What exactly is The Retreat Society?
It is primarily, of course, a society dedicated to the promotion of retreats - periods in which time is:- set aside ,
- in a quiet place ,
- to practise the art of living more inward, meditative and considered lives.
Why The Retreat Society of the Bamboo Grove?
In memory of that small, loveable group of Taoist sages who, escaping from their ordinary, disciplined, rather stifling everyday environment, went off into the mountains to enjoy the peace and solitude of a Bamboo Grove. There, for hours or sometimes days on end, they would throw off the shackles of strict Confucian conformity and revel in their own poetic thoughts, philosophical musings and the beauties of the natural world, for which - like St Francis - they felt a special affinity.Does the Society have a particular religious stance, or follow a particular tradition?
Yes and no. Essentially, we are:- an open society in which people of whatever age or background will enjoy participating in our work;
- a society you are invited to join-in rather than join;
- a society that tries to cultivate our common humanity.
Our ‘humanism’, however, is ‘not the humanism that denies a Supreme Power, but one that professes the unity of heaven and earth’.
What is this ‘unity’?
Well, it is of course by no means always self-evident in our ordinary lives. It is what Master Eckhart calls our deepest ‘ground’, a ground we share not only with one another but also with God. It is, in other words, what Paul Tillich calls ‘our ultimate concern’ and what Zen refers to as ‘Buddha nature’. We detect here, in this tradition of depth, a spirit which might well be summed up in the old saying ‘as above, so below’. The hope of the society is to foster this spirit in meditation, to learn to see it in the world around us and to begin to understand some of the complex reasons why it is so painfully difficult for us to recall or remember this spirit on a daily basis.Over the past century, an important dialogue has opened up between east and west. It has proved most fruitful, perhaps, in the area of Buddhist-Christian exchange and a major concern of the society is to study this hugely important development. Similarly, our meditation practice is based on zazen, that ‘mindful sitting’ that is the heart of the Zen tradition. In the east, this meditative sitting is seen as a primary means to self-realisation or enlightenment. It is, however, no stranger to the west, for we find very similar ‘means’ advocated, for example, in that classic of English mysticism The Cloud of Unknowing.The Cloud’s strong emphasis on ‘forgetting’ is highly reminiscent of the emphasis that Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu place on ‘emptiness’, ‘mind-fasting’ and ‘sitting in forgetfulness’ (tso-wang).
All such practice is of ‘the spirit’ and not ‘the letter’. It is impossible, therefore, to fix or pin-down. It is not a system but something living - an expression of our encounter with the very depths of life. It is out of these depths, we believe, that our world can be healed and its underling unity made manifest.
So, does the society have no religious affiliation at all?
In the light of what is written above, it is already clear perhaps that we do look to recent developments in the area of Buddhist-Christian exchange. These developments, we believe, offer a vital clue to the form that religion might take in the future. Similarly, ‘western’ developments in the area of depth psychology, also offer important clues for our ongoing spiritual development. The Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung, for instance, has opened up a hugely important debate on the nature and complexity of the psyche. Today, unlike our 19th century forebears, we are therefore much more aware of those hidden ‘powers and principalities’ that can all too easily take control of our lives whether as individuals or communities. Without conscious collaboration with these psychic depths our lives can be wrecked, but on the other hand, with our cooperation these same depths can become a source of renewed creativity and life. So, both depth psychology and certain forms of mature Buddhism can, we believe, revolutionize the way we see our world and ourselves. At yet another level, modern physics also points beyond the mere ‘objective-ness’ of things to extraordinary depths that can, in turn, help transform our limited vision of reality. This transformation, at whatever level, is highly paradoxical, for what is at first merely one-dimensional becomes multi-dimensional only to become, in turn, the one world of ‘inter-being’, the world of enlightenment – the world as it really is.Note:
If some people find the above a little one-sided, perhaps it is because it emphasizes what, in China, Korea and Japan, is termed ‘self-power’. This emphasis can, in fact, be traced back to the teachings of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, who counselled us to ‘become lamps unto ourselves’. On the other hand, East Asian tradition speaks also in terms of ‘other power’ – the way of ‘grace’; a way particularly emphasized in Christianity and by Jungian psychology. It sees these two ‘ways’ as essentially equal. Both are, it tells us, in great measure, mere ‘concepts’ and, so, belong this side of enlightenment! Enlightenment is the ‘Power’ itself, beyond all ‘distinctions’ and ‘ways’. |
|
However, the distinction between ‘the way of self power’ and ‘the way of other power’ was beautifully expressed by that great Christian-Buddhist, the late Thomas Merton: |
