“This is the moment of embarking.
All auspicious signs are in place.”
– Ming-Dao Deng
Come in…welcome to the living zen retreat. 31 days of living zen.
This evening, I simply want to invite you in, and for you to begin to contemplate why you wish to do retreat, of any kind?
What do you need, that you can’t find without retreat?
In truth…nothing. That’s the case for me too.
Yet, here we are. You asked for a retreat, and I am opening my door to you. Actually, I am going to help you open your own door, to your own truth.
“I have lived on the lip of insanity,
wanting to know reasons,
knocking on a door.
It opens.
I've been knocking from the inside.”
– Rumi
Seriously, do you think that what you are seeking is anywhere to be found, outside of you? Do you not think that by now, if it could be found in one single place, that there would not be a very long queue forming? I know, because I looked for it for long enough, in all the wrong places.
Whether you believe the door will simply swing unexpectedly open in the breeze, or a hefty kick, I am here to help. Because that door, is already open, and you are already inside, just as Rumi says in the quote above. My wish is to help you see that.
If there was one thing I asked you to do today, it is this…to sit down, somewhere quiet if you can, but if you’re on the tube, sitting in your car in traffic, or still at your desk, that’s fine too, and contemplate.
Contemplate:
“What do I need, that I can’t find, right now, without a retreat? What’s missing?”
Contemplate this for a moment, for 10 or 20 minutes. But contemplate it you must. Because you need to be doing the living zen retreat for the right reason. Because this is living zen.
If you wake in the night, contemplate it. When you wake in the morning, contemplate it some more.
And tomorrow, we’ll meet in the light of this question, and your findings.
ANDO / LIVING ZEN RETREAT / DAY 1 / MONDAY 6 JANUARY 2014, 19:55.