10 day loneliness retreat

[davidluginbuehl]

In one of his videos, Leo mentioned to do a 10 day retreat without any source of dopamine. I get it: No alcohol, no social contact, no smartphone, no masturbating, nothing that triggers excessive amounts of dopamine! You just sit and do nothing.
 

I'm planning to do that. So my question now is: What about reading books for studying? Is that not supposed as well? Or is there no further issue doing that during the retreat?

What's your opinion?

[The observer]

@davidluginbuehl

the ideal is to do nothing at all but eat and drink by the least amounts possible but thats an extremely difficult feat so dont be hard on urself. aim for the most and allow a little bit of back sliding leave a room for error dont try to perfect the retreat as thats another trap and one last really important thing is to let go of all expectations go on the retreat without any preconceived thoughts about how much value ur supposed to be extracting and in fact counter intuitively do the opposite go on the retreat with the intention of losing instead of gaining keep in mind that u can only fill ur cup only once its empty get ready to waste ten days of ur life for nothing and believe that its totally worth it 

im doing a silence challenge starting from tomorrow 

its basically like a mini at home retreat only difference is that its without emptying my cup but rather filling it with information im full of wisdom right now but lacking in information so thats what im doing seeking information but for u seeking wisdom is counter productive as i explained above u should be aiming at emptying ur cup and let wisdom come in naturally 

good luck 

[Forestluv]

@davidluginbuehl I would say it depends on your intentions and motivations. You titled the thread “10 day loneliness retreat”, which to me sounds like the mind-body is pre-occupied with loneliness and boredom. What is the underlying energetic attraction to reading on the retreat: is it to escape loneliness and boredom? Or is it to integrate a variety of Beingness explorations.

To get a sense of this is easy. Is reading just another appearance? Is the mind-body oriented such that it is ok observing the sounds of birds for the next hour, staring at a tree for the next hour or reading for the next hour? - such that it is fine doing any of those activities. That is a very different energetic orientation than a uncomfortable mind-body craving to read as relief from loneliness or boredom. In that energetic orientation, I would either sit and observe the discomfort or engage in something more “now”, such as yoga, drawing or walking in nature. Reading and theorizing can be like escape candy for a bored mind.