 The 3
year, 3 month, 3 day retreat is a tradition several hundred years
old. The duration is considered particularly powerful and useful
for cultivating the foundational qualities of wisdom and compassion, and
for implementing some of the higher practices of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Retreat is considered a precious opportunity to temporarily suspend one's usual responsibilities and to reside in a more secluded and peaceful environment, adopting a simpler and perhaps healthier lifestyle. In such a place, one is able to enter more deeply into a structured environment of prayer and meditation, which naturally leads the mind to become both broader and more peaceful, and to develop deep insights about our lives and condition. For most people, extended retreat is an intensely challenging undertaking requiring tremendous patience, fortitude, and courage. Meditating alone in one's room, from early morning until late at night, for day after day, week after week, month after month, the meditator encounters deep seated longings and fears that strike at the core of his or her existence. It is the skillful guidance of retreat masters, based on a centuries-old curriculum of practice, that takes retreatants to ever-deepening levels of experience. Retreat should not be considered as an 'escape' from life, or a withdrawal from families, communities, or the world. In the Buddhist tradition it is strongly emphasized that the purpose of such a break is to re-emerge into the world refreshed and re-inspired, having further developed the mind’s innate qualities of peacefulness and clarity, and deepened the heart’s innate capacity for empathy and compassion. Accomplished practitioners become the living embodiment of enduring and sustained peace in an often tumultuous and conflicted world. [1] [1] Parts of this commentary were taken from the descriptions of other three year retreat centers, to which we offer our thanks and gratitude. |