Sunday, December 2, 2012

Understanding The Purpose of Spiritual Retreat



"Retreat is made for people who wish to deeply realize the facts with their being as well as the essence of existence. Retreat offers time and energy to take a step back in the lifetime of lifestyle and enter the Unknown, in the environment providing you with both structure and support." - Adyashanti

The phrase "retreat" in Latin means withdraw, take a step back. Some synonyms are sanctuary, shelter, rut. Webster Dictionary says it is really an act or means of withdrawing especially from what's difficult, dangerous or disagreeable. It appears as though moving into the entire world throughout history has often been difficult, dangerous and disagreeable. We reside in the globe produced by a divided mind, which perceives separation thereby operates with fear-based, repetitive thoughts, always planning and looking some future imaginary peace. 

Will we ever still find it? Might know about usually find is stress accumulated by constantly going after something, which produces a chronic state of tension plus a sense that something is definitely missing. And discover relief and healing of stress, we have to stop all of the worldly activities, take a step back, retreat and basically be. If we know that the entire world developed by the fear-based mind cannot offer us what seek, we turn our attention returning to what really matters, the associated with our true self.

For centuries people of various cultures are already seeking personal spiritual retreats to locate a shelter, a refuge through the world also to reconnect using a feeling of inner peace. Within the Western culture the spiritual retreats happened in religious institutions like secluded monasteries, where individuals were offered a pet shelter along with a practice of prayer and meditation. The Buddhist traditional meditation retreat Vipassana, meaning insight in Pali (the main language of Buddha ), is made up of long stretches of sitting and walking meditations, facilitating comprehension of the actual nature for being and spiritual awakening. In indigenous cultures like Native American yet others you will find there's tradition of coming of age called "Vision Quest". Vision quests occur in nature, when a person spends usually 3 to 5 days in solitude, practicing silent meditation and fasting. This type of spiritual retreat really helps to induce visions, find life purpose and direction, and accelerate spiritual growth and awakening.

All religions celebrate holidays, originally should have been spiritual retreats. Some day in one week as Sabbath in Judaism, or Sunday within the Christian tradition is really a Holy Day, each day to rehearse wholeness.

Another kind of spiritual retreat in every religious traditions is often a practice of periodic fasting. It is just someone retreat from eating, giving the organism a needed break. A juice or water fast releases each of the souped up that normally retreats into this process, with regards to cleansing, healing stress, and reflection.

We quite often realize the call to hunt for personal spiritual retreat if we encounter a life threatening life challenge, like a midlife crisis, the losing of someone you care about, divorce, break-up, severe illness and suddenly you do not know whom you are really anymore. A spiritual emergency ( emerge to see ), as Stanislav Grof describes it as part of his book, can be a potent serious amounts of a way for spiritual awakening.

1 comment:

  1. Usually a retreat has a series of talks by the retreat master or facilitator and reflections for the participants. Even during the talk of the retreat master discuss this over with your God. For example, while you are listening to the talk, you can say to your God, "Make me listen attentively to this talk so that I get some benefit from it."

    ilchi lee prayer of peace

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