Location, location, meditation
I started writing this post a week after returning from a meditation retreat at Vajraloka retreat centre in N. Wales. However, that was about 6 weeks ago and of course my experience and thoughts now are slightly different … so I’m starting over. Well, in the spirit of the retreat, I guess I’d have to say my experience will have changed again by the time I have finished typing this, which raises another question entirely about the nature of this sort of online diary type stuff…. but not one I’m going to go into now [collective relief!].
The retreat was Tejananda’s ‘Entering Pure Awareness’ and it was the first time I had been on a retreat where formless meditation of this type was taught. Although the retreat was billed as ‘open/mixed’ there were a lot of dharmacharinis on it - probably more than 10! Well, I suppose we were mixed….. I certainly was. It was the first time I had ever been to Vajraloka and I had to reassess my view of where the back of beyond is, because I think Vajraloka is much closer to it than Tiratanaloka. It is in a fabulous location, with the community house sort of clinging to the side of a hill and ever-changing light and weather moving into the valley beyond. The team couldn’t have been more welcoming and my sense of the retreat was one of formal practice carried out in an informal and relaxed atmosphere (mostly in silence, apart from meditation teaching, interviews and ritual). I enjoyed Tejananda’s teaching style very much - clear and somehow light. Well, that’s been the easy bit to write about…. the more I try and put into words the actual effect of the retreat, the more difficult it becomes. Maybe I will just say that it was somehow simple and strong at the same time - whatever it was, it has given me a renewed enthusiasm to get on the cushions and a different perspective of things off them as well. I’d really like to do the retreat again, but unfortunately the timings don’t coincide with our programme at Tiratanaloka in 2007….
