At this stage, I was now completely convinced that hard as it may be, I would continue to put in every effort humanly possible to maintain the practice of Vipassana meditation when I resumed my regular life. The significant changes in my energy level, concentration power, attention span, creativity, mind-body coordination, temperament, and numerous other faculties I had experienced through the use of this technique were palpable, especially when I didn’t even know that such a big delta was even available as headroom for potential improvement.
I had also unlocked several preexisting paradoxes and exploded enough dogmatic myths that I knew it would be wise to continue the practice and cement these emergent insights in real life. I had seen new means and possibilities open up that I would have otherwise considered unimaginable. I also knew that this practice wouldn’t take time away from my work and personal life. On the contrary, it would likely enhance the quality of my relationships and make me more productive and effective in all aspects of life.
Aside from ensuring that I would sustain my own commitment to this virtuous path, what I was really keen on doing was to build greater awareness about this invaluable technique, for which I would want to speak publicly and to write extensively about it so others like me might also taste its nectar and draw their own set of benefits if the story inspired them to try Vipassana out for themselves. I could see how my wife might struggle with how I was going to make time to do more in my already packed life, both at home and at work, together with my numerous existing hobbies and social interests.
Looking back throughout my life, I had always had something else going on in parallel with essential core activities during each phase of my life, and I reflected on how a path had always emerged to allow juggling of multiple pursuits without compromising on the primary set of priorities.
At work, I could absolutely see how I would create so much more meaningful mindshare through my improved ability to focus with an increase in attention span coupled with a leadership approach to empower others and manage only the results. At home, I could see that my wife would find me more pleasant to be around and would draw more out of interactions with me as I could focus better and give her my full attention. At a more basic level, regardless of whether others would experience and perceive me differently, if nothing else, I would simply have more mental and physical capacity because I had noted the inverse correlation between my need for sleep and meditation.
With the increased energy level and comfortably longer waking hours, I could do a lot more with my typical day. I never thought I could meditate all day and contemplate two separate writing projects over the course of ten days, and had witnessed that it was possible! What I could do with weeks, months, and years ahead now seemed boundless. I now knew how some of the world’s greatest leaders I have admired managed to make time to write extensively and accept speaking assignments not only post retirement, but also while actively holding a significantly time-consuming office, and also balancing their family lives.
Frankly, in some ways, this other aspect of life—following on the path of Dhamma and awakening an interest in it in others—would also serve to bring better balance in my own life. While satisfactorily successful at many levels, it had become too unidimensional and career-oriented and it was time to bring more meaning and purpose to it.
One of my mentors had said to me over a year ago that I was approaching a stage in my career when I would need to figure out a way to “triple my RPM” (revolutions per minute, commonly used to indicate the frequency of rotation of a mechanical component, such as a wheel, around a fixed axis), implying the need to find ways to enhance my professional operating model in order to take on more responsibilities in the future without affecting the quality of my work or diminishing my lifestyle. Learning Vipassana was showing me how I might increase my RPM several fold, while also becoming more peaceful from the inside!
To say that this meditation course had been a watershed event in my life would have been an understatement and I wanted to find a way to express my gratitude to everyone and to every circumstance that had led me to the doorstep of this blissful learning opportunity. Clearly, I had lived a somewhat misinformed and misdirected life thus far to benefit as much from this meditative technique as I did, but there was a lot of fortune involved in how I stumbled upon it relatively early in my life’s journey.