I know some of you are considering attending New Dharma’s Silent Retreat this April.  Now that the reality of cost and time are before you the usually considerations are coming up for people. The question is “why do this?”

What we are in essence is the Sat. the “Truth” or that which “Real”. The Sat that is within us is both universal and individual. It is the source of all our experience, including spiritual experience. The nature of the Sat is silence and stillness. This experience takes the form of ‘sat-chit-ananda’…truth, consciousness and bliss. How can we know the Sat? by being silent and still.

A silent retreat is an opportunity to do this. There are two things that happen at such a retreat. One, you step out of your life and habits and two; you spend an extended period of time in silence and stillness with a group doing the same thing, facilitated by a teacher who knows the Sat.

In a very real sense there is nothing to “get” out of such a retreat rather you will “lose”, not only some money and time but also those qualities that resist, block and obscures your ability to know your self as the Sat. It is a process of subtraction, of loosing that which prevents our natural condition of Truth from being known and experienced in our day to day life.

The ego is what prevents us from knowing the Sat. It puts up blocks, obstacles and distractions that prevent us from bringing our spiritual nature into our lives more fully.

But the ego is just a habit. It keeps repeating the same thoughts, feelings and actions that support it and avoids all those that don’t. Breaking this habit is the purpose of any spiritual process and this is the purpose of the retreat. By attended the retreat you take actions that weaken the ego’s hold on you and your life. This gives our inner most being a chance to come forward and reclaim its rightful place on the throne of our lives.

Breaking the habit of the ego requires that we sometimes step out of our outer, busy life and enter into the field of Truth that silence and stillness creates. It is like a small death. The outcome is a renewed life, a new birth.

Having a deeper connection with Truth changes how you view and interact with the world.  You can become more able to respond appropriately rather than react to what happens. You become more aware of your ego’s agenda and less attached to it.  You may become more aware of other people’s agenda’s/ego. You become more detached and your witnessing self becomes stronger.

The retreat will be in a lovely, natural, quiet mountainous setting on a beautiful lake which will encourage your feeling of silent yoga or unity. Every aspect of it is being organized not only to manifest the Sat but also to give you time to explore how you can bring what you discover into your life. This is the intention and the purpose of this retreat.

Love and blessings,

Siddhartha

The most striking thing about India is its energy. It has to be experienced to know how different it is from what we have spent our lives living in. Like a fish doesn’t know anything about the water it swims in until it is taken out, so too we can not know how much we are influenced by the energetic field we live in until we get out of it. 

In the West the energy is very different. It is rajasic and mental. We tend to live more in the abstract, through our mind and intellect. We live life vicariously through objects and symbols, and prefer it that way. Our books and movies, our TV’s, computers and the Internet…have so completely distracted us and absorbed our attention we don’t see we are actually not living life but are living a mental reflection of it. This has isolated us from our intuition, our feelings and our capacity to experience life as it is in present time. We are desensitized and abstracted; we have lost touch with the existential reality, we are often too busy or preoccupied to notice. Have you ever noticed how we appreciate a place better by looking at the pictures we took afterwards than while we were there. This is the energy field we live it. It influences us without our realizing it.

Here in India life is simple and direct. As a consequence people here live more in the present, with life as it is. In part it is necessity that requires this, doing what is required with little ado. Sri Atmananda’s Ashram we are staying at is in rural, southern India (Tamil Nadu). People are poor and have to work hard to survive. But they don’t seem distressed. They have accepted their life as it is and appear much happier than us Westerners.

I have been watching an old farmer over the last ten days or so plow his rice fields with two bulls and a crude plow day after day. He’s there every morning as I walk back to my room after morning meditation in the Ashram. The sun is just rising, and there he is plowing his fields. Some days he smiles others he ignores me. Two days ago about 8 or 9 village women began to plant the rice shoots. Gossiping as they work, laughing or quiet, bent over in half as they spend the whole day seeding the freshly plowed rice paddies. The sky is vast and filled with multicolored displays of pink, powder blue, with streaks of yellow and red as the sun plays off the clouds. It has been raining off and on these days, cool and humid with a light breeze.

 I find myself naturally moving into sync with their consciousness. I can see how much more people here are connected to the physical realities; they do not live as much in abstractions like we do. In this way they are simpler than us. Their mind is not as dominant as it is for us. They are more intuitive and seem to be naturally aware of their connection with the earth, nature and each other. They know they are part of a whole, a community, an extended family. There is a simple natural faith in them because of this.

I find that the vital and psychic aspects of life are more to the front here in India. There is a down side of course. Because the mind and intellect is not as developed they are also more superstitious, more conditioned by their tradition, more inclined to accept the cultural norm.  They are less analytical, more intuitive, less creative, more practical, but also more inclined to accept their lot in life, free of the anxieties we suffer from. Although poor there is not a sense of lack, they seem content as if there is enough, no matter how meager it may seem to an outsider. 

The psychic and intuitive have freer room to play and thus the religious teachings here in India are more mythical,  intuitive and devotional compared to ours in the West which tend to be more analytical, abstract and intellectual. This is why Buddhism is so successful in the West as it puts more focus on awareness and knowledge, rather than devotion.

I can see that most of us are a mix of both of these tendencies, one to devotion and experience and the other to knowledge and awareness. But for most of us from the West we have too little spiritual experience or inclination to devotion. Yet devotion and knowledge each are ‘more’ by the integration of the other.

This is why I’m feeling to bring people here to India with me. I am watching what is happening to Terry, Satyapriti and Sasha and I can see Mother India working Her magic on them. Clearly coming to India is allowing a fuller, integrated spiritual development.

In India spirituality is part of their culture. Their spiritual tradition is not as rigid, dogmatic and hierarchical as in the West. Religion and spirituality are much closer. They honor and respect the spiritual wisdom of their scriptures while emphasizing surrender and service to the guru and spiritual masters as the actual path to the goal. The guru, the spiritual master and teacher they feel are manifestations of God. They gain their knowledge directly from their mouths as well as the scriptures. They put their devotion into action by providing service and contributing generously to them and their temples, ashrams and institutions. Any true spiritual seeker can find not only knowledge and wisdom here in India but food and shelter as well.  

On the other hand spirituality in the West is seen as separate from religion. Religion in the West is more mental, dogmatic, judgmental and hierarchical. Spirituality in the West on the other hand is a relatively new phenomena, it is seen as outside of the cultural norm and thus suspect. Of course it doesn’t help that many new spiritual teachers seem to be in it for fun and profit by following the cultural norm by advertising and charging exorbitant fees. Unfortunately we don’t have a spiritual tradition yet here in the West, so this is often the only way they have of getting out their message.

India is magical. We all walked around a local mountain that stands up boldly from the planes here for an annual spiritual festival called ‘Deepan’ (the lighting of the lamp), with hundreds of thousands of people. They come from all over India to celebrate the manifestation of the Hindu god, Shiva as this mountain, Arunachula. The perimeter road is jammed with a river of humanity walking around the mountain in honor of this event. There is something so powerful to be part of something with such spiritual import with thousands of others. In the West we have our football and baseball games, but here in India they have their religious festivals. It took us four hours to walk the approximately eight miles. We saw a huge flame lit at the top of mountain at dusk and were thrilled as the whole crowd celebrated the moment. It was a full moon, cool, a perfect night…a rare event over which we will not quickly recover.

I came to India this time not for my self but to support those sincere seekers who have come with me on their spiritual journey. I can now see that most people I work with would benefit by coming here. It is clear that by experiencing the difference between the United States and India you can gain a greater appreciation of both. I plan to explore coming here every year or every other year for an extended spiritual retreat (one or two months) for those who can join me for all or part of the time and experience this for themselves.

Love and blessings,

Siddhartha

I encountered this term while studying the Buddhist’s teachings. I feel it is an important concept to understand. What does taking refuge mean? In the Buddhist tradition it means to commit oneself sincerely to one’s teacher, his teachings (and practices) and the community of fellow seekers. They tell us the benefits of doing so are great.

The Buddhist teachings say take refuge in the three Gems; the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sanga. The Buddha is the transmitting channel of Truth, love and wisdom; the teacher or guru. The Dharma is the teachings and practices given us by our guru and the Sanga is the community of fellow seekers. We take refuge by committing ourselves, from the depths of our being, to sincerely follow our teacher or guru, to follow his guidance, to study the teachings, to perform the spiritual practices he gives us and to participate in the spiritual community linked to the same teacher and teachings. Taking refuge is a choice and a full hearted commitment that we make freely and continue to make until it is no longer necessary.

The Buddhists say that by taking refuge we become the Refuge, we become the Buddha.  I delight in this term, “taking refuge”. This perfectly matches my experience. For me taking refuge is when we choose to surrender, like a child, with faith and trust, to the one in our heart we feel can take us to the goal. When we “take refuge” we enter into the loving force field that “holds and protects” us on our journey. This surrender is strengthened over time as we follow our guru’s guidance, obey his directions, study his teachings and open up, participate and draw support from our community of fellow seekers. This is how we go beyond our old self and develop our divinity.  

Taking refuge is the magical formula that lifts us out of this quagmire and gives the clarity and strength to truly change. Even a little progress takes us far. We enter the express train, the freeway exit from this life of misery and suffering. Sri Aurobindo’s The Mother Book describes this beautifully:

“The more complete you faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear?  A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way…unaffected by any hostility, however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness in to strength. For the grace of the Divine Mother is the sanction of the Supreme and now or tomorrow its effect is sure, a thing decreed, inevitable and irresistible”

However many spiritual seekers miss the opportunity of taking refuge. They would rather remain seekers than become seers. There is this inclination to hang on to what is familiar and comfortable rather than risk taking the leap and committing to someone or something unknown. For most of us commitment is avoided, as are most of the other actions that would reduce the hold of the ego such as sacrifice, service, surrender and devotion. Too often we back off rationalizing and justifying why we didn’t. We let our fear of being duped or sucked into some something or taken advantage of to be the reason to avoid taking the leap, making the commitment.  

This is our conditioned self, the ego, our separate sense of self, and it becomes very threatened when our unconditioned self, the psychic being, comes forward. The ego doesn’t want (or know how) to let go. This is expressed as the fear of loosing something we are consciously or unconsciously hanging on to or something we still want or crave. Or there is pride, the need to be independent to do it ourselves unbeholden to anyone. We love our independence, to stand on our own, to do it ourselves. The very qualities that have served us well in our human lives become obstacles to our spiritual development.

This was my own experience before committing to move to India the first time. It was only after I made the move did I know I had made the right choice. I felt a great peace and feeling that I was on track. I was so happy. I had taken refuge. This is possibility the most powerful choice I ever made in my life. I leaped off the cliff of my old self and life and entered a new state of being which has taken me to where I am today. This is why I’m writing this; to help you break out of the conditioning that prevents you from taking advantage of the opportunity of taking refuge when it occurs.

Taking refuge is a conscious act; it arises from our unconditioned self, our pure psychic being. The important word here is “conscious”.  Only when we consciously choose from that level to take refuge does the ego rise up and reveal itself. And only when the ego rises up can we end its hold on us. This is the power of commitment.

When our ego; our conditioning, our preferences and repulsions rise up it is very hard not believe they are real and not act on them. We have all spent our lifetime believing them, following their promptings. So it is a real battle. Yet it is in the intensity of the struggle, that we transform ourselves. It is our commitment, perseverance and surrender that take us beyond our old self into a new state of being. And it is taking refuge that gives us the strength to so.

It is a tremendous grace to find a living teacher who we recognize and who recognizes us. Of course there is benefit in following a teacher and teachings of one who is no longer in the body. But it is not the same as having a living teacher. A living teacher can talk back; can call us on our stuff. He can say those things we don’t want to hear. But also it is the living teacher whose love carries us, whose strength augments ours and who can give us faith when we loose hope or doubt ourselves.

A living teacher is a great threat to the ego. The ego is tricky. It loves to hide, to veil our being with forgetfulness and subterfuges. The ego cannot hide or perform its subterfuges because the living teacher will see what is going on and either point them out or intervene on our behalf.

Taking refuge is the secret of steady spiritual progress. It gives us the grace, wisdom and strength to stay on the path, to remain in the boat that will cross the ocean of samsara. Taking refuge in the guru’s love, his force and grace, his wisdom and guidance, his teachings and instructions and keeping the company of fellow seekers engaged in the same struggle, is what “holds” us on this journey.

When we take refuge in the teacher his love, wisdom and force protects us and carries us on our path even when we are not aware of it. Taking refuge protects us by sheltering us from negative influences and forces in the physical and subtle dimensions of existence. This protection strengthens the positive qualities in us drawing us toward positive influences, causing us to reject negative ones. Taking refuge also assures that if we do not complete the journey in this life then in the next life we are born with positive qualities, in favorable conditions and a natural propensity for the spiritual path.

The Bhagavad-Gita also describes this in the following verses which describe the ‘fallen yogi’; one is was not able to complete the journey:

v. 273: One who falls from the path of this yoga shall not be destroyed either in this life or hereafter because one who pursues the path of yoga never comes to grief.

v. 274: A fallen yogi goes to the world of the righteous and dwelling there for long years again takes birth in the family of the pure and prosperous.

v. 275: Or he may be born again in the family of seers, full of wisdom and spirituality. Such a rebirth is rare in this world.

v. 276: There he gets back the spiritual attainment of the previous birth and strives more intensely for perfection.

v. 277: Such a fallen yogi will be driven to the path of yoga by the force of circumstances due to his previous practice and goes above the range of scriptures quickly.

v. 278: That yogi pursues the path of yoga with diligence and sincerity and is purified from all karmas accumulated in the course of several births, finally culminating in the highest state of bliss.

This is a great comfort for one on the spiritual path. Often the greatest fear of a true seeker is the fear of not making the goal this life time. The spiritual path is a multi life time endeavor. But once we have learned our lesson at the level of consciousness it is never lost to us. This is the truth behind this these verses. In the Gita Mahatmyam it says “One who wants to cross the ocean of Samsara (suffering) without difficulty should take refuge in the boat of Gita.” Our role is to simply hang on and stay in the boat.

Taking refuge is the way to manifest the divine possibility that exists in all of us. It is my sincere wish that this message will guide and give you the strength to take refuge when the opportunity comes. May this message assist you all on your journey.

Love and light,

Siddhartha