Retreat

I have been on retreat for the past four days.

When I am on a retreat I‘m alone, I sit zazen for long periods, take long slow walks (very slow), do no work and most importantly, I eschew all media.  No phones, no reading, no Internet and interestingly, no driving or bicycle riding.  These last two seem to be media because they speed up my interaction with the world. They dis-inter-mediate the immediate world. (Note all these words focused on media.)

I am courteous while walking in crowds and will briefly say hello to people I know.

This works for me. I've done it at least once a year for thirty years. I have several friends who are Zen teachers and they assure me that the way each person handles a retreat is different, unique. 

The few days of isolation is invariably painful but I end the retreat joyful and often ecstatic.  Happy to rejoin the great modern world of commerce.

As you can see from the posting dates of my blogs, I have written blogs during my retreat.  I have always done art, sculpture and music by myself on retreats.  This time I tried writing blogs, and it worked fine just as art has in the past.