I just got back from a six day Buddhist meditation retreat at The Barn near Totnes and I loved it! Apparently it is quite unusual as retreats go as it is not completely silent, we had one day of silence in the middle of the week and it’s quite a small group, just 10 of us in the community including the 2 co-ordinators responsible for running it. Our daily schedule included morning chores, three 40 minute meditations, working in the gardens and taking turns cooking a vegetarian meal for the whole community. What I really appreciated about it was the opportunity to connect both with yourself during the silence and with other like-minded souls in the intimate but open space that is offered there, all this whilst surrounded by beautiful wild plants and flowers and the hum of bee’s buzzing between them. I found myself reflecting on relationships in nature and how we can learn from them.
The flower always looks happy, never stressed or anxious but waits patiently and trusts the bee will arrive in it’s own time
Patience and trusting in life are two qualities we seem to have forgotten about or lost faith in during this time of technological rush and instant gratification. The retreat week was the first time in 14 years I didn’t use my mobile or email every day and I realised how much using these has impacted on my perception of life. Having access to so much knowledge and opportunity for anytime, anywhere communication obviously has great advantages but unless we use it in a mindful way there is a danger of becoming over dependent on it and finding it obscures our natural intuitive abilities that allow us to listen to our inner wisdom, so important for us to tune into on a regular basis.
The Garden of the Mind
The retreat garden had lots of broad beans, peas and runner beans in need of some support structures so my main job was using branches from felled beech saplings to make sticks to support the peas. At first I approached this as a practical task but after a while I felt I was creating a natural sculpture that I named the Pea Forest.
Whilst weeding around the peas I started to think about how mindfulness is a way to become aware of any negative thoughts that might otherwise take root in our minds. If they are not ‘weeded’ regularly depression can take hold, often these ‘weeds’ grow insidiously and we don’t see them creeping up to take over the garden of our mind blocking our natural positivity. Meditation can help keep these thoughts in perspective to maintain a balance in the mind garden. However as any gardener knows it is impossible to completely remove all weeds and a lot of energy can be put into this task that comes from a resistant state of mind. Weeds are only named so because people decided they were undesirable based on existing ideas of how a garden (mind) should look. The plants we call weeds actually have many beneficial properties to both humans and the eco-systems they are part of. For example nettles can be food, medicine and fertilizer for humans, insects and other plants. In the same way if we accept the negative ‘weed’ thoughts as part of a healthy and diverse ecosystem of the mind rather than trying to remove them, we can see they provide fertile ground for inner reflection and deeper insights into life from which new positive growth can emerge.
Whilst weeding around the peas I started to think about how mindfulness is a way to become aware of any negative thoughts that might otherwise take root in our minds. If they are not ‘weeded’ regularly depression can take hold, often these ‘weeds’ grow insidiously and we don’t see them creeping up to take over the garden of our mind blocking our natural positivity. Meditation can help keep these thoughts in perspective to maintain a balance in the mind garden. However as any gardener knows it is impossible to completely remove all weeds and a lot of energy can be put into this task that comes from a resistant state of mind. Weeds are only named so because people decided they were undesirable based on existing ideas of how a garden (mind) should look. The plants we call weeds actually have many beneficial properties to both humans and the eco-systems they are part of. For example nettles can be food, medicine and fertilizer for humans, insects and other plants. In the same way if we accept the negative ‘weed’ thoughts as part of a healthy and diverse ecosystem of the mind rather than trying to remove them, we can see they provide fertile ground for inner reflection and deeper insights into life from which new positive growth can emerge.
From the dark soil of my mind grew compassion, self-love and self-acceptance, the most beautiful flowers of the heart.
I recommend a stay at The Barn Retreat to you all…
Pea Forest - how beautiful and imaginative. Really enjoyed that Amy!
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