A Retreat At the Hermitage of the Dharma Fellowship
Of His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa

     Another retreat is over! That bittersweet taste rests on our minds as we prepare to get back into the busyness, turbulence and distraction of our own crazy lives. It is always a rough landing, I find, to emerge back into the world, after a week of silence and intensive meditation. My wife and I used 8 days of our vacation time to attend the Serenity and Mindfulness retreat at the Hermitage, led by Lama Rodney Devenish. And, as expected, we did not leave unchanged.

     How can I relate the profound impact our stay at the Hermitage has had on us, to those who may never have experienced such a thing? What does it mean to spend hours a day meditating, day after day? What do I get out of it? Why spend our precious vacation time in retreat rather than doing all the fun stuff "normal" families do when they are off work? And why is a place like the Hermitage so important and so treasured for those like us?

     Let me share with you a vision, a vision shared by those who founded the Hermitage, as well as by those who come to it. This is a vision of the potential that lies within each of us. This is a vision that has brought me to literal tears as I experienced for a moment the very realness of it. Close your eyes for a moment, and picture yourself atop a high peak. You look down and take in the sweeping landscape spreading out all around you for miles. Hills, valleys, rivers. You see plains with roaming animals, deserts with vast, intricate canyons, and  deep, lush forests filled with mysteries. And you allow yourself to feel a sense of pride and joy. This is your land. Not necessarily a sense of ownership, but a sincere, heartfelt connection and sense of place. We can feel this in our own home, when we take a joyful pride in where we live, a sense of belonging, of caretaking, and of having the right to it, like a birthright.

     Now imagine that this peak and this country is an inner one. We stand within our own experience, knowing that this is all we ever really have. This mind, this whole thing we call "I," spreading out before us moment by moment as a landscape of thoughts, emotions, sensory experience, etc. and all that which lies hidden within. Lama Rodney once compared the human being's relationship to the macrocosm as being like a wave and the ocean: where does the wave end and the ocean begin? Pondering this question, I wondered, may the mind extend beyond this body and this finite self? Am I not just this small thing trapped inside a vulnerable hunk of flesh? Does my own mind encompass the earth and the stars, the mysteries of time and space?

     Pondering this way once led me into a deep and profound emotional state, where for a moment I was overcome by a sense of wonder that just about raised the hair on the back of my neck. For a moment, there was no self, there was all. And all the mysteries, all the magic, all the joy - my own mind. All the doors to the infinite lay open, and have always been open, because they are the doors of my own house, my own mind.

     It is as if we all live in a palace made of gold and jewels, housing a magical fountain, and whatever it is that fills you with the deepest joy, wonder, awe, love and happiness – whatever form that takes – its source is in that fountain. But here comes the tragedy. We do not see it. We take our own experience, our minds, completely for granted. We live in this palace, with this fountain right under our noses, and we stare out the windows, fretting and stressing, bored out of our skulls, or looking at the pretty lights in the distance. But a single taste from this fountain forever changes you, and a knowledge that seems rooted in the very atoms of your being overtakes you, a knowing that goes beyond thought. You know that what you are is so much more than this little self, with all its worries and cares and concerns. You know that there is an ocean of love and wisdom, of freedom, beyond imagination.

     I know only that this fountain within us exists, but I do not doubt that the man I know as Lama Rodney drinks deeply from it, and has devoted his life to showing others how they too may find this source of wisdom. This was why the Hermitage was founded. To help others find within themselves the answer.

     Please consider donating to the Hermitage Generosity campaign. Only one week remains on the "challenge grant," where for every dollar you donate, three is given by a very generous donor. Help unshackle the Hermitage from debt so that it may aid others on the path ever more fully. 

fundraiser.thehermitage.ca