Transcription
[24:53]
I'd also very much like to extend my welcome to everybody here. Welcome to this retreat, and welcome to Gaia House. Just to pick up a little bit and follow on what Catherine said, it's -- well, I don't know; I would think that everyone here, everyone in this room right now, actually does have an awareness, does have a sense, of the preciousness of the opportunity. Just as Catherine was speaking and throwing these questions out -- "What am I doing here? What do I want? What's important?" -- and just to have a week dedicated to asking those questions, to clearing the space, clearing the environment, inner and outer, that we have the opportunity to ask those questions in a sustained, focused, clear, silent way -- it's a very precious opportunity. It's not something that's available to all of humanity, even if they would want to make it available to themselves. It's something important to reflect and, in a way, draw close to that sense of preciousness.
We come with intentions, with noble intentions, with beautiful intentions. Sometimes they're clear to us, our intentions: "I want to explore this. I'm curious about that. I want to open this, or this I would like to let go of," whatever. And sometimes they're not so clear. It's more that the heart feels a yearning, a vague pulling, a vague spark. That's okay either way. But we come driven by our intentions, and that's a very powerful and beautiful thing. Intentions, like all things, come and go. They come and go. So we, maybe, in this moment, and as Catherine was asking the question, maybe some people in the room feel very fired up with that, very alive to the sense of what the intentionality is, very present with that, very clear. There's a sense of vitality there, a sense of connection there. Maybe not. Maybe we're tired. Maybe we've had too much pressure recently, whatever it is.
So the sense of intention and the energy behind it comes and goes, it ebbs and flows, like all things. Even if we feel on fire tonight with that, even if that's the case, there will come a point -- probably at some point tomorrow -- where it's kind of not so present. And then it comes back, and it goes. One really important thing about intention is its impermanence, its fluctuating nature, its ebb and flow. And a beautiful thing is that we can nourish our connection with the life of our deep intentionality. We can take care of that the way we would tend a garden. We can address its needs. We can do what we can to support the sense of connection with it, the clarity about it, the energy behind it.
Partly that's what a retreat is. This whole environment that we sort of walk into, very carefully kind of tailored and set up and thought about, reflected upon, so that we all can devote ourselves as fully as possible to the depth of our intention and the realization and the connection with our intention. So everything about the retreat is kind of in the service of that. There are three things in particular I just briefly want to touch on that really support the life of our intentionality.
The first one is the silence. So for almost everyone here, it's not your first retreat, and you have some familiarity with the silence. It can be that silence has grown to be, over the years of practice, or maybe it was immediately, something that we're in love with. There's a sense of beauty and depth and mystery in silence that just embraces the heart, calls the heart, calls the being at a very deep level. And for others, it's a little more daunting. It feels a little more oppressive, a little more awkward, a little bit weird why all these people would be sitting together and not talking to each other. Or for others, it's just a kind of rule that we're supposed to get by with for a week. But really not to underestimate the power of the silence. There's immense potential transformative power in the silence.
So as much as we give a lot of detailed attention to the meditation instructions and the techniques and the art and craft of meditation, part of the art, we could say, of meditation, is this surrendering to silence -- so powerful, and so easy for us to overlook it. Silence is one of the things that allows our sense of intentionality to grow and settle in its most natural place. So what is deeply important to us can kind of show itself in the silence. It's one of the functions of silence. All the things, many of the things that we get so caught up with in life, are actually not what we most deeply care about. How easy it is to move through life, through the days, through the months, through the years, with a lot of our energy and time spent chasing things, fixing things, doing things that we don't deeply care about. And sometimes, within that, to get confused or a little unsure about what we deeply care about, a little disconnected from that. It's one of the functions of silence to reconnect us with that.
So there's a real preciousness, also, in silence. It's quite rare for people to be able, for human beings to be able to find this kind of space of silence, a week of silence. Quite a rare opportunity in the busyness, the noise of our usual lives. A real encouragement to really give yourself fully to the silence, this retreat, on all kinds of levels. Just maintaining silence, just keeping silence, one is supporting one's own practice but also supporting everyone else's practice here. You will see, and many of you know, as the days go by, the silence gets more palpable, more tangible. It's almost thick, the silence. There's something there that's supporting practice very deeply. If you and I give ourselves, surrender to the silence, we're actually supporting that happening for everyone, supporting that to be available for everyone.
There's just the keeping of the silence; there's also the possibility of actually listening to silence. That quality -- it's an absence, in a way, at one level. We talk, as I said, a lot about meditation practice. What would it be to just open the being to the quality of silence, and just listen, and let it embrace, surrender to it?
Sometimes, as I said, it can feel a bit disconnected socially for all these people, all of us to be together and not really talk much. Yet, if we do allow the being to open to the silence, to be held in the silence, one can begin to open to a sensitivity, and actually feel a whole other kind of connection running in and through the silence. We're with each other in the silence, feeling each other, sensing each other, supporting each other in the silence. And it does, as I said, silence has this incredible power to transform the heart and the life. Incredible power.
It starts with this agreement, this noble silence. Some of you, or many of you, actually, will be sharing rooms. And if it turns out that you are in a room with a friend, please, together, to agree to keep the silence of the retreat, this noble silence, until the end. Or if you haven't said "hello" to your roommate, just introduce yourself, and then to keep [silence]. There will be a chance to talk at the end of the retreat.
I guess, over the recent months and years, it's become more and more evident that, for many people on retreat, the silence doesn't seem to extend to the mobile phone. And so, please, please, please, please, please, every encouragement to just turn it off. Just really turn it off. And either bury it in the bottom of your suitcase, or give it to the managers if you really don't feel that you can get through seven days without the mobile phone. It's possible that there will be a Mobile Anonymous soon. It's almost in the culture that it's something we can't do without. Whether it's actually speaking or texting, on the grounds or off the grounds, some of you may have an emergency situation at home or a relative that's ill or a partner or whatever, and if there is an emergency situation, either you could give the information to the managers, the phone number, etc., and they will contact you immediately when they hear anything, or, if you need to check your mobile, please go off the grounds and do it just a little.
But if that isn't going on, please, just turn it off. All I can say is it can seem like it's really not a big deal. It seems like, "Well, what difference does it make? I'm mostly quiet, yet I'm doing a little texting or checking my messages or whatever." If it seems like that, all I can really say is you don't know what you're missing. You don't know what you're missing. There's something that runs through the silence that is worth so much more than just kind of being in contact in the ways that we're used to for a few days. So please, please, please, please, please, do that.
So the silence is one thing that we really support each other with. Also an encouragement to, in a way, surrender to a quality of simplicity. So this quality of simplicity also very much supports our intention, supports the depth, the clarity of our lovely and noble intentions. It's a time of year when not many people are -- well, some of you may have two weeks off or something, but if there is a piece of business or something that you need to clear tonight, please do that tonight, and just take care of it tonight. And then, similarly with the silence, just to give yourself to that quality of simplicity. Everything's taken care of here -- the food, the room; you know what you're supposed to be doing at any time of the day. Very, very simple. So to surrender to the simplicity, to the schedule.
One of the attractions of this kind of tradition, the Insight Meditation tradition, for a lot of people is the simplicity. We talk a lot about bare attention, simplicity of connection, of mindfulness. Let that simplicity run deep. What would that be? In that and through that simplicity, it's as if we can draw closer to life, become more intimate with ourselves and with our experience. That's one of the most profoundly precious things about this kind of practice. In that intimacy, in that closeness, what might flower? What might emerge?
So the silence, the simplicity. The third thing is the precepts, which I think a manager mentioned. I'm just going to briefly go through them again. We have five guidelines that really help our being here together as a community of practitioners, so that we can be here in an environment of trust, of openness, of safety, so that we can create together a situation where we don't have to be on our guard, we don't have to watch out, we don't have to wonder what someone might be up to behind our backs. There's a sense that the heart can let go, can open, because there's trust here. Really, really crucial.
Just to run through them briefly again:
(1) The precept not to harm, including other living beings, insects. To try to refrain from harming and killing other living beings.
(2) To try to not take what is not given. Again, everything is provided for here. Everything is taken care of. If there's something you need, just to contact a coordinator, a manager.
(3) The third one is around sexual activity. Outside of retreat, it just means to take care to treat our sexuality with respect and reverence, so that the way we are sexually is not abusive in any way. We're not taking advantage in any way. On the context of this retreat, it's to refrain from any intentional sexual activity. It's just, again, it's just simple. It's just simple for a week. It's not to say there's anything wrong with that at all. It's not to say that sexual feelings might not come up, and that's all part of our being human, one of the lovely parts of being human. But just for the sake of the safety, the simplicity, the ease of allowing ourselves to go deep, to commit to a week of intentional abstinence.
(4) The fourth precept has to do with speech, and outside of retreat life it means to endeavour not to lie, not to speak harshly, not to gossip, and not to engage in idle chatter. Again, very simple. On this retreat, it will mostly be the noble silence. It just takes care of what's, for most people, the most difficult precept. Just putting it aside, and just give ourselves to the silence.
(5) And the last one, the fifth one has to do with intoxicants and substances that cloud the mind. So to really reflect: how much clarity and how much sensitivity we need to do a practice like this. This kind of practice is about clarity. It's about sensitivity. They're indispensable kind of ingredients, what we need. So to support that, and again, to support the mutual respect, the mutual care, the mutual safety of the community together for a week, we just, again, totally abstain from any substances like alcohol or drugs for the week.
To see these precepts as really expressions of love -- to oneself and to everybody here; actually, to humanity; of respect and of care and of supporting each other's practice. Something very beautiful can be allowed here through our, together, committing to those precepts, those ethical guidelines.
Okay, so that's all I want to say tonight. And also just to wish you a very lovely retreat, a very fruitful retreat.
[41:38]
