Bhodgaya: The Quest for Enlightenment

The actual experience was wonderful :-)
Luke, Brandi, Zach and I participated in a 24 hour period of silent meditation. The definition expands beyond the common conception of sitting with eyes closed in the half-lotus position, to include Walking Meditation, and mindfullness while eating and moving in general. We began our session at 5pm with Instruction, and finished at 6pm the following day.

Here is a schedule of our day:
5:00AM- Wake up
5:30AM- 1 hour Seated Meditation session
6:30AM- Practice mindful eating at Breakfast
7:00AM- 1 hour Walking Meditation
8:00AM- Seated Meditation
9:00AM- Walking Meditation
10:00AM- Seated Meditation
11:00AM- Practice mindful eating at Lunch
12:00PM- Naptime
2:00PM- Seated Meditation
3:00PM- Walking Meditation
4:00PM- Seated Meditation
5:00PM- Instruction session (speaking-when-spoken-to allowed)
6:00PM- Walking Meditation
7:00PM- Teatime
8:00PM- Seated Meditation

Anna did not participate in the session, preferring to enjoy the quiet time to relax and read, and Esty and Jess decided not to proceed with the session within the first 45 minutes of meditation. I don't think this created very much animosity within the group, although it did cause problems because while the 4 of us were off meditating, the other 3 were off shopping, eating, and spending money...which we found out later would be necessary to pay our driver, make a donation to the monastery, buy tickets to the local Buddhist temples and ruins, and feed and hydrate ourselves for the next 2 days. We ended up all running out of money becasue some of us had to spot the cash to pay for the above necessities, and had to borrow money from our driver until Brandi could get to an ATM. We are still in the process of sorting out who owes money to whom!