Urban retreat

The idea of going on a religious retreat may not appeal to everyone, but for many, time out of everyday life to reflect on and practice aspects of their spiritual life is important, enjoyable and very rewarding. The Triratna Buddhist Community organizes many retreats, single days, weekends, weeks, and longer, but so far I haven’t been able to go on any of them.

The Bristol Buddhist centre also organizes an urban retreat… does this mean you’re staying in a  city with all the hustle and bustle of life and traffic to contend with? Well yes, in a way, but also no!

Titled ‘Living the meaning of life – going beyond self in daily life’ it is a week that can be dedicated to improving practice, examining aspects of how one practices, and focusing on specific areas.

Spend a week “on retreat” in your everyday life and see what happens!

The urban retreat is an opportunity to engage with one’s practice more deeply and consciously than usual – and with the support of friends doing the same thing. There are three main areas in which we can do this – through ethics, meditation and dharma study. Saturday 9 March is a day retreat at the Buddhist Centre during which we have the opportunity to each identify areas in which we can effectively deepen our practice for the duration of the retreat. By making these areas known to each other, and especially to a particular retreat ‘partner’ or ‘partners’, we can be more effective in our practices. So we will spend a little time on each of the three main areas and come up with ideas of what we want to engage with during the week.

Then on Sunday 17 we meet again to see how we all got on, what we’ve learned, and what to carry forward into the rest of life.

So today, 9th of March, a group of us met, with two wonderful order members who are leading the retreat, and we spent the day, discussing, meditating, drinking tea, planning our week and enjoying a shared lunch. I feel as if I’m unfocused in my life; yes I’m working very hard at my writing, and I am totally focussed on that, but I’m just muddling around the rest of the time! So that is one thing I’m going to think about. I haven’t spent as much time as usual studying about Buddhism, so again I am going to try this week to read some of the Dhammapada every day, and maybe try and learn some favourite verses. I really struggle with meditation, and I received some very helpful suggestions from two partners in a little discussion group which I am going to try… more of that another time.

Here is how the Buddhist Centre sums up the experience;

The Beauty of an Urban Retreat is that …

a)   you design it yourself during our first day retreat together so it can be completely tailored to your own needs

b)   you can do it alongside ‘ordinary life’ – living at home, going to work, whatever – so you can find out how different one week of ‘ordinary’ life can be

c)    there are lots of extra optional activities, supports and inspirations to keep you going through the week

d)   we come together for a day at the end to share all we’ve learned and see if there are things we want to carry forward ‘post retreat’ – often easier to do than trying to keep momentum from ‘going away’ retreats (valuable as these are too).

I shall let you know how my week progresses!