vipassana retreat

Do you have any prior experience with meditation?

It's gonna be difficult to jump into a full-on retreat with zero prior knowledge of how to meditate.

>>1296569
This has to be the most caucasian thing I've read this entire week

>>1296688
I'm sure pretend meditation and asking the monks to take your picture is easy enough.

I've never been to one before, but I was thinking of trying one out in Europe, maybe Italy. Has anyone tried one in Europe? Any recommendations or advice?

Nepal thread?

I'm planning on going Trekking for a month

I have a few friends who have done it (in various places). All recommend it and it seems very worth it. They all seem a bit weird now though. As if it's harder to evoke an emotional response from them. But they are still really lovely people. I am now determined to do it as well.
Good luck, OP.

Also you don't need to go to Nepal to do this. Any of their ashrams around the world will be the same experience.

>>1296935
>They all seem a bit weird now though. As if it's harder to evoke an emotional response from them.
I've noticed this too. They've become rather emotionally dead and it's hard to read them sometimes. They'll tell me to get into it too, but I dont want to risk becoming like that.

>>1296935
I think it's because they have changed for the better. I noticed a huge change in myself, ever since I started mediating on my own. I eventually want to try one of these retreats.

>>1296984
>>1296945
They're probably in a constant state of observing their own emotional urges

>>1296996
I've heard many good things from people who tried it.

>>1296996
Still kinda irks me the wrong way like they've become something like Stepford Wives. Moreover the fact that it feels like they've become emotionally distant that it hurts the people around them.

>>1296935
buddhism especailly the theravāda sects teaches you to avoid attachment.
They probably learned how to observe their emotions and are being cautious not to get emtoinally involved in things because that leads to attachment.

There are other sects that refute this view though, you dont have to follow them really it depends what you want out of life.

>>1297398
To some extent, all Buddhist sects promote removal of attachment. There are some differences in how they interpret that and its consequences, but I think anyone who's serious about Buddhism will try to lessen their attachments to things.

>>1296935
Pretty interesting observation. They just may be more grounded after that retreat.

I've done one too and personally just try to let whatever bothers me matter. So when shit goes wrong at work it seems like I don't care but it's really just because I'm already working toward a solution and getting stress seems pointless to me. Unattachment is apparently how you reach nirvana but I prefer the ups and downs. You can decide how you want to live after you do a retreat.

>>1297361
I've been meditating for a while and I've found it has brought me closer to my emotions and people around me, not distant.

>>1297398
Yeah attachment of any kind to anything whether that be a person, object, place, or idea, leads to suffering, but I think that doesn't mean you can not love or get close to people. I think it's more about not losing yourself in attachment. When you become so attached to something that you no longer live for yourself, but you live for something outside of you, then you will definitely suffer if you lose that. It's all about balance and how you want to live your life. You can love someone without having to live only for them.

>>1297406
Meditation doesn't mean you have to follow Buddhism.