Episode notes
“I wanted to become a monk at a monastery after my PhD. This retreat made me cancel that plan.”
I speak to a university audience about my experiences at my first ten-day silent meditation retreat in 2017, in remote Texas. I begin with some background on my personal spiritual journey that led to the retreat. I describe the setting and structure of the retreat, the kinds of people I found there, and the meditation method. Then I share my physical and mental experience, about hitting bottom, then finding a message scratched on a bench that helped me start climbing back up.
1:01 - 17:52: My spiritual path to the retreat
17:52 - 23:21: Arrival
23:21 - 29:14: How the retreat is designed
29:14 - 31:46: The meditation method
31:46 - 41:00: My experiences: physical an ...
Keywords
vipassanaretreatgoenkasilent