Retreat

For some time now, years actually, I've been considering life as a monk. To give up ordinary work and life and live for something else, such as a religious calling. Trouble is I haven't got one of those but it would be nice because then you'd "know" what to believe, right? No, I'm not serious about becoming a monk because it would be too regulated and strict. But I've heard that one can go on retreats in similar environments (yes, it's the peaceful and silent environment that attracts me most) which I find likewise tempting but then my problem was; would I go to a Christian retreat which is the tradition I've been "practicing" since childhood and am greatly influenced by or a Buddhist retreat which I find even more inspiring?  

A Christian retreat I fear to be too focused on specific god fearing traditional beliefs, how to believe the right way etc. and an all-out Buddhist retreat might be too much about kneeling and sitting on one’s heels with a straight back for hours at end. Neither seems especially comfortable.

Then I read an article called "Psykologisk renässans" in the latest number of Modern Psykologi  ( February 2014) about some guy who wrote something he called “Spiritual exercises” a long, long time ago where one pray by picturing a scene or event from the Bible and pretend to be there, with all the sensations involved. How does it feel? What does it say about you and your experiences that you think and feel these certain things about this particular event? And so on. Visualizing is also a common instrument in psychology and can help when making decisions. I use it all the time, trying to figure out what would happen if I do this or that by playing it out in my mind. Common enough among writers; what happens if…

Well, this is a practice of meditation that's suppsed to give a greater understanding of oneself and the hardships in life. Sounded very interesting and at the end of the article they mentioned a retreat center in Liverpool that uses this form of prayer/meditation. So I looked it up and when I found a very limited program with few dates of retreats I requested more dates and found out that Loyola Hall, as it’s called, would close this year :( Instead they directed me to St Beuno’s Jesuit Spirituality retreat center in Wales. There I found a five day retreat in wonderful brittish countryside that combines the Zen way of thinking with the Christian tradition :)

Perfect.

 

 

And here’s a link to an interview with the guy holding that particular retreat.

http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Buddhism/2002/02/God-And-Zen.aspx?p=1