Silent Retreat Day - an annual celebration, with Lynn online, after 8 years of continuous daily practice.
Rest in deep stillness and silence
“We meditate to dive through the surface habits to the depth of our true nature, the intrinsic part of our being, which is ever pure, ever wise, ever free.” Swami Veda Bharati
To celebrate 8 years of continuous daily practice, we’re joining together for a full day Saturday December 2, 2023. Please feel free to participate the whole time or for what works for you.
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December 1st 2015 was the first day of my offering a month of free daily online practice. I planned to finish January 1st with a New Years Day practice.
We have now met almost 3,000 consecutive days and in the process, we have developed into a close-knit community of “regulars” who love this part of our day.
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In the thirty years I’ve been meditating and the twenty five years I’ve been teaching meditation, I’ve come to deeply know my mind. The content of our thoughts and memories is unique but the way our minds work is more similar than different.
People are evidence-based. We have experiences of feeling afraid or powerless and our brain and nervous system tighten up and activate survival responses of fight/flight/freeze. Someone we love comes home – we take a deep breath and our body relaxes and softens.
Meditation and relaxation practices are a way of clearing out stress, tension, fear and anxiety. A regular practice is necessary to clear out the accumulated effect of daily life. As the dust settles, we know ourselves more deeply.
In silence we do more than refrain from speech. We focus our attention on the stillness that is always here in the vast depths of our mind. We witness thoughts come and go, and we become aware of what never changes, of consciousness itself.
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Bring your attention to your forehead and eyebrows. Lift your eyebrows up then let them soften. Breathe out and let the forehead relax. As you breathe in, keep your attention on your forehead. Breathe out and soften more. Breathe in with your attention still focused on the subtle muscles in your forehead. Breathe out and relax even more deeply. Did you notice your forehead softened a bit more deeply each time?
Regular practice works the same way. We store up tension all day and get tighter and tighter. We clench our teeth or develop cement shoulders. Building habits of awareness and relaxation help as does working with the underlying issues that cause us to tense up. Continuous smooth diaphragmatic breathing is a powerful tool. Yoga. Walking. Journaling. And relaxation!
Just as tension builds up over time, it takes time for our system to fully let it go. When our mind is off and running the second we are not distracted by our busy lives, it is natural to avoid time in silence. Guided and group practice is an easy way to do this.
What role does the breath play in maintaining the inner state of silence? It is a vehicle for going to the interior layers, each in its own way. After awhile, the breath becomes so subtle that it is barely noticeable. Then only the prana-force remains. One is at that point totally identified with the pranamaya kosha (prana body), much subtler than the annamaya kosha (physical body).
We are using the same Zoom link as for our regular 8AM daily practice.
We begin this silent retreat at 6AM Eastern/11:00 UK and conclude at 6PM Eastern/23:00 UK. Please use this to calculate your local time
We will have guided meditation and inquiry, gentle meditative yoga, and deep relaxation. We’ll have times for meditative walking, silence, and ease in our breath.
We meet for 45 minutes beginning on the hour with a 15 minute break between sessions. You are welcome to keep silence for part or for the entire time. The last hour of the retreat will consist of a short meditation then breaking our silence together with sharing.
Preparing for the Silent Retreat
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To celebrate 8 years of continuous daily practice, we’re joining together for a full day Saturday December 2, 2023. Please feel free to participate the whole time or for what works for you.
We are using the same Zoom link as for our regular 8AM daily practice.
We begin this silent retreat at 6AM Eastern/11:00 UK and conclude at 6PM Eastern/23:00 UK. Please use this to calculate your local time
We will have guided meditation and inquiry, gentle meditative yoga and deep relaxation. We’ll have times for meditative walking. Silence. Breathing.
We meet for 45 minutes beginning on the hour with a 15 minute break between sessions. You are welcome to keep silence the entire time.
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The first principle of yoga is ahimsa, non-harming, kindness. The second is satya, truth. A day of silence is big commitment, a gift of inner attention and space. Notice and keep letting go of any expectations and attachment to how it might go. This is a practice of silence and, equally important, of kindness and compassion, acceptance and resting. We are participating in an experiment and observing the results. This can be a rich way to get to know ourselves.
In our lives and in any practice, we acknowledge and work through the multiple layers of our experience as humans. We begin with relaxing the most solidly manifest, our physical body. We then work with breath and energy, activity in the thought stream, the higher intuitive layer of the mind, the heart/emotion and the space of awareness itself.
In the days leading up to our silence retreat, tune in and acknowledge your commitment and your intention to practice silence. You might plan on the full day. You may have other commitments and people around and plan to join for an hour or two. It’s all good. Just like you would look forward with pleasure to seeing a dear friend on the weekend, allow yourself to bring your practice of silence to mind this week.
Helpful in preparation:
Pratyahara is a practice of withdrawing the mind from the senses. This is easier if you are not continually exposed to wildly stimulating environments. Notice your physical, energetic and thought responses to various situations and events. Consider taking a break from social media and the news for a few days before the retreat to allow your system a rest and the energy of thought to slow and subside.
Prepare your practice space to be conducive to silence. Ideally this is a place where you can be alone or with others doing the practice and where you have access to the outdoors at points during the day. It is helpful if it is an appropriate temperature, clean and uncluttered.
If there will be noise, you might wear noise-cancelling headphones to block out sounds. Depending on your circumstance, you could let others know what you are doing, ask for their co-operation and to not be interrupted or engaged in conversation. It will look different for everyone and it is all fine. We can work with what we have. Go with a conducive environment, not perfection.
Be as well rested as possible so you can remain alert during the practices
Eat a light meal the night before and during the day of silence
Bathe or wash prior to beginning and wear clean clothes
“Make silence an opportunity for a dive into the deeper layers of the mind. Mind is an ocean that has many levels. At each layer of the mind the frequency of its force-field differs. At the speech level, it is at its lowest frequency. At the pure-thought level it is at a little higher frequency. From there, when you move on to the deeper, silent layers, they are of a higher frequency yet — so high a frequency that, at the level of the low-frequency mind, it is barely noticeable. We have to learn to go to that place.” Quote from my meditation teacher Swami Veda
Practices of silence are an opportunity to get to know habits and compulsions through mindfulness. Always, be kind with yourself. We are giving ourselves a gift of time and attention. Allow yourself to enjoy and be nourished by it.
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Interacting with people:
Generally if you avoid eye contact, people won’t try to engage
Write “I am observing silence today” on a piece of paper to show someone or make it as a badge saying “In Silence”
If you are out in public going for a walk or in nature, carry a notebook and pen to write if you run into a friend or neighbor
People often say hello as they walk by and it feels rude to not engage; a smile usually does it
If you make a mistake and say something, notice and let it go
Notice if you are pre-planning what to do or say if someone rings the doorbell or … and let that go.
Mental silence is more important than the vibrations in your vocal chords.
Mindfulness:
Silence is an opportunity to notice habits and compulsions of the mind
Talking is a way to relieve internal pressure and distract ourselves
Notice when the urge comes up to talk or engage with other people
Maintain mindfulness of your actions and activities like moving and walking
Eat in silence without distractions like reading or watching glowing screens
Maintain mindfulness of your body, breath, thoughts as much as possible
Levels of silence:
Decide ahead on the level of silence you plan to keep, choose what you are comfortable with and do your best
Not speaking out loud or digitally (no email, texting) and no screens/video games is the minimum
Write a brief note to someone only if necessary
Some people do contemplative reading, others commit to no reading, watching or otherwise taking in ideas
Some people journal during silence, some don’t
Silence of thought where you stay engaged with witnessing and letting thoughts be in the background
No interaction visually with other people, no eye contact or smiling
Constant practice of meditation in the mind
Most people will notice boredom, sleepiness, restlessness; do a guided practice, go for a mindful walk, sleep
This is a day of practicing silence and an opportunity to both rest and to learn about ourselves. Kindness is always first. If you notice you are judging yourself for how you are doing, see if you can let that go and be compassionate with yourself.
We give ourselves a great gift when we set aside time for silence. Enjoy!
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6AM Eastern, 11:00 UK Blue Star Yoga Nidra
7AM Eastern, 12:00 UK Alternate Nostril Breathing into Meditation
8AM Eastern, 13:00 UK Movement, Breathe, Shaking, Dancing then into yoga nidra
9AM Eastern, 14:00 UK
On Zoom: Trauma informed yoga practice with Alyson Raskin
On Insight Timer: Somatic inquiry Signaling Safety To Our Nervous System10AM Eastern, 15:00 UK Full Moon on Still Lake So-Ham Meditation
11AM Eastern, 16:00 UK Warm Connection Knowing Myself Body Breath and Mind
Noon Eastern, 17:00 UK No online session. Silence and walking meditation (outdoors in nature if possible)
1PM Eastern, 18:00 UK Sweeping Breath Yoga Nidra
2 PM Eastern, 19:00 UK Cave of the Heart Yoga Nidra Meditation
3PM Eastern, 20:00 UK Resting in Awareness/Presence
4PM Eastern, 21:00 UK Loving Kindness and Compassion
5PM Eastern, 22:00 UK Meditation then sharing and reflection
To accommodate multiple time zones as much as possible, we begin at 6AM Eastern/ 11:00 UK and finish at 6PM Eastern/ 23:00 UK. Check your local times here.
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IThere is no perfect way to practice silence and you are encouraged to “make it your own”
12 hours of extended silence might give the mind too much time to wander and be compulsive
In this retreat, each hour there is a variety of guided relaxation practices for about 45 minutes then a break
Check the detailed schedule for an idea of what the day might look like
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If you have the time and space, you might commit to the full 12 hours
If you have children or other obligations, you might pop in for an hour or more
Check Levels of Silence for ideas on how to make this day enjoyable for you
This guided systematic progressive relaxation was from our first day of daily practice December 1st, 2015