In doing a Vipassana meditation retreat, Phil Kohn describes the challenges of being still with oneself, but once one is able to great past those hurdles, the benefits to be reaped are extraordinary.

Here is how he described it, “I had definitely tasted quite a bit of pure bliss and Nirvana, happiness. When I did my first full vipassana and none of it was external, I mean, 10 days of Vipassana is challenging, really hard. And the first three days are just breath, just body scanning, getting in touch with sensations, no eye contact, no body language, no gestures, no spoken language. You’re literally not consuming anything from the outside world. There’s no reading, no TV. And you know, the human mind. The monkey mind really starts to go crazy those first few days. And, you know, what about this? What about that? What about my friend who I forgot to tell I’m going to be offline for 10 days. Hope my mom’s okay. Wonder what’s going on in this, you know, project or this piece of news and you know, you don’t really get to focus on that because you’re meditating all day. You know, you’re literally just quieting your mind down to a level where you’re just there with yourself.”

Hear Phil describe it directly:

https://youtu.be/O8RiPKgEevo

I found his description really profound and accurate for what one goes through.  I think Phil is one of the lucky ones since he has been able to quiet his monkey mind.

How many of you still struggle with this?

Click here for his full podcast episode.