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Must have been a monk!

During the retreat that I attended last autumn, all one needed to do was to meditate. (See “Gently radical changing 1,” October 18, 2009, and “Gently radical changing 2,” October 19, 2009.) You could keep a non-ticking watch or clock that you brought, but phones and other hand-held devices, along with reading and writing materials had to be turned in–they were kept safe–until the end of the course. Vegetarian food was cooked for meditators and served, buffet style, with much to choose from at breakfast and lunch. Dinner was tea and fruit. You were indeed unto yourself, with your appetites, projections, pains, and pleasures.

I’m such a monk!–and I do identify with monks not nuns–because I loved the gong that signaled meals and wake-up hour, which was 4 a.m., and called us to meditation in the center’s hall. (Lights out at 9:30!)

If in medieval Europe or further centuries and civilizations from my birth and nearer decades prior to it or in cites invisible and inaudible to the human senses energies coalesced that have brought this Joanna into being, more than once those energies materialized as a monk, one who lived in near-silent orders or conditions. At the retreat I loved the silence. Shared silence.

Silence has been one of my natural habitats since childhood, so it came easily. So did the silencing of communication through facial expressions or bodily gestures. Silence guides a person into herself and sustains her solitude among a community of other silent meditators.

• January 16, 2010
• Filed under: Body and mind
• Comments 0