A minor disruption in my quiet Sunday night: I had just finished writing something to post here about the end of our retreat when somehow it all got wiped out. Gone forever. Like the retreat…

Now what?

At the end of a retreat I attended some years ago, an anxious participant asked my teacher’s teacher what he should do after the retreat, when he had to return to his daily activities and difficulties, his joys and troubles, with work, family, and all the rest. My teacher’s teacher said: « If you don’t want to leave the retreat, don’t enter the retreat. »

What he meant was that as you soon as you make that separation – retreat/not retreat – you create trouble for yourself. But if everything is retreat, if whatever you do is retreat, then there’s nothing to leave, even if there are different activities, etc. It’s all important, it’s all sacred, it’s all impermanent.

This is where freedom lies.

We had a taste of that this week. It’s radically simple, I know. That’s life. Thanks for joining us in the heart of it.