Retreat Intensity of Spiritual Training: How To Survive & Thrive

[ardacigin]

Retreat intensity of practice is not easy. But to grow our psychospiritual muscles, we need to partake in intense and long durations of practice. But this is not usually possible for many people.

Sitting for 10-12 hours a day in high-quality meditation is not entirely structured for the beginner-intermediate meditators. That schedule already assumes the meditator can access joy on demand, deep mindfulness and equanimity deeply in each sit without fail. You can thrive if you have these skills.

You can maybe survive the day with a lot of negative sensations if you are on the intermediate range.

But in the beginning, you can barely experience any joy or deep equanimity in any of your sits. Frustration, boredom, and sadness tend to be the main emotional dynamic. So what are we going to do?

It is a catch 22. You need that intensity but you can't do that training before you are quite advanced. But you need to do that intensity to get advanced.

The answer lies in 'light retreat practice'.

You incrementally increase the pressure and intensity of retreat practice.

Here is an example of what I've done today. This is a solid way to develop retreat muscles. It doesn't burn you out and it gives strong training in terms of emotional duration and nervous system familiarity you'll need in long retreats.

1 hour daily practice is good but to learn the retreat rhythm, you need AT LEAST 4-5 hours of back to back sits. But they don't have to be rigid or frustrating like in formal retreat centers. In fact, it is better to loosen up on the 'requirements' so that the nervous system gets used to sitting for long hours.

Here is what I've done to test the light retreat process.

1- Start the day normally. Don't force yourself to meditate unless you feel an inclination and motivation to start the process. Drink your coffee etc. Don't start too late or early. 

Get a good night's sleep and eat well. 

2- When you do start, realize that the first 2-3 sits are going to be the most challenging. 

You'll meditate 45-60 mins per session. The first 30 mins of the 1st sit is probably going to be relatively easy. Slowly you'll feel frustration nearing the end of 60 mins. 

That wraps up the first sit. It is the warm-up round.

Hopefully, some amount of joy was produced. Equanimity is not going to increase to deep levels in the first sit. Frustration basically arises due to lack of equanimity. You need to meditate more for an hour or two until you get really deep into equanimity and effortlessness.

The 2nd sit tends to be the hardest. You feel the frustration at the end of the first sit. Joy may or may not be too strong at this time. Equanimity also tends to be weak. You are highly susceptible to negative emotions like boredom and anxiety.

But if you can push through the next 60 mins with joy and increased equanimity, a shift tend to occur. This equanimity shift tend to occur in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th sit in my experiences. It depends on your skills but  It rarely happens in my first sit.

Here is how to know you are in equanimity shift:

- Sitting to meditate is extremely easy. Almost effortless. You can barely feel any pain in the legs. You barely sweat or feel negative sensations. Even if you feel anxiety, they are weak and the compulsion to quit the retreat and play video games is dramatically reduced.

- It is easier to focus on joy. Easier to smile. Easier to watch the mind. Thoughts are reduced significantly. The body feels hollow in the inside as if it is made out of light hollow ether. The heavy body load you tend to feel all the time in daily life is gone.

Once you experience this equanimity shift, you'll meditate for 2 more sessions. 

You have 2 options for these sessions. 

Option 1: Samatha Heavy Insight Route - You focus on the whole body, joy, equanimity levels at the same time and reduce craving if necessary when egoic effort kicks in. You basically watch the mind system do its thing while maintaining the profound equanimity and physical pliancy you've accessed. Take extra care not to think about thoughts. Try to maintain pure equanimity with raw emotions with a heavy emphasis on whole-body/ self-body boundaries.

Option 2: Insight Heavy Route - First, you use the silent no-mind and equanimity you've developed until now as access to insight practices. If there is too much joy, reduce it to start this process. You don't want distracting levels of meditative joy. You only want profound equanimity and some stable levels of joy to support this mental landscape. Very little pain or aversion producing sensations must be present in the body.

Then ask the question: 'What are these sensations and what is the knowing of the sensations?'

Let the awareness soak in the entire mind-body. Make that distinction first.

Then ask: 'Is there an experiencer besides the knowing of the sensations and the sensations themselves?'

Try to find that experiencer of sensations until awakening occurs.

----

Option 1 tends to be the easier route that still has some insight potential. Option 2 is the harder one since it can be accessed properly if you are already deep into Option 1.

All in all, this is around 4-5 sits back to back. 

You can do 10-15 mins walking meditation or laying down in between formal sits. You do both of these with formal mindfulness attitude. Here is how to choose which to do.

- If you are tired, sleepy and dull, do 10-15 mins walking meditation until you feel alert again. Don't start the formal sit until you feel sufficiently alert.

- If you are agitated, burned out and fatigued from meditation, lay down with eyes open while maintaining the technique. You can accidentally sleep if you close the eyes. Lay down until you feel refreshed enough for another 45-60 mins session.

Obviously, we are training ourselves so if you feel too much resistance and want to quit. Simply listen to music. Watch dharma related videos and continue the entire schedule. In fact, I highly recommend that you do this in the first few sits.

Here is the rule: Until you get to equanimity shift I've described, you are allowed to do anything as long as you are doing the formal technique and maintaining the cross legged posture.

You can get your lapop and watch Leo's videos. You can close your eyes and listen to some jazz.

Whatever passive activity you want to do to reduce pressure is allowed as long as you practice the technique and get to equanimity shift.

So video games are out. Probably you can't maintain the technique when you are playing smash bros so do only passive activities like watching spiritual videos and listening to music. Don't read books.

This process should be enough to reduce the pressure of sitting still in a cross-legged posture.

When you do get to equanimity shift, you will have to stop watching and listening stuff since we'll get serious and do some insight practice.

You can continue to listen to spiritual podcasts or guided meditations to help you. Again, this is light retreat training. As long as you follow the basic rules, you can do the entire retreat while listening to podcasts and jazz.

Retreat quality will suffer a little bit if you do that but the nervous system will get used to meditating for long hours without feeling trapped and bored out of its mind. The Equanimity shift will also be accessed and maintained for 1-2 hours before the day ends.

So at this point, you'll meditate for a total of 5-6 hours. That can sound low for some people but again, this is preparation for actual retreats. We are constantly reducing the pressure to create a positive feedback loop so that the meditator can enjoy the process. 

The rest of the day is free. Do whatever you want but try to let the momentum of equanimity to affect the rest of the day. Reward yourself and pat yourself on the back for not quitting.

You are done.

I've tried this today myself and found this to be very effective. 

Let me know your thoughts down below. I hope this schedule helps you train more efficiently and effectively.

Much love,

 

 

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by ardacigin

[moon777light]

you should create a blog where all this info is in one place, thank you for the post insightful as always

[Recursoinominado]

Thank you, I am preparing to my second vipassana retreat as a student and the first one was gruesome, but, to be honest, I was in another level then, with lots of neurosis and shadow work needed to be done which made the retreat seem like he'll as my monkeys mind went full frenetic mode for ten days.
 

I made the mistake to prepare to do a one hour sitting with ease but I not the subsequent ones which got worse and worse due to physical pains all over the body during the whole day of meditation, every day. 
 

This is a really useful guide which I will implement immediately.

[ardacigin]

22 hours ago, Recursoinominado said:

I made the mistake to prepare to do a one hour sitting with ease but I not the subsequent ones which got worse and worse due to physical pains all over the body during the whole day of meditation, every day. 

This is the fundamental mistake everyone does. You burn yourself out in the first few sits and the rest of the day is spent in frustration, pain and agitation. 

Try this  training method and let me know how it goes

[PenguinPablo]

@ardacigin

On 2/8/2020 at 11:57 AM, ardacigin said:

 

1) So video games are out. Probably you can't maintain the technique when you are playing smash bros 

2) So at this point, you'll meditate for a total of 5-6 hours. That can sound low for some people but again, this is preparation for actual

 

 

lmao

beautiful post. very helpful.

Edited February 9, 2020 by PenguinPablo