VIRTUAL RETREAT

I've been thinking about travelling, moving, going somewhere.  Perhaps it was the long weekend in the U.S. just past and all the people making one last trip somewhere before school starts (if it hasn't already) and there is no time.

Time. 
I have all the time in the world, I think (one never knows).  And I'm thinking about retreats.  Those places you go to where you study, read, meditate, go inside and learn something about something that is nagging at you.

I'm taking a virtual retreat.  You can do it, too, without leaving home.  Just pick a place and go there in your mind.

This virtual retreat is to a place I have physically visited, so I have memories of walking the wooded paths and climbing the hills and looking out over the forest from the top steps of the meditation hall. 

Come with me. 
Since it's a virtual retreat, I can take as many of you with me as want to go.

Here's where we'll be staying.  A tiny cabin on the side of a mountain (I hope you don't walk in your sleep or you'll go right off the back porch and into the ravine).

Here, we have everything we need and nothing more.  Your job is to sit in silence, meditate, walk, listen to the sounds of the forest around you.  Begin to hear the inner voice you've silenced with t.v., music, reading, talking on the phone, etc.  Become aware of the silence and be unafraid.

Here is what we'll take to read and study.  Each day will begin with a reading from this wonderful book by Zen Master Dae Gak (from Furnace Mountain Retreat Center in southwestern Kentucky), and a meditation on the reading.

Then a cup of tea, a piece of fruit, and a walking meditation.  What will we hear today?  How deep will be our listening practice?

Come along with me.  Relax...breathe...listen.

The day is perfect for a virtual retreat.