SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS,
TANTRA, GODDESSES AND OTHER STORIES
Dear Readers,
Over the next
few weeks, we’re going to look at the Travel Trend of Spiritual Retreats and
Holidays. We’re going to look at both spectrums: the really luxurious ones, the really serious
ones and the really budget ones.
Today we’re
starting with the really budget ones.
But first, what
do we mean by Spiritual Retreats? Is it
just for people who like humming? Or
those who like to wear harem pants and bandannas (see previous Blog post on
Australia – they are a species)? Or is
it more widespread and mainstream than we realise? Where did it start? And what does it offer us today? Or is it just another package holiday
packaged (lol) slightly differently?
Is “Retreat”
the right word? The idea of a Retreat
began as far back as our documented history goes. Retreats can mean different things to different
communities. They are often seen as
integral (such as nuns at Roman Catholic convents frequently going on retreat –
personal experience, don’t ask) to such communities as Islamic, Christian,
Hindu and Buddhist. Especially for
Hindus and Buddhists, meditative retreats are considered as a way of deepening
powers of concentration and insight.
For the
Christian Church, retreats were established by St Ignatius of Loyola (what a
name!) in his “Spiritual Exercises” and later Pop Pius XI made him patron saint
of spiritual retreats. Many Christians
across the spectrum organise a retreat once a year.
For Buddhists
retreats may be solitary or in a group, silent or full of conversation, often
in remote or rural locations, some even in darkness! For Christians the whole idea is to take time
out of one’s daily life to specifically reconnect with God. This can be for a few hours, up to a
month. The idea is a founding one in the
Faith: taking time out from daily life
into the desert for instance, such as Jesus fasting in the desert for 40 days. Retreats nowadays can be individual or in
groups, to churches or specific retreat centres with group activities and
dormitories.
For Roman
Catholics this is similar, and in addition they have another take on the idea
called the “19th Observation” whereby you continue your daily life,
setting aside a few hours each day to reconnect with God. For Sufis (Islam) retreat can often mean
complete seclusion, preferably for 40 days, constantly repeating God’s
name. This practice is known as Khalwa
and is still practiced by authorised sheikhs…
So that’s the
theory, but we want to know more about Retreats as a Travel Trend, not a
religious one. It turns out this is, of
course, a massive Travel Trend. Too enormous
to separate, we are going to investigate the “Spiritual Retreat” as one, to
take in mindfulness, yoga, spirituality et al because they tend to touch on one
another anyway. Dear Readers, whether it’s
budget or luxury, the “Spiritual Retreat” touches on our own goal at the
beginning of this Blog: bringing you
something a bit out of the ordinary, and taking you out of your hamster wheel
of daily life, even if it’s just reading from your ipad on the sofa!
The ultimate
budget retreat is to do it yourself:
pick a destination which ticks the boxes but isn’t necessarily stupidly
priced such as Nepal or Cambodia rather than Thailand or the Maldives, or Texas
or Colorado rather than Hawaii or California.
Readers, you should look at where you are, because it should be about
embracing the great outdoors, so make the most of the surroundings, look for
remote places with cheap local transport such as Turkey. The whole idea should be to travel and
embrace the places you’re in. Especially
if it’s your first time, and the whole idea of a “Spiritual Retreat” intrigues
you but sounds a bit intense at the same time, you can look at the option of
“combos” such as yoga and surf holidays in Portugal or Bali. It doesn’t have to be just one discipline and
that way, you get to learn to surf/cook/write at the same time.
Have a look
at www.bookretreats.com
as this is really your bible if you want to do find somewhere to stay retreat-wise
on a budget. What’s really interesting
is that they offer budget retreats in places we have already covered in this
Blog: Byron Bay in Australia and Ubud in
Bali. You see, dear Readers, it’s not
all as esoteric as you may think, and really, once you start to explore this topic,
it really is open to all. Because we
know these places anyway, you and I, dear Readers, I thought, why not?! Let’s have a little road trip to retreat in
Byron Bay and Ubud:
Byron Bay,
Australia:
The first,
rather obvious, snag is that you need to get there. Now, let’s assume that you’re backpacking or
travelling anyway…Basically Bookretreats is like Air B&B so you contact
host etc in the normal way on the website.
We found this one (https://bookretreats.com/s/yoga-retreats/byron-bay)
for 3 days and 2 nights at $574 (USD) so that’s about £468 which arguably could
be considered quite expensive for someone who is already travelling on a budget. Would I have spent that sort of money whilst
backpacking? Questionable…It’s for
people who need time to themselves, to disconnect from everyday noise and
reconnect with nature. This,
interestingly, is a women’s only retreat, so safe for lone female
travellers. Participants will enjoy
walks through the rainforest, yoga, workshops, chats around the campfire (am I
losing you?) to leave feeling relaxed and refreshed. You stay in an eco-lodge and enjoy vegetarian,
gluten-free, dairy-free food (have I lost you?).
Ubud, Bali:
Here, for 4
days and 3 nights you can go on a Healing Retreat (https://bookretreats.com/4-day-healing-yoga-holiday-in-ubud-bali)
for $300 (more reasonable) and you will leave the stressors and habits of your
daily life in order to focus on your physical, mental and spiritual
well-being. You have 3 nights’
accommodation, massage, meditation, breakfast and airport pickup. Ubud, if you research it, or indeed, if you’ve
been, is now a sort of backpacker/yoga/harem pants mecca…so you can’t really
walk down the road without tripping over some sort of a retreat or
another.
Really, for
beginners, people on a budget or people who just want an authentic experience,
in our research, dear Readers, Bookretreats covers it all. How about this one for size: https://bookretreats.com/8-day-celebrating-the-goddess-tantra-meditation-retreat-greece/
I mean, seriously, if you’re going to do a retreat, Readers, go all out and do
a tantric one…why not?! For $261 you can
accelerate your inner evolution…Tantra:
we’ve all heard of it (American Pie 2, anyone?!), but what does it mean? It’s a direct way, apparently, to open your
life to a deeper level whilst still carrying on your everyday routine. This is a traditional tantric meditation
retreat and is open for 12 days, although you can just do 8 if that’s more
convenient for you. The idea is to be on
retreat but to enjoy Greece and the beaches etc in your free time. The retreat, known as Tantric Sadhana,
extolls the idea that the subtle energy, Kundalini Shakti (the energy of
awakening) is gradually activated, leading to an expansion and awakening of the
individual’s consciousness.
What about
the Goddess? I hear you cry: we worship her, apparently. Japa Yoga is practiced (repeating different
mantras to induce a specific state of meditation leading to purification and
awareness), Yantra is used which is a tantric diagram which increases the
effect of your meditation and Yagna is practiced in parallel with Yantra which
is the act of offering food as a sacrifice into the fire. Serva is encouraged whereby guests help with
the preparing of food and cleaning and Hatha Yoga is also offered.
You have 2
meals a day (vegetarian, nach) provided, and you can meditate for up to 6 hours
a day. Plus enjoy the beautiful Grecian
scenery and daily life. I am actually
quite sold. I mean, if you’re going to
go on retreat, you might as well go all out and do something like this.
Have a look,
there are lots of fabulous budget options to choose from, and they also do
combos so you can learn to surf at the same time and there are thousands of
different retreat options to choose from.
However, in
the spirit of budget, you don’t have to travel abroad. There are some fabulous retreats in the UK
you can do. Should you fancy one, have a
look at https://helloamygarner.com/spiritual-retreat-in-the-uk/
she’s really inspiring and has some great options for UK retreats such as the
Barn Rural Retreat Centre in Devon from £190 per week (https://www.sharphamtrust.org/mindfulness-retreats/the-barn-retreat)
and Glastonbury Abbey House in Somerset from £48 per night (https://www.glastonburyabbey.com/abbey-house.php). However, possibly even better, dear Readers,
is the following: FREE RETREATS!! Yes, in the UK there are such things. Have a look at this link and you’ll find a
whole list of them: https://www.prosperitykitchen.co.uk/main-posts/free-meditation-retreats/
which is amazing, but I think, thanks to our research into this area together
now, you and I, we can see that the spirit of the retreat and indeed the whole
idea behind most spiritual principles certainly isn’t money, it’s healing.
It even brings
us on to the philosophical question that is this: retreats, due to their very history, their
very nature, should be free, or certainly not profit-making, just enough money to
cover the basics, because they are about you as a person, your mind, spirit,
body, and not about the money. So they
shouldn’t be tainted with excess and “luxury” because surely that dispels what
a retreat is all about?
Yes, we’re
going to look at the luxury end next, but I would put this to you, dear
Readers, are the budget-end retreat go-ers actually getting a more authentic
experience? Are they getting to the
grass roots, paying way less money, sometimes even nothing, but is the outcome
in fact infinitely superior?
What are your
thoughts, Readers? We’d love to know. Now, let’s go worship some Goddesses!!