Dawning of Clear Light: A Western Approach to Tibetan Dark Retreat Meditation

Retreats in darkness have been used by all the great spiritual traditions for thousands of years as a method for tapping deep clarity, accessing sacred wisdom, connecting with the Divine, and training to transform the mind/body system into a manifestation of wisdom. In dark retreat, the practitioner lives in complete darkness—eating, sleeping, meditating, and simply existing in a world without external light.

Traditionally, in Tibet, dark retreats were performed by monks as part of their tra...