The central miracle of meditation that we will explore is how spiritually transformative energies move into us in meditation, as soon as we truly let go. Spiritual growth happens when we give up control. Growth is a natural process, we don’t make it happen, it just happens, but only if we let it.
During this retreat you will discover and practice how to give up control at the deepest levels of your being. This existential release will ignite spiritual freedom and liberate your spirit. When we let go this deeply we completely and utterly stop. We stop trying, we stop worrying, we stop doing anything. We come to absolute and complete rest.
In this depth of rest and release your seeking comes to an end. You experience such a profound sense of fulfillment and joy that you feel no need for anything. You are free. Free from needing more. At one level, your spiritual work comes to an end. You are home, you are done, finally complete and whole.
Few people ever experience this level of existential release, but those who do have the opportunity to discover the miracle of spiritual transformation.
Once we have come to complete rest and have given up any need for more, we become available for the deeper energies of awakening to move us. As you rest peacefully in the bliss of spiritual freedom you begin to feel moved.
Initially you feel energy entering your heart, mind and body. The energy is mysterious, delightful and exhilarating. On this retreat you will learn to rest peacefully even as these energies gain access to your being. As you rest and watch, the energies will expand and accelerate.
You will be instructed to simply rest and remain quiet and let the mysterious energies of awakening work within you. How the journey unfolds from there will be different for everyone and dependant on your karma.
Some will experience a series of energetic openings that remove blockages and obstacles to further growth and awakening. Others will be carried into higher realms of experiences, perhaps to meet nonmaterial beings with wisdom or love to share with you.
For some the experience will result in profound insights about themselves, their lives, and how their highest spiritual potential can be reached.
There will also be some who simply rest in stillness, feeling the gentle energies of contentment pouring through them.
During a three-day retreat like this, most of us are likely to experience some of all of these. The key to navigating this journey is remaining utterly restful and absorbed in the experience of existential release.
This is a full virtual retreat conducted live with Jeff Carreira for 8-hours each day.
The format is simple, (and remember all sessions are recorded so you don’t have to attend live). Each day will consist of two 3-hour sessions plus a 2-hour break where you can have a meal, go for a walk, write in a journal, contemplate individually.
The morning session will be held in satsanga, or truth community. It will start with a teaching to explore the subtleties of meditation and awakening, followed by sitting in silence together. If any questions arise, you are invited to submit them via text so Jeff can address them during the session. This is a format that I’ve been exploring this year and it is proving to be remarkably powerful.
The afternoon session will consist of three 45-minute periods of formal meditation practice with two 15-minute breaks and a short time for Jeff to offer concluding thoughts before the day ends.
Recordings Audio recordings will be made available to retreat participants in the online portal.
- 10:00am to 1:00pm: Satsanga
- 1:00pm to 3:00pm: Long Break
- 3:00pm to 3:45pm: Formal Meditation Practice
- 3:45pm to 4:00pm: Break
- 4:00pm to 4:45pm: Formal Meditation Practice
- 4:45pm to 5:00pm: Break
- 5:00pm to 5:45pm: Formal Meditation Practice
- 5:45pm to 6:00pm: Concluding Remarks
All participants will receive a pdf copy of The Miracle of Meditation, as the instructions for meditation that we will explore during the retreat will be derived from it.
This book contains an intimate firsthand account of a profound journey of awakening. During the summer of 2001, Jeff Carreira went on a silent meditation retreat for 60 days. During that time, he was swept up in a succession of spiritual openings and energetic breakthroughs that have inspired all of the teaching and writing he has done ever since. Each day of the retreat is represented here with an excerpt taken from the actual diary he kept on retreat. The writing is lucid and immediate, providing a unique glimpse of an inner unfolding that led to the disillusion of the sense of separation and the discovery of perfect peace and wholeness. This second edition printing has been exquisitely designed and illustrated with images that include pages taken directly from the original notebook Jeff kept during the retreat.
"We were able to only do three days of this event. But the impact for me was most profound. On our day 4, integration day an awareness of the Truth arose in me and left me totally flummoxed. Just what I have been working for, for so many years. I am truly a different person than the one who started the retreat last Friday. Profound gratitude to Jeff and the team."
~ W. Francis.
"The daily teaching, Q&A's and and meditation sessions were so powerful , they brought such calm and flow to me and in turn to my family. Jeff's teaching enabled me reach greater depth in my meditations as each day passed."
~ T. Bird.
"The retreat was eye opening and life-changing, giving me a new understanding of me as a soul, and deepening my relationship with it. Giving all day to meditation for a few days, rather than an hour a day for a prolonged period, has brought changes in me that are indescribable. I did not want it end!"
~ J. Aebi.
"This retreat was a wonderful and profound experience of sinking into the depth of Being. Experiencing blissful happiness and liberation, just abiding there, without needing anything. Even in the face of challenges from outside, like a noisy neighourhood."
~ J. van den Bogaard.
"The retreat came at the perfect time in my life. It was the calm at the end of an internal and external storm that led to deep insights and deepening Awareness of my True Self. Jeff has an ability to transmit deep truths that find a home in soul."
~ M. Earlenbaugh.
"Jeff’s instructions and felt his passion to lead us into a available view of the world and ourselves. My life is so completely different. I’m looking out with Cosmic Eyes now... Wow So simple and so wonderful. Thank you Jeff"
~ N. Torrence.
All participants will have the opportunity to purchase The Miracle of Meditation Oracle Deck plus the accompanying paperback guidebook for 25% off.
The Miracle of Meditation is a 54 card deck designed to be used as a divination tool for spiritual awakening. Each card contains a short phrase that becomes a seed for contemplation. The illustrations that accompany each phrase are meant to stimulate your unconscious mind and ignite your powers of intuition. The wisdom you discover through these cards will illuminate an enlightened perspective and open the space where dramatic shifts in perception can occur. There are times on the spiritual path when we know we’re being called, but are unable to see the way forward. These cards were created to reveal the new potentials and possibilities awakening in you.
