Sant Mat Guru, Sirio Carrapa Ji on How to Make the Best Use of a Retreat with the Master
I'm so happy to say that preparations are in the works to have the beautiful Sant Mat Master, Sirio Carrapa Ji come to America next summer for a short meditation/satsang retreat. So when I read the following, I thought: How could anything be more apropros?
The post is taken from devotee, Annabella Saccone's notes after having recently attended a meditation retreat with Master Sirio Ji at His home in Ribolla, Italy: August 10th through the 21st. The first part is composed of Sirio's reply to a question by a satsangi and at the end are Anna ji's impressions.
As always; thanks for stopping by my blog and I encourage your comments and observations. Namaste, jesse
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♣ Leave thousands of urgent work to sit down to meditate ♣
Sant Bani Ashram- Ribolla August 2011
Satsang Saturday 20 August
A disciple asked: "What should be done to fully benefit from the retreat?" (SirioDevJi)" First thing, before the retreat, it's preparing for it. When we went in Rhajstan Sant Ji always advised us to prepare one selves for the retreat; do not arrive there unprepared, in a disaster condition. To begin to meditate more, do more simran and live more in accordance with the Path already before the retreat period otherwise we find ourselves in an environment so rarefied as a retreat, where a program is so intense and we are displaced. In a situation where for months and months you are no longer meditating, totally in confusion. Then a good part of the program goes to prepare one selves for the retreat. Now, if you go to a retreat like this that lasts for twelve days, then one may, by and by, enter the atmosphere of the program, but if a retreat lasts for two or three days, then the program ends before we managed to get into a meditative attitude. We must say that it is very rare a retreat like this. You will not find it everywhere. Most of these masters who go around in cities, give a lecture, then go to another town and yet another conference. What that means I do not know! Certainly better than nothing! Everything does something! Anyhow with regard to the raising of consciousness, entering into deep meditation, or going into meditation many times as it happens during a retreat, there is nothing of this. Once at the insistence of some people I went to see a Sant Mat master; this happened about 15 years ago, after the death of Sant Ji. There was a two-day retreat. There were several hundred people, but there was no program. There wasn't a retreat, all day people were just chatting. There was not a small meditation session with that master, no let alone the possibility of having an interview with him. Nothing! There was a Satsang that began at seven o'clock every night, but that master always arrived quietly at half past seven. Then he spoke of Simran, Satsang, bhajan, meditation, Sach Kand and so on. One evening there was a dinner organized by one of his disciples, and there He certainly was present on time. Many have programs like this. Well, maybe retreats of this type do not need much preparation. But at such a retreat as we do here at Sant Bani, it is crucial. We need a good preparation. Precisely because unless we prepare our mind and it is too dispersed, before we could gather and focus, it will take time to enter into meditation. In addition we come with all our tensions and frustrations and become a problem for others in the group. We cannot bring harmony in the group. Instead of being fluid such as oil we are rusty and squeal as a grinding wheel. So what it means to prepare prior to a retreat? It is to begin to meditate more in the early hours of the morning, do some light diet or fasting. I personally before every retreat have two or three days of fasting. Since this cleans the body and therefore the mind. Automatically we are in a receptive condition, calm, deep, pure. So just by getting to the retreat place the air of grace uplifts us tremendously. Then the days we spend at the retreat become sacred for all that time we spend here in approaching the Super Consciousness. Another important factor: how to behave in a retreat? The retreat is intended to completely detach from worldly things, to enter the inner silence, mental silence, oral silence. Three S: simplicity, silence, Simran. And if we keep talking, we do not do the Simran. Little to be done! Do seva, there are many little things to be done. So be alone when you're at the retreat. You can talk and socialize when you eat a little bit maybe, but then you better stay alone. Work, do seva, but without necessarily talking. Sing the Bhajans. Avoid talking unnecessarily about things that have nothing to do with what we are doing here. Without these desires of wanting to talk about this and that with that person or that yet. The retreat is meant to stay with the Master, to do Simran and meditation with the Master, not to be with people. People are everywhere. Master Kirpal said to couples, when we went to be with Him: "When you're here you do not have to remember that you are even married. Husband or the wife here has nothing to do any more! You are here to be with the Master." When I was in Rajasthan I never seek the company of anyone. I associated only to people who turned up to be next to me in some way. Not looking for anyone. Because I went for the Master, not to meet people. The people I could find elsewhere. The satsangi I could find them elsewhere. I was not interested in friends and so on. Very often people do not come to the retreats for the Master, but to chat with friends, maybe to find a boyfriend or a girlfriend! In this way our life goes by and nothing significant happens. So you have to go to retreats with the right attitude!
This is time that we dedicate to God, only God and the Master. Everything else can be done elsewhere. Not here! Here you do this! Another thing is these phones. Turn off these phones!! At least here! If you have to talk to someone about important things, then do it at a certain time of day and not having in your hand all day long these phones. We have all become slaves of the phone. We are phone dependent. A satsangi should be different from all others, should not be a parrot like everyone else. What is the difference? What is the difference between us and others? We only pretend, but it is not so. There are many people who claim to be spiritual people, free thinkers and might criticize the religious people pretending to be better. Nonetheless, in reality, they behave worse than them! It is easy to talk about others and make comments on others, but how do we live? How are we? We never watch ourselves.
There is a guru in India who while giving Satsang starts talking calmly then heats up and begins to shout, and then speaks again calm and flat and then goes back to screaming after a while. So the people are truly scolded. Because the purpose of Satsang is to wake us up. Otherwise, what do we do here, we sleep? Or what? So you are only alive when you are attentive, otherwise you are like corpses. What does one do at a retreat? There's a program, and here is strong, there are about 10 hours of spiritual practice daily. And there also you have to be carefully on time, arrive a little sooner and not later. You have to be there when the Master comes, do not arrive after ten minutes. Than again out, back and forth. Our problem is this: we have lost the sense of the Sacred. We cannot give the right sacredness to things. Even the relationship with the Master we must live it in a healthy way. If we can not give and experience the sense of the sacred, we will never get in touch with the Sacred. So follow the program, do seva in your spare time. Instead of standing there chatting, there are many things to do. Little things that everyone could do. And if one knows, and knows that at certain times of the day needs to sleep to be ready for the next meditation, do it! listen to your needs. If you go to sleep for half an hour before meditation mostly that of eleven since that it is the most difficult to stay awake, would benefit from meditation. Since we'll be able to meditate and not sleep. We benefit from the meditation if we are awake, aware, otherwise what's the point? We can meditate for years asleep, and nothing happens. We think we have meditated but we were sleeping instead. There was a satsangi who lived here for a long period of eight years and every morning we were to meditate at three o' clock. He was not meditating, he fell asleep after 15 minutes. He was good as he got up, he tried anyway, but poor one he was just sleeping. He could go to sleep sitting for hours. So now if you talk with him will tell you: "I have meditated with Sirio, too. Every morning I got up with him. "The only difference is that I meditated and he was sleeping, that is the difference. And this is a fair difference. This is the Way we can delude ourselves so much. Like the Sufi story about a man who was in big trouble and prayed to God saying: "O God, if I somehow solve all these problems, I promise I'll sell the house and I give all the money, I'll give it to you as a donation to the holy cause. Then pray and pray, he really found the solution to his problems. Thus he began thinking: "It's not God who did it, it's really me who solved the problems, I found a solution!" But he had a certain fear of God and decided to sell his house. In the house there was a cat, then decided to sell the house for, say, around 20 000 euros. He asked for the cat € 19,500 and € 500.00 for the house, so the donation would go to 500 euros and 19,500 euros he would keep them for himself, so he fulfilled his promise." Here this is how we fulfil our promises to God and the way in which we modify the Path according to our will. So if you want to play, it's okay to do so, but if we are serious men, satsangis who seek truly God, then no! You do not do so. The teachings should be followed for what they are, should not be changed. So if during the retreat we behave in this way, we follow the program, we give absolute attention to Satsang, we hear what is being said, let it enter the mind and in the head, if we do this much at the end of a retreat we will find ourselves in another state of consciousness and being. We will have many wonderful experiences with the inner radiant Masters, and moments of great intensity in which we'll fill permeated with God. And you know very well what I'm talking about because you all have enjoyed these experiences. Many of you have told me about wonderful experiences, I know what I'm saying.
Then there is the after. Before, during and after the retreat. Then if you just walk away from the ashram and forget all; such ingratitude would be incredible. Because the retreat was a way to recharge and we should maintain this position until there will be another retreat, meditating going to Satsang. Because there is little you can do! Every time we meditate together, the Master is there, as the divine Presence. If you live where there is a group of Satsang, it is good to come together to meditate and do Satsang, though might not always be easy, perhaps you have to make some sacrifice, because you all live far away, but you have to go. It is the union that makes the strength, if we disperse, we won't conclude anything. Sant Ji in any retreat forever and ever quoted this saying of Master Kirpal: "Leave or abandon hundreds of urgent works to go to the Satsang. Let thousands of urgent works to sit daily and meditate. " The thing is that we do not have any urgent work, but we find the way to invent it! So how do we want to be? We must choose. The Master can tell us what we should do, but then we have to decide whether to apply His teachings and suggestions on how to live and change. Radical decisions! We need to change, otherwise we forever stay the same. This is the ideal way to live once life: participate in the retreats and live the spiritual path. However if you cannot attend the retreats with this attitude, come anyway! (Laughs with much Love). It is still better than nothing! "
Annabella Saccone
Observation & understanding. (Inner dialogue).
When the Master leaves the room of Satsang is a strong time for the soul for three reasons: because he has flipped upside down your inner being to make the mind understand with His determined wisdom. You have been made drunk with Naam with His Darshan for about one and half hour, third, in the bowels you feel the pain of separation. That uneasiness which would want that His look could be infinitely inside your eyes and your eyes humbly inside His.
At Satsang with Master Sirio one completely renews oneself and learns to go along the Path always with new tools. This you will learn and make them your own, just by looking at Him. Watching the Master is watching God in action. And beyond the blessings you receive in the depths of your being in watching Him, because you're watching the divine, you learn to be a MEN. You learn how to be simple and to keep your feet firmly on the ground. When you look at Sirio Ji you become practical and concrete. You acquire a force for which you can go beyond yourself. How can Master Sirio look at all of us in this retreat when we are about thirty, for hours, staring without blinking an eyelid at the least? How is it that when he speaks for about an hour and a half he is immobile, His shoulders do not move? How can anyone who participates in the Satsang, doctors, engineers, professors feel so minute and insignificant when He speaks and exposes us to the Satsang? How could He look into the hearts of everyone present and expressed in His address the Truth that we each need to keep going? How is this possible? How can He be so strong and much like a stable mountain who has in globed the Ocean of Light by meditating on Naam? How can there be this phenomenon of Sirio Ji? There is no question! For Sirio Ji EVERYTHING is possible. He is the Master. He is really THE MASTER. Who has seen Him at least once with the right attitude may understand what I am trying to describe.
After His Satsang one cannot talk. Because He has silenced you. He took away your word. Has Injected in You knowledge, clarity and honey. Why waste this wealth of God? Speaking and dispersing? Try to slowly dissolve these treasures within you until they become one with the cells of your body. If this happens, one two three and so many times, then you can talk. Because you have become strong! Then you can talk. You can talk of His grace and the freedom you feel when you're with Him in deep contact with His Light. His inner vibration of the Sound wave. I listen to an echo as a sweet and bright wind that turns around the tops of the mountains. As a spiral that I feel inside my belly. I am the sea. The wind. This was born now or there has always been?
Why I'm totally caught by the Master? Why by just looking at Him I'm no longer and only have Him inside of me from head to toe? Why in His presence I have a visceral rooted owe and love? I am just a sinner like so many useless ones in this world. How is it possible?
For the Master EVERYTHING is possible! He is to select and send the grace we receive. For this I say and repeat it: BE AWARE.
When I sat outside the guests house I meet with a Zen garden. I watch it. I get excited. It touches my heart to see Him working with such strength and determination. I see His hands. Big and powerful. How many times I have kissed them in these two days. What picture is this Garden? It's called Dedication. Created exclusively by the One who has become living attention. Love living. The order that determines the Path: He is the Master.
When leaving the door of the Satsang room to return after the Satsang to His house it is strong the desire in me to accompany Him. A Master. A true master like him should never walk alone. "Master may I accompany you?" I softly ask Him. "Of course my little one!" He answers me. Smile. Silence. The joy of loving each other and of course, in a most healthy and detached manner. The Master. The Disciple. The Way I have chosen. It chose me. It's there.
His bhajans in the evening, His way of singing, it magically melts and inebriates me. This His way of manifesting enhances awareness and the desire to realize God in this life. Tonight he sings the beautiful Aj Shub Poetry of Love that Sant Ajaib Singh wrote to Kirpal, the same one that I sang to my Irena tonight feeling her Majnu. Sirio Ji sings it with a different tune. I feel like it was a march of seekers who are NEVER going to stop until the end line will not be reached. Then at some point Sirio Ji shifts to the classical melody of the bhajan Aj Shub and starts to laugh, but that laugh! My God, that laugh! What shivers it causes in my belly! A unique beauty that simply sounds as the laughter of a child eight years old. I think I'll never forget that laugh!
When you do not ask and you place yourself with a humble and sincere heart God is giving you lots of little sweetness, beauty and tenderness. I had imagined being present on the day of the sacred Initiation at Sant Kirpal Ji's Bhandara. Master Sirio included me in the list of those present and I was so joyful. What a blessing is this? Everything flows. The power and grace of God are manifest.
Meditation. The devotional singing. Simran. The Seva. The communication from heart to heart. The brothers. Sisters. ALL is the Master. Everything is because there is the Master. Master Sawan has created and nurtured Sant Kirpal. Sant Kirpal has created Master Ajaib. Master Ajaib formed Sirio Ji.
EVERYTHING is because the Master is. How is it that after thirty-eight years, from back in 1973 Master Sirio still cries and becomes full of emotions just in saying the name of His Master Kirpal? How may the love for His Master go beyond all measures? How can such a poignant and living remembrance for all this thirty-eight years? This is the Path! This is Sant Mat. Being able to express the love so pure, sublime and sincere as what Master Sirio expresses after most of his life. This is the Way of the Saints. It's evident. Perceptible.
When I see him walk: so white, bright, radiant, down the road that leads to the langar (free kitchen), my heart exploded and I sang with all my heart: Vola Vola vola animo mio. He comes and looks at us. But He doesn't come alone. The Masters are with Him, and Ajaib, Kirpal come on His divine face so pure and innocent as a child. They are together. The Masters are one with Him, this is the real importance of the Disciple, working hard to serve with the meditation His Masters to the very end. To shine and shimmer on His face Their Light.
While singing the song I see I've become the song, or that my being at that moment is the sound and the words that I sing and I'm handing them to Him: to my precious
Master Sirio Ji.
Surrender. Giving of onself. Union. This has happened.
Please Master don't stop looking at me..
With humility and gratitude
Anna ji
