02/16/2026
In late October 2025, I attended a 10-day Vipassana course at Dhamma Surabhi Meditation Centre in Merritt, BC. These donation-based centers ensure no financial barrier to participation.
I went on an internal nudge, and the synchronicity of the timing made these 10 days away from technology and life as I knew it possible. Had I known how hard it would be, I might not have gone. The lack of free will and comfort, (no phone, no writing, no distractions), made the first few days unbearable as my mind screamed to maintain its comfort zone. We are so comfortable in our daily lives, even on our worst days. At Dhamma Surabhi, there was just me, sitting with myself for 17 hours a day. Sleep was the greatest escape - and the only one available to me.
What came out of it? A greater understanding of how deep I go and the wisdom from those dark, quiet places. I gained a new respect for the time, effort, and focus it takes to access them, and the profound unraveling that happens when you do.
Don’t follow gurus or healers. Don’t give yourself up to another modality until you’ve tried to sit still long enough to meet the part of you that cannot be numbed or distracted away. Because that is what those ten days truly were: a mirror aimed at the depths of my inner being.
At first, old grief and pain moved through my body. Thoughts looped, desperately trying to pull me back to comfort and noise. But a quieter, steadier force was also present: my continuous breath and the agonizing seconds on the clock that kept ticking. Slowly, that slow inner stillness became a deep sense of peace.
It wasn’t bliss or enlightenment. It was a deep honesty, a surrender to the present moment, and a willingness to stay even when suffering prevailed. What made it okay was the feeling of being grounded and safe within my body. This is the greatest gift of Vipassana, in a world that’s largely gone out-of-body to achieve enlightened states.
I’m sharing this to encourage you to experience this rare and beautiful opportunity. It’s by donation, and I wish everyone would do it at least once.
Go to www.dhamma.org to find a meditation center near you.
