Enlightened Beings don’t do assignments…

Well in true procrastination-Carrie style… I’ve been hanging out at the Blue Mountains for 5 days over the Easter weekend. I do think though that my holiday had the best intentions. You see I went up there to learn how to meditate. Believe it or not, but I have been learning Insight Meditation from a Monk… yes, a real Buddhist Monk. How exciting! My intentions were that I heard meditation was supposed to help you concentrate and at any rate, the peace and quiet would help me to do some Uni work. Well upon arrival, they recommended that we turn off our phones and make a conscious effort not to read as it can prevent effective meditation. Now here was my excuse not to feel obliged to do uni work. It would almost have been rude for me to pick up a book (well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)

 

So for 5 days I took a 9 precept vow to not eat between the hours of 12pm and 12 am and to maintain noble silence. I don’t know how ‘noble’ it actually is but basically it means that the only person you are allowed to talk to is the Monk. Now you will be surprised how difficult that is, especially when you are silence impaired like I am. If I had a twin, they would be name Loquacious.  So what started out on a Friday as being “Oh my, what have I gotten myself into? Why do these Hippie people insist on eating no meat and why the hell can’t I talk to someone about how crap I feel?” turned to “Oh god please don’t tell me its Monday and I have to go back.” Can I put “enlightenment” down as an excuse for late submission of my external exercise and legal citation exercise?