“Come be the night, sitting
Come be ocean, breathing
Come be silence, singing.
Be what you are…
Be what you are…
Be what you are…”
Silence and song can be found at the foundation of many spiritual traditions. Finding stillness and becoming the silence, we come to know the profound, tender truths of our heart–we come to hear the whispers and the songs that have not been able to get through to us in our busy daily lives. Having the courage to open our mouths and hands to sing, chant, tone, drum, and play, we express the vital force of the creation through us–we come to see that each of us has something beautiful to say, even if we didn’t know it. Silence and song: these two polarities of the spiritual life complement, balance, and challenge each other in an elegant and satisfying way.
Many spiritual seekers get great benefit out of silence meditation retreats. And many creatives get great benefit out of periods of time to focus exclusively on music, sound, and creation. In this lively, fun, and devoted retreat, Silence Singing, we invite you to come delve deeply into both the silence and the song. Join us for 5 days as we explore musical landscapes through the space of silence. Through meditation, contemplative practices, creative exercises, energy work, and solo creative time in nature, we will create space to connect with our deeper selves, and open ourselves to its expression.
We will move between song and silence throughout the retreat to support the depth of each practice. To offer our gifts to the community, participants are encouraged to invite loved ones to share an intimate musical and meditation experience on our closing night.
We will also spend some time working in potent and playful ways with what for many is the biggest block to creative expression and meditative exploration–the inner critic. Here the tools of psychodynamic therapy and spiritual inquiry can be invaluable in enlarging our meditative and creative capacities.
What is “Silence Singing”?
This retreat is for participants with all levels of experience in meditation and music, including:
Musicians and lovers of sound who want to find a deeper connection to the silence.
It is very different to play a nice-sounding melody than to offer a melody that comes as a medicine, a teaching, or a celebration from the depths of your inner silence. Great music comes from beyond ourselves, and the most tried and true method to contact this “something beyond” is in stillness and silence.
Meditators who want support giving create expression to the truths they find in the silence.
It is one thing to find the meditative space of silence, and another to let it sing through you. Since we will express ourselves in this life, it is important that we learn to express ourselves fully and wholeheartedly, without self-criticism and reservation. This is how we can find our truest expression and healing potential.
Those who have a story they are “not creative” or “not musical”, or creatives who feel stuck.
Come join us and challenge this limiting, false belief and open to the creative connection that is the birthright of every human being.
Those new to meditation who would like an introduction that is filled with fun, lightness, and loving community.
Eric (Satya) Hertz, MA, MFA, is a psychotherapist, dharma practitioner, musician, writer, and myth-teller. A student of the dharma for about a decade, he lived and trained at Great Vow Zen Monastery for two years, has done numerous multi-month long retreats in the Theravada Insight Tradition, and has completed a total of over 1 year of silent meditation retreat. He now lives in a Zen community in the PNW where he works as a therapist with an emphasis in creative-arts therapy and spiritual inquiry.
As a musician, he loves to engage in music as devotional practice, as playful group exploration, and as ceremony. He has an MFA in Creative Writing and previously taught creative writing at Boston University, especially enjoying helping students who held the belief that they “were not creative” find their inherent, vital creativity that is the essence of every human being. His passion is helping others explore the nature of their own being through self-inquiry, contemplative practices, and creative expression. He loves forests, drums, curiosity, and his friends.