by Martín Buen Viaje

My first experience of FIVE days in the RING retreat, in silence, meditation and fasting.

I was warmly welcomed by these men in white, in the woods of Patzcuaro, Michoacan, with a big hug and a smile, then everyone went to their rooms to get settled. Before the first meditation, they gathered us in the MENTAL PURGATORY (meditation room) and told us:
"No cell phone use.
No eye contact with others.
Pretend you are alone.
You cannot talk to anyone.
No hugging, no touching.
No writing.
No reading.
You will only have tea with lemon and a spoonful of honey daily.
Tomorrow and every day we will ring the bells to start at 3am.
We will meditate every day in two hour intervals with one hour breaks until 10pm, you must arrive showered and on time.
No one is allowed to leave the premises."

My first thought was, Where am I? This is a CULT!

Every morning it was POLAR cold!, so I could only shower once because our shower wasn't dispensing water that was that hot either. I hope I don't go to hell for that sin. We would come in with quilts covered to the teeth like Eskimos. Outside the cars were coated with frost.

In my first meditation, the master told us:
Listen and repeat with innocence the following mantra:
We expect nothing,
We seek nothing
We desire nothing.
My first thought was: There go all my new year's resolutions for 2024.

Then I understood that this was the opposite of what we almost always think, with the goals that our ego asks for every day: I want this, this and that. This mantra applies to train the mind and purify it, so that only what is necessary for the realization of our BEING arrives, which is much better than what our EGOIC SELF asks for. This is how the laws of the universe work, subjects that should be essential in Primary and University education.

Then a mystical music was played for two minutes, very old, from India. It sounded as if reproduced from a phonograph, hypnotizing. Then everyone meditated for two hours and so on until 10 o'clock at night with a rest of one hour between each meditation.

The first sittings were very uncomfortable. I would start as a lotus flower and after an hour I would end up as a broken banana peel, with my neck twisted from sleep and physical pain from not practicing yogi postures. Little by little, I was working with my mind. Every minute was a millennum. I never thought it would take me so long. It was as if I ran an ultra marathon without taking a step.

Every time I heard the ASHRAM's ring, I imagined Rocky's legendary fights. The ones where he would take all the punches until the last round. Remember? In my case, the punches were straight to the EGO, thrown harder than the six-foot RUSSIAN fighting Balboa. I hope this fight will allow me to dance more like Muhammad Ali around all the thoughts that come to me every microsecond and it will be my last reincarnation in this life, so I merge with the UNIVERSE, -ETERNAL BEING.

My brain was throbbing every night, but with an extra energy that did not let me sleep. Still, my inner neuronal tetris was settling down.

Day by day I was training in this mental gymnasium, improving, correcting my posture and not staying in my normal mind in all meditations.

I began to enter other states of consciousness. I felt more energetic, with more concentration, with more clarity, with more peace. In some moments, I must confess, I was thinking about the cappuccino and chilaquiles de campeones that I was going to savor in the center of Patzcuaro when the retreat was over. That was my placebo to hold onto. I am still mortal.

I have no doubt that dominating the MIND is the HIGHEST PEAK that one can conquer to achieve self-realization. I know that I'm far from that still, like a featherweight.

During our beaks I would run out into the woods, like someone escaping from an insane asylum, as far as I could get, because it was all fenced off and we were told that no one could leave. The other men and women in white just walked in their trance, no more than 20 meters away from the center.

I have been reading Yogananda, Muktananda, Ramana Maharshi and other great Indian gurus for a long time. They bring me a lot of peace. Who knows who I was in another life? But reading is not the same as experiencing what they teach. No matter how much you read about swimming, if you don't jump into the water, the theory is worth peanuts. Just like with Castaneda's books, you shouldn't believe you are a SHAMAN because you read The Teachings of Don Juan. Only practice makes perfect. You know that.

I did not become enlightened. But I learned new things, and that this is something I can and want to do daily at home: practice mantra yoga (this type of meditation) daily, half an hour in the morning at 4am and half an hour at night before sleeping. It works for me like like clearing my computer's cache works, wihtout it all becomes slow and obsolete; the same thing keeps happening in our head. We must PURGE DAILY of so much BULLSHIT.

Thank you Alejandro Trejo ૐ for the invitation, and initiation with the master to introduce me to the international society of Divine realization of Swami Guru Devan and Saraswati JI Maharaj.

**************

Martín Buen Viaje is an explorer of native peoples. He explores pre-Hispanic mythology and its connection with power animals through their myths, making expeditions with naturalists, biologists, scientists, geologists, naturists, artists and shamans among others.

He is a member of the board of directors of Huerto Roma Verde CDMX, a representative in San Miguel de Allende of Extinction Rebellion, an ambassador of the Quetzal of the Triunfo Forest Reserve in Chiapas, a member of Hatch, journalist in Lokkal, photographer, documentalist, content generator, former publicist....

www.martinbuenviaje.com
IG:@martinbuenviaje

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