Buddhist monk returns to life after four years in retreat
2009 June 19
Buddhist monk returns to life after four years in retreat -Times Online
There are things you expect a Buddhist monk to say when he emerges, blinking, after four years of selfimposed retreat from the world. And there are things you don’t.“It was a bit like Big Brother without the cameras,” said Gelong Thubten. “What did I miss? I missed my Mum and ice cream.”
What he found to replace them, it seems, was a profound inner happiness and an almost tangible aura of stillness and calm.
Mum and ice cream! Who’d ‘a thought? I think what I’d miss most, aside from family, would be this computer I’m now so addicted to.
Ditto. And my cats. Fact is, I found out years ago, after a very short time, that the monastic life isn’t for me. I’d like to think some things have changed, but realistically: not that much.
I found the description of the phases of the retreat interesting. (“The first year dragged so much.(…). But in the second year you lose yourself in it, you become very focused. Then, towards the end, when it starts revving (…) you start to get impatient again.”). It corresponds very much with the phases I experienced in a three-month Zen retreat I sat at the beginning of this year. It seems as if most people experience this similarly in long retreats.
Heck, I experience it at most long sesshins. The monkey may be quiet some of the time now, but he’s still the monkey.