From November 6–10, I will participate in a self-organised, 3-day silent retreat with a group of about 16 people. While I’ve completed a 10-day Vipassana course during spring this year, this self-organised retreat will likely be a completely different experience. There are no restrictions on reading/writing, no mandatory group session attendance, a free allocation of your time, and some chores that will have to be done (like cooking for the whole group). Furthermore, I’ll be in charge of preparing a recorded lecture for the theory-sessions during the the afternoon.
To make sure the silent retreat will be worthwhile, I decided to prepare a personal program (building on the group program) with a broad specification of what each session is allowed to entail. I want to avoid looking for distractions by reading or writing outside of dedicated meditation slots, and to make sure I’m not ‘all over the place’ with different theories and focus points.
Besides sharing my personal approach to the 3 days of silence below, this post is also to inform you that there will be no bits & pieces posted from November 7–9. Hopefully, I will return with many great insights to share with you afterwards!
The overarching theme
The overarching theme of the retreat for me will be overidentification, a concept that I have been writing and thinking about a lot in the past few months. At the core, I want to explore how the sensations and thoughts that emerge from identification differ from the sensations and thoughts that appear from ourselves within.
Part of this process entails recognising what emerges from deep down the unconscious mind. Something I’ve been curious about for longer and that ties to this perfectly is the exploration and analysis of my dreams, the second majour focus of my silent retreat.
Planning and activities
Below I’ve included a schematic overview of the activities that will occur during the three days of silence. Below the diagram I explain what the different activities entail for me.
Dream interpretation
Dream interpretation occurs directly after waking up. The goal is to write down observation and reflect on them. The observations I want to pay particular attention to:
- symbols, object and images
- feelings and emotions
- figures and characters, the (type of) people that appear
- unusual elements
- events: the overall story-line
On the reflective part, I will take with me the following points:
- are there recurring elements from previous dreams?
- personal associations: what do the observations mean to me?
- connections with recent life events
- are there archetypal themes? (e.g. a ‘journey,’ transformation, facing a deeply-seeded enemy or fear)
- anything that appears but does not constitute the aforementioned.
Ultimately, I will use my dreams to uncover aspects of the unconscious mind. Aspects to which I can pay particular attention in the silent meditation sessions during the day.
Silent meditation
Normal silent meditation is meditation without interruptions to write down thoughts or experiences that occur. Silent meditations are solely and specifically to observe.
As described above, I want to pay particular attention to the type of thoughts and sensations that occur: are they produced by the selfconsciousness (inside-out) or by the otherconsciousness (outside-in). Can I observe particular characteristics of either that can help me to discern the two?
Silent meditation+
Similar to the silent meditation, but here there is the possibility to welcome ‘trains-of-though’ and momentarily interrupt the meditation to take notes.
You will see that these meditation+ sessions usually follow a reading or theory session, which is often when thoughts about these sessions emerge. Writing them down can be useful later, but also helps me to clear my mind and make sure thoughts do not keep surfacing and cycling back continuously.
Yoga
Every morning a group meditation session is hosted. I’m not sure if I will (be able to) follow the group instructions, so I will see where I participate and diverge.
I think that doing yoga in the morning helps to open up the body, which makes the day’s upcoming meditations much more manageable and effective.
Book study
I will take 1.5 hours a day to read and study the work of Carl Jung. Specifically, I will be bringing a bundle with two of his essays: The Undiscovered Self and Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams. Here’s what has been said about this bundle:
These two essays, written late in Jung’s life, reflect his responses to the shattering experience of WWII & the dawn of mass society. Among his most influential works, The Undiscovered Self is a plea for his generation—and those to come—to continue the individual work of self-discovery and not abandon needed psychological reflection for the easy ephemera of mass culture. Only individual awareness of both the conscious & unconscious aspects of the human psyche will allow the great work of human culture to thrive.
Jung’s reflections on self-knowledge & the exploration of the unconscious carry over into the 2nd essay, Symbols & the Interpretation of Dreams, completed shortly before his death in 1961. Describing dreams as communications from the unconscious, Jung explains how the symbols that occur in dreams compensate for repressed emotions & intuitions. This essay brings together Jung’s fully evolved thoughts on the analysis of dreams & the healing of the rift between consciousness & the unconscious, ideas that are central to his system of psychology.
I think this bundle fits perfectly with the goal of my retreat. Furthermore, the fact that it comprises only two essays (144 pages) makes it a manageable read that does not need to be rushed.
Walking meditation
The walking meditation after lunch is mostly to be outside, stretch my legs and get some fresh air. During the walk, I can continue what I explore during my seated (silent) mediations: observe which sensations and thoughts emerge from the selfconsciousness and which emerge from the otherconsciousness.
Lecture study
As mentioned before, my content contribution to the silent retreat is to the ‘daily readings,’ when the group comes together in the central mediation hall to together listen to a reading by a certified teacher. Fortunately, this places me in the unique position to select readings that area also contribute to my personal goals for the retreat.
With this in mind, these were the lectures I selected, ordered from day 1–3:
- The Wisdom of Impermanence by Joseph Goldstein (link to session in Waking Up)
- The Shape of Life by James Low (link to session in Waking Up)
- Mindfulness of Reality by Maitreyabandhu (link to video on YouTube)
Day reflection
What I really missed during the Vipassana retreat was to write down my overall experience of the day, such that I could re-imagine the experience later. During a day of silence, you really enter a different world, a world sometimes hard to get to during our day-to-day life.
As such, I will use the final hour of my days of silence to reflect on the day and prepare to go to sleep.
Hopefully on Sunday, I will be able to share with you what I liked about this approach, and what I would do different in the future. See you then!
One Response
Looks like you have a great weekend ahead of you! Thanks for sharing your schedule and ideas for the weekend. I am curious to hear what you’ve learned during the retreat 🙂