Inner Peace and Prunes.

A few months ago, I, a meditating novice decided to undertake the Vipassana Meditation Course in Blackheath (Blue Mountains), NSW.

The Vipassana is a ten day course (but if you want to do it you actually need 12 days ‘cause there is registration day and then you stay there the night of day ten) in which you sit and meditate in silence. The day starts at 4am and meditation begins at half past 4. The day finishes at 9-9:30pm. So needless to say, it was quite the leap for someone who had never meditated a minute in her life, to sign up for a 17-hour-a-day course.

Now, I of course could go into much detail about all that I experienced in those ten days, and perhaps I will someday, but, not today.

After completing the ten day course, I was at a bit of a loose end, the bank account was standing grimly in the double-figured realm and to be honest, emotions had been stirred up from all this feckin’ self-observation and just ‘being’ (I say this last part tongue in cheek because it really is a wonderful experience).

So I decided to stay and ‘serve’ the next 10 day course, doing kitchen work. That again, was a truly great experience, and that was particularly down to the amazing people I worked with there.

While I was working there, I picked up a few bits and pieces about food. The things I didn’t know seemed to really amuse some of the older volunteers ‘do you not have that in Ireland?’ – We have ‘such a thing’ in Ireland, I would say, but I spent nearly four years on the pasta and beer diet in the spirit of most Irish students and the last year as a backpacker has been pretty similar. So I picked up a few bits and pieces about spices and amongst other things, I learned a thing or two about prunes.

Little did I know of the digestive circus that follows a good feed of prunes!! The way they were prepared and served in the morning made them very difficult to resist... But, it came at a price.

Something that I should have mentioned earlier, while I was sitting the course myself, I remember how the ‘servers’ sitting at the top always sat there like little Buddha statues, looking so still, so serene.

So after a decent serving of prunes in the morning, to go with my porridge, my body could not help but react. Sitting at the top of the hall, attempting to present a good and calm example to students sitting can be challenging enough but, it’s another thing, when you’re sitting there trying your living-best to battle an overwhelming urge to fart! It is also very hard to actually meditate with such a distraction!

And I wasn’t the only one! Occasionally it would get to much for one of us Dhamma workers and one would let rip, the first concern – a stony silence has just been broken, and second is it going to smell??

Long story short, after a while, I decided for my own sake, and everyone else’s, to opt for fresh fruit with my porridge instead.

Lesson learned – the journey to inner peace and excessive prune consumption do not go hand in hand. Also, looks can be deceiving. I’m sure to some other unsuspecting students sitting the course we also looked like still Buddha statues; little did they know the battle at hand (for myself, at least)!!!