Last November after months of much rain and gentle sunshine, I ran my annual silent retreat. I call it Deep Healing Retreat as that is the intention ~ to feel deeply healed in the areas of life that you care about. Or to simply feel the soothing care and attention you can give yourself through yogic practices.
It was the perfect season, the perfect location, with just the right bunch of humans.
Getting things right so others can thrive is something I really value. I can plan for and manage the deliciousness of the food, the comfort of the guest rooms, and of course the aesthetics of the yoga studio.
These things arranged attentively by the host helps to set the scene for our participants to feel honoured and take refuge in the Sattvic qualities of harmony, ease and quiet-radiance.
The elements of a retreat that are not under ones control happen to be the most interesting ones: communicating what Noble Silence is, how it can serve you, what it is not and how to get the most our of it feels a bit like throwing a line out into the raging ocean and hoping to catch a fish.
Deep healing means foundational investigation of one’s self and that requires a letting go of our everyday behaviours.
Yogis have a powerful tool to end out dated habitual patterns: the deep pause of reflective silence.
Inviting retreatants into the experience of extended silence is a communication the can take some planning and skill. Here are my recommendations having reflected on the task for a while now. I have summarised the invitation to silence as:
Sewing the Three Seeds of Noble Silence.
Imagine if I asked you to be silent for a day. Likely you would have all your proclivities and attachments in full swing, just continuing on inside your head instead of voiced out loud. Same record playing the same tracks, and getting the same results.
Thought captured in the light of yogic awareness
So instead, a teacher can take wisdom from life and set the scene. Just as a gardener knows to prepare the soil and select the right spot for seed planing, so it is with effectively setting up students for the healing nature of Noble Silence. Having chosen the right spot, tilled and nurtured the soil and prepared the seed we are more likely to see flowers blooming and fruit ripening.
seed number 1 - This process of Noble Silence is profound!
Communicating to your group that there is something profound about yogas’ penetrative nature is step one.
Spend time sharing with the participants that so much more is possible, that we are likely stuck on repeating tracks and there is a way break through old limitations.
And don’t just use words, engage in practices too that get the group actively opening to challenges that meet an edge and cross old boundaries. Here we feel in our bodies that we have thrown off old assumptions and stepped into a new realm of energy, breath and self identification.
Change based on deep insight is profound. So expect depth and expect insights from your Noble Silence!
Seed number 2 - Facing your own thoughts
You have thoughts all the time so what does it mean to face them? Our usual thoughts occur to us as real, natural and true. “I’m hungry” “I’m tired” “I like this person” ‘It’s time to go to work” however hiding amongst such neutral thoughts are little misconceptions - which left undetected - can lead us astray.
Unconscious beliefs that have never seen the light of analysis or whose impacts we are unaware of are likely stewn all across our daily self talk.
For example, take the thought ‘I’m hungry’ and let’s sieve and detangle it through a Noble Silence view:
“I’m hungry… therefore I must eat the closest thing available, whatever it is, there’s no time and resources to eat what I actually want nor am I likely to get something that is good for me”.
Oh! That’s interesting. All of that was sitting underneath such a simple, common thought.
That’s a lot of insight right there!
Let’s look at “I’m tired,
“I’m tired…therefore I will be grumpy until I get sleep and I should not have to do anything”
Oh! Now I am feel to see that I can relate to tiredness in new and different ways that might not include grumpy and on strike. Silence gives us time to hear our own thoughts and have new light breathed into them.
You can do the same with the other statements. Try for yourself “I like this person” and “I must go to work”
Try to find at least 5 preconceptions or misconceptions for each statement.
Naming what’s underneath the thought… identifying the context from which it arises… and experiencing new insight are all natural outcome of Noble Silence when it is well guided.
Summary: Facing your own thoughts is about having the quiet reflective time available to you, in a safe and nurturing environment, where you can see what’s underneath them, unconsciously driving your life.
Seed number 3 - Facing your body’s sensations
Mindfulness has always been taught as an awareness that includes bodily sensation. It is a way to be in the Now. The mindful person notices what they feel, where they feel it and may also acknowledge how they are interpreting the sensations.
Using the examples above, this is what might come to light during Noble Silence: “
When I have a sensation in my upper belly (that I call hunger) I become vigilant and my nervous system becomes active. I am compelled to seek out food to stop that sensation. Why? Because I interpret it as a negative sensation, as if something is terribly wrong. Is something terribly wrong? No, not at all, I ate only 2.5 hours ago and I was sated. What to do? Keep noticing it, engage in places and activities that regulate my nervous system and keep me centred. Change my breathing to a pattern that soothes the feeling. Make a reassuring promise to check back in with the feeling of hunger so it knows I am listening and tending to it. I know I will eat in 2 hours. I can be a voice of calm reassurance to the freaking out of my tummy talking.”
Or the going to work example:
“When I know if it time to go to work I feel my body stiffening slightly. There is a fist in the pit of my tummy that tightens. I start rushing and getting my self worked up. I wonder what it would be like to calmly prepare to depart for work…. I wonder if I could delight in the process of getting dressed, eat slowly, enjoy the big hugs as I bid my family goodbye for the day, and walk out the door with my heart full and my feet on the earth, noticing the flowers and trusting that I am enough. Trusting that I bring light and joy to my work and to other people . Imagining this I feel something new is possible. “
With these three seeds sewn:
-Expect the profound - Face your Thoughts - Face your Feelings
the foundational philosophies of yoga starts to have practical applications.
We are now actively engaged in the study of the mind and the levels of Self/ self that are available to us. We see that we are whole and yet made up of parts.
Summary
In Noble Silence we have time and intention to look deeply at our own mind. We look both at the thoughts and at the underlying beliefs that fuel the arising of those thoughts.
With the yogic Yama and Niyama guiding us, knowledge of the Kleisha and especially an appreciation of Atman we will have a wisdom consciousness available to us that sheds its light on the dark.
Noble Silence is self-study (Svadyaya) but it is also even simpler than that… once things quieten down and the retreat has its effect on us… the mind sits quietly and we reside in our own radiant nature.
Yes, the thinking mind quiets, the feelings quieten, the breath settles and the Self is revealed. Even if only for a twinkling moment.
The atman, the true self, the divine within us at last has the stage and we can feel deeply blessed to be present among such a warm and loving light.