Hridaya Meditation Retreat

Sahajananda, an experienced and gifted meditation teacher of over 20 years, leads this 10-day immersion experience with support from some of his assistant teachers.

This silent Retreat will be held at El Corazon Retreat Center (formerly El Neem), a professional and charming retreat and yoga center with the calming sounds of the crashing waves of the Pacific nearby.

A Meal Plan is offered on-site providing you with fresh, tasty vegan food appropriate for meditators. This is not included in the fee for the retreat. You may sign up for some or all of the meals: breakfast is 30 MXN, lunch & dinner are 50 MXN each.

Schedule

The daily program for this retreat is split into two parts: a morning session (07:00-12:30) and an afternoon / evening session (15:00-20:30).

07:00-09:00   Meditation: The revelation of the Spiritual Heart, Atman. This meditation will begin in smaller segments (for example, with short hourly breaks), building to one continuous, deep meditation session.

09:00-09:30   Light breakfast buffet

09:30-10:45   Relevant lecture teaching

10:45-12:00   Hridaya Hatha Yoga

12:00-12:30   Meditation

12:30-15:00   Lunch buffet and rest

15:30-18:30   Meditation: The revelation of the Spiritual Heart. This meditation will begin in smaller segments (for example, with short hourly breaks), building to one continuous, deep meditation session.

18:30-19:00   Time for personal practice.

19:00-19:30   Dinner buffet and restLecture, Q&A and last evening meditation

19:30-21:00  Lecture, Q&A and last evening meditation

 

The Hridaya Tradition

Hridaya means Spiritual Heart, or more simply understood, the Divine nature of our being. Hridaya Meditation and Yoga starts from the premise that traditional ideas about the Spiritual Heart can and should be applied in a very concrete and practical way. The Heart, seen as an organ of direct knowledge, can and should be trained constantly in order to increase its purity, and its capacity to Love, to Witness, and to Surrender.

The Revelation of the Spiritual Heart Retreat does this through an artful integration of meditation and yoga techniques which address broad aspects of the Spiritual Heart from a variety of traditions including the Indian Advaita Vedanta Philosophy, Christian Mysticism, Sufism, Kashmiri Shaivism, and Dzogchen. This extraordinary retreat is designed for beginner and advanced meditators alike as it was created specifically to comprehensively understand, in an intimate way, what meditation is and to feel the amazing inner transformations which it brings.

Despite being held as a group retreat, the program aims to create an experience resembling a solitary retreat (such as in a cave) in order to provide you with an opportunity to reach deep inner states of consciousness, intense aspiration for the Divine, and highly focused interiorization for the awakening and blossoming of the soul, jîvâtman.

In the years since he introduced the retreat, Sahajananda has developed a method that gradually cultivates the following attitudes in participants:

  • An inner awareness of all sensory perceptions and emotions which will gradually become, through sublimation, an awareness of the Spiritual Heart;
  • The calming down of the mind (a state of peace of mind);
  • The polarization between the individual soul and the divine Self, Atman, that is experienced as a state of very strong and profound aspiration and longing for God;
  • The evocation of death of the physical body as a way of transcending desires and egotistical tendencies;
  • The act of powerfully evoking and experiencing the mystery of God’s presence inside our Hearts.

To support the retreat, complete mauna (silence) must be maintained by all attendees. An atmosphere full of love and aspiration will be created in which participants can surrender to their real and essential nature.

All meditations and techniques are specifically intended to activate the Spiritual Heart and to awaken the consciousness at this level. We will integrate advice for guided meditation, lectures, and practical techniques and methodologies in our retreat sessions, including:

  • Ramana Maharshi’s atma vichara method of introspection (Who Am I?)
  • Techniques to still the mind using breath control
  • Study of the symbolism of the Spiritual Heart
  • Methods of passing from individual consciousness to Cosmic Consciousness
  • Methods of Self-centering in daily life
  • A proper understanding of Advaita Vedanta’s fundamental tenets
  • Hatha Yoga sessions done in the Hridaya style
  • Other Yogic methods that approach the issue of the Spiritual Heart
  • Sacred poetry
  • The four fundamental stages in the process of the revelation of the Spiritual Heart
  • Advice for maintaining awareness in the Spiritual Heart in the tradition of the Fathers of the Desert (from Christianity)
  • Daily special meditations on themes connected with Self-revelation
  • The Christian method of the Prayer of the Heart

 

Should you have any specific questions about content, tradition, schedule, or other details of this retreat, please feel free to contact us at info@agamayogamexico.com