Reflections on Winter Retreat
I recently returned from the Following Aliveness Winter Retreat, deeply nourished and inspired by all of the teaching – from the natural world, from the other participants, from the unknown, unfolding in my awareness moment to moment.
And one of the thoughts percolating for me throughout was, “Practicing with nature feels amazing, but what does it have to do with awakening?”
Perhaps the answer is obvious. It wasn’t for me at the time. So it became a kind of koan, an inquiry question not to seek an answer to but just to allow. Until the answer arrived. And it did once I was back at home.
For me, the answer to that question, turned out to be EVERYTHING. As the world around me feels more complex, fragmented, chaotic, I am turning more and more to the natural world to remember. How to be still. How to listen. Where balance lies. How to move in rhythms again. How to become flow.
Deepening my connection to nature, and its energy and wisdom, is deepening my connection to presence. For a long time I thought of meditation and inquiry work as pretty serious endeavors with “rules” that if I efforted in the “right” way, I would quiet my mind, open my heart, and embody presence.
Those traditional practices have taken me far in my journey of awakening and are still with me as skillful means to this day. But as I weave more intuitive and imaginative ways of knowing into my practice, I find I am opening to the aliveness of Being in ways beyond anything I had experienced prior. Readily available wisdom and guidance. More sustained levels of joy, gratitude, wonder, love, light, play, and fundamental wellbeing. All of those energies radiating through me and out into my daily life, my work, and my relationships. Palpable states of being, noticed and noted by me and others. We’re here to love, to serve, to express, to shine the lights of our being 24/7. And surprisingly, we can arrive at it by simply learning to meet experience, just as it is.
To FLOW.
For me this the power of practicing with the natural world as the teacher. With experience itself as the teacher.
On retreat, I experienced, and witnessed others, remembering, a return to what we know deep down, to what has been with us all along. We belong to this wholeness, to the fabric of everything around us. And when we slow down, get quiet, and open to exploring, it reveals itself to us. Awakening arises naturally by showing us exactly what needs to be tended to, seen, met – when. Our practice unfolds quite simply from there. Follow aliveness, moment to moment, with a particular quality of curiosity and kindness to find our unique paths to awakening. To let the river of experience move through us and around us.
To FLOW.
The words to describe it feel hard to come by but so far what resonates is ‘radiant mind, wise heart, deep ground’. Bodhicitta.
Each retreat has special gifts. The messages on this retreat for me, were important lessons on FLOW. Once the dreams and ideas of this retreat and its practices were gathered with intention, it was all about letting go – opening to the unknown, moving with the unexpected – how well could I receive the teachings of needing to change and adapt to what was happening, with what was needed in the present moment beyond the earlier intentions or ideas?
From the wisdom message of Whale during a guided animal spirit journey: “Joy and peace are IN the flow, arising naturally, not separate, not a destination.”
From the arrival of a knowing while sitting in silence: “Turn to the wisdom of rivers for learning how to navigate a journey through grief. You can find a guide in nature for any and every experience you have if you open to nature as teacher.”
From the incredible beauty in the flow of others, holding space and watching them navigate their own journeys on retreat and discover the teachings meant for them this time around.
These were a few of the many teachings for me about flow.
If you feel called to step out of your daily life for a few days to immerse yourself in meditation, inquiry, and a variety of intuitive ways to practice with the natural world serving as both resource and teacher, join me this Spring on our next Following Aliveness Retreat. Or Summer. Or Fall.
Each one unique in its invitation to remember. You are already home. Already whole. Already awake.
Following Aliveness – Always,
Joryu Myosei
