This looks and sounds like the 10-day vipassana sourse of Goenka. It demonstrates a typical style designed for retreats in Indo-China (ie: for semi-tropical weather). Thus the evening meal is absent in this schedule. However it is more necessary for cold climates. That it is forbidden here shows the same old rigid pattern of practice and understanding - something which stands in for a "received" tradition of practice. The same holds for "noble" silence. Silent vipassana retreats are famous for "silent glance" romances during the formal 10 days of practice. Two of my friends taught TM in SE Asia. In conversation with Western vipassana teachers, who also taught in SE Asia, my friends discovered that both meditation traditions encountered the same over-riding problem: difficulty in training new practitioners NOT to concentrate or strain.
