Silent Retreat ~ The gift of Simple Peace
Whenever possible, we want to make silent retreats where we are not disturbed or distracted. Here we can develop our meditation practice and connection to our spiritual heart. A retreat is a time to let go, into your heart practice, for many days at a time.
Whenever possible, we want to make silent retreats where we are not disturbed or distracted. Here we can develop our meditation practice and connection to our spiritual heart. A retreat is a time to let go, into your heart practice, for many days at a time.
The Gift of Silence
Sharing Sacred Silence
A silent retreat is all about receiving peace and quiet. Silence is our opportunity to receive the beauty in nature, meditation, the present moment, the simplicity of just being. Our retreat is enjoying nature's sights, sounds, how it touches us and inspires our retreat.
We share the retreat space like a library where each person is doing their own individual inner study. By not talking or sharing our personal stories, each person has the opportunity to stay with their own thoughts, their inner experience. These are precious days free from our daily story and all that we are doing. In the quiet we open to the peace that is in our hearts.
The quiet helps everyone find this inner place of love and beauty that is always present but mostly covered up by busy-ness. The gift of silence is having nothing to do, nothing to say, having time to enjoy solitude, gentleness, a quiet mind. When we are not busy talking, our mind takes a rest. Our heart becomes more available. The silence outside helps us to find the still place inside. This is our silent retreat, the vast quietude of the heart. A few days of simple peace and we feel new again, more in touch with our essence. The silence is the doorway into our own spirituality and truth.
We share the retreat space like a library where each person is doing their own individual inner study. By not talking or sharing our personal stories, each person has the opportunity to stay with their own thoughts, their inner experience. These are precious days free from our daily story and all that we are doing. In the quiet we open to the peace that is in our hearts.
The quiet helps everyone find this inner place of love and beauty that is always present but mostly covered up by busy-ness. The gift of silence is having nothing to do, nothing to say, having time to enjoy solitude, gentleness, a quiet mind. When we are not busy talking, our mind takes a rest. Our heart becomes more available. The silence outside helps us to find the still place inside. This is our silent retreat, the vast quietude of the heart. A few days of simple peace and we feel new again, more in touch with our essence. The silence is the doorway into our own spirituality and truth.
Entering Silence
As soon as we enter into silence, there are gifts that renew and strengthen our essential selves. These gifts are qualities that enlighten and bring real joy.
Compassion: As we slow down and enter in the silence, the urgency of our expectations and needs also slows down. Suddenly we find we have more space inside. In this inner space, we find compassion for ourselves and others. Being in the beauty and quiet of nature, we discover our self and those around us have more and more in common. Everyone is doing the best they can. Compassion grows in these moments.
Humility: In silence, all our ideas and accomplishments are not so important. We are human, with the same joys and fears as everyone else. As we breathe the fresh air and feel the openness, softness of the moment, we have a sense of our nakedness, life's vulnerability. Its good to make friends with our vulnerability. In these moments, our self-importance gives way to simple joys. This joy supports our respect for life itself.
Awareness: Life is much more than what we do and how much we have. There is our potentiality of awareness. There is a beauty in awareness without complex thought or goals in achieving something. Simple awareness, empty of everything, just being, present, gives life vitality, peace, and sense of unity. Normally, the roots of our awareness are grounded in our work, family, daily activities. It is beautiful to let our awareness be just in silence, grounded in our own ground of being. This is a place that is underneath our personal story, separate from what we are doing, worrying about or wishing for. IN our ground of being, our awareness can rest.
God: Instead of believing in God or discussing God, silence gives us our own personal experience. The peace that is present requires no belief or religious discussion. The gifts of silence, like God, are beyond words. As we let go further into our own inner quiet, we find our own lightness of being. God is very close in these moments.
Patience: Patience is usually thought of as a good quality to have for someone else, perhaps our boss, partner, children, or waiting friend. Entering silence and practicing patience are closely related. As silence works through the muscles and bones of our personality, patience grows. We discover an inner smile growing as well, no matter what life is presenting us.
Beauty: Usually we are too busy to enjoy the beauty around us and the beauty within life itself! Silence brings us face to face with beauty in nature, beauty in one another, beauty of the moment. Everything beautiful is food for the soul. Silence, when appreciated, unveils a true banquet for the soul.
Letting Go: Letting go can be foreign in a world where how much we are doing and accomplishing is all important. Silence calls us to let go. As our hands slowly become empty, we begin to pick up something else. Life becomes much more than just wanting or reacting to the day. In our ability to let go, we learn to receive deeply what life brings to us.
Playful: In the silence we begin to take ourselves a little less seriously. As we lighten up, our inner child peeks out. Why not have some fun? What is life about if it does not include some fun? Suddenly silence can produce humor as we realize how important we make all our concerns and how simple a little joy can be. Who says taking off our shoes and walking on the warm earth is not okay? Who says I cannot sit outside all afternoon in the gentle rain? Silence and play are showing us life is a dance.
Offering: As silence brings us into the here and now, we realize how much of everything that is important is truly present, i.e., peace and quiet. In the normal world of wanting and needing, suddenly there is something more. We want to offer. We naturally want to offer what we are carrying in our hearts. We want to be free. We want to offer everything. Finding this place in the heart of offering is a wonderful gift. Giving of ourselves causes our offering to get stronger. Offering and freedom are very good friends.
Gentleness: Gentleness and silence are one and the same. Being in silence is not a macho experience of seeing how little we can talk. Being in silence is coming closer to nature, to ourselves, to the gentleness of life. Silence touches the hard edges within us, and in this touch, gentleness is running through all the nerves of our being.
Grace: Grace speaks to something divine in life. In silence, an awareness of grace comes and goes like an ocean lapping at the seashore. As silence climbs into the very soul of our awareness, grace and gratitude can flow over us in an ocean of experience that can be described only as perfect grace.
Compassion: As we slow down and enter in the silence, the urgency of our expectations and needs also slows down. Suddenly we find we have more space inside. In this inner space, we find compassion for ourselves and others. Being in the beauty and quiet of nature, we discover our self and those around us have more and more in common. Everyone is doing the best they can. Compassion grows in these moments.
Humility: In silence, all our ideas and accomplishments are not so important. We are human, with the same joys and fears as everyone else. As we breathe the fresh air and feel the openness, softness of the moment, we have a sense of our nakedness, life's vulnerability. Its good to make friends with our vulnerability. In these moments, our self-importance gives way to simple joys. This joy supports our respect for life itself.
Awareness: Life is much more than what we do and how much we have. There is our potentiality of awareness. There is a beauty in awareness without complex thought or goals in achieving something. Simple awareness, empty of everything, just being, present, gives life vitality, peace, and sense of unity. Normally, the roots of our awareness are grounded in our work, family, daily activities. It is beautiful to let our awareness be just in silence, grounded in our own ground of being. This is a place that is underneath our personal story, separate from what we are doing, worrying about or wishing for. IN our ground of being, our awareness can rest.
God: Instead of believing in God or discussing God, silence gives us our own personal experience. The peace that is present requires no belief or religious discussion. The gifts of silence, like God, are beyond words. As we let go further into our own inner quiet, we find our own lightness of being. God is very close in these moments.
Patience: Patience is usually thought of as a good quality to have for someone else, perhaps our boss, partner, children, or waiting friend. Entering silence and practicing patience are closely related. As silence works through the muscles and bones of our personality, patience grows. We discover an inner smile growing as well, no matter what life is presenting us.
Beauty: Usually we are too busy to enjoy the beauty around us and the beauty within life itself! Silence brings us face to face with beauty in nature, beauty in one another, beauty of the moment. Everything beautiful is food for the soul. Silence, when appreciated, unveils a true banquet for the soul.
Letting Go: Letting go can be foreign in a world where how much we are doing and accomplishing is all important. Silence calls us to let go. As our hands slowly become empty, we begin to pick up something else. Life becomes much more than just wanting or reacting to the day. In our ability to let go, we learn to receive deeply what life brings to us.
Playful: In the silence we begin to take ourselves a little less seriously. As we lighten up, our inner child peeks out. Why not have some fun? What is life about if it does not include some fun? Suddenly silence can produce humor as we realize how important we make all our concerns and how simple a little joy can be. Who says taking off our shoes and walking on the warm earth is not okay? Who says I cannot sit outside all afternoon in the gentle rain? Silence and play are showing us life is a dance.
Offering: As silence brings us into the here and now, we realize how much of everything that is important is truly present, i.e., peace and quiet. In the normal world of wanting and needing, suddenly there is something more. We want to offer. We naturally want to offer what we are carrying in our hearts. We want to be free. We want to offer everything. Finding this place in the heart of offering is a wonderful gift. Giving of ourselves causes our offering to get stronger. Offering and freedom are very good friends.
Gentleness: Gentleness and silence are one and the same. Being in silence is not a macho experience of seeing how little we can talk. Being in silence is coming closer to nature, to ourselves, to the gentleness of life. Silence touches the hard edges within us, and in this touch, gentleness is running through all the nerves of our being.
Grace: Grace speaks to something divine in life. In silence, an awareness of grace comes and goes like an ocean lapping at the seashore. As silence climbs into the very soul of our awareness, grace and gratitude can flow over us in an ocean of experience that can be described only as perfect grace.
EXPERIENCE The ongoing presence of peace
All contents on this site are copyright protected and cannot be reused in any form without the express permission of Bruce and Ruth Davis
|
|