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Somewhere around the third or fourth day of Noble Silence, your system will begin to settle and you may taste a release of tension in your body that you did not know was so tight. It is not dramatic. It is more like putting down a bag you had forgotten you were carrying. The particular tension of being observed, of managing how you come across, of monitoring the gap between what you feel and what you show, begins slowly to release. This is one of the first benefits of Noble S

When you remove light from the visual system, the brain does not simply go quiet. In some ways, it may become more active. This is one of the more interesting ways to begin understanding what happens during a darkness retreat. The brain does not passively register the absence of input. It responds to it. Actively, creatively, and sometimes strangely. This does not mean we already have a complete science of darkness retreats. We do not. The direct research on multi-day darknes

With the premise that the human psyche is incredibly complex we will explore is mechanisms to gain greater understanding

In this article we will dive into and hopefully clarify the role that psychotherapy can play on the path of awakening. Many spiritual teachers and schools look down upon therapeutic methods. Some even say that any work that focuses on personality level patterns is like “re-arranging the furniture in your prison cell, you think it makes you more comfortable but you are still trapped”. Here, we’ll present a radically different, much more inclusive vision of psychotherapy that i

A couple of months back, I wrote about an opportunity we received to share a retreat in a prison in Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico. We were super excited about this amazing opportunity to share what we have to offer with people who really need it, but it didn’t work out. But! The woman who organized it kept in touch, and last Thursday, Sasha and Kirill went to a women’s prison in Mexico City to lead a retreat there! (I had to stay home because of a very non-committal Karma Yoga t

Some insights on practice and progress from half a lifetime of practice and 10 years of teaching