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Doing Retreat
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We asked the folks preparing to come to the 2 week White Tara to ponder these questions:
- What is your motivation for doing this retreat?
- How have you prepared your body and your mind?
- What specific things would you like to work on?
- What fears or concerns do you have about doing retreat?
Laresa – Sandpoint, Idaho
- To deepen my meditation practice, to practice being more present, to see my thoughts as just thoughts and to cultivate a sense of love, respect and acceptance towards myself.
- I’ve been try to wake up early so I won’t fall asleep during morning meditation. I have been reflecting on why I want to do this, and I have also been doing the White Tara sadhana.
- By cultivating a deeper sense of acceptance and compassion towards myself, I can genuinely feel and extend that towards others.
- I am afraid I will get sucked into a dark negative space of judging, criticizing myself and others, that I will cry a lot in the process and not be able to work through it.
Abigail Beck – California
- I would like to be able to practice without distraction and in addition, find inspiration in the monastic lifestyle.
- I have read most of the suggested reading and have been following the retreat postings on the website. I have been practicing the White Tara mantra everyday and have learned to do the prostrations correctly. I am also having a friends call to make sure I am up at 5am.
- Letting go of my attachment to the aspects of my life that hold me back form living a more fulfilling life. I would also like to use the time to really focus on emptiness.
- My biggest fear is not getting enough sleep. The second fear is not getting enough food. (In reality, she got plenty of both!)
Tom Woodbury – Missoula, Montana
- To deepen my renunciation and to prepare myself for taking the Kalachakra Initiation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
- Went on Vajrasattva retreat with Ven Chodron over the holidays, have been doing the Retreat from Afar, returned to Bikram’s yoga after Vajrasattva retreat to deal with a nerve issue that was not allowing me to sit comfortably.
- Same as #1 plus I would like to speak with Ven Chodron before I leave about a Dharma hospice patient I am working with whom she knows, who wants to go to the Kalachakra as well, but needs a larger support network than I am capable of providing.
- Getting there safely!
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