No talking, no stealing, no lying, no killing, no sex. The rules for the following days are more than clear.

	In Kathmandu we committed ourselves to a ten day meditation course that follows the principle of Vipassana. This technique helped Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the Buddha, to liberate himself from aversion and craving. And if it worked for him, it might work for us...
	The first difficulty we had to conquer was our separation. The last 15 months we were together 24 hours day after day (something we actually liked very much :-). Here in the monastery man and woman live apart.
	Then the sitting and concentrating started. The assignment was simple: watch your breath while sitting on the floor. I never experienced something as hard as this. Not even two breathings after each other I could keep myself focussed. My mind was like flickering neon light. Every second it changed color with memories from twenty years back, future plans and daydreams. I will not even start about the sitting...
	After a few days the mind became more quiet and we could start with Vipassana: observing the sensations in the body without responding. Not as easy as it sounds, because not responding means not reacting when the legs are screaming to be moved and your back feels like it is getting major injury.
	And then the fighting in the head started: 'Why am I doing this, this is torture and complete nonsense' against another voice that was saying 'give it a chance! It helped already thousands of people, Buddhists, Moslims, Christians and non-believers, so maybe it will help me as well'.
	And yes after the ten days, we are convinced. It did help us, and it still does. We received an instrument to change annoying patterns in our lives from the base. Of course only with a lot of time, hard work and patience.

Click here for more photos of Nepal and here for photos of our stay in India.