The Vipassana Experience

Day 11 has come. And with it another service period has come to an end.  Overall an enjoyable experience. Driven largely by the kitchen team being led by an experienced kitchen co-ordinator with the name of Joan who has a calm demeanor, a great set of organizational skills and a ready laugh and smile. A great combination which encourages the team to be relaxed and at ease in their work.

And as it is with many teams in the Vipassana kitchen, a multi-cultural affair with people from a variety of locations and cultures

• Joan. Kitchen co-ordinator mentioned above. From Singapore.  ?late 20's/early 30's.
• Song. Dr Song. Professor in hospitality from Thailand. In Australia for a few years pursuing further education in his chosen area of specialty.  Hard working and self-effacing. Mid 30's.
• Ken. Farmer from South Korea escaping the northern winter with his wife (who spent most of the course visiting friends in Canberra / Sydney).  Early 40's
• C-Y (?sp). From Malaysia. Recent grad in computer science from Wollongong Uni. Early 20's. Some time in the kitchen but quite a bit in the gardens
• Marissa. In transit from Northern Territory to somewhere near Dural. Planning on working in Steiner school for young fold with special needs
• Anna. From Cairns. Serving while her mother is sitting.
• Annalie. From Sydney via a number of stops. Had lived in Nelson for a couple of years and threw in a kiora or two as a curve ball
• Tajma. Had been mainly a maths and science teacher in Sydney. And now is mainly relief teaching anything from PE / Drama through to her specialty subjects. Originally from Sri Lanka (?)
• Renuka. Indian lady who served as Hindi translator for the teachers. Mainly worked in the gardens but also some time in the kitchen
• Ethan. 19 year old who has served 4 courses and sat 4 courses. And arrived mid-course with the intent of completing a 3 month probation period for long service. Muscles on his muscles with Maori heritage and some Maori inspired tattoos. Has had to leave some of his friends behind as he is heading down a spiritual path and they are keen on partying and drinking. Carried around a journal / diary and saw him making an entry in his journal in the male servers cottage. Mainly worked in the gardens, but some time in the kitchen

And of course, there was Andrew.  (aka Disco  from the long course I served in August). Disco Drew was appointed assistant Male Manager. First time I've seen an assistant male manager. But it was a big course. With a full complement of students - both male and female. The teacher made a comment towards the end of the course that there seemed to be a heavy weighting of Indian students. Renuka speculated that at this time of year it may be that the Vipassana course may be popular with employees of some of the Indian based software companies that shut down over the Christmas / New Year period for approximately two weeks.

In general I enjoyed my meditation hours and feel as though I made progress. Some pressure from Disco to sit a 10 day course.  We discussed the trajectory of my life with some focus on the visitations of the black dog post break up with the ex and his belief that a 10 day course will assist in the healing. Maybe so. But with my experience in 2012 and 2013 10 days sits being fairly dark experiences, and with the subsequent serving experiences being more beneficial, I'm a little gun shy on the 10 day courses. The 8 day Sati course in July wasn't too bad, but the 2015 10 day course was a little dark. So sometime in 2017 there will be a 10 day course but at this time I'll be preferring the serving experience as my first choice of Vipassana experience