self Retreat
It's Time to be Alone
Most visitors staying at The Krishnamurti Centre have their own retreats. Individuals can decide how best to organise their time at the Centre, using facilities such as the library and quiet room, watching their chosen videos on a device or one of the screens set up for this purpose, listening to audio recordings, and walking in the pond and village side.
You must be alone. It is only the mind that is free from all influence, from all tradition, from the various masks it has imposed upon itself through life, and has put away all those, that is alone. And you must be alone, completely naked, stripped of all ideas, of all ideals, beliefs, gods, commitments; then you can take the journey into the unknown.
- From Public Talk 7, Madras, 13 December 1961
What to expect
Don’t you also want to go away sometimes to be quiet and take stock of things and not merely become a repetitive machine, a talker, explainer and expounder? Don’t you want to do that some time, don’t you want to be quiet, don’t you want to know more of yourself? All the same, it is good to retreat to be quiet and to take stock of everything that you have done.
And I think it is essential sometimes to go to retreat, to stop everything that you have been doing, to stop your beliefs and experiences completely, and look at them anew, not keep on repeating like machines whether you believe or do not believe. You would then let in fresh air into your minds. Wouldn't you?
If you can do so, you would be open to the mysteries of nature and to things that are whispering about us, which you would not otherwise reach; you would reach the God that is waiting to come, the truth that cannot be invited but comes itself. But we are not open to love and other ner processes that are taking place within us because we are all too enclosed by our own ambitions, by our own achievements, by our own desires. Surely it is good to retreat from all that, is it not?
In a retreat, do not plunge into something else, do not take some book and be absorbed in new knowledge and new acquisition. Have a complete break with the past and see what happens.
Sirs, do it, and you will see delight. You will see vast expanses of love, understanding, and freedom. When your heart is open, then reality can come. Then the whisperings of your own prejudices, your own noises, are not heard. That is why it is good to take a retreat, to go away and to stop the routine—not only the routine of outward existence, but the routine which the mind establishes for its own safety and convenience.
Try it, sirs. Then perhaps you will know what is beyond recognition, what truth is which is not measured.
To whom
• Those interested in spending a days in silence and solitude
• Anyone who feels they may need time to slow down, reflect and uncover the deeper elements of themselves.
• Those interested in exploring their relationship to others and the world.
• Those interested in alternative ways of engaging with the work of Krishnamurti, through silent watching, listening, and engagement with the surrounding landscape.