Retreat in the darkness

I practice Buddhism according to the Bön tradition, which is the oldest spiritual school in Tibet. Inspired and guided by my friend and spiritual master Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak, I have participated in numerous retreats to deepen my understanding of these teachings.

I have been particularly interested in the path of Dzogchen. This approach is distinguished by its focus not on rituals or symbolism, but on a specific form of meditation known as the "natural state."

The Bön tradition considers life to be akin to a dream from which we must awaken. The spiritual path aims to liberate us from this dream. However, when we are immersed in a dream, everything that happens seems very tangible, and it is not easy to escape and awaken.

This requires a method that begins with introspection and the study of Buddhist texts as well as the writings of philosophers like Plato (for his famous allegory of the cave), Descartes, and Schopenhauer, to consider the nature of the reality we know from another angle.

While it is possible to lead the thinking mind to accept this possibility, it is much more difficult to convince our subconscious, which manifests as a powerful force that can affect our behavior, our emotions, and over which our thoughts have little influence.

On this Dzogchen path, practitioners are offered the opportunity after years of practice and preparation to undertake retreats in darkness. These retreats traditionally last one week or seven weeks, during which the practitioner performs breathing exercises that facilitate the emergence of visions. These visions are more or less clear depending on the level of meditation stability achieved by the practitioner. They can generate all sorts of things: objects, furniture, landscapes, animals, people. These visions appear as familiar shapes in a kind of gloom. Added to this are multiple luminous points, which outline these objects more or less distinctly. These appearances are sometimes highlighted by lighting that can be dazzling and of different colors.

The most astonishing thing about these visions is that they are spatially defined. That is, it is possible to move closer to an object generated by these visions and observe very closely these small luminous points that form imaginary reliefs.

The teachings advise us not to seek meaning in these visions and to let them unfold without thought. It is like a process that must be traversed without mental considerations, concerning our subconscious

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A few weeks after a stay practicing in the dark, one can notice a small change in the way one approaches life's circumstances. A kind of detachment naturally arises within oneself, which is not indifference but leads one to place less importance on one's desires, one's worries. From this detachment arises a sense of freedom relative to our inner limitations, fewer negative emotions, fewer disturbing thoughts—a feeling of bliss, without cause.

One simply feels like thanking the heavens for being alive.😊🌈

These retreats in darkness also serve to prepare us for what will happen in the afterlife. According to the Tibetans, death is a period of about forty days that separates the life one leaves from the next life brought about by reincarnation.

In the first 20 days, the ties that bound us to the consciousness of our existence gradually break, and we find ourselves in an infinitely dark space where there is no perception. In the following 20 days, lights, shapes, and sounds gradually create the outline of what our next life will be.

It's somewhat like someone who dreams, wakes up momentarily in the middle of the night, and depending on their tiredness, plunges back into a new dream influenced in part by the previous dream or by older circumstances.

The retreat in darkness is like training not to follow these rising forms and to break free from the cycle of reincarnations to awaken to true reality.

This very simplified text is not intended to convince you of anything but to provide a brief explanation in response to the curiosity of some. I personally believe in it because I have experienced it, but these realizations cannot be transmitted by words even to those closest to us.🌱