The Purpose of Meditation and Retreat
June 22, 2011 
Meditation and retreat exist in symbiosis. One goes into retreat to be able to practice one’s meditation skills - to have the opportunity to meditate more often, more deeply and without as many of the usual distractions.
But if meditation is the purpose of retreat, what is the purpose of meditation? The answer we give to that question will then double-back to further inform us about what we think the objective of retreat is.
If we regard the purpose of meditation as relaxation and stress relief, then the function of retreat would be similar. Such a retreat would probably be best organized with the help of www.luxuryretreats.com, where one can “finally live the vacation you've always wanted . . . Browse our impressive inventory of luxury vacation rentals in over 40 destinations spanning the globe, including Italy, Greece, Hawaii, Mexico, the Caribbean and more… we're here to make your vacation inspired. Welcome to Luxury Retreats.”
While it’s not the point to denigrate such modern usages of these terms (words do, of course, take on new meanings over time), it is important to recognize that neither the understanding of meditation as simple “relaxation” nor the conceptualization of retreat as a pampered luxury holiday has any grounding whatsoever in the authentic spiritual traditions.
I think we can categorize the more time-honored ideas of “meditation” (and therefore also of “retreat”) into two distinct categories, one involving our spiritual development and the other centering on the discovery that what we’ve been looking for has been right here all along.
The first is encapsulated in the Yoga Sutra’s enunciation of the objective of meditation: “The purpose of meditation is to shrink the mental afflictions.” (YS 2.2) Meditations that focus upon the antidotes to one or another of the klesha-s (e.g., patience for anger, or humility for pride), or which help us develop our renunciation, compassion, or wisdom, would fulfill the practice’s raison d’etre, according to this definition.
Similarly, the purpose of retreat would then be to struggle with our own inner enemies and deficiencies in order to improve ourselves. This kind of experience would be sort of the opposite of the “luxury retreats” cited above. Rather than submerging oneself into a womb-like sphere of mollycoddled indulgence, retreat would be characterized by the courageous, if often painful, battle with one’s own demons.
From this perspective, meditation and retreat are not regarded as escapist ploys; rather, they place us in direct confrontation with the seamy underbelly of own minds. Identifying and then struggling with our mental afflictions in the solitude of retreat prepares us for re-emergence back into the world as refurbished and more useful people. "Meditation is not to escape from society,” writes Thich Nhat Hanh, “but to come back to ourselves and see what is going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. With mindfulness, we know what to do and what not to do to help."
Another understanding of the purpose of meditation is to learn to concentrate the mind single-pointedly on an object without the usual diversions and A.D.D. to which the untrained mind is susceptible. In the Buddhist texts, the ultimate evolution of meditation is often called shamatha, sometimes translated as “calm abiding” or “pacification.” Retreat then is for setting up the ideal conditions - quiet, isolated and segregated from the hustle and bustle of ordinary life - for improving one’s concentration and peace of mind.
But shamatha essentially means the ability to pay attention. Meditation from this angle is the training of the mind to focus on what’s actually occurring instead of meandering about in fantasies of what’s already happened in the past or what might come about in the future. It’s exercising our underdeveloped ability to be present. One-pointed meditation - on one’s breath, a Buddha statue that sits on your altar in front of you, a deeply compassionate feeling you’re having, or a sense that something (like an independently, existing self) you thought was there isn’t there – these are all meditative practices that focus intensely on what’s really going on, right here, right now.
This point of view on what meditation is really all about is taken by teachers such as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who says that meditation is not a “religious practice” at all, meaning its function is not to idealize or fantasize: “The practice of meditation is based not on how we would like things to be, but on what is.” Shamatha, says Rinpoche, should not be regarded as a dream-like reverie that takes us out of what’s actually happening around us: “Fixation or concentration tends to develop trance-like states. But from the Buddhist point of view, the point of meditation is . . . rather to sharpen perceptions, to see things as they are.”
From this perspective, meditation and retreat are not exceptional experiences we have in between the quotidian events that constitute our ordinary lives. They are meant to be like focusing lenses that teach us how to stay attentive to what’s going on in the ever-changing present.
Meditation here is regarded as a tool of discovery, not of improvement. In retreat, one then would spend time meditating not on what “should be” but on what is. Retreat thus becomes the training ground for living in reality, an exercise in blurring the very lines between “retreat” and “non-retreat.”
Ultimately, one might say, the purpose of meditation and retreat is learning how to deconstruct the categories of “meditator” or “retreatant” (and also “spiritual practitioner”). Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso Rinpoche imparts the following advice:
When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialized or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realize that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of mind, as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad.
Analogous to this understanding of meditation, the real point of going on retreat is not to enter some special time and place wholly different from your everyday life. To think about retreat otherwise - as a “sacred,” “set apart” period, radically divorced from your life “in the world” - maybe is not so different from the understanding of retreat www.luxuryretreats.com is offering.