Dharma Gates Retreat Notes

I had the pleasure of leading a retreat through Dharma Gates last week in West Virginia.

Dharma Gates is an organization set up to bring teachers from various Dharma lineages to young people. The retreats are for ages 18-35.

Generally I have a lot of folks older than that in my retreats, so I had some people in my group grumpily threatening to host a geriatric retreat in response!

It was such a pleasure to work with Dharma Gates. The retreat managers were very responsive, collaborative, and professional. I felt well taken care of and supported. A couple of them have been doing this work for a few years so luckily they trusted me to create the retreat, create the vibe, in my own way.

The participants were sincere and teachable. In a practice that is profoundly rebellious, these participants were up for anything. This is so refreshing.

In my training, my teacher was like a blacksmith, turning up the heat and cooking us, forging us in that heat. We cooked in this unknown and came out bigger, expansive, useful. We touched a freedom that is rare today.

In my retreats I take away all of the strategies, and cast people into their own immediate process, bring the energy and let them cook in it. Although it was confusing for many, wandering in the unknown and suspending disbelief, they all showed up and kept going.

I even found them doing the Zhan Zhuang and Non-Directed Body Movement, seated meditation, in the free time after we’d been doing it for hours already.

I think some people thought this would be an embodiment retreat, or a Qigong retreat, where we would find ways to make their seated meditation more fun through movement. In truth, we go down the rabbit hole with Alice and find a secret process worth nurturing.

These are pretty advanced retreats. Touching this source and learning to be led by the universe is quite a wild process. But I felt like the participants courageously showed up. They went for it, even in the midst of profoundly beginning to let go of control. It gives me hope for young people and practice, when most zendos and meditation halls have gotten more and more grey, naturally occurring retirement clubs. I appreciated the earnestness of this group. I saw some real lightbulbs go on! We’ve planted some seeds which will grow.

I’d definitely do it again. Big thumbs up!

Lots of love to all of you. You can do it. You can touch your true nature. If you do it, you’ll naturally bring everyone else with you. If possible, do it while you are young. Don't become a spiritual expert. Forget all of that.

Core