Even though yoga comes from India, this retreat has very loud Zen Buddhist overtones. Which is great by me. I love silence, simplicity, oneness. I’m very cool with Zen Buddhism. I read Alan Watts. I read Haiku. I even studied Japanese for about ten minutes. I think of Buddhists as being very y’all-come.
I’m not sure where I got that idea from.
Silent meditation is from 7:30 - 8:00 am. That’s too long for me to sit with my mouth shut, but I really love to sit silently for a few minutes. The first day of retreat I slipped ever so quietly in to morning meditation for the last five minutes and enjoyed a heady communion in the room’s intense energy. Later it was announced that people who miss opening bell can only do their meditation out on the cold porch.
At the church where I work, if people weren’t allowed in after the bell we would have a mighty intimate gathering. Opening procession is cross, choir and clergy with hearty numbers from the congregation following behind.
I knew a Lutheran pastor who wouldn’t let parishioners have communion if they missed the gospel reading.
Even that gives a person 20 minutes of wiggle room.
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