Meditation Vacation

I ventured into a five-day silent retreat with Philip Starkman and Jim Bedard, a couple of Toronto-area Buddhist practitioners who lead the well-respected SpringrainSangha. The retreat was held at the rustic Dharma Centre of Canada.

If you thought the hard part would be not talking for five days, that turned out to be a breeze. The organizers set up a number of other challenges and obstacles to take your mind off the silence, and to totally erase any worries you might have left behind in your city/work life.

In the three hours or so of spoken-word orientation on Thursday evening, I was given a daunting schedule of meditation, sent to a cabin far away from the main centre and the bath house, and assigned a set of daily chores.

The chores were my big hindrance. The were supposed to take about an hour, from 11 am until 12 noon, but my assignment spread out over many hours as they involved laundry and vacuuming – difficult chores that involved working around other peoples' schedules.

There was lots else to focus on... here's a sample of the daily routine:

• 5 a.m. Wake up
• 5 to 6 a.m. Walking meditation
• 6 to 7 a.m. Pranayama, chanting, sitting meditation
• 7 to 7:45 Walking meditation
• 7:45 to 8:30 Sitting meditation....

.... and that's just before breakfast. A packed schedule like this leaves very little time for idle thought or worry, and that’s the part I enjoyed the most. Busy, busy, busy … just taking care of basics.

One day it was just so beautiful, I sat out a session to sit in the sun and lazed about for an hour. We had 5 glorious days of warm November weather, with brilliant skies at night to see a full sky of stars and even one shooting star.

Highlights:

Learned something. The meditation focused on Metta practice, one of the essential teachings of the Buddha and something that had been quite challenging for me. Still is, but came away with some solid techniques and a better understanding of the work.

Detoxed. The first couple of days were a mental “detox” and I eliminated some bad habits and thoughts.

Ate well. Physical detox was speeded along by the fine food, and by eating only twice a day. Have been trying to follow a new diet the past couple of months, the alkalizing foods diet, and the vegetarian meals at the Dharma Centre were superb. Taught me that bland eating can be fun, if the basic ingredients are well-chosen.

Meditated well. This was the first time I meditated in a public place without coughing or interruption. The meditation temple was clean and well lit. Such a relief not to be in a moldy church basement.

Made new friends. Not sure if I’ll ever see them again, but it was nice to see new faces and bond with people in unique and non-verbal ways.

Faced fears. I was afraid of a lot of things, like getting too deep into “cultish” life and not being able to get back out. It was like getting to my cabin a half-mile in the woods each night in the dark – and out again in the morning, again in the dark. (They called this cabin setting “The Hermitage” -- see picture at right -- but it was more like “Blair Witch Project.”) I did it – up and down to the cabin, in and out of the meditations. There is always a return.

I was also quite fearful of Metta – my prejudices were that this ‘lovingkindness’ side of meditation was the 'sucky' side of Buddhism. I opened my heart to the practice and dropped some of my defences to what is an essential practice.

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SpringrainSangha