| | Do you know what the retreat environment there is like? Is it a silent retreat, etc? Retreats can be tough. I remember at my first 10-day goenka retreat, talking with the other people before we started on the first day, how big of a deal we all thought it was to spend ten entire days in solitude and silence and doing hours of meditation every day. I guess all I mean is, if it's your first retreat ever, don't underestimate it! A whole month certainly is plenty of time to make good progress. People make good progress on 10 day retreats. It's more about how well you use your time - and on longer retreats, it's certainly possible to not practice as well as you would on a shorter one, if you don't know your hindrances well enough, or if it somehow feels you'll be there "forever" and thus be less motivated to really practice, etc.
So based on what you say, if this is your first retreat and there is a spanner in your original plans, then that's just totally fine, take the 1 month retreat and make the most of it (it's no small thing), and next time you get retreat time you'll have more experiences to take into consideration of how long your next retreat will be.
what i think* |