Retreat highlights
I want to extend my appreciation to Wen and Jemma for hosting a fantastic meditation retreat!
Activities were well-balanced between meditation, chanting, teachings, and time for relaxation. The meditations (a 3-4 hour combination of standing and seated per day) offered an opportunity to deepen my practice, as I rarely would spend more than 1-2 hours in meditation on my own. When so much more time is spent in meditation, physical or emotional issues invariably arise for purification. Standing meditations were particularly intense for me during the retreat, with numerous sweaty releases. After going home, my seated meditation next morning felt quite deep and there was a sense of so much light, pleasant energy in the body in the evening that I couldn't sleep more than 3 hours (and I'm not even tired - sure it will catch up later :-) I'll try to maintain this momentum by sitting with another group today that I've been meditating with on a weekly basis for a few years. The group environment and periodically pushing one self to sit longer are the single two most effective ways I know to grow spiritually.
The part that surprised me was the sheer amount of joy inherent in the morning chanting and the teachings. Chanting the compassion mantra as a group created a great amount of energy that really gets you going in the morning! It is also a way to build concentration because it's fast and in Sanskrit, so you learn to focus fast (or you completely miss the boat :-). The teachings were precious in that they came directly from Master Haikong. In addition to the provocative and thought-provoking content of the two dharma talks, Wen's presence and wisdom is palpable and touches me in ways that can better be sensed than described in words.
I've attended a lot of retreats over the years and would rank this one as solid in terms of the depth of the teachings and opportunity for practice. The group environment enables you to accomplish more than you could possibly ever do on your own. To those of you who are considering a retreat, perhaps we'll meet at the next one!
