5 Practical Tips For A Spiritual Retreat
[Written by Admin]
Starting your first retreat at home can be a little daunting. Yes, you’ve read the instructions. Yes, you’ve seen the altar set-up done at the temple. But what are the common problems that retreatants face along the way? And how can one avoid them?
Even for “seasoned” retreatants, we hope that these 5 practical tips below will help! ENJOY!
Labels, labels, labels.
If you’re not living alone, but have housemates or family members, it’s a smart move to label your food – both in the fridge and pantry area.
When you already can’t eat the 5 black foods (onion, garlic, eggs, diary and meat), you don’t want to open the fridge to find that your broccoli and carrots are now gone too!
Once the labels are up, it’s also a compassionate (and practical!) move to let your loved ones, housemates or relatives know to replace the item should they have zero will power and need to eat that diary-free yoghurt of yours!
In need for some food-spiration? Click here!
Get Creative With Space
If there’s not enough space on your altar for retreat-related offerings, don’t fret – just get creative! Either place a coffee table, study table or even a bench in front of your existing altar to extend it.
Whatever you choose, it should either be of the same level or lower than the existing table. Reason? You don’t want your Buddha to be placed behind and below everything else. Even aesthetically, it won’t look nice!
If, due to space constraints, you can’t place a table at the current altar area, look around the house to find an open space, and set up your new altar there.
An idea would be to convert your dining table into your altar. Clean it properly, purify it with incense and voila, it’s ready to be used!
Reminder: Don’t move your current set up, especially your seat, until the retreat is over!
Avoiding the Wedgie!
It’s a given that comfortable clothing such as leggings and yoga pants are your go-to wardrobe essentials during a retreat. However, a lot of people don’t think twice about what we should wear under that!
A comfortable undergarment goes a long way when you’re seated for up to 3-5 hours. Of course the duration depends on yourself, and how long you plan each retreat session to be for.
Regardless, you don’t want to be thinking about how to get that wedgie out majority of the time – especially if it’s a group retreat and you’ve got someone seated behind you!
Remember, the whole point of the retreat is to concentrate on your visualization, not your…!
Let It Die, Naturally
Lets not kid ourselves into thinking that we’re not the slightest bit addicted to our phones.
Unless you’re joining a weekend retreat session at Kechara Forest Retreat, where your phone is handed in before each session begins – it’s just you, and your will power against you using your phone.
There will be (many) times when your mind will wander to the good ol’ Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram, and even turning off your phone doesn’t help. After all, it’s only one button away from switching it on!
If your work has conditioned you to always check your phone, or you need to make sure that your Farmville animals hasn’t died, you need a bigger obstacle.
Seems odd, but it helps if you use your phone until the battery dies naturally, and before you start your retreat, leave it to charge far away from you.
Or leave the battery-dead phone next to you. It’s now both practically planning and willpower against you using your phone.
Plan For Success
Halfway through the retreat, your concentration may narrow down to just mala counts. When all that you see are numbers (30 malas, 31 malas, 32 malas…), a strong motivation helps to bring back your focus.
Everyone’s different, and there will a countless number of reasons why you’re going into a retreat. However, before the retreat begins, it’s always good to set a motivation that’s a step higher than, “because I’m stressed”.
It’s your personal motivation, but here’s an example of a good one, “Remembering the kindness of all those whom have been kind to me. Even those whom I have perceived to have been unkind, they still taught me something – I should remember their kindness too.”
Remember, you’re already in that fortunate space where you have the opportunity for single-pointed concentration. Make the most of it!
Happy retreat!
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If you need more information or have any questions about retreats, do contact the Kechara Pastors here.
New to the idea of a retreat, and prefer to join a program? Click here!
Need another reason (or 6!) why you’re in need of a retreat? Click here!
Done retreats before? What problems did you face and how did you overcome them? Share with us in the comment section below!
For more interesting lists:
1. 6 Signs You Need A Retreat – Pronto!
2. Do You Know What These 3 Millionaires Did?
3. 5 Unexpected Women Who Became Buddhist Nuns
4. 10 Incredible House Blessings by Kechara Pastors
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Thank you for the thoughtful sharing, these are 5 very practical and simple tips yet it will be extremely helpful for many who are keen to participate. Setting retreat boundaries is really useful.
I think it is very important to set the highest motivation before engaging in a retreat and then focus on it during the retreat. I have never engaged in a retreat but the benefits as told by some of the people, makes me want to participate and experience one.
Thanks for the wonderful 5 tips.It is realy useful tips to kept the handphone far from us.Thanks for reminder that a good motivation will keep us focus on the retreat
Thank you for posting such a good post for all us here and give a key point succeed for our retreat.
Thank you Rinpoche for these useful tips when we engage in a retreat. I think it is very important to set the highest motivation before engaging in a retreat and then focus on it during the retreat. We are really very fortunate to have all the guidance from Rinpoche and pastors and comfortable venue to do retreat here in Kechara. Appreciate Rinpoche’s kindness.
Thank you for these great beginner tips for starting retreats. These are 5 very practical and simple tips yet extremely helpful. Many of us are very used to city life with lots of happenings around us, and it is quite difficult to start a retreat. With these great tips, we can start retreat from our home. Thank you Rinpoche and Admin for sharing this beneficial article.
Thank you for these great beginner tips for starting retreats. Many of us are very used to city life with lots of happenings around us, and it is quite difficult to start a retreat. With these great tips, we can start retreat from our home. I recommend everyone should do a retreat once in a while to refresh and retreat from all the distractions around us. For me, the biggest issue is phone. LOL.
If you can’t do the retreat alone for whatever the reason, you can always come to Kechara Forest Retreat to get more information about starting a retreat. The environment is more conducive, and you will definitely get more support!
These are 5 very practical and simple tips yet extremely helpful. Doing a retreat can be daunting specially fr beginners. Every little help goes a long way to making our retreat a suggest.
There is no need to “suffer” unnecessarily just because we are doing a retreat. We can create comfortable environment and allow our mind to focus on the visualization and recitation during retreat.
Going without black food is not that much different to going without meat. It may be a slight inconvenience in food preparation but it’s only for a few days. The more often we do retreat, the more familiar we will be of what kind of food to prepare. Everything is about habituation and familiarity. After a while it would become a non-issue.
Similarly with switching the phone off, not using the phone for a few days. I have encountered quite a few people who has come to Kechara Forest Retreat for retreat who felt very skeptic and reluctant to part with their phones only to find it a non-issue at the end of the retreat. Some even found it liberating.
Finding the right motivation and maintaining focus is the most challenging for me. I’m one of those people whose mind wander all over the place without specific goal and direction. I guess that’s why I actually need retreats.
Well this was a very useful article to come across! I plan to start my retreat this Monday and this just made the retreat guidelines very, very clear.
If you examine these guidelines outside of the religious context of a retreat, they suddenly look quite manageable and sensible.
What do I mean by sensible? Well, many of these guidelines are now being recommended by non-Buddhist spiritual teachers who advise their followers to give up meat, to give up dairy, to switch off and disconnect from the world for a little while.
I think it is a sign that these guidelines are good when you have non-Buddhist practitioners recommending them too, for people to develop their spiritual health outside of the Buddhist faith. It shows that the actions are universally beneficial, regardless of your choice of religion.
Furthermore, the fact some people feel these guidelines are NOT manageable reflects how badly we DO need to reduce these activities from our lives. For example, why do we attach so much of our pleasure and displeasure to foods? Why does cutting our dairy, garlic, etc cause so much anxiety in some people? In the grand scheme of things, our decision to temporarily give these up is actually really really small; people elsewhere in the world are making much more important decisions than “can I not eat eggs for a week?”
But when we remove them from our lives, we realise we CAN go one, two, three days without black foods, without our phones, without constant nattering and idle chatter. And at the end of that period, I find most people are calmer, focused and have some kind of peace.
At the end of the day, people’s treatment and view of retreat guidelines are like what I always say when it comes to giving up meat – the thought of giving up meat is harder than the actual giving up of meat.
Short and concise tips for all spiritual retreatants
Wow. I should have known but am impressed – you have structure and organization. I have been running an informal spiritual retreat in an attempt to see opportunity in a very peaceful boring situation. Other people are probably doing fancier ones with way more structure. Worth knowing. Thanks. I didn’t even know about the ‘5 black food thing’.
Thanks for the tips.
It is good tips kept the handphone far from us. I will try that next time. 🙂
Thanks for reminder that a good motivation will keep us focus on the retreat besides being grateful that we are able to do retreat.
“Remembering the kindness of all those whom have been kind to me. Even those whom I have perceived to have been unkind, they still taught me something – I should remember their kindness too.”
Thank you!
Thank you for these practical tips. One of the things that I face during retreats is sleepiness. I will remember pointer no. 5 during my next one. 🙂
Thank you for these pointers. I do agree that the temptation to use the hand phone is very strong. So for me I will put it on silent mode and far away from me:)
Thank you for posting this, Admin! 🙂
These are all very nice tips, especially for the phone addiction one. 😉 Though I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to my phone (it’s a Blackberry), but more to my iPad. ;-P
I have been to a retreat once, with my sister and mom, and one of the slight problems we encountered was that our legs would get numb. ^^; So we would move our leg positions. Of course, we’ll have to learn to endure the numbness.
I also didn’t know about the black foods, so a few… indecencies slipped. ^^; So thank you for posting these. Now I know what foods to avoid eating at these times. 🙂
With folded hands,
Keng Hwa.
These tips for the retreat is really amazing.
I got to admit that I am addicted to my phone. I remember that the biggest distraction that I had whenever I am doing my prayers or in a retreat, it would be the urge to check my phone constantly. Even if it did not ring, I would check and see if there is anyone that have contacted me or even if there is nothing, I would be coming up with excuses to touch and look at my phone.
The idea of putting your phone away to charge is very good. Reason being that it would be too far away from you that you would not bother to go take it, and that we will not be able to walk over to check on it.
Thank you admin for posting such a wonderful post for all us here, to help us succeed for our retreat.
Setting retreat boundaries is really helpful: set a clear intention in your mind what you will and will not engage in while on retreat. Eg if you have to stay accessible for your family, set and communicate intention that you will look at emails only 1x per day, and that you will not look at any other communications. Include your teacher, a close sangha member (for when you get stuck in your practice or need related help) and a doctor in your retreat boundaries. Also set physical boundaries, eg I won’t stray beyond street xyz, and I will only visit shops when I run out of food. Etc. just. Be clear in your mind and then promise to your guru that that’s what you will do for the duration of the retreat.
Hi, does anyone know why the black foods are called black foods? And what are the benefits in avoiding them?