Meditation & Non-Duality Retreats Italy 2026
Non-Duality Retreats Piemonte | Self-Inquiry Workshops | Arts & Dance at Amiglia
“Our mind doesn’t know what is beyond. What is beyond knows our mind”
— Nisargadatta Maharaj
What is non-duality and what are the benefits of doing a non-duality retreat?
Non-duality literally means ‘not two’ — not you vs me, not good vs bad, not real vs unreal, and no past vs future. All that can be separated in two (or more) is changeable, is of this temporary life, of our limited mind, and ultimately not true. Our mind clings to stories of past and future, good and bad, it identifies with all that, and it wants to survive. Our mind is quite egocentric and doesn’t want to admit that it is identifying with wat is not really true. At the same time all the thoughts that our mind constantly produces often make us suffer. It’s our mind that wants things to be different from what they are, and well… things are never different from what they are. Through self-inquiry, meditation practice and even sharing community life, we come to understand (though not with our mind) that there is a deeper reality, a dimension of unchangeable being, oneness that cannot be questioned. No story, no identification, no body, just being. That is why the mantra I AM is often used in non-duality.
It’s important to realise that the ‘I’ in the mantra does not refer to the ‘I’ of a person (you or me) but to Being itself. Oneness.
A simple way to start meditating is by sitting in silence and replacing the endless thoughts in your mind - very normal for every human - by the mantra I AM. You can constantly repeat the words “I AM” — repeating is what you do with a mantra — or just go back to them when you notice your mind is wondering off again. Meanwhile you can focus on your breath, engaging your belly, and lengthening when you breathe out. Breathing in will happen naturally. Do this for ten minutes if you are new to this practice, and longer as you get more experience.
How we are inspired by Sufism
Sufis don’t refrain from calling Oneness (non-duality)Love. In a way Sufism is a softer and more poetic expression of non-duality. While non-duality is the basis of most spiritual traditions, it is not related to any religion. However, the mystical dimension of every religion resides in non-duality. In mysticism there is no room for rules or dogmas, let alone for distinguishing between right and wrong - it is the transcending of all that. The mystics want to dissolve as a person - burn if need be - to become no-body and thus unite with God. This is what they mean when they say ‘Die before you die’ - they want to give up any identification with the person and surrender totally to God’s will. We see this radical position in the dervishes who renounce worldly possessions and the more radical qalandar who even rejected social norms, and didn’t feel compelled to behave.
We are inspired by Sufism because it - as opposed to other more ascetic spiritual traditions - explicitly welcomes beauty, poetry and dancing as a way to dissolve ‘the person’ and transcend to the experience of Oneness.
The sun never says to the earth,
’You owe Me.’
Look what happens
with
A love like that,
It lights the Whole Sky.
All the rooms at Amiglia have names of poets, some of them Sufi. Ibn Arabi, Rabia al-Basri, Mary Oliver, Hafiz & Kahlil Gibran.
— Hafiz
Nobody’s Dance
The term Nobody’s Dance is used to refer to that state where you no longer identify with your person/body as something ultimately true. You surrender to a bigger knowing, a higher Self - that of Life itself - and allow that to express itself through your body. When we come to a state of self-realisation we don’t become some kind of neutral unemotional being. It’s just that we don’t want things to be different than they are. We become transparant and available for Life to dance through us.
Morning practice
We also use the term Nobody’s Dance to refer to our daily morning practice. Every day at 7:30 am we come together in our meditation hall for a morning meditation. First we do half an hour of free movement - the invitation is to feel free as a child and to allow movement to happen through your body - without thinking or anticipating. Remember it is not you moving, it’s you not stopping movement to happen. And sometimes no movement wants to happen, and that’s fine too of course. The invitation is to be present with what is.
After the active meditation - or call it conscious dancing - we do half an hour of silent meditation.
One intentional community
The morning practice is a moment to connect to each other beyond words and day-to-day life. We do it all eyes closed, we don’t use words, and stay in our own ‘bubble’. And yet at an almost subconscious level we remember that we are not separate, that our person/body is not what we ultimately are. They are an expression of the life source that is our true nature.
Zoe Joncheere about Uncover Your True Nature
Uncover Your True Nature
We believe that it is possible to uncover, or remember, our true nature. And we also believe that Amiglia is a wonderful community and retreat center to help you do so. The sessions Zoe offers during an Uncover Your True Nature retreat help you go deep into your self-inquiry and adopt a very effective meditation practice. But next to that, simply sharing daily life at Amiglia makes you realise how easy it is to live naturally - how inspiring it is to live in an intentional community.
A place for art and artistic research
Amiglia is a place that cherishes art and an artistic approach to life in general. We love the way of the artist: observing and questioning and making new associations, allowing creative life force to express itself through us.
Artists in residence
Amiglia welcomes artists-in-residence, artists in need of time and space to focus on their research, and artists who actually want to create pieces of art. The space we have, inside and outside, the casual and possibly cross-fertilising meetings with other people, and the experience of being carried by the community, help to sustain artists in their focus.
Artists in residence can by visual artists, writers, dancers, musicians…
Weeks for artists and everyone interested in artistic exploration
We also organize weeklong workshops in collaboration with carefully selected artists. The workshops will usually revolve around a theme that is explored through questions and invitations. The art-making that we appreciate is conceptual and contemporary in the sense that we are less interested in producing pieces of art as a way to keep ourselves busy, and strive to research and create as a way to deepen our understanding of ourselves and the nature of reality.
“A creative person is one who has insight, who can see things nobody else has ever seen before, who hears things that nobody has heard before—then there is creativity.”
Study of the windows of Amiglia by Mathilde van Beekhuizen, in preparation of the Inhabiting retreat