How do you do retreat in mundane life?
Especially for those of you who cannot go
for a three-year retreat as I have done.
You might be thinking,
”Oh, only monks and nuns can do retreats.“
Monks like me,
who shave their heads, wear red robes,
and are a little bit short.
I am just joking about being short.
But people do think, ”Only they can do retreat,
but we have no opportunity to do so
because we have busy lives
and have responsibilities to our families and children.
I have to work every day.
I feel a lot of stress.
How can I manage to do retreat in my life?”
Actually, it is possible.
If you can manage your time,
you can do retreat at home.
Of course, it may not be like a three-year retreat,
but you can still make it a retreat.
For example,
every week you have two days off,
and then it is possible to do retreat, even at home.
For example, every month you have four weeks,
and within each week you have a weekend.
So, in one month you have four weekends,
so maybe you can choose one weekend
and for two days you can do retreat at home.
In the morning, you can wake up whenever you wake up,
maybe six or seven o’clock.
You do not have to wake up at three o'clock.
You can sleep well.
You wake up and you do a session.
Normally, one session is about two hours,
but it could be one and a half hours
or maximum three hours.
Something between one and a half and three hours.
Maybe in the morning you can have a short session,
about one and a-half hours.
After that you can have breakfast, relax a little bit.
After that, you can do maybe two hours.
Then you can have lunch.
After lunch, maybe you can have a nice short nap.
Then you can do another session,
maybe two or two and a half hours, a little bit longer.
Then take a break.
You can have dinner and before that read some books.
After dinner,
you can have one session of one and a half or two hours.
In total, there are four sessions in the day.
In this way, you can do a nice two-day retreat at your home.
You can also do a week-long retreat.
Sometimes there may be group retreats.
For example,
I lead Joy of Living retreats that are about one-week long.
You can search out other teachers
who also offer ten or seven-day retreats.
You can join those retreats also.
There is another important piece of advice
that I like very much.
You do not have to create special meditation sessions.
Instead, you try to make the whole day like a retreat.
How do you do that?
For example, in the morning when you wake up, you think,
“Today I am going to practice meditation as much as I can.
I will try my best to practice meditation.
Why?
Not only for my own benefit,
but to benefit all sentient beings.
I will try to remove their obstacles, problems, and suffering
and help them to achieve enlightenment,
to become a buddha.
For that reason, I am going to practice.”
That is bodhichitta.
After that, you can take refuge or do any practice.
If you do daily practice, you can do a short daily pactice.
If not, it is also OK,
but begin with bodhichitta.
Then, during the day,
you can practice meditation,
and you can use a small counting machine.
For example, I normally use a mala.
Let us say that you have a mala.
If you practice shamatha meditation,
maybe you can...
whenever you remember your shamatha meditation, count one.
So you just practice your meditation,
repeating it again and again,
just counting the times.
This is the application of meditation, you apply it
even if you cannot really enter the state of meditation,
that is OK.
You just count one,
maybe you are talking with other people, “Oh,” (count two.)
Just remember your meditation for a few seconds.
If you are talking on the phone, “Hello, how are you ?”
you can rest in meditation, as well.
You can practice meditation every day,
short times, many times.
Maybe you can set a goal of thirty times per day
and as you develop in your experience,
you can do more and more.
At first maybe thirty times,
then slowly, slowly build up to fifty times,
and then slowly, slowly build up to one hundred.
Just remember your meditation and apply it.
That is why you count the applications of your practice.
But do not worry about the quality of the meditation.
You might really enter a good state of meditation
or you might not, do not care,
just count the applications of meditation.
That is why my father used to tell me
that application of meditation
is more important than meditation.
He also said that the intention to meditate
is more important than meditation itself.
Intention is so important,
because the moment you try to meditate,
you have awareness.
You have mindfulness, right there.
In this way, you can develop your meditation.
But if you actually meditate,
even though you have the experience of meditation,
it is not stable.
One day it is OK, one day it is not OK.
Today the meditation is nice, peaceful, blissful,
full of clarity and non-conceptual experience.
Tomorrow it is dull and unclear
and there is pain.
Meditation experience goes up and down.
But you can keep the wish to apply meditation all the time.
That is the most important.
That is why, before you go to sleep,
you can dedicate the virtue of your meditation practice,
because you meditate to benefit all sentient beings,
and at the end of the day,
you can dedicate that virtue to all sentient beings.
You can think of the buddhas and bodhisattvas
of the past, present and future,
and you can follow their method of dedicating virtue.
You can think to yourself,
“I am going to dedicate the virtue
the same way as the buddhas and bodhisattvas.
You are following their way,
almost like you are imitating the buddhas’ dedication
and you dedicate the virtue to all sentient beings,
freeing them from obstacles and negativities
so that, in the end,
they become buddhas and achieve enlightenment.
In this way, the whole day becomes practice.
You may not want to hold a mala
while you are walking or driving a car
because it can become a little bit difficult.
If you are working in an office
or speaking in front of many people while you are holding a mala,
it may look a little funny.
But you have some other options.
You can count with a little counting device.
Like this. No, no. This is too big.
This is actually a torch.
But you can find small counters
that you can buy in a store.
Just count whenever you meditate.
That is possible.
Or you can count with your fingers.
That is also possible.
Another option is to put up some special sign or star
in your office and your home.
Whenever you see the star,
remember your meditation.
Another option is to write a phrase,
like “Do not wander”
or just one word, like “meditation” or something like that.
That will also be a reminder to you.
In this way, your daily life,
and meditation, practice, dharma, or spiritual life become one.
In this way, your whole life becomes a retreat.
For example,
in your daily life with your work,
meetings, parties, lunch and dinner, etc.,
and your spiritual life, like meditation, dharma,
and practice will become one.
In this way, your whole day, your whole life, becomes a retreat.
How nice!