Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Batchelor addresses practical questions about retreat logistics and the role of silence in Buddhist practice. He clarifies that his Insight Tapes carry no copyright restrictions and encourages free sharing and online distribution, citing the Insight Meditation Center in California as a positive model for reaching practitioners worldwide. He then explores misconceptions about the silent retreats held at Gaia House, acknowledging that silence can feel threatening to newcomers but emphasizing its value as a seven-day container for self-reliance and inner work. He discusses why group sharing was omitted from this retreat schedule and distinguishes between different retreat types that serve different practitioner needs, stressing that silence is not inherently superior but suits those currently prioritizing solitude and self-inquiry.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 07 IT.mp3
UUID: 2ec2a019-bdb0-4a2c-bc2a-abca8fe0de11
Teacher: Batchelor
Collection: Insight Tapes (Batchelor)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~831
Communal, which can be more one has to kind of find creative way by oneself. Also, looking on the Internet what, you know, what some people are up to. I think it can also make you see, oh, yes, I could do this too. I think that’s nowadays, that’s kind of one thing which can be useful.
Question about your tapes. Is there, like, a copyright on them? What are we allowed or not allowed to do if we buy your tapes? Oh, you can do anything you want. I mean, yeah.
You can copy them and you can play them in groups. Of course. Of course. Yeah. No.
No. There is a yeah. No. No. Nothing.
Nothing. Yeah. Can do I mean, what there is a nice group which is called Insight Meditation Center in California. And what is amazing, Gil Fronsdal is a teacher. Now they have this huge kind of, you know, very good recording equipment.
So whoever talks there, whenever he gives a talk, it goes on to the website. And then it’s free. Anybody can, I think, access the website? If you want to have all the new talk, maybe you have to pay something, that I’m not sure. So that people like in Hungary, people in Poland, they all kind of say how much they like those talks.
And actually, the talks go all over the world. So, yeah, I know there is no copyright. Okay. Just a brief, I mean, brief because we had a few question about that. This was about the silence.
You know? And the thing about the silence that sometime some people really love the silence because especially if they have a very busy life with lots of noise and lots of talking, then they come here and they think, great. They love the silence at Gaia House. Then there are other people who come, especially if they’ve never been in silence, and they find it very threatening. It’s true.
I mean, some people, they they they think everybody is cold hearted. You know? You know? They don’t look and they don’t smile. I mean, so this one, you know, you can get much worse retreat than that, you know, where nobody looks at you.
You know? This one is a little easier. But I think what is important to see is that it’s just for seven days. And to me, that’s the way I see the silence. I know it is not easy for everybody.
For example, when you eat in silence, this is so weird, isn’t it? You know, you’re eating and you’re everybody and you try not to look at the other person. I mean, I I agree. It’s kind of weird to eat in silence. But at the same time, I think, although it is sometimes difficult, it is a very good exercise because I think it’s so important that we can assert ourselves by ourselves, that we don’t need for somebody else to assert our own being.
To me, this is one of the important thing about the silence. And of course, sometimes people would like to share more together. Why they would not normally, on some retreat, there is more kind of group meeting and discussion. And on this one, there was not because, you know, there is a talk, then there is another talk, then there is a discussion, and we could not fit it in. But next year, we’re not going to do a study retreat.
Just it’s going to be a plain mindfulness and questioning retreat, and then there should be groups. And then Stephen will take care of the groups and then each group is only about eight to ten people, and then people can share more things. But I know sometimes people would want to have more kind of group sharing, but if you have a group sharing without the teacher there, then actually it is not necessarily going to work. We have had bad experience previously, and that’s why we don’t do them anymore. To just say to eight people, okay, go together and speak together.
And sometimes it is not helpful. So again, within any schedule, you have to fit several things. And so that’s why it was like that this time. But of course, if you have difficulty with the silence and you really find it problematic, I would say, don’t come on retreat like this. I think then it’s better to go on retreat with the FWBO where there is more communication.
And I think it’s very important for each person to know what is it I need now? Do I need to work more on communication? Or do I need to work more on, in a way, working with myself in a supportive environment? And one is not better than the other. It’s just it feeds different need at different time.
So that’s what I wanted to say. So now there is some walking meditation.