A Silent Affair... Thursday, 13 May 2010 13:20 Written by Julia Taylor

People who know me understand that Buddhism, Yoga and Meditation are large part of my life in Shanghai.  I recently had a great experience that I wanted to share.  Over the May holiday weekend I got the opportunity to go to a Meditation and Yoga retreat in Shanghai.  The idea behind this retreat was to try and teach the students how to introduce some Meditation and Yoga into their lives on a daily basis.

It all started around 2pm on the Saturday when I went to meet the bus at a downtown Yoga centre.  I have been to these types of retreats before and the usual attendees are all Chinese with me being the token foreigner!  This time there was around 40 in attendance and to my surprise I was not the only foreigner…  There were three of us!  We jumped on the bus all eager to find out what was in store for us over this weekend with lots of excited voices and casual getting to know each other conversations.

The bus ride was a lot shorter than I anticipated and it only took 30 minutes from the centre of the city to the area where the hotel was located.  It was amazing that such a short drive could bring us to such a peaceful place in this busy city!  There were no people around and so much outdoor space to hang out in!  The hotel was based on traditional Chinese design, which included loads of small lakes, winding bridges and Pagodas.  As soon as the bus pulled up to the Hotel Reception I knew that I had made the right decision about coming to the retreat, this would be just what I needed to wind down after the last few busy months and would be a total change to the millions of people I had to elbow and push my way through at the same time last year in Hangzhou!

Once we were checked in to our rooms and after a short stroll around the grounds we all went for an early dinner before the first lecture would begin.  Dinner, mmmm… loads of yummy Chinese Vegetarian food!  It is so nice being able to eat everything on the table, because it is all vegetarian!  After dinner we all headed to the hall for the first talk.  It was here that we were told that the retreat would be a silent one.  What does this mean?  Well it means that for the duration of the stay you are not allowed to talk and you need to take yourself away from all distractions like mobile phones, computers, etc.  Yep no talking for two and half days!  The reason for this is to try and get everyone to start spending more time with themselves and listening to what is going on your mind.

Interestingly I found it easy to do this when people were around, but then when I was by myself I would forget and start talking to myself… yes I quite often talk to myself!  I wonder if I should omit that part!  The second day we did a morning meditation session followed by a lecture providing practical steps on how to actually introduce a meditation practice into your life.  After that we had breakfast and then in small groups we had a question and answer session (we were obviously permitted to talk here) and then lunch.  In the afternoon we did Partner Yoga, which I absolutely loved!  This is a type of yoga is where two people do the postures together.  Some postures you are connected by holding hands or you have your hand on their leg instead of on your own, while breathing together and imagining your Chakra’s connected.  It was really nice to do.  After that we had dinner again and then another lecture and off to bed…

The third day was similar to the first, except the morning talk was explaining how to get a daily yoga practice instead of meditation and we didn’t have the final lecture.

Some things I learned:

1. It is better to do even five minutes of meditation and yoga per day then to do a two-hour session once a week.
2. A person who is new to meditation has a mind that needs to be trained to be focused on one thing, you could think of your mind as a naughty puppy that tries to run off and play all the time.
3. You need to do Yoga to be able to sit in meditation.
4. You can use Meditation to get anything you want in this world.
5. Meditation is great to help you focus your mind so you can finish your work/tasks quicker.  If you think about it in our current state we don’t even really taste our food, because when we are chewing the first bite we are already thinking about getting the second one!  Learning to focus your mind helps live in the moment more.

After we headed back to the city I didn’t want to turn my phone back on and felt so nice being totally disconnected from the world, but all good things come to an end and here I am on the World Wide Web again!

If anybody wants to know anything about the type of meditation I am doing, please feel free to send me a message.

Comments 

 

#5 RE: A Silent Affair... — julia 2010-05-25 17:28

@Ange - the Yoga class is going to be a weekly event with the first class starting Saturday, 5th June - details here: http://www.shanghaidolls.org/index.php?view=details&id=126%3Adolls-yoga-class&option=com_eventlist&Itemid=3

Are you coming to the picnic on Saturday? It would be great to meet... Although it may be a beer not a coffee :-)

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#4 RE: A Silent Affair — Ange 2010-05-20 13:19

Quoting julia:

@Ange - glad you liked the article and have found useful stuff on the site... unfortunately the retreat is not a regular thing. My teachers were in Shanghai for a week and that's why the retreat was on. I will let you know if more stuff is coming up, but they won't be back for a few months. If you are interested in meditation or yoga then we could catch up for a coffee or something and talk about it...

Yes! Catching up over coffee sounds good...to wake up the mind :) I've realised I've also missed the Outdoor Yoga 2 weeks ago. Hope you guys bring it back on a more regular basis!

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#3 RE: A Silent Affair... — liwen 2010-05-16 17:54

I really like about what you said about focusing on the moment.

So very often I forget about enjoying the moment and would be thinking about the next thing. It's as simple as what you said about eating, I'm totally guilty of that...instead of enjoying every bite now I'm thinking about the next course or next meal. (very Malaysian)

And yes, our naughty puppy minds can be very hard to tame and control!

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#2 RE: A Silent Affair... — julia 2010-05-15 19:48

@Ange - glad you liked the article and have found useful stuff on the site... unfortunately the retreat is not a regular thing. My teachers were in Shanghai for a week and that's why the retreat was on. I will let you know if more stuff is coming up, but they won't be back for a few months. If you are interested in meditation or yoga then we could catch up for a coffee or something and talk about it...

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#1 A Slient One... — Ange 2010-05-15 09:16

Dear Julia,
I am so glad to read about this experience you have because I've been searching for such a retreat in China, but haven't came across any! Especially around SH!?!?

Most of such retreat that I've known are in Thailand and I don't really fancy taking a whole week's off and get on a plane when I just need a quick mental detox!

Can you please let me know more details of this place? How regular do they host such retreats?

This Doll's site is really a life-saving-guide! :)

Thanks, Ange

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