Labor Day 3-Day Retreat- August 2013
A lot of people enjoy the 3-day long weekend going on vacations and visiting friends. More than thirty of us die-hard and newbies got to gather at the American Bodhi Center (ABC) to work on our meditation practices. We had students from TAMU College Station and we had new friends who had not been to ABC before. You may say fate brought us together and others will tell you that it is our karma that does the job.
Orientation was conducted during the first evening, in order to explain and introduce the important guidelines. "Noble Silence" started that evening. The practice of noble silence extend not only to essential verbal communication, it also include all actions for the three days. By making each action slowly with clear awareness, produced the desired results and benefits for meditation.
Each meditation session is an hour long and the Venerable did gave each yogi, especially for the benefit of beginners, the flexibilities to mindfully change postures. Venerable Katapunno emphasized that this is to be the last resort. Also to give people that participate in a long retreat the first time, the last two rows of the meditation hall were setup with both meditation cushions and meditation benches.
Most might say meditation is hard but look at the peaceful serene center and wonderful meals.
In addition, Ven Katapunno discussed about two important aspect that every serious meditators would agreed on: how to overcome Sloth & Torpor (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/html/mara.html#Sloth) and vicikicchā/ Doubt (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/html/mara.html#Doubt). Both are mjor "killer" of one's meditative life.
As the Buddha said, more than two thousand five hundred years ago, do not just take my words, experience it and test it out each for yourself. We hope you will also decide to join us soon and get the taste of freedom in the ultimate sense of the word.
Orientation was conducted during the first evening, in order to explain and introduce the important guidelines. "Noble Silence" started that evening. The practice of noble silence extend not only to essential verbal communication, it also include all actions for the three days. By making each action slowly with clear awareness, produced the desired results and benefits for meditation.
Each meditation session is an hour long and the Venerable did gave each yogi, especially for the benefit of beginners, the flexibilities to mindfully change postures. Venerable Katapunno emphasized that this is to be the last resort. Also to give people that participate in a long retreat the first time, the last two rows of the meditation hall were setup with both meditation cushions and meditation benches.
In addition, Ven Katapunno discussed about two important aspect that every serious meditators would agreed on: how to overcome Sloth & Torpor (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/html/mara.html#Sloth) and vicikicchā/ Doubt (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/html/mara.html#Doubt). Both are mjor "killer" of one's meditative life.
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