Post Retreat

Feels like a long time since I last wrote but it has only been 2 weeks. The retreat at Tushita, by the end of it, was a great experience. Oh course as some of you will know, you go though difficult time wrestling with the body’s aches and pains because it does not want to sit still 8 to 10 hours a day and the mind always wanders to the past and the future and defy all efforts to stay focused on the present, but this is how I goes. Retreat is never easy in the beginning, so where these great notions come from of attaining tranquility just because you sit on a meditation cushion is a mystery. It was only on the last few days, after perseverance and effort you can get a small incline of inner peace. So what did we all do for 12 days you may wonder? There were 21 of us on the retreat, we stayed in silence for the duration and did meditations on the Buddhist path such as examining the nature of the human condition, (which in general sucks) but that went hand in hand with the development of kindness and compassion. We also spent some time on and developing an appreciation for the fact that we can practice to perfect the mind. We also did meditations on death and meditations on the Buddhist doctrine of the nature of all phenomena, i.e. empty of inherent existence and dependently arisen. Our day started at 5am and we did four 2 hours per day and if we wanted to do a fifth session that we could do that on the 3 hour lunch break. To start with I was so sluggish and my mind filled with distraction and anger but by the fifth day I needed less sleep, less food and the mind had calmed down. The practice was beautiful and it was so good to sit with a group of people who are also attempting to travel the Tibetan Buddhist path, especially since I had felt very alone in my Buddhist practice in Washington DC.  So I feel rejuvenated, more open hearted, re-focused on the important things in life and very enthusiastic to continue with the practice. I have to give a huge thank you so everyone on the retreat because without everyone being there it would never have happened, to Andy who lead the retreat and to everyone at Tushita for all their work in setting up the retreat and looking after all of us so well.