Spiritual Retreat

Spiritual Retreat

This past week I was able to go on a remarkable spiritual journey. I was on a silent retreat for six days with my teacher, Swami Vidyadhishananda. There were 108 of us there, eating a sattvic, sparse diet, getting up in the morning by 4 AM, retiring at around 10, sometimes later, with an almost non-stop schedule of lectures, meditation, pranayama, yoga, & brisk walks, all done in silence, and no air-conditioning. We were in a secluded mountainous, beautiful location in West Virginia with no cell phone reception. I’m one of those last holdouts on getting a cell phone, plus we weren’t to use them while there anyway.

It was very hard at first, at least for me. I missed my husband terribly (who could not take off from work), missed the caffeine, and found it extremely hard to sit in the cross-legged pose for hours on end. We were allowed to sit in a chair if we wanted; but I also found that hard at times. Our teacher is a rare Himalayan monk who offered us rare and secret teachings. We could not take notes during the lectures, or read anything while there.

After day two, I began to settle in better. I learned to eat better and more consciously, and hope I don’t fall back into my old habits. Although somewhat of a hardship at first, I began to see the great blessing in it. I think my body is still detoxing. And it’s hard for me to get back into the “unreal” world. I haven’t even returned phone calls yet, but know I must start eventually.

We only were to bring organic toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc to the retreat. And everything was recycled. Dishes were washed after every vegetarian meal, and we only used cups and utensils that were made of recycled materials. After every meal you put dishes in one slot to be washed (we all took a turn volunteering for this), any left over food (rare) into a compost bin and after our cups and forks and spoons could be used no more, they went into the recycling bin.

The teachings were so many and I’m still trying to remember. We were to sit and learn mostly by eye-to-eye contact. Our teacher is one of less than 20 who can still give these teachings. He left for India the day after the retreat, and will be in seclusion from 2013 until 2019 in the Himalayas finishing up the culmination of eleven lifetimes. He said that if we only absorbed 10 percent of the teachings our lives would be blessed greatly. I’m finding that to be true. Also, if we observed the silence and rules as requested we would receive a special blessing. I don’t feel I got that one, as there was also some signaling and whispering sometimes going on, which was also not allowed. The strict rules I now see were in order for us to contemplate and absorb better the teachings.

The teachings offered to us were:

• Role of mutation & evolution 
• Arrest of mental fluctuations
• Realization of Purusha & Prakruti
• Tattwa as essential principles
• Yoga & Vedanta framework
• Result of devotion to God
• Full moon meditation
• Rare Prānāyāma techniques
• Vinyasa-krama yoga practice
• Nature walks & cow milking
• Noble silence & shruti method

We weren’t even supposed to be taking pictures, except before and after the silence. My husband and I hosted four people a couple of days before leaving for the retreat. From left to right we are sitting on my front porch the day before leaving for the retreat. From left to right are myself and guests: Kerstin from Sweden, Heidi from Denmark, & Claudia from Germany. Peter from England was standing out in the yard with Chris while taking the picture.

Their visit to us was also a great blessing. It was all just a remarkable experience, and now I’m looking forward to the next one and hope to go into it in a better state and mind and body allowing me to gain more on a spiritual level.

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Tags: pranayama, retreat, spirituality, Swami Vidyadhishananda, yoga

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