The area at the entrance of the nose...

After putting my belongings in my room, I made my way back to the dining hall where we were given the spiel on the Vipassana course. At 8pm that night noble silence was to begin, meaning no verbal or nonverbal communication for the next 9 days. After a long talk in both Hindi and English, we were brought to the mediation or Dhamma hall, where we were assigned a cushion to be used for the next 10 days. Because this cushion would become our home, a perfect imprint of our arses would form from the excruciating long periods of sitting. Being a old student I was placed in the front row, next to the French girl, directly in front of the assistant teacher, who sits on a raised seat and faces the students to make sure they're not sleeping or misbehaving. We sat on our cushions with closed eyes, while listening to Goenkaj chant and give meditation directions over audio cassette. After vowing not to kill, lie, harm others, participate in sexual misconduct, or take any intoxicants for the next 10 days, we were allowed to "take rest." At 9pm in complete silence, me and 15 other female students made our way back to our rooms under a smoggy star lit night. I climbed into my rock-hard bed exhausted from the days travels and fell into a deep sleep.
Day 1: I was awoken at 4am, to the sound of a gong heard over a loud speaker. I found myself spun up in my mosquito netting like a helpless insect. Within a couple of minutes a small tea bell was heard at my door. I thought I'd ignore it, I didn't have to be in the Dhamma hall until 4:30am and all I needed was to roll out of bed and slip on my shoes. But the ringing of the bell did not go away. Irritated, I finally turned on my light. Immediately the ringing subsided. Wonderful, I thought to myself, those serving the course are bell Nazis. I slowly moved to the bathroom. With puffy, grainy, red eyes, I looked at myself in the mirror and splashed some cold water on my face. Fuck, I said to myself, I had forgotten how painful it was to wake up this early. At 4:25am tired as all hell, me and 15 other students made our way back to the Dhamma hall under a smoggy star lit sky to begin our morning meditation on our bright blue cushions. With closed eyes, I sat kneeling on my blow-up-beach-ball I brought from home and began focusing my attention, on the area at the entrance of my nose. Within a minute, my mind wandered off and I was imaging leaning forward on my forearms and doing a handstand. Wait, shit, I'm supposed to be focusing my attention on the area at the entrance of the nose, I would remind myself. Again my mind would wander off to Lala land and again I'd bring my attention back to the entrance of my nose. This maddening interaction went on for two hours, until the breakfast gong rang. Me and 15 other students silently got up from our cushions and slowly walked to the dining hall. I must be crazy, I thought to myself. I'm in India and I'm spending it focusing on the area at the entrance of my nose, while kneeling on a cushion for 10 hours a day...I love Vipassana...xoxo...To be continued...