A long time ago, before yoga, meditation and sacred technologies were used in modern society for health and well-being, those seeking inner liberation would go into the wildness and silence of nature to enquire about who they were and what was the true nature of reality. The silent retreat has long been a platform for mystics, monks and yogis to find themselves and remains a powerful tool for the modern seeker.
Silence, it’s not what you think it is. When I acquired my permanent state of self-realization, I realized that silence is really the background of what I am. When my relationship to that inner silence took over, my mind shattered and all what I thought I was, renewed. I had glimpses of that silence after long periods of retreat in India; each time I retreated, some subtle aspect became established within. I start noticing purification in my life. My relationships where calmer, my work become effortless and I was performing all in a deep state of peace.
I am convinced that silent retreats facilitated by realized individuals offer to the seeker not only a very precise technology, but also a transmission necessary for the bioenergetic field of the individual to follow the path of self-realization. In my 20 years of facilitating silent retreats, I have seen in countless participants the dissipation of old and deeply rooted pain, habits and mental distortions of reality.
Spiritual teachers have their own lineage and approach to self-realization. My personal approach is based on effortlessness. I believe in the feminine (yin) force of nature, where effortlessness can be used to bring greater and more permanent results. While the yang force is useful to maintain our social routines, it has been greatly overused, causing inner aggressiveness, expectations and agitation about how we should be. I won’t say that silent retreats are effortless, since they require presence and stamina, but the results are found in the exact place that you need and in the area that you had overlooked.
Silence is the language of the heart. It is simple and available to all. In this place of deep connection, we are healed, cleared, energized and willing to take on all of our life’s challenges. Silence is the most terrifying space for some of us, since it is there that we meet the very core and truth of what we are. In there, there is no one to blame or to make responsible for our happiness, sadness or anger. It really is a space that the true inner warrior can enter and realize all his or her glories and shortcomings.
While the practice of silence is very powerful, most people find that they benefit more from a silent retreat with some advance preparation. I like to prepare the individual through an introductory six-hour course called Practical Awakening, so that the individual can better handle the mind and enter the retreat with less toxins and inner agitation.
A couple of days in silence, meditation, yoga, satsang and vegetarian/ayurvedic diet, can definitely be a turning point in the physical health, in the inner exploration and in the relationship towards others.
If you are seeking permanent changes, I promise you that silence is the doorway to find you, to support your stamina, to relax you, to find your heart and to plant a seed of peace in your life.