Since 2014, Vivekji, CM Niagara, has enabled seekers in the United States and Canada to experience and discover their true nature through four Silence Retreats. These annual retreats consist of no electronics, no writing, no reading, no speaking, and at times, no moving. It is up to individual participants to take the courageous path of going within.
The most recent of these experiential retreats was held in Pittsburgh during December 2017. Eleven seekers immersed in fifty hours of silence that were structured into ninety-minute sessions of either contemplation, reflection, or nutrition.
The ten contemplation sessions were the backbone of the retreat, involved complete physical stillness, and were designed to bring seekers deeper inward with each session. The first sessions guided seekers to slow down by unlearning engagement with the body and breath. Next, seekers were brought to step back by quietening the mind through Japa and following where thoughts come from and go to. From there, seekers were guided to see more by shifting the intellect from instructing to inquiring. The final goal and phase: smile on.
Although an up-close and personal look in the mirror can be uncomfortable, participants of the Silence Retreat learned and experienced that the journey to contemplation returns exponential rewards, that contemplation is the highest vocation, and that the ego can only be destroyed by pushing it inward into Brahman.
