Why take a Retreat?

“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?

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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?

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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.

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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.

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Try it, sirs. Then perhaps you will know what is beyond recognition, what truth is which is not measured.”