A Silent Retreat Day - An annual celebration, with Lynn online, after 9 years of continuous daily practice.

To celebrate 9 years of continuous daily practice, we’re joining together for a full day Saturday December 7, 2024. 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.

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.

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!

There 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

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 is a link to the book

https://www.ahymsin.org/silence/