【心安之地】
其实，我是到彭亨州距离关丹市约25公里的甘孟市（Gambang）的马来亚内观中心（Dhamma Malaya），参加从2月22日到3月5日为期十天的内观静坐（Vipassana Meditation）课程。
在我19岁修读大学先修班期间，我曾从一位马大毕业的化学老师口中，第一次得知有一种通过“观察自我呼吸”的静坐方式。约四五年前，我在YouTube上观看《人类简史》作者尤瓦尔·赫拉利教授的访谈节目。在节目中，赫拉利提到，当他在牛津念博士时，一位朋友花了一年多时间说服他参加由当代著名内观禅师葛印卡先生（S. N. Goenka）教授的十天内观静坐课程。上完课程后，他发现这种方法能够帮助自己更清晰、客观地观察现实。从那以后几十年，他每天坚持花两小时进行内观静坐，并把自己后来能够写出《人类简史》《未来简史》和《今日简史》等几本巨著的能力，归功于这一修行。
由于我是赫拉利教授的忠实读者，出于好奇，几年前便开始在网上了解已故葛印卡先生所传授的内观静坐课程。后来发现，该成立于1951年的非营利组织“内观研究协会”（https://www.dhamma.org/）在全球共有401个培训地点（270间中心及131个非中心地点），每年有超过十多万人参加其举办的各类课程。而在马来西亚，则设有位于甘孟市的马来亚内观中心，以及柔佛和吉打的两个非中心培训地点。
从马来亚内观中心的网站（https://malaya.dhamma.org/）得知，这三个地点每年举办约三十多次十天课程，以及数次只供旧生报名的二十天、三十天甚至四十五天课程。由于名额有限，大多数课程在开放线上报名后很快就满员。我在过去几年也曾数次考虑报名，但始终未能找到合适的时间。直到今年春节过后，终于腾出了十多天时间，完成了这个多年的心愿。
根据葛印卡先生的介绍，内观静坐（Vipassana Meditation）是印度最古老的禅修技术之一。相传佛陀重新发现了这一方法，并通过内观修行获得无上正等正觉（Enlightenment / Buddhahood），达到真正的解脱（Liberation）与证悟，之后开始向大众传授。后来阿育王派遣许多使者，将内观法传播到周边各国，其中两位阿罗汉使者把这一方法传到了今日的缅甸。
经过两千五百多年的发展，佛陀的经文虽然仍较完整地保存下来，但真正的内观修行方法在许多地方已逐渐失传，唯有在缅甸，由一代又一代老师通过口传身教不断延续至今。葛印卡先生出生于缅甸，是印度裔，在家的禅修大师。他师承当时缅甸一位高级政府官员萨亚吉·乌·巴庆（Sayagyi U Ba Khin）。乌巴庆的老师是铁吉（Saya Thet Gyi），而铁吉则继承雷迪尊者（Ledi Sayadaw）的法脉，再往上已难以考证。
内观研究协会的网站对内观静坐及其课程有非常详尽的介绍，有兴趣的朋友可以自行查阅，我在此就不再重复。
在这里，我只简单分享一下自己对甘孟市马来亚内观中心的印象，以及参加十天课程的一些感受，供大家参考。
甘孟市的马来亚内观中心距离吉隆坡约220公里，车程约三小时。中心坐落在一片油棕园的高地上，占地约20英亩，环境清幽，绿树成荫。整体布局规划合理完善，各项设施安排周到，可见在规划阶段下了不少功夫。
除了办公室、厨房等后勤设施，以及一大一小两个禅堂和74间空调关房等公共空间外，整个中心基本分为男学员区和女学员区两个区域。两个区域合计设有可容纳108位学员和约30位法工的单人房。男女区域各自设有食堂和休闲步道等配套设施，中间以缓冲区隔开。因此，男女学员除了每天在禅堂共修的时段会聚集在一起外，日常生活基本完全分开。
中心的建设以简朴实用为主。每位参加课程的学员都会被安排入住一间单人套间。房间虽小，但基本设施齐全。室内设有一张铺着轻薄床垫的水泥床、一张供静坐用的铁制矮凳，以及一台吊扇。卫生间内配有马桶、洗手盆和冷水淋浴，另备有两个塑料水桶和水勺。公共区域还设有几个热水供应点，需要用热水冲凉的学员可以自行前往取水。
该中心于2007年10月正式落成并开始举办课程，至今已有近19年历史。但整体建筑与基础设施，如步道、沟渠等，都保养得相当良好。我仔细观察后，也没有发现地陷或龟裂等在马来西亚许多十多年建筑中常见的问题，实属难得。
为期十天的内观课程，严格来说其实是十一天。所有学员必须在课程开始前一天下午两点半至四点半之间自行抵达中心报到。登记后，学员需将个人重要物品，尤其是手机、电脑等通讯、资讯和娱乐设备，甚至书本和记事本等都交由管理处保管。
入住后的整个课程期间，学员完全不得与外界联系，也不能与其他学员或志工进行语言甚至肢体语言的交流。只有在需要处理生活安排时可与事务长沟通，或在固定时段向老师提出学习相关的问题，可谓名副其实的闭关修行，与世隔绝。
除了严格的生活安排外，让我印象深刻的，还有整个课程作息表的细致规划、流程管理，以及执行时近乎一丝不苟的纪律。每天的课程从清晨四点起床开始，到晚上九点半回房熄灯就寝，全部严格按照作息表进行。
期间设有三个半小时在禅堂共修，以及五个半小时在禅堂或房间自修的时段。每晚还会有约一小时十五分钟葛印卡老师的录音开示。
课程期间中心每天提供两餐，自助素食。早上六点半的早餐有咖啡、面包、白粥，以及面条或米粉；中午十一点的午餐则有米饭、三道简单素菜和汤。新生在傍晚五点还会提供几片水果作为茶点，基本上过午不食。
膳食虽然简单，但食材新鲜、分量充足。我还注意到，在十天里竟然没有一道菜重复，可见管理团队在这方面确实下了不少心思，令人非常感恩。
通过我在禅堂共修时的观察，我估计这一期的学员和志工大约共有120人，其中约50位男学员和70位女学员。由于课程主要面向马来西亚和新加坡开放，学员大多来自星马两地的华人和印度人，此外也有几位来自中国、其他东南亚国家以及欧洲的学员。
根据我的观察，学员中大约有八成是青年和中年人，只有少数几位退休人士。而且约六成是旧生，即曾经参加过一次甚至数次十天课程的学员，这一点确实出乎我的意料。
至于课程的具体内容，我在这里就不“剧透”了。有兴趣的朋友可以自行在网上查询，或亲自报名体验。不过我可以确认，整个课程并不涉及任何超验的信仰内容。无论是不同宗教背景的人，甚至没有宗教信仰的人，都能够从中获益。
为了确保学员以正确方式静坐，并逐渐进入最佳状态，每次静坐前后都会播放葛印卡老师的录音指示，以及以巴利文唱诵的一些祝福语。这些内容属于祝福性质的唱诵，并非宗教祈祷，因此对非佛教信仰者也不会造成影响。
我个人虽然没有宗教信仰，但对整个课程依然印象非常深刻。尤其是每天晚上那一小时十五分钟的开示，对我而言，这是我听过关于佛学与禅修最深入浅出，同时又相当客观、理性而完整的一系列讲座。
我听的是在大禅堂播放的中文版本，翻译准确，录音质量也相当上乘。英文原版则在小禅堂播放。此外，中心也提供多种语言版本，学员可通过耳机收听，以方便不同语言背景的人学习。
最后我必须强调，这十天的课程并非一般人想象中的“休闲型短期静修”，而是一个对身体、心理与心灵都具有相当挑战的课程。
我可能是在出发前在吉隆坡误食了不太干净的食物，在前往中心的路上便开始感到肠胃不适。抵达中心后连续腹泻两天，到第三天才恢复食欲。
此外，对我这个几乎没有静坐经验的禅修菜鸟来说，盘腿静坐不到十分钟双腿便麻痹酸痛，苦不堪言，往往没几分钟就得调整坐姿，才能勉强熬过一个小时。直到第六天之后，我才勉强能够盘腿静坐半小时不动。
除了身体上的煎熬，心理与心灵的挑战也不遑多让。课程开始的几天几乎可以用“度日如年”来形容。仿佛时间停止运转，十分钟就像平时的一小时那样漫长。
每天除了静坐禅修和必要的生活流程外，大多数休息时间我都在区域内的步道上绕圈散步。伴随着漫无边际的思绪，偶尔仰望蓝天白云，看看树木花草，听听鸟鸣，观察蝴蝶与蚂蚁的忙碌，也会留意树上出现的猴子和松鼠，以及那两只常常在草地上悠闲觅食的蜥蜴。
也许是因为中心整体氛围格外宁静和谐，这里的猴子、松鼠和蜥蜴似乎都不怎么怕人。即便学员从身边经过，它们也依然自得其乐，对人类的存在毫不在意。
这样的极简生活虽然平淡如水，但在漫长的安静之中，偶尔的某个瞬间，也会令人心生感触、会心一笑。生活其实可以很简单。人们梦寐以求的天堂，也许就是这样一片身心安宁之地。
对了，我差点忘了说，内观中心的所有课程以及住宿和膳食，都是免费的。新学员在完成十天课程之后，可以根据自己的体验和经济能力自由捐款，让更多人有机会从内观中受益。
如此善举，
Sādhu，Sādhu，Sādhu。
善哉，善哉，善哉。
===
《Heart at Ease》
In fact, I went to the Dhamma Malaya Vipassana Meditation Centre in Gambang, a town in Pahang about 25 kilometres from Kuantan, to attend a ten day Vipassana meditation course held from 22 February to 5 March.
When I was 19 and studying in pre university college, I first heard about a meditation method that involved “observing one’s own breathing” from a chemistry teacher who had graduated from the University of Malaya. About four or five years ago, I watched an interview on YouTube with Professor Yuval Noah Harari, the author of Sapiens. In the interview Harari mentioned that when he was doing his PhD at Oxford, a friend spent more than a year persuading him to attend a ten day Vipassana meditation course taught by the renowned modern Vipassana teacher S. N. Goenka. After taking the course, he discovered that the method helped him observe reality more clearly and objectively. Since then, for several decades, he has spent about two hours each day practising Vipassana meditation, and he credits this practice for giving him the clarity and discipline that later enabled him to write books such as Sapiens, Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.
As a loyal reader of Harari, I became curious and began researching Vipassana meditation courses taught in the tradition of the late Mr Goenka several years ago. I discovered that the non profit Vipassana Research Institute, established in 1951, operates globally through the organisation’s network at dhamma.org. Today there are 401 training locations worldwide, including 270 centres and 131 non centre locations, and more than one hundred thousand people attend its courses every year.
In Malaysia there is the Dhamma Malaya centre in Gambang, as well as two non centre locations in Johor and Kedah. According to the Dhamma Malaya website, these locations conduct more than thirty ten day courses each year, as well as several longer courses of twenty, thirty or even forty five days that are open only to old students. Because places are limited, most courses fill up quickly after online registration opens. Over the past few years I had considered registering several times but was never able to find a suitable time. Only after this year’s Chinese New Year did I finally manage to free up more than ten days and fulfil this long held wish.
According to the teachings of Mr Goenka, Vipassana meditation is one of the most ancient meditation techniques of India. It is said that the Buddha rediscovered this technique and, through the practice of Vipassana, attained enlightenment and liberation. After his awakening he began teaching it widely. Later, Emperor Ashoka sent emissaries to spread the teaching to neighbouring regions. Two arahant monks brought the technique to what is now Myanmar.
Over the course of more than 2500 years, although the scriptures recording the Buddha’s teachings have largely been preserved, the practical technique of Vipassana gradually disappeared in many places. Only in Myanmar was the method preserved continuously, passed down from teacher to teacher through direct instruction and practice.
Mr Goenka himself was born in Myanmar to an Indian family. He was a lay meditation master who learned the technique from Sayagyi U Ba Khin, a senior Burmese government official. U Ba Khin’s teacher was Saya Thet Gyi, who in turn was a student in the lineage of the Venerable Ledi Sayadaw. Beyond that, the historical lineage becomes difficult to trace.
The Vipassana organisation’s website provides very detailed explanations of the technique and the courses. Interested readers may refer to it directly, so I will not repeat the information here.
Instead, I would like to briefly share my personal impressions of the Dhamma Malaya centre in Gambang and my experience during the ten day course.
The centre is about 220 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur, roughly a three hour drive. It is located on a hill within a palm oil plantation and occupies about twenty acres of land. The environment is peaceful, quiet and shaded by many trees. The overall layout of the centre is thoughtfully planned and well organised, suggesting considerable effort during the design stage.
In addition to administrative offices, kitchen and other support facilities, the centre has two meditation halls, one large and one small, as well as 74 air conditioned meditation cells. The entire centre is divided into separate areas for male and female students. Together these areas provide single rooms for up to 108 students and about 30 volunteers. Each section has its own dining hall and walking paths, and a buffer zone separates the two areas. As a result, male and female students live completely separately except during the daily group meditation sessions in the meditation hall.
The buildings themselves are simple and practical. Every student is assigned a small single room. Although modest in size, the rooms are equipped with basic facilities. Each room has a cement bed with a thin mattress, a small iron stool for meditation, and a ceiling fan. The attached bathroom contains a toilet, a wash basin and a cold water shower, along with two plastic buckets and a water scoop. Several hot water stations are available in common areas for those who wish to bathe with warm water.
The centre officially opened in October 2007 and has now been operating for almost nineteen years. Yet the buildings and infrastructure, including pathways and drainage systems, are still very well maintained. I carefully looked around and did not notice the kinds of ground subsidence or structural cracks that are often seen in buildings of similar age in Malaysia. That was quite remarkable.
Although commonly referred to as a ten day course, it is technically eleven days. All students must arrive and register at the centre between about 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm on the day before the course begins. After registration, all personal items such as mobile phones, computers and other communication or entertainment devices, as well as books and notebooks, must be handed over to the management office for safekeeping.
From that moment until the course ends, students are completely cut off from the outside world. They are also not allowed to communicate with other students or volunteers, not even through gestures. The only permitted communication is with the course manager regarding practical matters, or with the teacher during designated times for questions about the practice. In effect, it is truly a period of retreat and seclusion.
Apart from the strict lifestyle rules, what impressed me most was the detailed daily schedule, the structured process management and the discipline with which everything was carried out. The day begins at 4 am and ends at 9.30 pm when lights are turned off. The entire day runs according to a precise timetable.
There are three and a half hours of group meditation in the hall and about five and a half hours of individual meditation either in the hall or in one’s room. Each evening there is also a discourse of about one hour and fifteen minutes delivered by Mr Goenka through recorded video or audio.
During the course the centre provides two vegetarian meals per day. Breakfast at 6.30 am includes coffee, bread, porridge and either noodles or vermicelli. Lunch at 11 am consists of rice, three simple vegetarian dishes and soup. New students are given a few pieces of fruit as a light refreshment at 5 pm, but otherwise no solid food is taken after midday.
The meals are simple but the ingredients are fresh and portions are generous. I also noticed that during the ten days not a single dish was repeated, which suggests that the management put considerable thought into the menu. It was truly appreciated.
From my observation during group meditation sessions, I estimated that there were about 120 students and volunteers in total in this course, roughly 50 male and 70 female. As the course was mainly open to participants from Malaysia and Singapore, most students were Chinese or Indian from these two countries, although there were also a few from China, other Southeast Asian countries and Europe.
Another surprising observation was that about eighty percent of the students were young or middle aged adults, with only a few retirees. In addition, about sixty percent were old students who had already attended one or more ten day courses before.
As for the details of the meditation technique itself, I will not spoil the experience here. Interested readers can look it up online or attend a course themselves. However I can confirm that the course does not involve any supernatural or religious belief. People of different religions, or even those with no religious belief at all, can benefit from the practice.
To help students meditate correctly and enter a proper mental state, recordings of Mr Goenka’s instructions are played before and after meditation sessions. There are also brief Pali chants expressing goodwill and blessings. These chants are not prayers but expressions of well wishing, so they do not pose any issue for students from non Buddhist backgrounds.
Although I personally have no religious belief, I found the course deeply impressive. In particular, the nightly discourse of about one hour and fifteen minutes was the clearest, most objective and most accessible explanation of Buddhist philosophy and meditation that I have ever heard.
I listened to the Chinese version played in the main meditation hall, and the translation and audio quality were excellent. The English version was played in the smaller hall. In addition, recordings in other languages were available through headphones for students who needed them.
Finally, I must emphasise that this ten day course is far from the kind of “relaxing retreat” that many people might imagine. It is in fact a demanding programme that challenges the body, the mind and the spirit.
Before leaving Kuala Lumpur I probably ate something unclean, and during the journey to the centre I began experiencing stomach discomfort. After arriving I had diarrhoea for two days and only regained my appetite on the third day.
For someone like me, who had almost no prior meditation experience, sitting cross legged for even ten minutes caused my legs to go numb and ache intensely. I often had to adjust my posture every few minutes just to endure a one hour sitting. Only after the sixth day could I manage to remain seated cross legged for half an hour without moving.
Beyond the physical discomfort, the psychological challenge was equally intense. In the first few days time seemed to slow down dramatically. Ten minutes could feel as long as an hour.
Apart from meditation sessions and basic daily routines, most of my free time was spent walking slowly along the paths within the compound. With my thoughts wandering freely, I would sometimes look up at the blue sky and white clouds, observe the trees and flowers, listen to birds, watch butterflies and ants going about their work, or notice the monkeys and squirrels appearing in the trees. There were also two lizards that often wandered calmly across the grass in search of food.
Perhaps because of the peaceful atmosphere of the centre, these animals did not seem afraid of people. Even when students walked past them, they simply carried on with their own activities as if humans were not there at all.
Such a minimalist life may appear plain, but within the long stretches of quiet there are moments that bring unexpected reflection and a gentle smile. Life can actually be very simple. The paradise that people dream about might well be nothing more than a place where the mind and body can truly rest in peace.
One more thing I nearly forgot to mention. All courses at the Vipassana centres, including accommodation and meals, are completely free. After completing the course, new students may donate according to their own experience and financial ability so that more people can benefit from the practice.
Such generosity truly deserves to be celebrated.
Sādhu, Sādhu, Sādhu.
Well done. Well done. Well done.
