Our day-long retreat at in Newburyport
April 20, 2008 by Tim Little
Carrie and I spent a fine spring day on retreat at the Insight Meditation Center of Newburyport yesterday. Technically in West Newbury, IMCN is located in some beautiful countryside, although it’s only about an hour’s drive from Lowell.
In fact, we almost had a private retreat, as we were joined for each of the morning and afternoon sessions by only one other yogi. IMCN is situated in an old, rambling farmhouse, so it felt a bit like being on retreat in someone’s home (which it is, in part) — comfortable, but without all the distractions of actually being at home.
The guiding teacher, Matthew Daniell, has an extensive background in meditation, in both the Japanese Zen and Thai traditions. A student of Larry Rosenberg at CIMC, Matthew is currently furthering his teacher training under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield.
As with most retreats, the morning was spent alternating periods of sitting and walking meditation. Matthew is also a trained yoga instructor, and so he usually includes some period of yoga or body work, however a recent injury precluded that yesterday.
The afternoon program was much the same, albeit with a slight change in instruction. Whereas in the morning we had been encouraged to really focus on paying attention to the breath, in the afternoon we were encouraged to practice with a more “open awareness.” (We also had a brief period of standing/reclining meditation after lunch, just to keep the body/mind fresh!)
Matthew actually gave his dharma talk/Q&A period in the middle of the afternoon session. Being Earth Day weekend, his talk was about the relationship between “outer global warming” and the “inner global warming” of greed, hatred, and ignorance (traditionally known at the Three Fires, I might add). Good stuff, again bringing home the point that even individual practice has much larger ramifications.
There was another Q&A period after the retreat officially ended, and Matthew was very helpful in clarifying a point of confusion for me. We then had a chance to chat informally over a cup of tea before we had to hit the road.
Small world story: Matthew is originally from New Hampshire, and his mother actually knows and sits with Doreen Schweizer up at Valley Insight!
Anyhow, Carrie and I are of the consensus that IMCN is a wonderful place to take a day-long retreat. This would be a great opportunity for anyone thinking about going on a longer retreat (e.g., at IMS or Spirit Rock), but either unable to because of time or money, or interested in testing the waters first. At $50 for the day, it’s a pretty good deal.
IMCN offers weekend day-long retreats about twice a month, and half-day retreats on Tuesday mornings. (One can also attend only the morning session of the a weekend day-long.) Carrie and I thought we’d see if there is enough interest to have a bunch of us carpool up there some weekend. In particular, Chas DiCapua (teacher-in-residence at IMS) will lead a day-long retreat on Saturday, May 31, on “the six sense doors”:
The six-sense doors include the five senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and the mind (through which we perceive and filter experience). Learning to pay close attention in the present moment as to how we actually experience life through the senses can help us to live from a place of greater awareness, responsiveness, and ease. Traditional Buddhist teachings, as well as Jon Kabat-Zinn’s book “Coming to Our Senses”, will be supports for our inquiry. Some meditation experience preferred.
IMCN is not a huge place, so Matthew would probably appreciate some advanced warning if a good number of us plan on showing up. I’ll say more about this in this week’s e-mail….
4 Responses to “Our day-long retreat at in Newburyport”
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A couple of comments — I sat with Larry Rosenberg in Cambridge this Sunday (the 20th) — he also changed the practice in the afternoon to what he called Choiceless Awareness — which he described as just paying attention to whatever comes up. It reminded me a little of Laura from Andover’s teaching when she visited us last fall. I know that Matthew and Larry work together sometimes, so I guess this is no surprise — but an interesting new practice for me.
Not to discourage one-day retreats though! Much to be learned, enjoyed, and explored!
My second thought — to just be cautious about extrapolating from a one-day retreat to a week-long retreat. In my (limited) experience — the hardest day of a longer retreat is the first. I just wouldn’t want anyone to feel discouraged if they find a one-day retreat difficult. I found the second day much easier than the first, and the third easier than the second, and the fourth, fifth and sixth especially sweet. Then I started to begin to think about climbing back to the ‘real’ world…
Hi Tim, glad to hear your and Carrie’s meditation experience at IMCN went so well. I went to a mini half-day retreat there last year and Matthew was very helpful. At my ‘check in’ he helped me correct my poor sitting meditation posture; my back remains grateful to this day
I look forward to returning there soon.
Mike — I was trying to remember whether or not you’d made it out there before; I’m glad you were able to go for a half-day and got some good practice tips, too!
Brenda — Thanks; you raise a couple of good points. Regarding retreats, yes, one day is hardly the same thing as a longer retreat of a week, 10 days… or even a weekend, really I suppose. Again speaking from my own limited experience, but also that of others, there is definitely a rhythm to a long retreat such as you describe. In the beginning, there’s a settling-in period — maybe a day or two — followed by the heart of the retreat before the last couple of days when one’s attention starts to drift towards preparing for re-entry to the “real” world.
Still, having a whole day of practice is wonderful, and I think is a good trial run for anyone who wants to try out a longer period of dedicated practice. Carrie and I were both in a place where we were really able to drop right back into the practice, and left with an itch to get back to IMS. Alas, time and money….
It was interesting to hear Matthew talk about the various “modes” of practice — one centered on the breath, another in the space of “choiceless awareness,” and yet a third somewhere between the two. I personally find myself operating in the third mode more often than not, where awareness of breath is still the undercurrent “backbeat” of the practice while the majority of attention is on the “melody” of whatever else arises… maybe a 90/10 balance of attention between the latter and the former.
To me it’s almost like the “mindfulness of breathing” practice (anapanasati) establishes the baseline concentration one needs to open into more spacious awareness, from which one begins to develop insight. Certainly one can approach either anapanasati from either a concentration or insight perspective, but perhaps the choiceless awareness practice lends itself to more direct invesitgation of the “Three Characteristics” (impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, non-self).
Sorry; one other thing…..
Brenda — Interesting that you should make the comparison to with your experience with Laura. Not surprising! Matthew mentioned that basically the entire point of Dzogchen practice is indeed to cultivate that state of “choiceless awareness.”