Actually, in our community we sit “facing in,” that is we sit in meditation facing into the center of the room rather than toward the walls which is the more normative form for Soto Zen groups. Still, the real facing is toward the mind. And for seven days featuring a tad more than nine hours a day of seated meditation doing that facing – there’s a tonic for what ails!
We met once again at Senexet House retreat center in Woodstock, CT. Although with numbers that reached thirty-six at peak we’ve pushed beyond the capacity of that center and are negotiating to move elsewhere for Rohatsu (our December three-day retreat).
These days my retreat practice includes more time sitting in the dokusan room (the interview room) meeting with students than time sitting alone with who I am. Let me hasten to add it remains a lively practice. For one thing, when I’m just sitting (that’s Zen lingo) if I decide to slump mentally, the immediate consequences are only my loss. But, when I’m in the teacher’s seat, to slump is to betray the trust of another person at that very moment. So, I’ve felt pretty lively, pretty pushed for the last week.
Of course this means there’s not a lot to comment on about the details of what’s happened in the world at large this past week, other than to remember the cause of our problems, individually and collectively come from our endless greed, hatred & ignorance. And we all really had lots of opportunities to see what that means: those constellations of grasping, those constellations of aversion, and pesky, pesky, those constellations of certainty: each me as intimate as can be, weaving together, now this the larger thread, now that. Truly the endless source of hurt in the world.
Fortunately as we all were able to bring them with us into our retreat there was no missing the real stuff that was happening outside. And this exercise came with added benefit. While allowing ourselves the opportunity to at the very least face the monsters of our own lives, there was also an invitation to something more. For many of us for precious moments at a time, we were able to see through our grasping, aversion and certainties to the other facets of who we are: those constellations of generosity, clarity and curiosity which appear when we pay attention. Cool stuff…
And, there was that other possibility for our seeing intimately. Everthing is grounded in the great sea of mind. That just sitting thing, whether found through the practices of shikantaza or koan introspection (or elsewhere) is more than worth the price of admission. It reveals the great field out of which arises our various states, good, ill and indifferent.
And, actually, it is in finding this we discover our real life, and our real way through.
At least that’s my experience.
Really, a lovely thing: Zen retreats.
I recommend them to all.
(Pictures to follow)
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