continuity, questions, and conversations
~ Continuity between retreats

One drawback of intensive retreats is the lack of follow-through support between retreats.

Someone may do one intensive retreat, and then expect the special depth and clarity of retreat to continue forever. But away from the silence, leisure, and loving atmosphere of retreat, we cannot at first expect to access that same spaciousness. We need to experiment to find ways to "put into practice" and "realize" (make real) our insights. We need to find our own rhythm, our own path, our own language, and our own freedom.

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One way to encourage continuity is to ask ourselves questions about life on and off retreat.

1) The first questionnaire, for right after retreat, may help you to clarify what, if anything, from the retreat was most or least helpful and challenging. Even if we would like to, we usually cannot copy the whole retreat schedule at home, unless we have a large bank account and our own team of cooks and secretaries and facilitators at home. It is important to draw out the most useful threads and then allow those to take over our lives.

2) The second set of questions, “Reflections for momentum”, are for checking in with yourself periodically after retreat—perhaps after two weeks, a month, three months, six months, and a year. You may only find certain questions relevant to your life now, while others may take on significance as your improvisation evolves.



First questionnaire

Personal details:

Name (Optional):

Write your email address:

Re-confirm your email address:

Religion, if any:

Age:

Gender:

Country:

Date(dd/mm/yy):

Open Dharma contact since:


Describe your:

1) Spiritual practice, if any: Since when and how often?

If you already meditated as part of your practice: since when and how often?

What got you interested in starting spiritual practice?


2) Occupation, if any:

Since when?

How many hours/week or how much/year?

Does it support you financially? Is it fulfilling?


3) Family, if any: Single/short- or long-term relationship(s)? Children?

How often do you meet family members?


4) Your experience on this retreat:

What helped you most?

What was most difficult?

Consider these and other aspects: location, food, room, hall, schedule, silence, meditation techniques, meditation instructions, one-to-one guidance, singing, teachings, discussions, group practice, or the emphasis on self-motivation and finding your own path.


5) Your connection with Open Dharma:

Why and when did you first come to an Open Dharma retreat?

If you have done more than one Open Dharma retreat:

~When was your last Open Dharma retreat?

~Why did you come again?

~If you are or were suffering from mental, physical or emotional difficulty, how has contact with Open Dharma affected you?

~What has helped bring continuity and depth to your practice between retreats?

~What has not helped?

~Do you feel any relationship between your meditation practice and your experience of the outer world, e.g., family, work, relationships, natural environment, or society?

~Since your last retreat and (if applicable) in the last 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years of your spiritual practice, have you seen any changes in your experience of:

1) silence and rest

2) nature and ecology

3) communication (how you communicate with whom about what)

4) creativity and work

5) money, time, and generosity

6) sexuality

7) moving beyond fears or other contracted mind-states

8) anything else


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~ Reflections for momentum

Inspiration

What were the most important elements or moments of retreat (or other teaching contexts) for you—meals in silence, yoga or chi gong, phrases, feelings, solitude, light in the trees...? Do you or could you integrate these into your daily life?

How often would you ideally love to do retreat? to receive “live” teachings? to be in silence? to be in a group of people focused on fulfilling life’s potential?

What have been other important teachings for you—whether formal or not?


Dedication

What about regular, formal meditation?

Does it happen? When and how often? What helps you practice--a particular place, time, group of people, commitment, technique, posture?

Is your practice different from when you started?

Does your formal practice influence your daily life? In what ways?

Are there ways that you are getting too tight about formal practice? How could you challenge yourself to get back to the heart of your intention to go deeply?

Is there anything else you do regularly that helps you but that you may not call meditation?


Joy

What do you most love to “do”?

When do you “forget yourself” in a positive way, as when one loses track of time and persona when doing something one loves to do?

For 5 or 6 days, keep track of the moments of joy in each day. Is there a pattern? Perhaps a part of your spiritual calling is revealed through the pattern of joy.


Passion

What is most important in your life?

How often do you live according to what you know is important?

What seems to give you energy? What seems to drain your energy?

Where (or with whom, when, etc.) do you see yourself acting spontaneously in a creative way?

Do you see yourself more weighed down by beliefs/thoughts/expectations, or by emotions/moods, or by habits?


Groundedness

Do you find yourself putting heart/wisdom into practice in informal contexts?

At work, at home, with friends, with family, alone, in action, at rest....


Energy spots--Key places for attention

What do you think are your unseen gifts—things others appreciate about you that you may take for granted and/or areas of challenge that have encouraged you to?

Where would you most like to open up or grow? What would you most like to let go of?

What are your biggest challenges?

If you are or were suffering from mental, physical or emotional difficulty, how has meditation/spiritual practice affected you? (Sometimes tender areas of lots of energy can erupt for a while as we start to give them much-needed attention.)

If you drop a sense of pressure or living up to someone else’s expectations, what would you do differently in your life?


Currents of transformation

Since your last retreat and (if applicable) in the last 1 (and again 5 years) of your spiritual practice, have you seen any changes in your experience of:

1) silence and rest

2) nature and ecology

3) communication (how you communicate with whom about what)

4) creativity and work

5) money, time, and generosity

6) sexuality

7) moving beyond fears, judgments, or other contracted mind-states

8) home

9) friends

10) commitment and responsibility and spontaneity

11) the unknown

12) anything else

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open dharma meditation flower

“How long is the practice to continue?” Ramana responds: “Until yoga liberation becomes permanent.”
“Gradually, the obstacles are overcome and your current becomes stronger. Everything comes right in the end. Steady determination is what is required.”

Ramana Maharshi
continuity between retreats

“If you drop a sense of pressure or living up to someone else’s expectations, what would you do differently in your life?”

continuity between retreats

When Self is associated with the ego the knowledge is objective (vigyan = science). When not associated with ego it is gyan (= spiritual knowing).

Ramana Maharshi
continuity between retreats

“Grace is within you. If it is external, it is useless.”

Ramana Maharshi
continuity between retreats

“A man on realizing the Self can help the world more effectively. Is it not so?” Ramana responds: “If the world be apart from the Self.”

continuity between retreats

To say that one is apart from the Primal Source is itself a pretension.

Ramana Maharshi
continuity between retreats