What is a dark retreat?
A dark retreat is time spent in complete darkness, usually alone in a room or cabin built to keep out all light, with meals and support brought to you. It is best known as an advanced meditation practice from Tibet. Today it is also offered as a shorter, supported retreat for anyone who wants to rest deeply and look inward.
An age-old practice
Darkness retreats are an age-old practice found in many traditions around the world. Originally they were done in caves or underground chambers, and later in purpose-built rooms and cabins.
Tradition holds that the temples and pyramids of ancient Egypt held darkened chambers for initiation. The Kogi people of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada raise their spiritual leaders, the mamas, in darkness for the first years of life. The Greek world practiced incubation, sleeping in a dark sanctuary to receive dreams and healing, and darkness was part of the rites of the mystery traditions. Taoist adepts used darkness to cultivate the spirit, and in India it was paired with kaya kalpa, practices of bodily renewal.
The most developed form comes from Tibet. In the Dzogchen teachings of both Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, dark retreat is an advanced practice: the visions that arise in total darkness are used to recognise the nature of mind and to prepare for death and the bardos, the states between death and rebirth. The traditional retreat lasts forty-nine days, is undertaken after years of preparation and with a teacher’s guidance, and accounts of masters describe retreats lasting years. The teachings also carry clear warnings: extended darkness can unsettle someone who is unprepared. That is why the practice was taught with care, and why preparation, support and a gradual return to light still matter.
Chamma Ling
Chamma Ling, the Crestone retreat center where our retreats take place, was founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a teacher of the Bön tradition and the founder of Ligmincha International. The Dzogchen lineage he holds, the Zhang Zhung Nyengyud, is one in which dark retreat is central: the traditional forty-nine-day retreat works with the visions of clear light that arise in darkness as preparation for the bardos. Chamma Ling was built as a place for solitary retreat, and its cabins are made for dark retreat as well as silent retreat.
Is a dark retreat safe, and who is it for?
Dark retreats are not for everyone. They suit people who are comfortable spending time alone and reflecting on their own experience. A dark retreat is not therapy or medical treatment, and it does not replace either.
Before your place is confirmed we have a screening conversation. During the retreat your facilitator checks in with you twice a day, when your meals arrive, and more support is there if you ask for it. On the last morning everyone comes together for a closing circle.