Vision Quest _ August 2021 _ MAPLE Monastic Academy + Darren Silver
After going through the Vision Quest (VQ) I shared with family and friends about the experience. Being immersed in a spiritual community, where Vision Quests are part of the culture, I sometimes forget that the things I do here are radically different than what a lot of people experience, or can even imagine.
Taking this for granted, I shared with them thinking that they would be able to easily relate to what an extraordinary opportunity this was for me, and that I would easily be able to communicate the deep spiritual breakthroughs that I experienced during the quest. I was wrong. Only after the fact did I realize that I was not able to skillfully communicate the significance of the VQ, nor the rationale for it.
My inability to clearly communicate this frustrated me and led me to vow to write a series of posts sharing my experience on the VQ and to more intentionally share my experiences here at the monastery through a blog. And, this, is the start of that.
The VQ is deeply ingrained in the training culture here at MAPLE Monastic Academy. It is a sacred undertaking that has been practiced in various cultures for centuries. The particular VQ that we experienced here at MAPLE was not rooted in any single cultural lineage, it was rather comprised from pieces of various cultures that our guide, Darren Silver, has trained in throughout his life.
My intention for this series is to share about the significance of the VQ and to share the direct experiences and insights that I had while on the quest. The series will be emergent, and in addition to sharing about the VQ, it will serve as a means for me to further process my experience.
Table of Contents:
- Article 1 — What is a Vision Quest?
- Article 2 — What the Vision Quest Taught me About my Meditation Practice (in progress)
- Article 3 — Cultivating Relationships (coming soon)
- Article 4 — Practices and Rituals (in progress)
- Article 5 — Finding my Intention (coming soon)
- Article 6 — Poetry from the Quest
- Article 7— Moments of Clarity (coming soon)
- Article 8 — Assorted Stories (coming soon)
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Dan Rudolph is currently a resident at MAPLE Monastic Academy. You can get in touch and/or learn more about his professional background here.
