A mystical experience during day 7 of the 10 day Vipassana meditation sit offered by volunteers in the Goenka tradition, shared by Viv Hawkins.
We had been silently attending to the sensations of our body for hour upon hour every day, noticing them and observing how they changed, refraining from eye contact and speaking, except to ask questions of the teacher in brief twice daily, private sessions. We had pledged to not smoke, drink alcohol, take drugs, be in contact with people outside the center, read, write, or eat anything but what was offered in the dining hall.
In the Vermont center, newly constructed meditation “cells” were available for us to use and on day 7, I was able to avail myself of one for a short time. I entered and closed the door. Darkness and quiet. The thought arose, “This is a just closet.” I laughed inwardly and dismissed the thought, choosing to take on the assignment given to us to seek to feel sensations inside our body. For some reason not known to me, I imagined a huge comb in front of me moving toward my body. As the comb approached my abdomen, I had the sense of my body cells parting to afford the tines of the comb to enter between them and I felt lifted upward so very, very, very high above the cell. I received the instantaneous awareness of what was now so very, very, very far below appearing now to be one continuous object and a knowing that only perspective separated me from every other thing that existed. As quickly as I had been raised up, I was back in my body in the dark, quiet cell.
Viv’s Reflection:
But, in that moment, something fundamental-to-my-life-up-until-that-point was shattered by the cells of my body parting for that comb and the telescopic ascension that followed. In truth, I lack the words or wisdom to relate or fully fathom this mystical experience, especially given that I had felt strait-jacketed by the culture of this Vipassana technique for 7 days.
Yet, here I am 21 years later seeking to plumb the lesson of union and separateness offered there in that “closet” so that I might live in and from it.
mystical friend 