Kaliyoga is a sanctuary where you have the time and space to look deeper, where comparisons, expectations, and goal-setting can be relinquished, allowing you to leave your your day-to-day concerns behind.
A retreat is a place to look for something more from life. It does not matter how many spiritual books you have read, or how many self-development courses you have attended, or if you have practiced spiritual techniques for deepening your inner awareness. Your search will not be answered by more mental reasoning, nor from more physical attainment. The search for lasting happiness and fulfilment in this lifetime is as old as homo sapiens.
On retreat you will find answers when you are ready to look inside yourself. To do this you need to be quiet and in a place where the distractions of every day life are at a minimum. The usual holiday will not provide the necessary peace, nor will a quiet day at home. You need to withdraw from everyday life in order to hear your heart.
Unless you stop and let go of your ordinary concerns, your heart cannot be heard. The present moment is where your heart speaks from, so you need to let go of yesterday and to cease to dream about tomorrow in order to be truly present. Then you need to stay in the present moment long enough for your heart’s language to be recognised and welcomed. A retreat is a sanctuary where you can withdraw and be in peace with yourself.
When awakening to your inner self you may find an empty inner space you never knew existed. Suddenly there is no constant background of mental activity. No gossip, no grumbling, no meetings, no decisions, no interference. At long last you are faced with You Alone. You start to slip into a slower physical, mental and emotional gear and begin to notice the empty space within and behind your thoughts. Slowly, deep feelings arise. Some feelings you might welcome, some you may not. All of them are arising and dissolving within your Awareness. It’s a common word, awareness, and yet without it your organs of perception would have no background on which to project their data. Awareness can be likened to a silver screen without onto which movie images are projected and without it would not be perceptible.
Just as the movie screen is untouched by the content of the film, awareness remains unaffected by the coming and going of thoughts, words, ideas, neurosis, emotions, good actions, bad actions, birth and death.
A retreat is the best place where you can start to taste the unconditional presence of this awareness. Awareness is noticed in stillness. It will never leave you. It is the master within that has been sought since time immemorial. This is the Self that you refer to when you say my-self, me, I. The same self is in me and in you. This is the meaning of Namaste.
Yoga practice points to this at all times. Yoga practice strips away the illusions that veil our deepest peaceful nature, releasing us from bondage and suffering.
