Ten days that can change your life - if your ego can let go - and you put in your full effort. Although this course had been recommended to me by three different people, all of whom I know well and trust, I was somewhat unconvinced before embarking on this path that Vipassana Meditation could affect my life. I thought I was simply going to be instructed how to meditate. But in fact, it is so much more than that. It has become a state of being, a philosophy, a way to focus and rise above all the detail of daily life. Not only are you taught a very practical meditation technique, in a very well-devised and well-paced programme, but you are also given all the background and philosophy that will enable you to apply that technique and put it into motion in your daily living. The centre itself is stunning, the people who run are doing a splendid job, and the food and facilities leave nothing to be desired. I will not tell you that living like a Buddhist monk for ten days was easy, or that having ten days of silence to look deep inside yourself was not unsettling. But it was a humbling experience, and even now after months of having completed my first course I am feeling the benefits of my hard work. I am finally meditating regularly and as a consequence I am calmer, happier more focused and more aware.