A. January 2012

Retreats...and beyond:

The discussion about real life retreats continued into January. At the same time a few tried to plan a retreat in Northern Ireland. There was much heartfelt discussion about retreats. Some people felt intiminated about the retreats feelling that one had to be experienced in meditation to take part. Pema reassured them:

Note that the original format was not at all meditation-retreat like.  Real meditation retreats tend to have 90% meditation and 10% talking, at most, time wise.  All of the PaB retreats have been 10% meditation and 90% talking, roughly.  So the difference between the original eight retreats and a meeting like that in Berlin is far smaller than the difference between a real meditation retreat and the original PaB retreats!

Almost everyone who had attended one valued the experience but the expense and time for travel, as well as the commitment to a weeklong retreat lead to a decling attendance. Only three were commited to the retreat being planned.  In the end it was decided to take a break from RL retreats for now in favor of shorter, less formal meetups such as the one in Berlin. Then began a discsussion of what to call these meetups. Finally Eliza suggested:

New Guardian: Tess Aristocrat became a guardian in January.