{"id":7053,"date":"2022-01-26T17:10:55","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T16:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/?p=7053"},"modified":"2023-09-17T16:28:27","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T15:28:27","slug":"returning-to-silence-zoom-retreat-with-donal-creedon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bodhicharya.org\/manyroads\/returning-to-silence-zoom-retreat-with-donal-creedon\/","title":{"rendered":"RETURNING TO SILENCE: ZOOM RETREAT WITH D\u00d3NAL CREEDON"},"content":{"rendered":"

31 December 2021 \u2013 7 January 2022<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There is something in the title that D\u00f3nal chose for this retreat that only became clear as it progressed: we are to return<\/em> to silence as our natural state. This silence has been obscured: we have been diverted from it by the noise and bustle of the world and, more fundamentally, by an error of perspective.\u00a0 But it is possible to find it again. This perception formed a kind of ground bass to the seven days we spent together meditating on the theme.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were deeply grateful to D\u00f3nal for engaging once again with a retreat through Zoom, due to the pandemic still raging throughout the world. The pros and cons of using Zoom are finely balanced. On the negative side, there are the technical hitches that inevitably beset all those participating, including D\u00f3nal himself; there is the distancing effect of working through the screen rather than face-to-face and the impossibility of engaging with other participants in a meaningful way; and there is the fact that participants are still having to deal with the intrusive every day, still having to keep the ship afloat in terms of family and professional commitments. The real test of the retreat is therefore how adequately one maintains mindfulness in the storm when one is not \u2018on the cushion\u2019, literally or figuratively.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is the undoubted plus of having participants gathered together from many parts of the world \u2013 in this case uniting Ireland with the UK and mainland Europe, but also Southern Africa, in centres where D\u00f3nal has been in the habit over the years of conducting physical retreats. The result was that there were over ninety retreatants present in virtual form for some sessions, coming from many different spiritual traditions or none at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The daily schedule was similar to that to which we have become accustomed: early morning silent meditation, then a teaching session followed by another meditation session. In the afternoon there were three more meditation sessions, sometimes with a teaching element, or Question and Answer, with the final session of the day given over to silent loving-kindness meditation. The breadth of possibilities this afforded was chosen deliberately by D\u00f3nal, reluctant to impose specifically Buddhist forms on the retreat, given the varied backgrounds of the participants. So no Chenrezig, for instance.<\/span><\/p>\n

This breadth, in fact, reflects D\u00f3nal\u2019s own background as he outlined his own spiritual journey from his initial discovery, as a young man still feeling his way, of Krishnamurti\u2019s teachings, with which he still engages, to Tibetan Buddhism and long retreats in Samye Ling, leading to the discovery of many \u2018sublime teachers\u2019\u00a0 such as Ringu Tulku Rinpoche<\/a><\/span> and Thrangu Rinpoche<\/span><\/a> being prominent and with whom he follows with loving attention. But concurrently, he spent several years as Resident Buddhist Scholar at the Krishnamurti Centre in Varanasi, India, refining his knowledge of that teacher\u2019s work and influence.<\/span><\/p>\n

His itinerary is charted in the study he published in 2017, (The Main of Light: Common Ground and Dividing Lines in the Teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Buddhism<\/a> <\/span>)\u00a0<\/em>in which the two main aspects of his spiritual path illuminate each other with a rare intensity.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the first morning of this Zoom retreat, D\u00f3nal outlined the principles that should guide our meditation. We should bear in mind the traditional approach of the lamas, who emphasised listening with the correct motivation: the noble bodhisattva motivation, at its most basic, reposing on the wish that all beings be happy and free from suffering. This was crucial, he said, whether we felt that the teacher was talking sense or nonsense: we listen with this motivation, and analyse afterwards. The traditional approach includes study, retreat and meditation on the words of great Dharma figures of the past and the present. This is the way of complexity.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is also, however, the direct path of the yogis, Mahamudra and Dzogchen. In this approach, there is no need for intensive study of texts and teachings: the study involved is that of the mind itself. Simple, but not easy, D\u00f3nal emphasised. Outlining the approach, he went through the various stages involved:<\/span><\/p>\n