General Spiritual Director
The experience of a residential retreat
Jan 21, 2025
The experience of a residential retreat
Kadampa residential centers are precious places that offer wonderful conditions for a long retreat.
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso explains in the book Heart Jewel what a retreat is. ‘On retreat we stop all forms of business and extraneous activities so as to emphasize a particular spiritual practice’. In these times when the flow of new impulses, activities and tasks we have to perform is never-ending, a time of retreat is a very precious and rare opportunity to enjoy a real break. During this time we enjoy conditions that allow us to create space both physically and mentally.
This space creates the possibility to deepen our knowledge of Dharma, helps us to understand Buddha's teachings from the heart, and invites us to make the leap from our intellectual knowledge of Dharma to a knowledge based on our own experience. It also helps us to experience and create new habits of mind, which help us to maintain a peaceful mind in any situation and which we can take with us into our daily lives when the retreat is over and we return to our normal environment.
Kadampa residential centers are precious places that offer wonderful conditions for a long retreat. They have simple but comfortable rooms to stay in, we don't have to worry about daily activities like shopping or cooking, and we are accompanied by a community that strives to live according to Dharma and understands and values the qualities and potentials that a retreat can bring.
A retreat also requires some inner conditions that we should try to cultivate in order to get the best out of it so that our experience will be deeper and more lasting when we return home.
Geshe Kelsang makes it clear also in the book Heart Jewel '...this experience will be achieved by preventing distractions and strong delusions such as attachment, anger, jealousy and strong self-grasping from arising, and by maintaining mindfulness and conscientiousness.“
This important aspect of the retreat is also helped by the community who join the retreat or who support us in other ways, such as with their inspiration and example.
