“A retreat centre is an environment dedicated to concentrating one’s energies and directing them towards the attainment of higher states of awareness and more positive and refined emotion”.

“It may take a little time to adjust to the absence of distraction to which you are accustomed in everyday life, but as you get used to it, your state of mind becomes much more concentrated, even blissful, just through simplifying your sensory impressions and cutting down on the activities through which your energy is usually frittered away”.

Taken from:  Sangharakshita (2003). Living with awareness. Windhorse Publications.