How Should I Do My Private Mini Retreat?

[Viking]

tell me please if im on the right track: I started meditating with the do nothing technique for 20 min every day and self inquire for 30 each day. in 20 days i will change the meditation technique. my self inquiry have been kinda messy because i just started and i also check my notes while i do it.

I just finished my semester in the university and i have a month and a half of free time so i wanted to do a retreat for myself. am i ready for a retreat if i just started? the retreat will be done solo. i thought of doing strong determination sitting for 4 hours with do nothing with breaks every hour and then self inquiry for an hour. 

what are your prefferences? how should i do it? what worked for you? should i do it at all?

also i dont 100% understand the goal of retreats. are they essential for enlightenment? 

Edited July 28, 2017 by Ilya

[Gabriel Antonio]

9 hours ago, Ilya said:

also i dont 100% understand the goal of retreats. are they essential for enlightenment? 

Retreats accelerate the process. for example, you don't have to live abroad to learn a foreign language, but the immersion does speed up breakthroughs. 

i practiced the do-nothing for 4 hours a day for several months. although i was neurotically-driven, i got great results. the social isolation was very hard and i felt like i was going crazy. 

also, i realized that 99% of the times that i wanted to meet with someone was because i was bored of being with myself. 

realize that you can become present at any moment, including now. yes, it feels boring to always come back to the present moment. the mind hates that. the future and the past are so seductive. one day, your mind will surrender to the simplicity of the present, and you will see the magic that has been waiting for you. 

one thing i can assure you: doing long hours of sitting will build your tolerance to uncomfortable feelings. in other words, you will become stronger. pain is weakness leaving your body ;D 

sharing your experience with a friend makes the process easier. journaling also helps. 

good luck! and remember to be gentle with yourself

[Justin Evans]

@Ilya I'm literally doing the exact same thing before my college semester starts. At my dorm I'm doing a home made retreat. I have a small meditation journal, try to go big with your time and really try to live the simple spartan life. Little phone, no computer, no messaging. Eat lots of fruit and veggies. I'm four days in so far, eating a consistent diet of baby carrots and blueberries for breakfast, Leo's soup for lunch, and brócoli pasta for dinner. My meditation ranges from 4-7 hours.

Here is the key: you know yourself best, don't be afraid to experiment and make your own forms of meditations that work best for you. If you are trying to become enlightened, try to not get too caught up in the answers your learned online and try to stay in a state of "not-knowing" which is always the state your in before your greatest insights. Don't be afraid to act a little insane when your alone, laugh out loud, cry, pray, face your fears, do what gets you in that state of uncertainty.

I'll post a few photos of my notes as an example of my current progress. 

分 = minutes

时 = hour

总数 = total (time)

心得 = insights

Basically from the photos, you'll see a theme. I'll write in dark ink the practice and for how long AFTER I do it, not before. Then I'll write little important quick insights from that practice, then I write my whole "how my day went" at the end of the day, and also clarify the insights in more detail that I wrote earlier. 

The first day was figuring out how to get started with my momentum, was mostly contemplation. The second day was pure ego backlash and surrendering to reality (doing the dirty painful work), the third day was focusing on concentration and labeling, getting in touch with my senses, the forth day so far had been mostly contemplation and self inquiry.

Some strange ones you might see are experimental:

1. Praying in tongue: my father is a passionate Christian, I wanted to try his prayer technique for the pursuit of attaining enlightenment. Basically how you do it is let your auditory thoughts talk, like a stream of speaking, it might sound very alien. it isn't limited to the speed, vowels, pitch, or volume. Mine tends to turn into a type of singing and eventually screaming, I literally feel like a dragon shooting a beam of light and words out of my mouth. Totally shocked me how powerful it was when done in the mind. Basically it feels like my intuition, my true self is helping me put me in a state where I can see an obvious shift in physical reality and question it , leading to self inquiry. This is not to be underestimated

2. Contemplate blessings: basically you contemplate how awesome and lucky your life is, how proud of you you are, etc. So far this has worked and put me in a state of mind for the rest of the day in my retreat.

3. Cold shower SDS (strong determination sitting): a more intense and quick version of normal SDS.  Pretty powerful, but also very painful. Gives you a clear mind and peaceful mind at the end. Only do in short bursts!

One more thing, sometimes if I don't know what to do next, I'll set the timer for an hour, organically let my mind figure out what it wants to do, then note down what it turns out to be. So the end result might become labeling, self inquiry, SDS, or praying in tongues, etc.

Basically, really make the day formal and spartan like, super mindful, and experiment what works best for you. We would love to hear how it works for you at the end of your home made retreat