Is Goenka meditation boring in a closet?

Ellie Askew edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Dorothy & Co., Wizard of Oz

I can't wait to get back into my closet.

I know a girl who does a funny thing with her annual two weeks of vacation. As she leaves the office she says, “Okay, I'm going to sit in a closet for two weeks” and everyone laughs.

Some of her coworkers might think she’s crazy to do such a thing. After all, it sounds boooorrring! Why would anyone ever sit in a closet on purpose?

Wouldn’t she want to see some of the world's magnificent sights? Get to the beach, read some trashy novels, go on a Bridgerton bender?

Rows of cells at a Goenka meditation retreat

Surely if I had only two weeks a year to get away from it all, I’d try to do something magnificent. My friend explains that nothing leaves her feeling more refreshed than that closet. "How," I ask, "is that possible?" I mean, What could she possibly be doing in there?

It turns out she's participating in a vipassana meditation retreat with others in adjacent closets. They're sitting completely still, turning their attention inward, sitting in their meditation “cells.” The closet or kuti is a private chamber, a pod, a great place to be to get away from it all. Why?

At rest in search of a closet on a Shilo Farm Retreat in Maine (shilo-farm.com)

 

"Why?" I ask her. It turns out the only real cure for boredom is facing boredom head on. It's like when one has a nightmare, being chased by a monster, what is one supposed to do? We are supposed to turn around and confront it. That's the advice. Why? It will melt like the Wicked Witch of the West being doused with water.

Meditation closets or cells on stilts in Thailand

As it turns out that when we’re not running away from boredom, it becomes just another phenomenon to be allowed, experienced, and therefore understood. It loses its sting, its terror, its power. As a subject of meditation one no longer identifies with, it might even become fascinating.

Ever chasing the next form of entertainment, my friend can't get any real rest in the world or at her job. But in meditation she can fully relax and let go, neither fighting or pushing away anything, utterly free from any experience that arises, even boredom itself.

• Goenka has free 10-day vipassana meditation retreats