Yogi: The difficulty is not that there is no structure in this retreat, but that it includes other activities – walking outside, talking, reading or drinking tea. These daily activities are often excluded in an intensive retreat.

Sayadaw: When our activities are limited externally in a retreat, it feels more peaceful and when we have more activities, when there are more choices, it feels like there is more busy-ness in life. But that is what life is like.

With the purpose of training the mind to be mindful at home, we practice that here at the retreat – not training to be peaceful but to be mindful.