There are still a few spaces available to take part in this coming weekend’s in-person retreat. You may attend the whole retreat from Friday evening until Tuesday afternoon, or just a day or two as suits your schedule. (First-time retreat attendees will need to be present Friday afternoon to be oriented to the Center and how the retreat operates.)
Bob lives in Ithaca New York and has been a strong supporter of the Center since its inception. In addition to leading retreats, he serves on the board of trustees. As shown in the photo above with Ariel, he relates well to felines, including giving a home to a stray feral kitten born under the porch of the Center’s garden shed many years ago.
In a vibrant talk from the March 1st All Day Sitting, Bob explored what we call change, and silence. He then spoke of habitual patterns of relationship coming into awareness, and how even so, one may still feel one is in the right, and feel the cost is too high to let go of having to “set it right.”
And of course what comes of that is separation, maybe anger, whatever. Somehow, the reward of being right is not that great either. . . And there’s another scenario that sometimes happens . . . and this pattern is somehow seen more clearly, what’s going on right here. There’s somehow in touch-ness with this “silence” and what happens is, the cost of letting it go is not there. And the interesting thing is, when this is really seen, and there’s not this really strong holding on, there doesn’t have to be a right and a wrong, it doesn’t matter. And when that happens, ironically, there’s no cost at all. No cost, no separation, no anger, just this kind of dropping, which happens on its own.
So coming to an All Day sitting, maybe this silence, some people would call it “space,” can open up a little, and maybe even open up in much more difficult situations than sitting in this meditation hall, the wind howling, amidst the stillness.
Listen to the talk here.
In the upcoming retreat, Bob will give talks, be available for private meetings and take part in the afternoon group dialogues. If you have never attended retreat at the Center, you may find more information here.
Please use the button below to register for the retreat.
Center members, please note that a day before the retreat begins, the online coordinator will email you with links to access Bob’s daily talk online or listen to the recorded talk. This is a new benefit of membership.
