[Youth Retreat] A Better Party: Stillness & Service
Location: Surat
Duration: --
[*Youth retreat, for 16-30 years age group.]
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn’t hear the music. - Neitzsche
A Sufi parable tells of Mulla Nasruddin searching for a lost key on the street. Seeing his struggle, a crowd gathers to help. After a futile search, someone asks, “Where did you lose it?” "At home," Mulla replies. Outraged, they ask why he’s searching outside. He answers, “It’s dark at home, but the street is full of light.”
As we navigate the complexities of life, we often mirror Mulla’s actions—searching in well-lit areas: academics, success, money, relationships, intoxicants, social media and more! Advertisements lure us into believing happiness lies in the next purchase, while our own ambitions feign that fulfillment is just one more goal away. But what if the key we seek is within us, waiting in the stillness and interconnection that we haven't deeply explored?
In this retreat, through practice and listening to each other’s stories, we will help shine light on the role of stillness and service, as keys to come alive in a much deeper way. Through practice and reflections, we will shine light on the twin paths of stillness and service, to quieten the noise of the mind and awaken the song of wisdom and love within. We will have lots of diverse youth from Surat, few inspiring guests from other cities including Nipun Mehta, who is joining us from California. Together, we’ll explore what it means to truly come alive and celebrate the emptiness and fullness of life. We call this “a better party.”
Tenative Flow:
9:30AM: Arrivals + Coffee
10-1PM: Circle of Sharing
1-2PM: Lunch
2:00-4:00: Kindness Challenge
6:00-8:00: Awakin Circle (hour of silent meditation, followed by a talk by Nipun Mehta)
If you'd like to join, apply here and our volunteers will get back to you with an update closer to date.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Simply put, we are a group of ordinary individuals, who come alive in doing small acts of kindness. Volunteers behind this particular retreat have hosted thousands of circles and hundreds of Moved by Love retreats; moreover, they have supported many ServiceSpace projects from Karuna News to Karma Kitchen.
- Inspiring participants. Lots of great hearts are coming together!
- Uncommon questions. For quick-fix, binary, either-or answers, we already have Google; we aim to hold questions to lean into its nuances first.
- Noble Friendships. Our hope is to nurture a rich matrix of friendships among unlikely friends.
- Volunteer Run. It's run entirely by volunteers, so there's no solicitation, pitches, agendas. Just practice of love.
In Surat. Exact venue will be shared at the time of confirmation of your application.
All Moved By Love retreats are offered as a no-strings-attached gift, made possible by gratitude offerings from past alumni. At the end of all retreats, everyone has an opportunity to keep the chain alive and pay it forward with money, time or other expressions of wealth -- for future guests.
The retreat formally begins on 9:30AM on Dec 25th (Wednesday), 2024. Please ensure you reach the retreat venue before that. If needed, outstation guests are welcome to arrive on the previous evening.
Retreat ends at Wednesday, Dec 25th @ 8PM. Most participants will leave during the evening, but in case you need to stay back for the night, we will be happy to arrange that.
Please note that is mandatory to be present with us for the entire duration of the retreat. And during the retreat, you won’t have space to take other meetings or step out of the campus.
Through our time together, we will sit in circles to learn from each other’s experiments and challenges; hear and engage with some innovative speakers across sectors; engage in many group practices that nurture our collective inner transformation. Plenty of opportunities to engage the head, hands and of course the heart. Plus a few surprises!
Over last twelve years, thousands have joined from a wide-ranging backgrounds. Perhaps what brought them together was a simple organizing principle: We are not merely what we do, but who we become by what we do. If you resonate with the notion that inner change and outer change are intrixicably intertwined, and if you are moved to cultivate deep connections with kindred spirits, this retreat will likely speak to you! Beyond that, we'd recommend leaning in your heart's intuition -- more often than not, 'heart knows today what the mind will know tomorrow.' :)
To facilitate deeper connections, we limit the group size of our gatherings -- and give priority to project initiators who are anchoring local projects in their contexts.
If you have any questions, please contact us anytime. To co-create our sacred field of emergence, we welcome you join us!
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