Tushita holiday camp

Ok, so I don’t want to discuss the meditation too much. It’s not something like that. But I know I need to say something so I will describe one day and maybe an outline of our daily programme…

Each morning we'd wake up around 6am. Someone would come around with a dong at 5:50 to wake us. I slept in a four person dorm room with 3 other guys. Room with squatting toilet bathroom, comfy single bed with three duvets and a few shelves with Buddhist images – Dalai lama etc. Otherwise just a basic room maybe 3m by 5m.

We’d then all meet up in the gompa at 6:45 (this is the meditation hall) to take our place on our cushion spaced out on the floor of the room (we chose our position on the first day. I was near the back in eye-line with the teacher). The teacher sat at the front; raised up around a foot or so above us.

I usually got there around 6:15 or so and would either have maybe a quick chai before hand (milk tea) down in the kitchen otherwise I would just go and relax in the gompa until the class started reading books on Buddhist philosophy.

There were around 35 of us doing the course all up. We all sat on square pillows around a square foot in size and we sit on maybe 2 or 3 of them as it is comfier to sit raised up when sitting cross legged for an extended time (we’re shown how to sit on the first day but it takes some getting used to). The room has buddhas at the front, a little temple type thing on one side you can prostrate too (kind of like praying – shows your humbleness and lack of pride) and otherwise apart from books on a few cupboards it is bare except for the pillows covering the floor on which we sit. Lots of pictures of high ranking Buddhist people around the walls too; High lamas, Dalai lama etc

The group...

We would then do mindfulness meditation in the morning for 45 minutes which is where you clear your mind of all thoughts and focus on the present. only. Single point concentration. This process usually takes a while to fully understand and control. Like say 20 years or so we’re told (o: For now we might get it for moments at a time but then our mind wanders again.

Try sitting there thinking on nothing but your breathing. Watch how your mind begins to wander off constantly. And then you realize, bring it back to the present and then it starts to wander again!

We would do this for 45minutes and then have breakfast. All vege food but it was good. Porridge and Tibetan bread for breaky. Numerous vege dishes for lunch and tea, always with fresh baked bread – delish! Lentils, chick peas, soups, salads, lasagna, rice, curries…

Then it was a half hour break to think for a bit and then we would meet for 2 hours or so of teachings on Buddhist philosophy back in the gompa again. We were taught by a Buddhist nun called Venerable Sarah who is a friend of the Dalai Lamas and gave up her spot to travel with him to America to be with us.

When I entered this course I find I knew everything and yet nothing. And in the course, I have found that I have learnt nothing and yet everything. What we are taught is common sense. You know it all already and yet you don’t. It is hard to explain. Teachings on compassion for instance. You already understand the concept of being nice and how it is beneficial but in this way it begins to make sense. You focus on it in a way that it becomes something to do in life. A way to live, not just something to think about every now and then. These concepts are a way to live.

After teachings we would do yoga for an hour until 12am when we would go down for lunch. We would also do some Yoga-sutra which is a job like sweeping (mine), washing toilets, cleaning dishes etc. Something to again help us get over pride and laziness etc. (nice excuse for it huh? I didn’t see anyone question it at all!)

Then it was time for another 2 hours of teachings. This was followed by an hour of discussion groups (here we were divided into four groups of 8). Except for this period, the entire time is spent in silence. And here we only discuss mehana based concepts (those pertaining to Buddhist thought) and sometimes, if you had nothing to say you would remain in silence. We’d sit on the lawn and discuss our thoughts.

Afterwards we would have tea break from 3pm till 3:30 and then we’d meet for another meditation. This time guided. This means it was analytical or mantra or visual. Analytical is where we were given a thought to focus on. Something to think about for the 45 minutes. And the teacher would prompt us as we went on where to steer our thoughts. We covered such aspects as our own death, love for all beings, karma, the reasons behind anger, ego and so forth. Mantra meditation is where you recite a mantra as you meditate. Kind of like a prayer but not. More a thought process. You are thinking of positive things while reciting the mantra over and over. For visual, you focus on an object like Buddha which helps you to center your thoughts and give you positive energy (do the course, you’ll understand).

Dinner would follow and then after another hour or so break (we’d read about Buddhism and related concepts in these breaks), we’d do a final evening guided mediation.

Then it was off to bed ready for the next day. Maybe some mindful thought before bed, a bit more reading, and then when you awake, you repeat A to Z again.

On the last two days however, the teachings were replaced with meditations so that you are doing seven 45minute meditation sessions on those days - Trust me, your legs and back hate you to begin with!

Then today it finished and I leave with a lot to think about, a lot to process and a whole new approach to life. Can I transfer what I have learnt to real life? That remains to be seen.

P.S I call it a holiday camp because compared to the Vipassana meditation course it is one! There you get up at 4am and meditate all day before bed at 11pm. Around 4 hours sleep and 10 hours of medtation in very tough conditions - no moving at the end etc. And I was gonna do this if the dates had been right! Boy was I lucky.