“We have been to the moon, we have charted the depths of the ocean and the heart of the atom, but we have a fear of looking inward to ourselves because we sense that is where all the contradictions flow together.” – Terrence McKenna
Over the weekend, I entered into a solo retreat.
For the next 1-2 months, I’ll be living mostly in silence, eating very limited foods, and working a lot less.
(basically just writing these emails, answering questions in The Path community, hosting a couple AMA calls, and maybe completing a few small projects)
The rules of the protocol are often a shock to those who haven’t done it before:
– No salt, oil, or seasoning of any kind (yes, zero)
– No red meat, pork or dark meat chicken
– No sexual activity of any kind (including thoughts, and ideally even dreams)
– No caffeine, alcohol or drugs of any kind
– No physical contact with others
– Minimal social media, television, movies and books
– Minimal social interaction
Which means most of my days will be spent practicing meditation, QiGong, contemplation, and self-inquiry.
(Side note: Don’t try this at home. It’s a very specific protocol with a very specific goal that needs to be facilitated by a master. I’ll add a modified — and much gentler — solo retreat protocol to The Path soon)
The reason for these rules, in the words of a teacher of mine, is to:
“Remove the noise so you can connect to the signal.”
Remove superficial stimulation until all that’s left is a clear connection to deeper guidance, intelligence and insight.
I’ve completed two years of this protocol so far in my apprenticeship, and every time I begin a new phase, the feeling is the same:
Like a fog clearing to reveal a bright, shining sun.
Which is a bit freaky, since I live clean already:
I don’t drink or use drugs, I don’t have casual sex, I don’t eat red meat or pork, I use social media very minimally, and I meditate 1-2 hours a day and do hard exercise almost daily.
But that’s the modern world:
It’s a spiritual sh*tshow.
High in entertainment value, alarmingly low in just about everything else.
And if you want to go beyond the level of superficial entertainment to touch the deeper potentials of what human life has to offer…
(which, I promise you, is vastly more spectacular than anything you’ve ever found on TikTok)
…You’ll need to take matters into your own hands.
You don’t need to stop seasoning your food and start turning away hugs, but you do need to unplug from the matrix way more often that you probably think.
So that’s what I’ll be doing for the next month or two.
Should be fun 🙂
– T
P.S. In other news, here’s:
How Organizing Your Finances Transforms Your Life
(another surprisingly powerful way to clear the mind)
