INTERFAITH RETREATS AT TURVEY ABBEY. Account by Sr Lucy. Meditation & Mindfulness, September 20-22, 2013

Transcription

1 INTERFAITH RETREATS AT TURVEY ABBEY Meditation & Mindfulness, September 20-22, 2013 Account by Sr Lucy We have been offering interfaith (Christian/Buddhist) retreats at Turvey Abbey for many years. There are at present two each year. One, called Inner Silence & Awakening, revolves around the teachings of Meister Eckhart. The suggestion to hold a weekend centred around Meister Eckhart came from a Buddhist friend who thought Eckhart ideal for an interfaith weekend: Buddhists can understand him without translating. Using short passages of Eckhart s sermons, the group sits silently (for the most part) using the pattern of Lectio Divina, the Benedictine approach to listening and responding to the Scriptures and hearing the word of God to us individually. The second weekend, called Meditation & Mindfulness explores these two concepts in an experiential way throughout the weekend. Both kinds of retreats are jointly led by a Turvey nun and a Buddhist nun. In the case of the Eckhart weekend, the Buddhist teacher is a very experienced layman, a member of the Eckhart Society. One of whose essays received an award from the Society and was published in their journal. For the Meditation & Mindfulness weekend, the teacher is generally a Buddhist nun or monk. The time-table is designed in such a way that everyone is free to attend all the monastic offices with the Turvey Abbey communities, as well as having the weekend sessions together. Those who do not attend the offices have extra time for meditation and reading. A selection of Buddhist and Christian books is available throughout the weekend. There is also time for Q/A sessions which always prove enlightening, and often lively. Meals are taken together in silence. Meditation & Mindfulness In the final feed-back session, people who often come all agreed that though the weekend is in some ways the same each year, it is always different. One person used the term continuity. Some of this is owing to the different composition of each group, which varies greatly from year to year. There are always a few who come regularly and feel at home, and always people for whom this whole weekend is a strange, new experience. Some of it is because the community is always here and the monastic round continues year in, year out, perhaps with different people, but with a stable community. Guests are always aware and appreciative that the community hold them in prayer, both private and public. And of course, each regular participant is somehow different each year. By the final session of this weekend the group that on Friday evening had seemed disparate, and perhaps even slightly nervous, had somehow become one as a family or community together. The present group included lay Buddhists, Christians of several different denominations, a Humanist and some people who felt uncommitted to any particular Church, There are two important places for us as a group. The Buddhist shrine room is where the teachings and silent meditation sessions take place. The Buddhists bring a Buddharupa (image) for this room, together with mats and cushions for those Buddhists and others who want to sit in true Buddhist fashion, on the floor. For those with stiffer knees, there are chairs around the outside of the room. Christians and Buddhists value and share the symbolism of candles, flowers and incense, and the shrine is decorated; candles and incense are usually lit during the meditation times. Following the ancient practice for sacred places, we leave our shoes outside the door. This custom, which I have

2 encountered in different places and cultures, I always find deeply moving, and it takes me back in mind to the Book of Exodus and the experience of Moses with the burning bush and revelation of God. The words: Take off your shoes, for the ground on which you are standing is holy remind everyone, Christians and Buddhist alike, of the sacredness of entering into silent communication with what Christians call God and Buddhist name as the One Reality, the Unborn, the Undying, the Unconditioned. Over the years some Christians have commented that they take this custom back home for their own prayer-place. Both the Buddhist shrine room and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel are sacred spaces where we remove our shoes before entering. The other place, which is really two places, is the community chapel(s). The Blessed Sacrament Chapel is available all the weekend for private meditation, and the long Saturday ends with silence together here. There is usually a meditation here on the Sunday morning too. Some Buddhists who do not attend the offices like to go there and meditate. The other chapel is where the public services take place, and the sense for Christians of the presence of the risen Christ in the community and in the Word is very strong. Shape of the Weekend The pattern of the weekends is that participants book beforehand, and arrive between 3.30 p.m. and 5.00 p.m. on the Friday evening. The first event is the monastic office of Vespers in the community Chapel which many attend. This is followed by supper, an occasion for meeting, greeting and talking to each other before going into silence. Supper is followed by monastic Compline (night prayer) after which the group have their first session together. This is a time of formal introductions as a group, everyone speaking briefly about themselves. This includes the retreat leaders. There is a time for questions and practical instructions, very necessary for newcomers who tend to feel nervous about their first visit to a monastery. There is also brief instruction about the liturgical life of the communities. We end with a period of silent guided meditation and then go into silence for the weekend. Saturday is a very full day, beginning with an hour of silent meditation together in the guest-house shrine room soon after 6.00 a.m. To help Christian newcomers to this kind of prayer, Sr Metta gave gentle verbal guidance, allowing space for much silence too. The day then followed the rhythm of the Benedictine monastic practice of liturgical prayer with Lauds at 8.30 after a silent breakfast, teaching sessions, more meditation, Eucharist and silent meals. Teaching was given about the practice of mindfulness in walking, standing and in eating. The morning session of walking meditation had to be abandoned because of wet weather. A surprise for some of the new Christian participants who included recent and more experienced converts to the RC church, was to learn that both Meditation and Mindfulness have a long history in the Christian church. Sr Lucy gave this teaching using mainly the RC Church to illustrate it, because of her own experience as a cradle Catholic, and the fact that in Turvey Abbey we are two RC monastic communities, male and female. Meditation has meant different things throughout the Christian centuries, ranging from mental reflective prayer to what we in this weekend call Meditation. Today in the Christian tradition it is more often called generally referred to as Contemplative prayer or Centering Prayer. The latter

3 term originated in a 20 th century re-burgeoning of the contemplative way in America, largely through the monastic communities. Mindfulness is what has been called in the RC tradition The Practice of the Presence of God or The Sacrament of the Present Moment. Both terms are well attested in religious, mystical literature. Many non-rc Christians are very familiar with the small gem of literature by Carmelite Friar, Brother Lawrence ( ) with the title The Practice of the Presence of God. The Sacrament of the Present Moment, or Abandonment to Divine Providence (perhaps a more offputting title?) is an ancient practice popularised in the 17 th century by a French Jesuit, Jean-Pierre de Caussade, ( ). The tradition, however, goes back to the early Church and to the desert fathers and mothers of the early Christian centuries. These two books exist in several modern translations and new editions, and still speak to people s hearts. St Paul expresses the early Christian teaching: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God, giving thanks (I Cor. 10:31). The kingdom of heaven is within you. (Lk 17:20-21) On hearing the explanation of the word mindfulness as sacrament of the present moment, Sr Metta received the information with delight: The sacrament of the present moment I never heard that before! That is exactly what it means in Buddhism! We were flexible with our time-table, and when the sun came out transforming our gardens, we decided to have a walking meditation period before Vespers. Everyone blossomed. The last liturgical event of the day began with a beautiful surprise for many people who attended. Because Saturday evening begins the Lord s Day, the day of Resurrection, monastic communities celebrate the resurrection of Christ, as a light in the darkness of the world, by an ancient Christian ceremony we call the Lucernarium. It is lighting of the Sabbath candles to greet Christ who said: I am the Light of the Word. As in Judaism the mother lights the Sabbath candles, so the prioress of the nuns community always does this to herald the day of resurrection of Christ. During singing of an ancient hymn ( Phos hilaron from the Greek, translated by John Keble into O Light so joyous ) a monk and a nun, representing the two communities, do a prayerful liturgical dance with candles. For some people who had never seen it, this was the most moving part of the weekend. A very full day ended in a prayerful period of meditation in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. This was open-ended. The weekend is not meant to be a kind of spiritual Olympics where participants try for the gold of attending everything... Those needing to go to rest went quietly to rest after a few minutes and the stronger people stayed together until 9.00 p.m. On Sunday, the actual events of the weekend ended with lunch. Sr Metta had to make the long return journey to Sussex to her monastery. We began as on Saturday with meditation, monastic Lauds and breakfast, followed by a final session. The final session traditionally is a time for closure, evaluation and sharing (if desired) and preparing oneself for re-entry, after a silent weekend, into the hurly-burly of ordinary life and work. The sessions falls also within the realm of silence and reflection. Sr Lucy led the group through a remembering of the whole experience, from the time each person decided to book for it. With plenty

4 of silence for individual recollection we re-read the weekend following the pattern of Lectio Divina. After recalling the weekend as a whole, and focussing on anything which had especially touched us, we then concentrated on any particular part which was important, thus internalising the experience. In our own way in silence we then responded to it. After that there was a quiet period in which anyone could speak to share something they might be taking away with them. We had been sharing deeply in an attentive, aware silence all weekend. For some, this continued; other people also verbalised things which had moved them. We concluded with a period of prayer for (in Buddhist terms, metta (i.e. loving kindness) meditation and sharing of blessings. There was a very deep sense of unity and presence to each other. Everyone seemed to be aware of how unusual and powerful an experience it was to connect so deeply with a group who had been strangers two days before, and now felt like a family, a small sangha, a little church. Finally we said our good-byes with gratitude to Ajahn Metta. The group expressed their appreciation to both retreat leaders, and thanks to each other. Then those who were joining the communities went to the Sunday Eucharist, and others continued their meditation privately. This felt like the end of the weekend. But after the Eucharist we had a coffee break together, and then a more light-hearted example and teaching about another kind of awareness exercise and walking meditation. This was offered by the senior lay Buddhist present, George Wilson, who leads the Inner Silence & Awakening weekend with Sr Lucy. Before lunch, in beautiful sunshine again, people went into the garden to practise walking mindfully before the final meal together. As always at the end of an interfaith experience, I was filled with a deep sense of gratitude to those who had come so far, and shared so generously of themselves. There is also a sense of amazement at the commitment to each other and to our practice in these weekends. The silence and feeling of oneness seems almost tangible during sessions together. It is a time of great joy. Sr Metta, of Cittaviveka Buddhist Monastery, writes: I spent last weekend at Turvey Abbey, teaching a retreat on Christian and Buddhist meditation practice with Sister Lucy. What a delightful and deeply touching experience it was! This was my first teaching of an interfaith retreat and even though I have been part of interfaith gatherings before, I went without knowing really what to expect. To my surprise I felt myself being touched and moved deeply, seeing and experiencing firsthand what we can share in such a short period of time, with people we have never met before and with old friends, of course. I have known Sister Lucy for about 20 years now. This surely helped me to feel at ease and relaxed in this, for me, very new situation. The community at Turvey welcomed us warmly and being able to join in with their services and prayers was such a wonderful, loving framework for this retreat... Being able and supported to touch our spiritual roots in many different ways is such a precious nourishment, meditation and prayers being part and the basis of it all. Meditating

5 together and then being present at the Turvey Abbey liturgy were both special experiences for me. A heartfelt thank you to all of you at Turvey Abbey for making this possible. Brother Herbert writes: Once again, we have had a very beautiful weekend on Meditation and Mindfulness led by a Christian and a Buddhist nun. We saw how very much we, our ways of life, have in common: meditation or contemplative prayer; the search for peace; unconditional love, and unity. We continue to pray for a growing understanding and respect between people of all Faiths. And from one of the regulars : I am someone who has attended the Meditation and Mindfulness weekend for some years now. Each is in some ways the same, in that it is a great relief, somehow, to arrive at Turvey, and become part of that very precious community again; and yet in some ways, each year is different. Partly this is because there is always a different group dynamic, as there will be when a new group of people form, and partly this is to do with how I am each time, and what needs or prayers I bring to the weekend. For me it was a particularly joyful time, and I'm not quite sure why. It was lovely to meet Sr Metta from Chithurst; it was lovely to be taught a rather eccentric, but in fact extremely helpful, new way of doing walking meditation. But I think most of all, it is that I have become able to go more deeply into it than I used to, so that it all feels like a gift; the silence, the prayerfulness, the very special way in which the Turvey community live. I was struck this time by the Benedictine Office, and how, even if for the community it is just everyday life, so that they see the mistakes, the wrong notes, the person arriving late, for us taking part it becomes perfect in its respect for its tradition, its deep history, in the wisdom of St. Benedict still conveyed so simply and so beautifully. Sketch of Sr Metta and Sr Lucy by Br Herbert