Our First Wisdom Retreat: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

It felt like a dream, on many levels. Firstly, Wisdom Retreats had been something we wanted to do since we first began brafe.space, and there was much excitement to be felt about finally hosting our first group and allowing the program to take place. Secondly, from the moment we arrived at our host location Der Kemper Hof, we could feel as if we had been swept away from everyday life. We had found who we thought would be an excellent first teacher to introduce some brafe entrepreneurs to meditation, and who combined traditional Buddhist Zen practice with the integral theory of Ken Wilber. He was humble, well spoken, and had an underlying air of humor and playfulness that also seemed unique. He also prefers not to be named publicly, so, even though he may prefer something other than ‘Teacher’, this is how we will refer to him here.

OUR ARRIVAL

Our first afternoon together was focused on arriving: sharing meals, getting to know the group and our Teacher for the retreat, understanding exactly what a Zen meditation retreat was and what we had signed up for. Even that could not have prepared us for the program which emerged. Each of us was asked to find a question which we wanted to explore throughout the week, and had a one-on-one opportunity with the Teacher to explore our question and what it might mean for us. The days and sits were, relatively speaking, short. We would sit for between 30 and 45 minutes in silence, approaching our question from a specific template, with breaks in between and a single nighttime session following dinner each night.

OUR RELATIONAL SPACE

Of course, exploring our questions revealed our inner pains and hurts, and our Teacher created a space in which we were safe to explore those pains; this was planned largely in our own company, but as the week progressed and our relationships developed, we began to also share our explorations with different partners from the group. These moments were some of the most tender and powerful. Conversely, I don’t think we have witnessed so much laughter, joy, and love, for far too long. Each night around the dinner table, all that could be heard was inquiry followed by appreciation and love, reciprocated with appreciation, followed by more inquiry, into the humans that we are. Sobriety is rarely so drunken as we were, but there was a childish, playful air overwhelming our time together as a group.

The location certainly contributed - from the first day, meditations were being instructed together with the surrounding nature. ‘Pay attention to the sound of each bird or the running water’. ‘Expand your meditation to include the farm animals, trees, and land which is holding us.’ ‘Wonder into the night sky’, our Teacher instructed in a calming voice. The gardens were the perfect oasis for such practice. At night, becoming a small playground through which one could run under the moon barefoot, calling back memories from our childhood and simpler times.

We were blessed with the weather and grasped every opportunity given to practice our meditations outdoors; however, our home away from home truly became this lodge-like meditation room where we would spend our days sitting on meditation cushions and mats, sprawled on the carpet, and learning about Zen meditation practices and integral development. One night - we even found some candy, gathered on the floor beneath a projector, and watched a movie together (you can tell which by the title of this blog post).

OUR LEARNINGS

And that was really our week together: everything, everywhere, all at once. Our hearts and minds as much connected to ourselves as they were to one another, the space, and the potential of life beyond the fields of Brandenburg. It was so rich, so timeless, so joyous … and transformative in the most gentle way.

Already, those who were on the retreat are connecting and encouraging one another to maintain their practice, as well as to use the templates we learned with our Teacher to put their current circumstances into a new perspective. We are planning regular sits in our community’s living room, The Square, so that we can be reminded of how beautiful it is to connect with one another from the space of no-selfness, as we did together in what seemed like a dream ✨ We will patiently integrate our learnings and share them with the community around brafe.space, as well as more widely by finding unique ways to incorporate these practices into our way of working.

brafe.space is, after all, a process, and not a product, that we are striving for.

We are so grateful to our Teacher, Der Kemper Hof, and each of the uniquely beautiful members of our community who joined us for this retreat. We deeply appreciate the memories we shared, and the ways we will move forward together within our brafe space.