A Beginner’s Guide to Dark Retreat with Andrew Holecek

A Beginner’s Guide to Dark Retreat with Andrew Holecek

From Tricycle Talks by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

May 13, 2026 · 48 min

About this episode

Andrew Holecek discusses the transformative practice of dark retreat and its impact on our relationship with ourselves and the world.

Andrew Holecek is an author and spiritual teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and he leads seminars and retreats on meditation, dream yoga, and death and dying. For the past thirty years, he has been engaging in a form of esoteric practice known as dark retreat. In his new book, Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation, he lays out a comprehensive introduction to the practice of dark retreat and how it can utterly transform our relationship to ourselves and our world. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Holecek to discuss what exactly a dark retreat is, why he views dark retreat as the most transformative practice he’s done, how spending time in darkness can help us recover a lost way of seeing, and what the darkness can teach us about our unconscious mind. Plus, Holecek offers practical guidelines for starting a dark retreat practice at home.

People in this episode

Host: James Shaheen

Guest: Andrew Holecek

Topics covered

  • dark retreat
  • Tibetan Buddhism
  • meditation
  • dream yoga
  • transformation
  • unconscious mind

Keywords

  • dark retreat
  • Andrew Holecek
  • Tibetan Buddhism
  • meditation
  • transformation
  • unconscious mind
  • dream yoga

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

Books & works: Total Eclipse of the Mind: Unleashing the Power of Darkness for Creativity, Healing, and Transformation

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