I was happy to volunteer to help keep going a diary series that has become very dear to the DailyKos community. Subbing for PastorDan in August was a great experience. Too often in our busy lives, the "spiritual" side of us takes a back seat to our day - to - day rushing about with families, jobs, responsibilities, etc. Tonight, I'd like to talk about an activity that is common in many Buddhist traditions, including the one in which I practice, that helps us go back to the not - so - simple question(s) that we all ask at one time or another in our lives: Who am I? Why am I here? Tonight, I'm going to talk about retreats.
Quoting directly from the Indianapolis Zen Center (the center where I practice & am a dharma teacher) website,
Yong Maeng Jong Jin, or simply YMJJ retreats, are silent retreats in which participants follow a schedule of bowing, sitting, chanting, eating, working, and resting with an emphasis on sitting meditation. During the retreat each participant typically has interviews with a Zen Master or Ji Do Poep Sa Nim. These retreats are an excellent opportunity to clear the mind of habitual thinking and generate energy to practice in everyday life.
These retreats at the Indianapolis Zen Center are usually 3 days long; they can be as long as a week or even 3 months in other Kwan Um Zen centers. They begin bright & early at 6 am with 108 full prostrations and end at approximately 9:15 pm. All day long, the activity is SILENT alternating periods of 30 minutes of sitting meditation and 10 minutes of walking meditation except when we eat our silent ritualistic 4 - bowl vegetarian meals.
In a society & culture in which we are so used to instant gratification, giving up the "comforts" of television, cell phones, computers, and heck, even TALKING can be a difficult thing - especially in the middle of the afternoon when your knees start to hurt, your quads start to hurt, your back starts to hurt, and there is seemingly absolutely no comfortable meditation posture. Your mind can begin to go to the darndest places! You think about the first time you went to a dance, that co - worker that really pi$$ed you off the other day, etc. During part of one retreat, I replayed The Jerk in my head.
But, for all the pain, discomfort, and boredom, this time is a great time to observe how our minds work & to pay attention. And, once the pain goes away, and I get back to my spouse & my "life," I can look at the things & people around me with a little more clarity without all the "baggage" of preconceived notions or opinions about how things or people "should be."
You do not have to sit a retreat, you do not have to be Buddhist, you do not have to subscribe to any religious and/or philosophical tradiation whatsoever to practice this mindfulness & to pay attention. During quiet times in your daily life - we ALL have a few minutes in our day - simply pay attention to your breathing, pay attention to the sights, noises, smells, etc. that are around you all the time but barely notice. If we can do this simple (not necessarily easy) thing, those questions I posed above can be a little more clear, and what you can do to ease the suffering you see around you will be more clear, too. These moments of "clarity" will come & go; we are human after all, but trying is the important thing.