A Week at Bali Usada

To get into a proper meditative state, the external needs to be quiet before quieting the mind. Isolation is important. In that sense, the location of Bali Usada in Baturiti for a meditation retreat is perfect - a quiet small town in the mountains near Bedugul, about an hour and a half drive from Kuta. Temperatures hover around 25 degrees during the day.  In Tapa Brata 1 - the official name of the 6 nights 7 day residential course - the rules are laid down quite clearly from Day 1. There is no talking (except to the instructors), writing or reading.  Even eye contact between the 30 odd participants was discouraged.  All cell devices, and wallets are surrendered. The villa that we stayed in was simple and functional.  Rooms were shared and participants were told to remain within its smallish compound for the duration.

The ascetic lifestyle included vegetarian food, only two meals a day and a disciplined schedule. An average day commenced at 430 am and included eight meditation sessions, ending at 915pm in the evening.  Its not as bad as it sounds, because misery loves company, and you have lots.  There were 34 participants were from all walks of life, from all religions. During the silence, some smiles and polite nods were exchanged to keep each other going.

The wikipedia definition of meditation is "a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realise some benefit or as an end in itself."  In layman's language, it is the art of focusing the mind 100% on one thing - be it on breathing or a matra - and keeping it there for an extended period of time. This is harder than it sounds. The undisciplined mind has thoughts racing through it in a quite random fashion : they pop in and out freely and jostle and compete for attention. I would be focusing on breathing and every five to ten seconds a random thought would pop into my head - something about my past or future, interspersed with thoughts of Liverpool vs Millwall and a song playing in the background.  (I watched "Frozen" before attending the workshop and the songs would not stop playing). The mind has multiple tracks.  Meditation demands that consciousness is solely focused on one track.  You are trying to switch off all others.

The focus on one thing requires training and over the course of two days and multiple sessions, the duration with which I could hold attention to my breathing without interruption increased, from five seconds to perhaps to about one minute.  Meditation creates an aura of calm. During meditation, the body produces increased levels of dopamine which has a calming effect.  Being  "in the present" - with no thoughts of the future or the past - frees oneself of any negative or positive emotions. This reinforces the calm.  The second sensation that emerges is a heightened sense of awareness. As emotions from the sub-conscious bubbles up - which inevitably emerges when the mind is silenced - the person moves from being a participant to being an observer of oneself.  One is able to note the flashes and sensations and ask questions like, "Why am I thinking that?  Why do I feel that way?" This gives a person much greater control over his emotions.

There are tough moments.  By Day 3 and 4 because of the removal of all stimuli, the plainess between sessions hits you.  To entertain myself, I measured the house (length of compound is 108 steps, width is 29 steps), observed weather patterns, re-read all the charts on the walls, looked at all the photos in the house and watched a spider spin a web. Second, sitting nine hours a day on the floor cross legged takes a toll on the legs. It hurt enough that giving up was contemplated. But like in all things difficult, sometimes you grit your teeth and sit through it.

I emerged different.  A lot has to do with the teacher of the workshop Merta Ada.  Whatever the background, people walk away knowing that they have encountered a special person.  He is charismatic, tells great stories, and exudes warmth and genuine goodness.  In the end. to find peace in meditation is to find peace in yourself. That can only come about in a life of offering your best, of giving more than receiving and on being attached to things that are eternal rather than temporary.

Amazing facts I learnt about myself.  1.  I can sit through a complete course in Bahasa Indonesia with full comprehension.  2.  I can be a vegetarian and have only two meals a day.  3. The best time in the day is early morning.  You just need the correct incentive to wake up.

The Importance of Meditation

Around the end of 2012, I had started to investigate more about meditation as an important tool to achieve deeper spirituality, improve personal well being and happiness.  As someone constantly on the go, permanently being enslaved to mobile devices, I felt that there was a greater than even chance that I was losing myself in the noise and losing track of life's priorities. The search for some quiet time in our daily lives to lift oneself above the noise, achieving some spirituality and to find a balance that is sustainable, is not unique.

The more I searched, the more convinced I was on the benefits of meditation. Meditation has been shown to confer clear health benefits and the science of it is being documented.  The Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/meditation/art-20045858) promotes the activity amongst patients to achieve calm and inner peace, and has found that meditation contributes greatly to the improvement of the well being of its patients. (http://life.gaiam.com/article/how-does-meditation-affect-body).

Matthieu Ricard is dubbed "The World's Happiest Man".  He meditates a lot. He subjected himself to scientific research and he has been found to have a much higher activity pattern in the brain's left prefrontal cortex which in turn has been found to correlate with happiness. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2225634/Is-worlds-happiest-man-Brain-scans-reveal-French-monk-abnormally-large-capacity-joy-meditation.html).  Tan Chade Meng, a Singaporean who works in Google, is now world famous for promoting the benefits of meditation in America, which he calls "mindfulness". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8fcqrNO7so).  But most importantly over the year, in my conversations with people who practice meditation, there was a common thread that was sufficient to to convince me of the benefits of the practice : people who meditate appeared much less stressed, calmer, more thoughtful and gentler as they walked through life.

I had accumulated literature on meditation in the hope of learning the practice.  A friend (thank you Grace) gave me some CDs on meditation. Another friend in Indonesia (thank you Djohan Marzuki) loaned me books to read.  I talked to people - religious and non-religious.  While all of this helped to introduce me to the practice, it did not really help me grasp the concept of meditation.  Meditation is incredibly difficult to learn without personal guidance and encouragement.  Shutting out the noise, quietening the mind and "being in the present" is much easier said that done.  I was not even sure I was doing it right. After a year of searching and exploring, and on the advice of a number of friends (thank you especially Albert), I submitted to going to a retreat so that I could learn the practice properly. This ran the risk of people wondering if I was in a mid-life crisis or if I was in a conversion process.  Truth is, I simply wanted to learn about meditation.

This is the introduction piece.  The next piece will detailed the experience and the interesting things I learnt at Bali Usada.