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Doing Retreat

Doing Retreat (en Español)

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We asked the folks preparing to come to the 2 week White Tara to ponder these questions:

  1. What is your motivation for doing this retreat?
  2. How have you prepared your body and your mind?
  3. What specific things would you like to work on?
  4. What fears or concerns do you have about doing retreat?

Laresa – Sandpoint, Idaho

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. By cultivating a deeper sense of acceptance and compassion towards myself, I can genuinely feel and extend that towards others.
  4. 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

  1. I would like to be able to practice without distraction and in addition, find inspiration in the monastic lifestyle.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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

  1. To deepen my renunciation and to prepare myself for taking the Kalachakra Initiation from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Getting there safely!

 
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