Namaste
I am Bobute, which is Lithuanian for grandmother! I am Lithuanian/Roma. I would like to make a few comments about a retreat I attended in January.
It was not a silent retreat. I will attend my first one in March. The one I went to was a recovery retreat from addiction. I was the only one present trying to find myself after the loss of my only son who passed away at 40 years old.
As the current posting about a silent retreat mentioned, I too felt as though I was returning to a world I no longer belonged to. I live in one of the hardest hit parts of Katrina land, La.
Outside my door waits the aftermath of a war zone. Where I went on retreat had no signs of anything more than a quite, peaceful, sleeping mother earth.
I did not want to live before I went away. I found a new mE wanting to live once more in that peaceful place. I would recommend time for self as being most important in each of our lives.
Maybe to heal as I am doing, maybe just because your body, mind, and spirit is crying out for it. I just wanted to say how important I found this to be, even though, I too have returned to a world I do not seem to fit into any longer.
I will not "force the fit," by being anyone but myself. I know it is there if I need it and that has made a big difference in my life.

Ac^iu Labai
Bobute. mE

Hi!

This is Sriram here from India. (Currently in Bangkok, Thailand)

Today's word, Dharma - contains a small write-up by the author on a meditative process he underwent.

Made me instantaneously recollect the Vipassna course - a Buddhist meditative process, we all were subjected to during our MBA program at SCMHRD (Symbiosis Center for Management), Pune.
Set amidst the green valleys of Igatpuri (Dhammagiri) in India, the 10-day program asked us to observe 'Noble Silence' - i.e. just being with oneself, and not communicating in any manner with anyone else (even meeting of eyes is considered a form of communication!). In the words of our Director, it was a ‘deep surgery of your soul!’
Being a young batch - some of us started out as rebels, some as experimenters and some as total believers.
But in the end, I would like to believe, that the experience did give everyone something - some learning, or at least some time with oneself - a commodity fast becoming scarce in this fast-paced post-MBA world for us!

I attended my first silent meditation retreat 2 years ago. Coming out of the noble silence for me was similar to your experience; the noise of normal conversation seemed over-loud. I realized then how little of what we say is necessary, how much is filler.
As a writer, this was chastening. So I switched to poetry.
I found this echoed in your choice of Chief Joseph's quote: "It does not require many words to speak the truth."

Ars; Well put. How much time so many of us spend parrying, criticising, or OT'ing threads and followups while life is so short. After all, we just die

Perhaps this followup is one notable example

Allo Dale,

What does OT'ing threads mean?

off-topic'ing?

Here is an excellent essay on silence:
http://www.thescreamonline.com/epiphanies/3-3epiphanies/silence.html

"Silence is truly the language of the spirit among the Indians who feel that it is only white men who require the turning on of the 'wind-mill machine,' as I have heard them call the long-winded conversations of their pale-faced friends. Consider the awkwardness or even embarrassment which occurs in the non-Indian culture when two or more persons are gathered together and silence falls. Some type of verbal exchange is expected, even though it is completely without value. But the Indians of the old ways, who were in contact with the essentials of creation, could be perfectly at ease together in the silence, using only the waves of thought to contact each other."

From "Tapestries in Sand," by David Villaseñor