The Alchemical Retreat Process

Many people consider the Sufi alchemical retreat  to be an integral part of their spiritual training.   Individual and group retreats are offered regularly throughout the year, in settings that are conducive to solitude and contemplation.  A Sufi retreat guide has undergone extensive training in the alchemical retreat process him or herself before being certified and authorized to guide retreats in the Sufi Order International.  In addition,  Sufi retreat guides continue to go on regular retreats themselves, regarding this as an essential part of their own inner work.

Alchemical retreat work is a deep process of inner transformation, involving both spiritual and psychological dimensions.  It is a journeying inward to the core of our being where we meet our own deepest Self,  which the Sufis refer to as the Beloved. 

We begin our journey in order to return home to ourselves.  We often come on retreat feeling depleted and so alienated from our deeper Self. There is such a deep longing for a taste of love's unity; our hearts can literally ache with this pain of separation.

Spiritual Practices

During  individual retreats, the Sufi  guide sits with us each day, attuning to what is needed,  listening to our dreams, and then prescribing the appropriate kinds of spiritual practices for that day.  There are many different kinds of Sufi dhikr, wazaif, light, magnetism and breathing practices which are part of the core teachings of the Esoteric School.  In addition,  practices in concentration, contemplation and meditation are often given, as well as nature and walking practices.

All practices aim to help us awaken to a higher dimension of awareness, but we begin by arriving at wherever we are.  This is the most important part of our inner work - learning to be present without judgment, rejection or unnecessary struggle.

Working in a focused way with spiritual practices can put us in touch with the ground of our being, as well as open us to very sublime and wonderful states of consciousness.  And the repeated exposure to these experiences can strengthen our trust in the reality of the expansive and boundless dimensions of being, freeing us from our limited concepts of who we think we are.

However, spiritual practices may also reveal our own ego barriers, and bring up quite opposite qualities than what we might wish for!  For example, in doing practices with light, we might notice the  dark thoughts and feelings instead.  We need to contact and become conscious of all of  those parts of us that are contracted, blocked, and closed off, bringing a kind and interested attetion to noticing what arises in us. 

In this way, those very barriers which inhibit our awareness of unity can serve as guidance at work, if we are willing to listen to them in an open and objective way.  All of the issues and problems which arise into full consciousness during our retreat are not without meaning. By staying with our moment to moment experiences without either rejection or clinging, we can begin to recognize the thread of guidance that weaves through our human and divine nature, and we can rest in the arms of the Beloved, at ease with ourselves and the universe.  Whenever there is less struggle against our own thoughts anhd feelings, a sense of the vastness and boundlessness of Spirit can more easily come through.

During retreat, we experience letting go and release of our excess baggage.  Whenever there is a softening of the rigidity and contraction of our I-ness, a deep relaxation follows on all levels of our being.   This relaxation of our self image and historical identity is one of the deepest forms of  repose and rest!   Our attitude of  openness  will enable us to slowly let go of the fixations, judgments,  and attachments which block us from naturally aligning with God consciousness. 

The Three Journeys

The Sufis say that there are three journeys:  we journey from, to and  in God.  These three journeys are part of our maqam (developmental stages) and can extend over years and years of time.  But during retreat, we may also  experience different states that are not yet affixed as an ongoing stage.  Nonetheless, these experiences can give us tremendous inspiration, courage, and help on our on-going spiritual journey.

In the earlier stages of our journey, we realize that we have forgotten our connection with the Beloved.  This is a painful awakening:  we suddenly become aware of the separation we are experiencing with ourselves, others, and God.  But the fact that we experience separation means that we  also remember  the sweetness of love's unity deep within us. So, this first part of the  journey ignites an intense fire of longing in our hearts to return home.  As the woman mystic Rabia said:  "The source of my grief and loneliness is deep in my breast.  This is a disease no doctor can cure.  Only union with the friend can cure it." 

Gradually, we start to become more aware of what it is that is standing in the way of union: none other than our own self!   With this awareness, we begin to embark on the second journey.  This is the work of purification, confronting the shadow and the attachments of the ego.    We consciously begin the long journey home, which involves the process of fana, the annihilation of all that is the false self, what the Sufis call the nafs.  This is the corner-stone of all real innerwork. 

But it is much more than psychological work.  It is also the work that connects us with the greater wholeness of  love, which transcends duality and splitness.  By confronting the many layers of  falsehood within us, we allow the transformative fire of love to purify and heal us. Then, we may discover that the shadows and distortions actually contain the very secret of our true nature.  As my teacher  Pir Vilayat has often said, "If you want to know what your qualities are, you only need to look at your defects and problems to discover them!"

So then the third journey begins - the journey IN God - when the ego finally steps aside, and agrees to comes down from center stage.  It is the state of surrender which finally allows us to experience our deepest nature, in which we are eternally united with God.  To become nothing, to "die before death" is the only solution to the pain of separation.  We will even have to surrender our every effort, because there is ultimately nothing we can do to arrive at the stage of baqa, the re-instatement of Truth.   We have prepared a clear inner space for the Beloved to be revealed, but it is not up to us if this happens or not!  Only fana, the dying to what is false, opens to the door to the grace which brings us to the stage of baqa, our abiding in God.  Our ego cannot reach the Self, but once we can surrender, the Self can reach us. 

Returning From Retreat

Those who go on retreat will realize that the wonderful experiences of light and union are not the end of the journey, but often signify the beginning of a new life.  We will also have to bring our realizations into daily life.  As we return from retreat we may be dismayed to find ourselves back in duality and separation again.  For some time, the ego was able to step back,  and we discovered our true being.  But the ongoing spiritual work after experiencing unity is to learn to live in the two worlds, to know of the infinite oneness and also to live a balanced outer life.  So, when we return to the world and do our work of serving humanity, we can make real  the inner connection of our heart, and we bring our heart's remembrance into our everyday life.

"The true mystic goes in and out amongst the people, and eats and sleeps with them, and buys and sells in the market...and never forgets God for a single moment."
--Sufi mystic Abil Khayr--