughter had cultivated around them. The little things that occurred were rather funny since the interaction had to be non-verbal. For example, my mom would patiently wait for me to finish using the kitchen sink when I was washing my dishes or find something else she could do in the kitchen to utilize her time. My Dad tried to cause me to react by making smily faces, wildly flailing his arms, and making childlike gestures at me. All in all though, they listened and tried to respect the silent space.

Anyways, those are some initial impressions, post-2day. Hope you all enjoyed it and let me know if you try the experiment at your home! Peacefully.
~M