I did it again. For the fourth time, I spent the last ten days in a silent retreat, practicing meditation up in cold, snowy Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Every year I start out thinking that ten days is WAY too long to be doing this, that I'm no good at it and that I'll certainly never do it again. And then everything slowly changes.
As you actually learn to meditate, an equanimity settles in that is rare and lasting, and makes your time in this isolation so precious that you have mixed feelings about leaving at the end.
While it may seem strangely random to be reading about a meditation retreat on a design blog, I can assure you that the experience is so profound and so deeply related to design that I am amazed every time and can't believe my good fortune to have stuck it out. The inner stillness that you achieve and the realization of how attached to things we are (oh, misery!), leads you to a whole new perspective on your inner and outer life. It is, quite frankly, the absolute best way I know of to greet the new year.
It's a mental interior redesign of the first degree. And you fall in love with the stark interiors.
This is what I wrote last year, and I can't say it any better:
Which is where it interconnects with Apartment Therapy and interior design. Life has its own design and when you strip away all the clutter and the jabber and the static, you begin to see things just as they are and lose your craving for things that used to cause you pain or stress. Things get simpler and more beautiful as well.
Here are some pictures that I took at the center before leaving (all taken on an iPhone, so not high quality). You will see that the interior is NOT too fancy, but it's extremely well cared for and clean. These things are the basic building blocks of any great interior, but examples like this show it so starkly.
Enjoy and Happy New Year! All info and links are below.
GOOD LINKS
>> Apartment Therapy on… Vipassana, Corelle & Design
>> The Most Famous Plastic Chair: The Monobloc
FROM LAST YEAR
Here are a few items I fell in love with during the course, the plates and cups. Used every day for many years, they are super strong, light and retain their white luminous quality. The cup is old Corning and can be found at places like eBay and Etsy, while the plates and bowls are Corelle, made of laminated tempered glass. While they are admittedly spartan, I consider them design classics (are they in MoMA's design collection? I can't remember...) and worthy of consideration in any design-o-phile's home.
>> Corelle.com
>> Corelle @ Wikipedia
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
I live right near there and have always wondered what the inside was like. Thanks!
I myself just returned from a Vipassana/Zen retreat to find this post in my email. This is the perfect example of why I am so drawn to AT. Thank you.
I'm confused, isn't it against practice to be using your cell phone there? Even if it is to take pictures.
They allowed you keep your iPhone?! How did you avoid checking messages, etc?
What a wonderful way to begin the new year...meditation is a vital skill that is inherent in us, but somehow we all seem to have forgotten it's simplicity.
Last year, I spent 2 and a half months in an ashram in India learning meditation techniques and yoga. The Vedic approach, of course is so full of colors, and sounds, and rituals, that it seems almost opposite to the Vipassana Buddhist approach. Yet I can see that even in the seemingly chaotic styles of life that I experienced in India, there is at the center only peace and silence, and it is something I was able to carry with me as I go through my own daily chaos of clutter and stuff. In any case, after returning, I did feel a need to change my environment, and have been redesigning my home room by room to reflect the simplicity that comes with good design, while still rejoicing in the colored "chaos" that life dances before our eyes.
With a few exceptions (the concrete floors) that looks about as un-zen as you can get.
I also would like to add that I love your photos that you posted of the little things that one may not always notice in events, or everyday life. Examined this way we can appreciate their utilitarian and intrinsic beauty...
wow! I just returned too! We must have been there at the same time.
In regards to the cell phone question, on the 10th day, we end the vow of Noble Silence and are allowed to have our cell phones back. Of course, we just aren't allowed to use them in the meditation hall. I can imagine taking pictures in the hallway of the meditation is fine.
Beautiful experience. Highly recommended!!!!!
May all be happy!
oops!
"I can imagine taking pictures in the hallway of the meditation [hall] is fine.
What a wonderful New Year's practice. You are SO right about interior design being that of space and person. That's what we do: make spaces that speak to people and let them flourish. A true designer is an INTERIOR designer.
Happy New Year!
Loved this post! A fresh start, indeed.
I did a retreat there in August 2009 and I loved it. Your post has inspired me to get up there again.
Thank you
Although I can appreciate the concept of stark beauty, I know that I cannot surround myself with it. I yearn for a space that is cozy and vibrant. Perhaps it is because I grew up somewhere with six+ months of winter...
Maxwell, I'm glad you're refreshed. Happy New Year. :)
Great post, really resonates for me. Just restarted my TM practice and notice the increase in clarity and focus. So true that all design has to fit the person, the endeavors within that space...it tells a story.
Thanks
I think living and working in spaces were pieces have a specific intention and are thoughtful in their use make all the difference. Stuff to fill space seems wasteful. Good (or great) design should always have a purpose.
Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing the beauty of your experience.
What a beautiful post! And timely, too--I've just resolved to meditate this year, after receiving this lovely new book: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Happiness-Meditation-28-Day-Program/dp/0761159258
First off, I must commend you, what a wonderful way to start the New Year. Secondly, I love Shelburne Falls, it is such a beautiful area in the Berskshires. Very envious.
thank you for posting this! really timely for me as I examine how I spend my time/thoughts.
Design, in itself, is about helping people live better lives, right? but so easily becomes about feeding people's less-healthy tendencies to desire/acquire more THINGS. Just wondering if you - or anyone else - has had any revelations about that :)
I guess I'd like my design addiction to feel less like a guilty habit, more like a healthy one!
Wow. Thank you for this post. Struck a really crucial cord with me.
a note on my iPhone pics: I took all these on day 10, when they let us speak again, return phones and relax a bit. You don't leave until the next morning however.
10 days of nothing to do but meditate and relax sounds wonderful to me. I need to try this sometime.
Happy new year, Maxwell. Thanks for sharing this experience, mus be a great way to start another year.
What a gift to take the time to truly reconnect with the essential. Bravo to you for your discipline.
Sounds simply heavenly. I would enjoy this.
pve
Do you get to do yoga and go running while there? Do you have to wake up at a certain time? How long do you sit for? Can you read books while there?
Can you drink coffee there?
What a thrill to read this. I too just finished a 2-wk meditation retreat at a place called Shambhala Mountain Center, in Colorado. I've been doing this at least once a year for the last 7 years and one of the best things about such a retreat is how it cleanses your senses while generating tremendous appreciation for environmental details, outer and inner.
I always return with a renewed sense of beauty in the ordinary.
PS Anyone who is worried about attempting such a retreat--completely understandable! It's scary! But you will never, ever regret this undertaking.
I also attended 10-day vipassana retreat in Klaten, Indonesia last week. It was my first vipassana course. Although I found it to be quite challenging, the result was amazing.
I'd love to attend the retreat in different countries.
I saw the facilities and accommodation in US was definitely more comfortable. Our room in Klaten, Indonesia was just like a hall with open partition. One room was shared by eight people and we slept on a thin mattress on the floor.
I also attended 10-day vipassana retreat in Klaten, Indonesia last week. It was my first vipassana course. Although I found it to be quite challenging, the result was amazing.
I'd love to attend the retreat in different countries.
I saw the facilities and accommodation in US was definitely more comfortable. Our room in Klaten, Indonesia was just like a hall with open partition. One room was shared by eight people and we slept on a thin mattress on the floor.
Single rooms in a Vipassana Centre?
My experience is of rooms with 2-5 beds with a bathroom (with no separate toilet) every 5-7 people (in India I've been told is even worse). I did it once but probably I'm too spoiled and for me that was too much so I I was not going to repeat the experience. But now I think I'll look into it again. So thanks for sharing!
I reading only now the other comments, seams than just in US are the facilities so comfortable. I was in Europe, Italy.
@annievont
It's 10 hours sitting meditation for 10 days. 4AM rings the bell. 4:30AM starts the first meditation. No coffee.
http://calm.dhamma-eu.org/v/a/app?re=eu&sc=atala&co=400&la=EN
the 10-day Goenka retreat is the best vipassana boot camp you can do if you want to kick start a good meditation practice. when i came back from the one i attended in texas, i searched for a group i could sit with and found one that was under the wing of the Insight Meditation group (Kornfield, Salzberg, Goldstein). was almost 5 years ago and has been wonderful. metta
Sounds like the experience was a good "cleansing of the pallet". :)
I agree 100% with studio57, however. I have to have cozy, homey and unique. Rooms like the one featured above make me feel like my existence is homogeneous and easily replaced -like I'm part of the Borg, or something.
Oops, 'palate'. :D
Hey! I was there taking the course! Of course we didn't see each other cause we couldn't, but it was amazing, my first time. I would highly recommend Vipassana to anyone. I'm still sitting in the mornings, but can't find time at night. Any words of wisdom on practicing? Also, where did you get your big cushion that you sit on top of that I see in your apartment? Thanks so much!!! you can email me at jdeuell@yahoo.com
Hola, Soy Viviana, me encantó tu post. Creo que buscaré aquí en Santiago, Chile algo así para experimentar lo que nos contaste.
Gracias, Maxwell
Cariños,
Maxwell,
I definitely found a love for the dishes this year, and, in general, my third year back felt like a coming-home of quiet sorts. (my only photo was of leaving the meditation hall in the morning. seeing the day emerge from night is my favorite part of waking early.)
Thanks for posting about this.
Vanessa