Strumbling into Meditation

As a meditator, I am a very new and almost accidental one. Up until four years ago, meditation to me conjured up the image of an old monk sitting cross-legged on a dirt floor in an old and dilapidated temple with his hands put together and mumbling something monotonous. Meditation was totally irrelevant to me. Then a close friend of mine told me he had spent 10 days in a meditation retreat during which everyone had to keep absolute silence. I thought that was weird and impossible to do for any sensible person. But the picture stuck in my mind.

A while later, on a chance trip to a Barnes & Noble store for a book I needed for a discussion group, which I didn't find, I came upon a book entitled "Vipassana Meditation" by William Hart. I read the book and became curouser. One day I told my son about the book and he told me he had been to that meditation center in Massachusetts twice. The next day I went on-line and signed up for a 10-day retreat. That was a rare, impulsive decision on my part, but that's how I stumbled into meditation.

I drove 300-plus miles to the Center's location in northwestern Massachusetts on a freezing Spring day in 2005 and almost killed myself when my car spinned around several times on the icy road on the approach of I-90 from I-81. Luckily the trailer truck that was behind me was able to stop in time and a kind hearted truck driver got out to stop the traffic so that I could turn my car around.

I arrived at the Vipassana Meditation Center in a rural area to find out that I must surrender my pen, phone, PDA, books, magazines, and all other electronic stuffs because there will be no writing, reading, listening to music, talking to others and even eye contact. Men and women were strictly separated at all time except during group meditation when all men were on the left side of the room and women on the right side. I thought to myself if a couple were to attend the retreat together they wouldn't be able to even say to each other "not tonight my dear."

More about my adventure into the meditationdom later.