Reflection on the IMG Two-Day Retreat at Degui Academy, January 2024

By Ferdinand
20240128

I attended the retreat as an international, with very limited knowledge of the Chinese language. Nevertheless, I never had any problem understanding any instructions of Venerable or following the teachings, since everybody involved had an excellent command of the English language. 

Venerable master and Volunteers would help in this retreat, which was very useful because it made it much easier to understand instructions and the general structure of the retreat house. Moreover, it was very convenient and inductive to the practice of not having to bring food or drinks. The provided lunch was very tasty and naturally vegetarian. 

Between the two days retreatants went home which was much less convenient than staying overnight. Ven. who did give us the tips at the end of the first day for everyone to go to bed earlier as much as we can. And continue to bring up the method anywhen, anyhow! However for me, it also interfered with the practice because it was hard to avoid speaking to anybody, and taking up the phone in the evening was much more tempting than it would have been if we stayed in the retreat hall.

I found the different activities of the retreat to be mostly well-balanced. During the retreat, we would do enough sitting meditation to have time to work on the mind. There was also a lot of moving meditation in the form of self-massage or yoga. This made everything much more relaxing and interesting but for very stern meditators it could be interpreted as the chance to avoid boredom. 

I always feel that walking meditation is a great way to improve perceptive abilities in that a person can fine-grain their perception of the surroundings or their own steps. Therefore, distractions from the outside take away concentration that can't be used to work on distractions coming from the inside. I was just applying and ruminating again and again on the method.  Yet, it is interesting for me to learn a lot from outdoor walking meditation.

However, to me working on distractions coming from the mind itself was always the more important and also the more difficult part of meditation, which can best be achieved by sitting. At the end of each day, there were dharma talks in the form of videos by Master Sheng Yen and PowerPoint presentations by Ven. Guochii. Those contained wise teachings are also still inspiring. They were the kind of wisdom you can come back to at any level of personal growth and therefore were suitable for beginners and more advanced students. The only thing that I found could have been addressed more is the technique. As I started out meditating, I had to remind myself again and again about what the goal and the technique were, and I always find it insightful again to hear Ven. speaks about the technique. Because it is a bit like driving a bicycle. For those who mastered it is obvious what to do and for those who don't, it is not. 

Altogether this retreat was a truly insightful experience, and I found the time well spent. I can only recommend to everybody to visit the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Art, no matter which level of practice. On the one hand, you get the extremely rare and privileged opportunity to uninterruptedly focus on your mind and its phenomena. On the other hand, you will receive the teachings of an exceptional teacher and meet other meditators to help you grow in your wisdom and your understanding of the practice.