10 day retreat at Home

[Justine]

Hello guys, so leo makes mention of the 10 day retreat and the benefits in one of his videos 

And due to my low income, which would prevent me from being able to go somewhere to part take this. 

I have decided to bring it to my home. 

I will be let a friend hold my phone for this period, which is actually my wifi connection to all my house  so il be left with no access to media ect in my home. 

No soical interactions 

Will stock up on food for the period. 

 

Has anyone done this at home themselves? 

[JakeR]

Hey, I have done this and it worked out extremely well for me.

This was the first time I started to take this work seriously. People underestimate how powerful this can be.

I spent 10 days in isolation at home. I attempted to not use the internet at all but I did end up breaking this at some point but not to a serious degree and I still found great benefit.

I also fasted for about 6 days. I don't recommend this unless you think you know what you are doing and are sure that you can do so in a healthy manner. The fasting was an important part of this for me.

I tried to meditate a lot every day but I was not well experienced and found it extremely difficult. Towards the end I got a lot more disciplined and could meditate for longer periods of time but don't be put off if you find it very hard.

The whole experience was very difficult but very rewarding.

Because I found it hard to meditate so much I instead ended up doing a lot of thinking and analyzing myself and life. I ended up having a few extremely intense dreams one night, including some lucid dreams. These dreams were all about my psychological issues which I had suppressed and was basically unaware of. I got up and wrote these dreams down and analyzed them, this was of HUGE benefit and I learned a lot and let go of some baggage I was carrying. The next day I ended up writing a lot in a journal. I basically wrote out my entire life story of all the most important life events that came to mind. This was some of the most powerful psychological work I have done for myself and I came out of this understanding myself so much better.

On one of the last days I smoked changa (mostly DMT) and this took me deep into understanding more about the nature of reality and more meta topics than my specific psychology.

On the final day I went to a float tank (sensory deprivation) and had some more great insights which combined my understandings of reality from the changa experience and my psychological findings. This really rounded things up nicely and was perfect as a kind of debrief and conclusion. Highly recommend.

When I returned to my usual life I certainly noticed some changes and I was a lot more grateful for my social life which I had taken for granted.

I am not saying you should follow what I did. You probably have your own ideas which might suit you a lot better, but I hope this was useful.

Edited March 5, 2020 by JakeR

[JakeR]

I hope you aware of the 10 day vipassana courses offered by dhamma.org

These courses are by donation and if you are of low income there is no shame in not being capable of donating at all, there is no pressure. These courses are run in many locations around the world. In my experience they have great food and facilities.

I have done this two times after the time that I did the solo retreat at home. It is extremely powerful but maybe in a different way. I learned so much from this course and can meditate a lot more effectively due to this. Of course, there are no psychedelics there. You also cannot write in a journal. Everything is about meditation.

I strongly recommend both options.

[Preety_India]

That's an awesome low budget try. 

 

I have tried it a few times in the past. Works. 

 

[inFlow]

@Justine You will out of this home-retreat. Maybe not as much as leaving your home living near a forest (electronics/radio waves/wifi signals tires the body.) But still do it!

[loub]

Have done this 8 days and it was a great meditation-boost. The only advice I have is try and value consistency of practice over intensity. Don't go in at maximum effort right away that you then can't sustain. Take it easy in the beginning and try to get into the groove. Practice at the highest intensity that will allow you to virtually never break the technique ever during the day- that is the number one priority. Shinzen Young has some videos on this. He quotes the Buddha in one of those: "Consistency of practice will set you on fire." or something like that.

Good luck and enjoy the retreat