Hi Tomáš and Lenka!
I’m very happy to send my feedback, and some encouragement to everyone who is thinking about a dark retreat.
A return to myself
For me the dark retreat was literally a return to myself. I finally got the chance to slow down my stream of thoughts and stay long enough with the ones that had been asking for my attention for so long. Not that this was what I came into the dark for – I thought I needed to think through what I want to do next in my life, how I want my life to look, but something completely different happened, and it was exactly the right thing.
Without the distractions of the outside world
The dark retreat was a surprisingly ordinary, simple being with myself, just as I know myself so intimately, with all the questions, some of which I’ve been asking myself for a long time, and the answers I’ve long been giving myself. No demons leapt out at me from the dark corners of my mind. Well, no new ones I didn’t already know 🙂 . No questions I’d never asked myself, no answers I’d never heard. All the fundamental dilemmas and question marks I brought into the dark with me, I knew subconsciously, and I “knew” what I should or could do with them, but the distractions of the outside world always gave me the chance to push them aside for a while, until some other time, later, when it wouldn’t be so unpleasant or hurt so much, wouldn’t be so complicated, tiring and so on…
Time and peace
What changed compared with living “out there”? It was precisely the time and peace that the darkness allowed me to spend with all the topics I’d been putting off. To become fully and deeply aware of them… To live through them and feel them enough that I could let them go, or go on living with them in peace.
The experience
Over time this ordinary experience is turning into a deep spiritual experience that keeps spreading further in depth and breadth, and what I learned and experienced there now plays a part in practically every area of my life.
Thank you for that, Tomáš and Lenka, you too. You really looked after me like one of your own, and it was amazing thanks to you too!
I recommend it to everyone who is thinking about a dark retreat – it is an act of respect and love towards yourself, and it will do for you exactly what you need, and only that. Don’t worry, it can’t be any other way, it’s just the darkness and you in there. 🙂
With love, Tereza
