My god would be a cranky, genderless form in boots and overalls, saying things like "You have opposable thumbs and a brain; fix some shit and leave me alone for a while."

This. Oh my yes, this, so much.

These people are like Anya driving with emphatic gestures. People! Stop waving and start doing.

Grace! Oh what fun! Can I offer you more vitamins, Kat?

I could see wanting a retreat for a few months, or even a few years, to recover from a long period of performing actual, helpful service. One of my organization's projects involves helping to rebuild Southern Sudan's health care system. If Khartoum ends up being the bag of dicks I fear they'll be and blows up the peace agreement, I know a project manager who'll be very tempted to sit in full lotus and chant "om" for a long while. (He probably won't though--he'll just work twice as hard on our Tanzania projects.)

I think a balance between Getting Stuff Done and taking care of yourself so you remember why you're doing and can continue to do can be hard to strike. And mistaking the latter for the former doesn't strike me as particularly useful. Retreat4peace seems to be leaning way hard on the our peace = world peace side of things. It's probably no worse than spending the time and money on hookers and blow, but sanctimony is a particularly obnoxious drug to be around. Kind of like a meth lab, only less explosive.

a statement that the meditators had "exhausted all outer methods to fix the world"

Yeah, I haven't clicked through, but this statement seems exceedingly unlikely.

I guess my innate nature values practical, hands-on approaches to life and problems. And they aren't, I think, harming anyone. There are worse ways to check out of life for 3 years. I am so clearly not cut out to be a Buddhist!

I totally agree with this! One of the participants told my yoga teacher he was doing this because he felt spiritually bankrupt. Who am I to argue?

I get that need to recharge and figure some Shit Out. But that figuring out it selfish in the same way that my checking out for essentially 2 hours a day when I go to yoga is. There is so MUCH else I need to do and is productive. And the yoga thing is about me being a better person... it still feels pretty selfish. So checking out for 3 years is inconceivable.

AND the people who are doing this with a spouse. Three years in a small self made adobe without talking? I can't figure out if that is heaven or hell. They're going to be alone together!

Well, at least they`ll still have sex. Hee. I don`t know. I don`t want to knock the whole idea of retreating or of silence. And I`m for serious when I say I would love to do something like that. But I would be doing it because I wanted to, not so the world would be a better place when I got back.
 
That first group went in in 2000 and 9/11 happened while they were in there and they didn`t know. Was that world in 2003, one where we were again actively at war, a better world, a more peaceful world?
 
I think it can be done, but I guess I don`t like the elimination of stimuli as the only method for improving focus in meditation. It`s not my religious practice, so I don`t know from shit, but it seems like it would be a harder and better discipline to learn all those things while you knew what was going on. And at least one of the participants has elderly parents, and is concerned about their health. But the faq says participants generally elect not to hear personal news either, like a family member`s illness or death and I can`t get behind that either.
 
I guess at least prayer could be intercessory, so you`d be thinking of other people? I dunno, I left a church because they were too inwardly focused. I just think of Buddhism as I know it, and this is more woo woo than that. My mom`s whole side of the family is devoutly Buddhist and I can`t picture them doing anything like this.

I'm trying to work out why the retreat pings me as so privileged, when I knew a woman who quit her job after saving money and traveled around the world by herself for a year, on a shoestring. That's not something most people can afford to do, either, and she knew she was really fortunate to get to do it.

I guess it's the whole changing the world with their silence that seems so ... pretentious, to be honest.

I guess if you're going to commit to something that big, you're going to have to come up with a Big Reason to do it or you'll have to admit that it's an awful idea.

It's going to be LEGENDARY

Epic of epic epicness!

My god would be a cranky, genderless form in boots and overalls, saying things like "You have opposable thumbs and a brain; fix some shit and leave me alone for a while."

hee. I tend to think of God saying things like "fix some shit with me and then let's sing and dance, cause, well YAY FUN!"

I can TOTALLY see wanting to take a break from life and shut things out and just be. Shocking, I know. But 3 years of silence? yeah, no way. I tend more to an isolated cabin somewhere where I could farm a little and still have a kick-ass internet connection. what?

I guess it's the whole changing the world with their silence that seems so ... pretentious, to be honest.

This, for me. It's fine to say "I need three years of Me time to decompress" but claiming it's for the betterment of the outside world rather than for your personal benefit is frankly BS.