Retreats - Testimonials

Retreat: retreat from 01 to 12 July 2022

I went to the retreat with the intention of finding relief from the sensations I had been feeling, diagnosed with panic disorder and depression.
Since the first day, I felt peace and courage to face my own mind without anesthetics. It was a revealing experience, unsettling at first, tranquilizer at the end, but for sure the biggest and the best experience of life. Where I could feel that I could take back control of my own life, as long as I used the resources, silence, breathe consciously, delve into my questions. I leave renewed and with a path to follow. It is as if we leave the world and get in touch with the truth, which is revealed as we remain calm and resilient to practice. At the end of everything, a certainty, there is a path and it starts from within, in silence. Grateful to this place, to these people who put themselves at the service and to this experience that I intend to repeat many times.

Retreat: retreat from 01 to 12 July 2022

On the third day I saw no point in being there… Many sessions were dispersed by the multiple thoughts that I didn't even realize that I had left my purpose… the constancy in turning my attention to the breath left me exhausted.
That's when on the night on the third day in the video it was revealed that my life was sustained by SUFFERING. It was an addiction!! ????
That made sense to me. And something changed in me...
I feel like I got stronger… that “sufferer” in a way was no longer going to walk in so much pain because she knew it was an addiction, the feeling was not true, was a circle that kept me trapped.
I thought the next sessions would flow better...
On the sixth day, right after the third session, I decided to leave... because I only slept. My mind wouldn't let up. I was exhausted ????

It was a day that I took a shower after breakfast rs.
And decided it was my last session.
And it moves me until now because it was the only session in which my body got so hot… so hot… I felt a bit scared.
But between breathing and a space… I felt that I arrived in a distant silence.... I wasn't there!!!
I only realized when I came back... conscious. Maybe it lasted seconds.... I don't know!! But I came back happy!! In peace…
I started to see things in a different way… I don’t know
Before that I believed myself to be a Seeker of well-being... And when at night I saw the audio of the self-enquiry... I thought.... I want this!!
The COLLAPSE of all these beliefs in which I got lost and I don’t even know what else to believe or at least give me the basis for construction!!
I may just want the well-being today… but I was certainly a Seeker of Truth!!
Then my mind went crazy... But who am I?!?!
In the sixth session when I took the shower and sat in the front, I thought: - I'm going to stay together with THE GOODS… near Amma, from that other resident who strengthened me a lot to see them immobile and I couldn't follow their breath… it was a wonderful determination. Because until then I ended up going to the bottom and sleeping more than meditating.
From that session on, I didn't nap once.
But it was the only session ????
The rest was fight.
In the 8* day I decided to go away… ????
But the fact that it was almost over made me have patience...
A LITTLE LEFT... if you leave, you'll feel frustrated... (My mind spoke)
My sessions were like at the beginning... when I realized I was in thoughts since I was 8 years old... many stories remembered.
5.9 years old, imagine how much I have to remember?! ????
But when I realized ... I cut!!
But a deep gratitude awakened in me.
I wasn't going to end up crazy!! ????????
It's not just me!!
I just have to remain in meditation… because it calms my anxiety!!
I can eliminate both clonazepam and citalopram... (I wasn't using it anyway) but I was afraid of a relapse.
* I forgot to say that when I went to the session it was the first time I put my face on the floor... I prayed to God!! Since then I started doing it always!!

Retreat: retreat from 1 to 12 August 2022

My experience at the Ashram was revealing as well as challenging. The routine was a difficulty for me, in relation to schedules and practices.  The posture, the technique and the stillness are situations that I couldn't reach but I could see where they live inside me (or almost).
Being here was being in me all the time, mind tries to escape with all incentives no matter how little they exist here.
I realized the mechanism of my mind, how it works and some of the places it inhabits. I realized I’m anxious, how the mind is addicted to issues and situations that I create and would like it to be, I feel pleasure in being in the midst of illusion, it’s as if it removes me from the place of pain and prevents me from feeling it and getting in touch with it, I learned that pain shouldn’t be avoided.
I feel grateful that this place came to me and that I had the opportunity to have this experience. I intend to come back more often.

 

Retreat: participated in the retreat from 1 to 12 July, 2022

Awakening the Sacred Fire Retreat was one of the most profound experiences of my life. Every detail of the retreat is designed to give us this deep inner dive. The routine, the discipline, the silence, the food, the technique and the instructions... In the retreat I went through a purification process that allowed me to observe my mind as never before, even though I already have a meditation routine at home. The discipline in the retreat was fundamental for me to realize in a more evident way how much I am a slave of my mind, how conditioned I am to just respond, react to its demands. I am very grateful to the Ashram and to Sriman Narayana for this opportunity. May others also receive and enjoy this grace.