The Revelation of the Spiritual Heart Retreat is a unique 10-day immersion experience which focuses on accessing our real and essential nature, the supreme and divine Self, atman, through an artful integration of meditation and yoga techniques. During this retreat, we will address broad aspects of the Spiritual Heart, from a variety of traditions including Christian esoteric, Sufi, and Kashmir Shaivist traditions. The atmosphere will be one of agape and strong spiritual support.
The Revelation of the Spiritual Heart Retreat is an extraordinary retreat, created specifically to comprehensively understand, in an intimate way, what meditation is and to feel the amazing inner transformations which it brings.
The program aims to create an experience most 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. This method is a unique integration of Advaita Vedânta, Sufism, Tantra, and Dzogchen.
In the advanced stages of their practices, all paths of the existing authentic spiritual traditions meet harmoniously and merge into the same ineffable Reality. During the Revelation of the Spiritual Heart Retreat, practitioners will be skillfully guided to this penetrating understanding where the search for meaning ends in surrender to the domain of revelation. No previous meditation or yoga experience is necessary as this retreat is designed for beginner and advanced meditators alike.
This method is skillfully crafted to cultivate the following attitudes:
1. An inner awareness of all sensory perceptions and emotions which will gradually become, through sublimation, an awareness of the Spiritual Heart;
2. The calming down of the mind (a state of peace of mind);
3. The polarization between the individual soul, jîvâtman, and the divine Self, âtman, that is experienced as a state of very strong and profound aspiration and longing for God;
4. The evocation of death of the physical body as a way of transcending desires and egotistical tendencies;
5. The act of powerfully evoking and experiencing the mystery of God’s presence inside our Spiritual Heart.
During the retreat, our aim is to inform you on methods for meditation encompassing, but not limited to,
the unity of consciousness and Advaita Vedanta, thus leading to self-discovery of the Spiritual Heart.
The system of meditation will focus on the methods developed by Ramana Maharshi, that of âtma vicâra,
or more popularly known as the inquiry “Who Am I?”, as well as other complementary meditations and prayers.
We aim to inform you on the practical and theoretical aspects of this methodology, allowing ample
opportunities to directly put it into practice. In doing so, we hope that you will understand the underlying
principles and value the purpose of meditation, thus reaping the immediate benefits, and coming to love
meditation as an essential part of your life.
1. You will learn some direct methods to pacify your mind and even to transcend it. When your mind is truly still and without any thoughts, and you transcend your personality, your ego, and you arrive at a place where you have no name, no social status, no relationships, no past, no future, no country, no spiritual attainment, and no lack of spiritual attainment. It is simply a presence of being. If a movement or a thought appears in this stillness, it is enveloped into the stillness, thus becoming stillness itself. It is as if your life becomes full and saturated with this peace and sacredness.
2. You will also learn a way which comprises a vision, a spiritual understanding and a method of transforming yourselves. We hope most of you will learn to love meditation as a means for discovering Divine Reality, otherwise referred to as God, although these methods are beyond any specific ideas of religion or any theoretical concepts about God.
3. We hope most of you will have some peak experiences about Supreme Reality, some special states of consciousness about cosmic love, eternity or the unity of everything, which can be evoked afterwards in daily life. This will help you in your quest to understand the reason for your existence.
4. Our aim is for you to realize the importance of fully incorporating the Spiritual Heart in your life, beyond concepts, theory and philosophy. The path to the Spiritual Heart journeys through your soul, and therefore, an opening and intimacy of the soul will naturally occur from this. During this retreat, we will have the chance to venture deeper than the emotional psychic level of the Heart, into the Divine Reality which represents the most profound aspect of the Spiritual Heart. Ultimately, you will be compelled to love at a level which your ego usually prevents you from accessing through blockages such as attachments, ignorance, and other negative emotions, thoughts and beliefs. To access this level of universal love, the obstacles challenging your personality and your ego must be transcended through accessing the Spiritual Heart.
5. Our ultimate goal is for you to gain a profound understanding about the real nature of your existence and the nature of manifestation of Life and the Universe. More specifically, you will eventually achieve a coherent vision of Divine Unity, Advaita, and nonduality, which is the main revolutionary power, the main transforming idea of Jnana Yoga, and Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Dzogchen and Zen.
Therefore, the methods and practices presented in this retreat are a starting point and foundation for you to achieve stillness of the mind and emotions. For most, an essential shift in the experience of Reality occurs inevitably as a result of this stillness. Then you will perceive an indefinable, yet recognizable call to the stillness of the Heart, of the Divine Self, of Atman. It is indefinable because it transcends the mind. It is recognizable because it is already present in the core of your being, waiting to be discovered.
When we venture deeper than the surface of our egos into the realm of the Spiritual Heart, it is common that some purification on the physical, mental or emotional level can occur. This is merely our bodies’ way of releasing old blockages, traumas and negative emotions in order to access the deeper levels of the soul. Do not be afraid. Do not avoid the purification. However, don’t dramatize; don’t accord them too much importance. When those transformations eventually synthesize, meditation ceases to be boring, painful, or just a passing experience, and truly becomes a deep, joyful and blissful experience. Depending on the individual’s level of practice and awareness, these transformations can be immediate or can take a longer time to process. However, change is inevitable and this transformation can be very stable, profound and transform your life dramatically.
So, what expectations do we need to have from the Retreat? None! Because of the ineffability of what we really are, of what Divine Reality is, this change is a natural progression that comes from stillness, surrender and ultimately from within our true selves. The aim is to create the best conditions in which the Divine Reality will be revealed in our Heart. From doing this, we will experience some profound effects from these meditations. Many make the mistake of becoming attached to these effects and realizations. However, do not cling to them. In the openness of our being, much more than this is happening, and we will learn to accept, surrender and be open to the ebb and flow of these realizations.
Ultimately, the most important outcome of this retreat is for us to start becoming accustomed with centering in the Spiritual Heart. This means to get used and be aware of that quiet, peaceful, infinite and eternal foundation of our being which cannot be perceived by the rational mind, but is the source of all inspiration, love, beauty and spiritual life. Many sages have said that Spiritual Heart is our real home. So abandon yourselves, trust and enjoy this centering. Spiritual Heart is your axis, your hub. During this retreat, be at home, be present and integrate this the practice fully for an intimate, meaningful experience. The Spiritual Heart is the “meeting place” for those who wish to relate to life in a sacred manner.
English 
Romanian
The system of meditation will focus on the methods developed by Ramana Maharshi, that of âtma vicâra,
or more popularly known as the inquiry “Who Am I?”, as well as other complementary meditations and prayers.
We aim to inform you on the practical and theoretical aspects of this methodology, allowing ample
opportunities to directly put it into practice. In doing so, we hope that you will understand the underlying
principles and value the purpose of meditation, thus reaping the immediate benefits, and coming to love
meditation as an essential part of your life.