Thursday, June 01, 2006
Day of Silence
...and more from my Journal....
Friday, May 26, 2006...First Full Day of Retreat - Menla Mountain Retreat
DAY OF SILENCE 7:40 a.m.
Birds fall utterly silent at night, I feel compelled to note. Last night, as I was snuggling down into my deeply comfortable trundle bed (the place is so well outfitted, the sheets so luxe) I realized one of the reasons it was so quiet: all the birds had shut up! No twits,chirps,songs of any kind! A wall of birdless silence! Yummy.
So.They sleep when we do. And last night, I didn't have to try too hard at all: I was fast in slumber by 10:30 pm! and slept gorgeously...wakened a couple of times by what?...the silence? Possibly.
I feel terrific this gorgeous morning and boy are those birds awake now! And singing!
Layer upon layer of sound. Intricate. Full.
BIRD ROCK
Detroit's Wall of Sound
Has nothing
On this concert in these hills.
With not a single
Lick
Of elec-
Tricity
Not one single FX pedal,
These countless birds
Put their hearts
To the metal
And together
We roar in a cascade
A rush -
-Ssshhh
Of creamy
Song. Glory. Rush.
Shhh.
8:00 am...Breakfast...My first day of silence, ever. And we will be silent until
6:00 pm dinner. Paul is still asleep. I will wake him at 9:00. Our morning session starts at 9:30.
Sounds of silence: I can hear the man next to me crunch his granola...even the yogurt and blackberries he has bathed the cereal in do not soften that audible toothy crunch. Everytime someone pours a glass of water, it sounds ike a stream rushing over stones in the forest! A delightful sound, usually only paid attention to IN the woods. Dishes clatter. Spoons tinkle.
People rush through the meal.
Humidity hangs lightly. The kitchen staff is clearly not part of our day of silence. They are jovial in the kitchen, where we are not allowed to enter!
Nearing 9:30....I am alone in the large hall, trying to get my body stretched enough so it will not rebel from a day of sitting meditation. I sit on the same cushion I sat on last night..I am not sure why. But I am determined NOT TO SIT IN A CHAIR!
We begin. Jewel Tree Field is now open and we are silent.
Every moment a new ache.
Menla is in the Pantherkill Valley...Panthers are blue-black, like the Menla gods...the medicine Buddhas...AIM: to Manifest the 8 Medicine Buddhas in the West: to heal the planet. EVERYTHING IS MEDICINE. EVERY SINGLE THING. Enlightened beings see the world in this way. Everything is giving itself to everything else to heal it! How generous. Even when we die , we heal. We fall into an ocean of healing. We become aware of our interconnectedness and healing.
When we view compassion as maudlin or misconceived, in a way, we are assuming that someone else is in a state of suffering, that THEY are in a fixed state of pain and we are not...that only maintains the boundary between THEM and US...Heedless of the actual situation (dead to the truth) that we are all suffering the same...our awareness of the impermanence of all things allows to see this and know we are ALL the same: suffering the same joys and sorrows...we ARE all each other.
To know this, we are not trapped in the notion that "they" cannot be healed. WISE COMPASSION knows we are all in this together.
Robert Thuman is a jazz artist: he speaks in brilliant riffs, talks on and travels unexpected roads. His mind cannot be contained. I am honored to be in his presence.
Friday, May 26, 2006...First Full Day of Retreat - Menla Mountain Retreat
DAY OF SILENCE 7:40 a.m.
Birds fall utterly silent at night, I feel compelled to note. Last night, as I was snuggling down into my deeply comfortable trundle bed (the place is so well outfitted, the sheets so luxe) I realized one of the reasons it was so quiet: all the birds had shut up! No twits,chirps,songs of any kind! A wall of birdless silence! Yummy.
So.They sleep when we do. And last night, I didn't have to try too hard at all: I was fast in slumber by 10:30 pm! and slept gorgeously...wakened a couple of times by what?...the silence? Possibly.
I feel terrific this gorgeous morning and boy are those birds awake now! And singing!
Layer upon layer of sound. Intricate. Full.
BIRD ROCK
Detroit's Wall of Sound
Has nothing
On this concert in these hills.
With not a single
Lick
Of elec-
Tricity
Not one single FX pedal,
These countless birds
Put their hearts
To the metal
And together
We roar in a cascade
A rush -
-Ssshhh
Of creamy
Song. Glory. Rush.
Shhh.
8:00 am...Breakfast...My first day of silence, ever. And we will be silent until
6:00 pm dinner. Paul is still asleep. I will wake him at 9:00. Our morning session starts at 9:30.
Sounds of silence: I can hear the man next to me crunch his granola...even the yogurt and blackberries he has bathed the cereal in do not soften that audible toothy crunch. Everytime someone pours a glass of water, it sounds ike a stream rushing over stones in the forest! A delightful sound, usually only paid attention to IN the woods. Dishes clatter. Spoons tinkle.
People rush through the meal.
Humidity hangs lightly. The kitchen staff is clearly not part of our day of silence. They are jovial in the kitchen, where we are not allowed to enter!
Nearing 9:30....I am alone in the large hall, trying to get my body stretched enough so it will not rebel from a day of sitting meditation. I sit on the same cushion I sat on last night..I am not sure why. But I am determined NOT TO SIT IN A CHAIR!
We begin. Jewel Tree Field is now open and we are silent.
Every moment a new ache.
Menla is in the Pantherkill Valley...Panthers are blue-black, like the Menla gods...the medicine Buddhas...AIM: to Manifest the 8 Medicine Buddhas in the West: to heal the planet. EVERYTHING IS MEDICINE. EVERY SINGLE THING. Enlightened beings see the world in this way. Everything is giving itself to everything else to heal it! How generous. Even when we die , we heal. We fall into an ocean of healing. We become aware of our interconnectedness and healing.
When we view compassion as maudlin or misconceived, in a way, we are assuming that someone else is in a state of suffering, that THEY are in a fixed state of pain and we are not...that only maintains the boundary between THEM and US...Heedless of the actual situation (dead to the truth) that we are all suffering the same...our awareness of the impermanence of all things allows to see this and know we are ALL the same: suffering the same joys and sorrows...we ARE all each other.
To know this, we are not trapped in the notion that "they" cannot be healed. WISE COMPASSION knows we are all in this together.
Robert Thuman is a jazz artist: he speaks in brilliant riffs, talks on and travels unexpected roads. His mind cannot be contained. I am honored to be in his presence.
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