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“What we call “I” is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale” (Suzuki Roshi)
In our practice we will experience ups and downs. Easily we go into comparisons of right and wrong, of good and bad. The storm in the mind feels very real, we are fascinated by it, become attached to it. We begin to fabricate a story, which becomes our perceived reality and starts to rule our life. We have fallen prey to the choosing mind, the limited mind.
“Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject that we don’t see the true nature of things” (from the Hsing Shin Ming Sutra)
The movements of the mind are like the waves of the ocean, they rise and
fall and eventually return to the stillness and vastness of its depth.
The ocean’s essential peace is not disturbed by those waves, neither
is the essential peace and clarity of our mind. Through watching those
waves with equanimity, without rejecting nor grasping, we will enter that
clarity and spaciousness.
Through the practice of mindfulness we enter the beginners mind, the mind
of openness, of boundless space and all possibilities.
I look forward to continuing our practice together in 2008 focusing on simplicity and ease through non-judgemental awareness and allowing our activities of body, speech and mind to come from a place of ease and spaciousness.
New Format:
We all know the feeling that by the end of a three day retreat we have come to a place of ease and are ready to enter more deeply into the practice. I have therefore added an extra two days at the end of the 3-day retreats to give those who wish and are able to stay on, the opportunity to deepen their practice.