Meditation weekend

Hey there,

Did you like adrians post? So odd of him to write - I guess he was bored being here all alone all weekend :) I should leave him alone more often!

So my weekend was superb, I am still feeling the after effects of it, I feel very peaceful and relaxed, like I can react to any situation with ease. We learned Lovingkindness or metta meditation, from Buddhism, and I got a great book - its called Liberating Insight by Frits Koster. He's a dutch guy and the lady who gave us the workshop, Marjo, is Dutch too, she translated it into english. Its like a rough guide to Buddhism and its really great - obviously there are problems with every religion, but what I love about the teachings of Buddha is that he never claimed to be god, he never said he was "a buddhist" but that he practiced kindness. I think we would have a lot less war in the world if we didn't have labels for our belief system.

So there were 16 of us on the retreat, and we learned how to practice lovingkindness, where you try and find compassion for yourself, and then for others, by wishing yourself well, and wishing everyone else well. Its like a way to send out waves of kindness. It was a really cool experience, I learned a lot about myself, and how I find it so easy to feel compassion for others, for people I have never even met, but that it is so hard for me to give that compassion to myself. I think I finally caught a glimpse of what you guys all went through seeing me sick, and how that must have been so hard... just in terms of not wanting any human being, and especially not one you love, to go through any kind of suffering.

We also learned a bit of insight meditation, or vipassana, where you just watch your thoughts and feelings come and go, and you can realise that sadness, or boredom, or irritation, even pleasure, that they are not solid, that they come and go, pass and fade and come back again, and its fascinating to watch, our minds are so crazy when we sit and watch their complexity.

Ill try and meditate here at home, but its different, more difficult when you dont have someone guiding you, and supporting you. I will definitely do another retreat. The lady that taught us has a meditation centre in Cork, Passaddhi if anyone is interested in trying it!

So thats all. I hope it gives you strength in low moments to know that at any moment, all over the world there are people practicing lovingkindness, and sending out messages of love and compassion to all of us.

Love el xx