I recently spent 9 days in silence at Jhana Grove Buddhist Meditation Retreat Centre in Serpentine Western Australia. It’s located in the beautiful Perth Hills only 1 hour from the city!
The centre was right in the middle of 100’s of acres of bush land with miles and miles of bush walking tracks, a variety of bird life, kangaroos, frogs, bilbo’s (small Aussie mammal), warm sun and the sound of the cool summer breeze.
I spent many hours in the cool of the late afternoons walking, meditating, breathing and admiring all that this beautiful life offers me. I loved the experience of not having to talk to people or engage with technology for a whole 9 days!
The retreat centre is amazing – 5 star! The food, the accommodation, the mindfulness meditation and the peaceful and still energy of the Buddhist Monks stirred up so much love and gratitude within me. The daily program is very flexible. I’m not Buddhist and you don’t have to be Buddhist to attend. The program included silent and guided morning meditation such as mindfulness meditation and Loving Kindness meditation. Dhamma talks, mindful walking meditation, beautiful breakfast and lunch – Yum!
You are free to attend as many guided meditation or Dhamma talks as you like or do you own thing. I did a mixture of both. I spent hours doing my own spiritual practice of yoga, sitting and walking meditation. The Dhamma talks and guided meditations were very, very good so I attended all of those.
The Benefits of Silence: • mental clarity • peace and stillness • present moment awareness • identify your purpose in life • improves relationships • deep gratitude, bliss and love! • increases your intuition or inner knowing • deepens your connection with your spiritual Self • change unhealthy life patterns and habits • You really get to know yourself – helps you see things that you may need to deal with or let go of – this can be challenging sometimes
