The Joy That Makes the Path Possible – Retreat & Non-Duality

A few days before the retreat, I felt something different.

A soft yet deep intuition, like a silent certainty: this group… it’s going to be special.

A joy without reason began to fill me.

Not the excitement of what was to come,

but that living peace that always precedes miracles,

that quiet knowing that everything is already fulfilled,

that the meeting has already happened somewhere within the heart.

And I wasn’t wrong.

From the very first moments, a subtle magic began to weave itself.

Some groups come to heal,

others to understand,

others simply to breathe.

Each one is welcomed exactly where they are, without expectation or demand.

But this time, it was something else.

There was a rare openness in the air.

Hearts ready to open.

Souls ready to recognize themselves.

During this retreat, there weren’t two facilitators, there were sixteen.

Every gaze, every embrace, every silence carried the presence of Christ within,

that shared awareness that knows giving and receiving are the same.

There are groups you feel so deeply connected to,

so naturally turned toward one another.

And yet, we realized together, it wasn’t “the other.”

It was the Self, seen through a thousand faces.

As the Ayahuasca tradition says so beautifully:

“Sanas tú, sano yo.”

When you heal, I heal.

Because there is no separation.

During the integrations, several people shared this same experience:

that with each release, each tear, each purge,

it felt as if the whole group was breathing again.

The pain of one became the healing of all.

The miracle of one quietly radiated through everyone.

And this is where non-duality ceases to be a concept, it becomes experience.

It’s not that “we are one,”

but that everything is one single movement of consciousness

recognizing itself through countless forms.

When I believe the other bothers me, drains me, or steals my energy,

I’m only reinforcing the idea that we are separate.

But when I remember I am only looking at another part of myself,

a dream, a reflection, a memory waiting to be loved,

everything softens.

There are no others.

There is only You, in different forms,

remembering Love.

Difference is only an effect of perspective,

born of the need to feel special, distinct, unique.

But as the light of joy expands, that illusion loses its power.

We no longer try to be “spiritual people.”

We no longer try to “succeed” on the path.

We simply allow ourselves to be loved.

The Joy That Moves Everything

Not the loud or euphoric kind of joy,

but that vibrant peace that knows everything is already fulfilled,

even in moments of sadness.

We often try to “awaken,” to “purify,” to “transcend,”

as if God, Love itself, were waiting for a performance from us.

But Truth has nothing to prove.

It doesn’t ask us to become something else,

only to remember.

And in that remembrance, there is laughter,

the laughter of God,

not mocking, but joyfully recognizing the dream.

That laughter arises when we realize how seriously we’ve taken ourselves,

how much we’ve believed in our fears, our wounds, our dramas,

when in truth, none of it has ever altered what we are.

Joy is that inner laughter,

that lightness that rises when we stop defending illusion.

It requires nothing, corrects nothing,

it simply reveals that everything is already forgiven.

And when joy settles in, resistance melts on its own.

There is no more need to strive,

only a soft receptivity,

a childlike trust.

A Path Without Effort

What I witnessed during this retreat was this simple truth:

when joy is present, the path becomes effortless.

Everything reorganizes itself without our control.

Insights arise naturally, releases happen without drama,

hearts open without being pushed.

Joy is not naïveté,

it’s the sign that Spirit is leading the dance.

It is born the moment we stop believing we must “do” something

to deserve peace.

It appears as soon as we agree not to know,

not to control,

and allow Life to breathe through us.

That is the true practice,

not fighting our thoughts,

not hunting the ego,

but resting in gentle trust

in what has already been accomplished.

One Light

When I think back on this group,

I see sixteen faces, sixteen mirrors,

and in truth, only one light.

A light discovering itself through each of us,

shining in different forms,

yet vibrating with the same Love.

Some needed to cry, others to laugh, others to be silent.

But all, at the core, were serving the same movement,

the call to remembrance.

And that’s where everything makes sense:

there are no teachers and students,

no facilitators and participants.

There is only Love teaching itself

through those who have forgotten

and those who remember.

We are both, at every moment.

And What If Joy Were Our Highest Prayer?

It needs no words.

It expects no result.

It is pure offering, pure presence.

And when it moves through us, the world changes without our effort —

because in truth, there has never been a world to change,

only a mind to recognize as innocent.

That is the joy I saw, felt, and breathed throughout this retreat.

The joy that makes the path possible,

because it is the path itself.

The joy that reminds us, in the silence,

that everything is already fulfilled. 🌿

A huge thank you to all our brothers and sisters,

to those from this last retreat

and to those from all the ones before.

Through each of your gazes, your sharings, your silences,

the memory of Unity opened once again.

Together, we lift the veils of separation.

Together, we remember what we have never stopped being:

one Mind, one Light, a thousand faces of the same Love.

Thank you for your presence, for your courage,

for the sincerity with which you offered everything,

your tears, your laughter, your resistances, your impulses.

Each moment shared was a living prayer,

one more step toward recognizing the Joy that we are. 🌿