During my years as a Buddhist monk, we regularly did two 90 day silent retreats(Summer/winter) and two 45 days (fall/spring) a year. It’s mostly a survival type period where you slog through the days, until you have a week or so of a breakthrough, with hyper awareness and enlightenment-like insights. They all pass and it’s back to surviving the rest of the retreat.
Very cool to see an ex-monk here. I've had a regular 2hr/day practice for a decade now but no retreats yet. What kind of meditation did you practice? Would you say that you achieved some level of Awakening, and that any of these insights/benefits have improved the quality of your consciousness in a permanent sense?
came back from a 49-day solitary retreat on march 19th.
an assortment of remarks:
by far, the most impactful experience of my life.
i was the least experienced meditator in the cohort with less than one year of formal experience.
10 days of agitation and discomfort (1-10)
5 days of nervousness and settling in (11-15 or so)
20 years of psychotherapy condensed into two weeks. meditation is garbage collection.
(days ~15-29)
profound clarity, presence, and peace. meditation is so much more (~29-49)
if you’re even remotely curious, please do yourself a favor and try a 10-day retreat.
a systems mindset can be supportive. stillness can be revealed through discipline and a systematic approach.
however, it is still ultimately necessary to surrender. beliefs are limiting. and the mind is not the end-all of the conscious experience. a leap of faith... non-negotiable.
long sits (3-hours+) are a game changer.
yoga is essential to prepare and maintain the body. but ultimately the body too must be dropped.
feel free to DM me or email me if you’d like to be directed to resources.
ptenk|5 years ago
AriseAndPass|5 years ago
tuesday20|5 years ago
Thank you for taking the time to answer
corporateslave5|5 years ago
throw_away|5 years ago
perfmode|5 years ago
an assortment of remarks:
by far, the most impactful experience of my life.
i was the least experienced meditator in the cohort with less than one year of formal experience.
10 days of agitation and discomfort (1-10)
5 days of nervousness and settling in (11-15 or so)
20 years of psychotherapy condensed into two weeks. meditation is garbage collection. (days ~15-29)
profound clarity, presence, and peace. meditation is so much more (~29-49)
if you’re even remotely curious, please do yourself a favor and try a 10-day retreat.
a systems mindset can be supportive. stillness can be revealed through discipline and a systematic approach.
however, it is still ultimately necessary to surrender. beliefs are limiting. and the mind is not the end-all of the conscious experience. a leap of faith... non-negotiable.
long sits (3-hours+) are a game changer.
yoga is essential to prepare and maintain the body. but ultimately the body too must be dropped.
feel free to DM me or email me if you’d like to be directed to resources.