Well, I was jolly excited on Monday to discover that a little piece I wrote for The Spark magazine about Urban Retreat (see below) got published!
Cold, dark January mornings and I wind my way up the Gloucester Road on my bike to arrive by 7 and sit before lighted candles and smoking incense at the foot of the Buddha. Five of us are spending a week on “Urban Retreat”… not far away in the mountains, but here in the heart of Bristol. We meet together for a day, plan and dedicate our week, set some aims..(meditate more… surf the internet less, in my case). I hang golden stars on my PC monitor and in the toilet at work to remind me I’m on retreat… creating sacred space within time. I read poems and reflect on following a golden thread through the dark: Blake, the Buddha, the American poet, Stafford, are my guides. I walk an ancient, sacred path through Bristol in midwinter….. (see www.satyalila.cx for a blog and www.bristol-buddhist-centre.org for info on future Urban Retreats).
I really enjoyed doing the retreat and very much hope we can run more of them in future, in difference ways and with different themes, but still with the central idea of coming together in the heart of the city for a week of our lives, spending a day together at the beginning and the end, to set intentions and to reflect, to intensify our day-to-day practice in our everyday lives in between and (optionally!!) to come together early in the mornings to meditate at the Buddhist Centre.
A sub-theme of the whole Urban Retreat was “the golden thread” – the idea that spiritual practice can be like a golden thread we can take hold of at any moment that will lead us towards freedom. It was an image originally, I think, from William Blake (see earlier post) but the more the week went on, the more the image of the thread kept appearing….
There were a couple of readings I mentioned in my last post which I wanted to include, so here they are. The first is from Thich Nhat Hahn and it’s about the breath as a kind of thread: and it comes in a passage called “Every act is a rite” in his book, “The Miracle of Mindfulness”:
“Suppose there is a towering wall from the top of which one can see vast distances – but there is no apparent means to climb it, only a thin piece of thread hanging over the top and coming down both sides. A clever person will tie a thicker string onto one end of the thread, walk over to the other sideof the wall, then pull on the thread, bringing the string to ther other side. Then he will tie the end of the string to a strong rope and pull the rope over. When the rope has reached the bottom of one side and is secured on the other side, the wall can be easily scaled.
Our breath is such a fragile piece of thread. But once we know how to use it, it can become a wondrous tool to help us surmount situations which would otherwise seem hopeless. Our breath is the bridge from our body to our mind, the element which reconciles our body and mind and which makes possible one-ness of body and mind. Breath is aligned to both body and mind and it alone is the tool which can bring them both together, illuminating both and bringing both peace and calm.”
I also wanted to quote in full the poem I mentioned earlier by Manjusvara (David Keefe):
Ghazal (Buddha)
Even if we can’t see it,
we bow down in our own perfection.
The world is this mirror, our constant
re-telling of the image before us.
Time only serves the lament of the world.
There can be no shadow without the lust for shadow.
Fire placed on the highest ground. A golden thread
of sympathy connecting us through all darkness.
Surely this is reason enough to smile?
Trust in our goal; let things happen as they should.