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| friends during walking meditation, in the CDI with always-young Adela on the right! |
Just like in
Chile, the organizers of all our events in Ecuador have worked so harmoniously
and generously and the weekend retreat is very successful. Because a discount
is granted to the participants under 35 years old, 30 of them have been able to
register and we can form 2 Wake Up groups, added to 5 regular Dharma families.
We propose a program similar to the retreat in Chile; and this time Sr Boi
Nghiem (Sr Pearl) and Br Stream explain the basic practices of mindfulness on
the first morning, while Br Phap Lieu (Br Healing) and Sr Su Nghiem offer the
teaching the next day. They help us to understand clearly the way our mind and
deeper consciousness work and how we can develop Right Diligence to give rise
to wholesome states of mind. The retreatants laugh with Br Phap Lieu’s honest
report of how a monk is challenged by images in the streets of female models lightly dressed; then they are moved to tears as they listen to the
story of Sr Su Nghiem’s love letter to her father for his 60
th
birthday, which listed 60 (or more) of his qualities... She was happy to write
it, to send it, and to receive the reply “I have been waiting for this my whole
life.” This love letter was sent to only one person in France but now it
touches the heart and inspires many on the other side of the globe! After deep
relaxation, Dharma sharing and taking photos of the whole community in the
garden, after selling all the books of our teacher and the meditation bells
that were left in our traveling store, we sit in the dojo for a light dinner
and be-in to celebrate the happiness and transformation brought about by these
2 days of practice as a Sangha. A Brother from the Tibetan tradition shares his
joy to experience this kind of Zen retreat. All the couples and families are
invited to practice hugging meditation with one another. As in each event held
so far, we propose that a local Sangha can be formed to continue the practice
after the monastics have left and we close the circle by singing a beautiful
“Sin venir, sin partir.”
