unveiling

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

Welcome to a world where time is irrelevant and all familiarity ceases to exist.

Where we are invited to abandon our dreams, surrender to our sorrow, and rest in a profound simplicity of being.

From the depths of darkness - within our purpose-built, completely blacked-out, soundproof “caves” - people emerge with a direct knowing of a deeper truth within.

The eye masks are only used when we transition people from inside in the darkness to outside in the light.

Darkness retreat strips us of everything we’ve used in the world to build an image - to gain self-worth & importance - to feel powerful and purposeful - and to have a sense of meaning.

We’re left with our interior - with our thoughts, sensations, emotions, safety strategies, coping mechanisms, survival patterns, dissociative habits and overlaid structures -- along with our tender hearts, our simple presence and the unending depths of our being.

We’re met with a very clear choice — continue chasing the dream and trying to achieve and accomplish our idealized version of our self — or simply be honest with where we are actually at, accept, allow, let go off trying, and welcome ourselves as we are — simply soften.

COMPLETELY

unadorned

THE SOUL DOES NOT GROW BY

addition

BUT BY

subtraction

- Meister Eckhart

What matters most?

What lies beyond our striving - our achieving - our healing - our awakening?

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

- C.G. Jung

THERE ARE

no practices

necessary

FOR THIS QUEST

- Ramana Maharashi

In this place of darkness - In this space of silence - What remains?

What is underneath our posturing, our personality, our attempts to be seen and validated?

INTO THE

Beyond

Darkness retreat invites us into the Beyond.

When we stop chasing meaning - both in the things of the world and also in our experience - we begin to touch what lies underneath our seeking.

There’s a profound softness that beckons us from the Beyond - a faint whisper - the tiniest little bit.

When we feel safe enough to truly lean into the Unknown - when we trust our body enough to give it to the Unseen — we soften and open to a vast mystery within.

With no hope of gain and no fear of loss — we settle into our bodies while the waves of experience continue to move through us.

What lies beyond my habitual way of being?

STRICTLY SPEAKING,

THERE ARE NO

ENLIGHTENED PEOPLE,

ONLY

enlightened

activity

- Suzuki Roshi

Darkness retreat reveals our coping strategies, subconscious defense patterns and assimilated beliefs. If we’re truly willing to remain honest to what we see and what we feel when we’re fully exposed and vulnerable - we tend to first make contact with our anxiety, guilt and/or shame that tend to inhibit and cover our fear, sadness and/or anger.

If we continue to remain true and unadorned - held in the warm and open embrace of the darkness - we have the felt-experience of our lives. We allow ourselves to feel what we never had access to or what we never had permission to feel - a true return to innocence.

In the sweet and subtle nourishment of receiving care in this timeless reality - while staying connected to this profoundly simple core honesty - we come home to ourselves - genuinely welcomed - exactly as we are.

What happens when I don’t use culture to gauge my worth?

Am I sincerely willing to be exposed?

THE MOST IMPORTANT

THING IS TO REMEMBER

the most
important thing

- Suzuki Roshi

"Surrendering to your sorrow has the power to heal the deepest of wounds."

- Sobonfu Some

DIVE DEEP INTO THE HEART OF

the unknown

In the darkness - with nothing to hide behind - we are fully exposed.

We clearly see what is right underneath our persona.

We feel the desperation to seek experiences that will validate our worth, prop up our sense of self, and distract us from our sorrow.

And yet nothing lasts long enough in the dark except darkness itself.

We begin to discover that it doesn’t really matter what we’re experiencing - it just matters how deeply given we are to what we’re experiencing.

We soften. We surrender. We open. And our relationship to "what is" becomes paramount.

What directly connects me to what matters most?

Vulnerable - Stripped - Raw - Bare - Naked

This is how many describe a darkness retreat.

It brings us into a level of vulnerability that we’ve never felt before.

With nothing to hide behind, nowhere to escape to, and no validations to ride on — we see things exactly as they are.

And if we're willing to be honest, gentle and welcoming - we drop into the essential nature of darkness - we slow down - we expand - we soften into a spaciousness - and we rest in the timeless nature of our being.

Open - Inclusive - Receptive - Perceptive - Rested

exposed

Who are we before culture defined us?

Keahi, the 13-year old in this video, was visiting the land with his family and got the chance to chat with a few dark retreatants after they emerged from their time in the dark. He was touched by the impactful stories that they shared and he wanted to experience it for himself.

Rites of passage are woven throughout all living cultures. They mark a significant transition and function as an essential movement and initiation into the next phase of growth.

Darkness retreat invites us beyond all culturally-conditioned desires and our need to belong to these arbitrary norms and standards. This allows us to clearly see what truly matters most.

As we soften into the darkness - we begin feel a profound sense of belonging in our body - we begin to realize a new way of being.

belonging

What am I unwilling to feel?

What happens when there is nothing to gain?

What does vulnerability feel like?

TO ATTAIN KNOWLEDGE - ADD THINGS EVERYDAY

To attain wisdom - remove things everyday

- Lao Tzu

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE STOP

Acheiving?

Darkness retreat invites us into seemingly the most insignificant experience of our lives - absolutely nothing is happening - and all that exists is deep black space.

No progressing.

No healing.

No fixing.

No awakening.

No insight.

No peak experience.

Nothing lasts long enough to carry us through the day.

The end of hope is the beginning of acceptance.

Our world completely turns inside out as doing is replaced with being and achieving is replaced with softening. And as we surrender into the greatest insignificance of our lives - we truly receive ourselves exactly as we are and rest in a profound simplicity that carries us all the way home again.

What happens when we stop romanticizing the journey?

What happens when we're truly honest with what we feel?

LET COME WHAT COMES

LET GO WHAT GOES

see what remains

- Ramana Maharshi

What happens when time becomes irrelevant?

AND THE END OF ALL OUR EXPLORING

WILL BE TO ARRIVE WHERE WE STARTED

and know the place

for the first time

- T.S. Eliot

What happens when accomplishments and achievements no longer inform how we move?

The darkness invites us to rest - to so very simply rest - with no hope of gain and nothing to show for ourselves.

In this timeless place, we are asked to stop looking to our experience and place in the world for a sense of power, purpose and meaning.

We are invited to settle in our body. To soften into the quality of our connection, the depth of our honesty, the tenderness, intimacy and simplicity of our being.

In this eternal meeting, we are invited to simply be with what is most direct and delicate within.

As we genuinely allow ourselves to rest - to so very simply rest - this subtle world of the faintest whisper and softest touch opens up to an unimaginable timeless wonder.

simplicity

What happens when we simply rest within with no hope of gain?

INSTEAD OF SEARCHING FOR

WHAT YOU DO NOT HAVE,

find out what it is

that you have never lost

- Nisargadatta

What does it feel like in our body to simply receive care?

Where does meaning come from?

THE MOST TERRIFYING THING

is to accept oneself
completely.

- C.G. Jung

What if the subtleties mattered most?

What happens when we simply rest within?

What does it feel like in your body to receive?

What happens when we are sincerely undefended?

And no longer try to cover our lack?

What happens when we sincerely rest and receive?

And no longer try to be other than we are?

There is a tender invitation here in the darkness to quietly listen and intimately be with what is most delicate within.

And as we genuinely open, with nothing to show for ourselves, we begin to attune to deeper levels of subtlety.

It is through vulnerability -- through an availability -- through an okayness to being exposed that we drop underneath our armor and familiar sense of self into what precedes our conditioned nature.

vulnerability

What if there was truly nothing to achieve?

THE BIGGEST EMBRACE YOU'LL EVER MAKE

IS THE FULL, ABSOLUTE & COMPLETE EMBRACE

of your humanity exactly as it is.

- Adyashanti

What happens when we truly open and receive?

What happens when we let nurture lead?

What is it like to settle in the body?

What happens when we turn towards what is always right here?

What happens when we discover that the majority of the movement in us to transform, awaken, heal, fix, and mange is rooted in a felt sense of lack and an unconscious mechanism to cover it?

What happens when we stop trying to change ourselves?

And instead we quietly listen and include ourselves?

And we slow down and turn directly towards that part in us that is gently able to receive?

There is a very tender invitation here in the darkness to simply anchor in our bodies and tenderly welcome whatever presents.

transformation

IF YOU BEGIN TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE

WITHOUT TRYING TO CHANGE IT,

then what you are undergoes a transformation.

- J. Krishnamurti

What does it feel like in your body to feel supported?

What does saftey feel like?

What would nurture do?

WE AWAKEN THIS TENDERNESS FOR LIFE, WHEN WE CAN NO LONGER SHIELD OURSELVES FROM THE VULNERABILITY OF OUR CONDITION,

from the basic fragility of existence.

- Pema Chödrön

What happens when we have nothing to show for ourselves?

How do we find support?

What happens when we give into a sense of support?

What happens when we have nothing to show for ourselves and yet we still feel held?

What happens when culture no longer dictates our sense of worth and meaning?

There is a very simple invitation here in the darkness to notice where our body makes contact with the room and give into this felt sense of support that it brings.

What happens when we completely feel supported?

As we begin to discover the fundamental truth that we are always held, unknown depths of tenderness and intimacy begin to emerge as we settle into a profoundly simple connection within.