Included in our morning sadhana, at Rockwood Manor, was a line-up of chairs, and seated upon them were the direct students of Srila Prabhupada, our Guru Maharaja. There were six of us. We were given three questions to answer, from our personal perspective, and were obliged to deliver to the thirty or so listeners, our experiences.
Question One: What encourages you to stay (in devotional life) and to keep going?
Question Two: What fears do you encounter about the future, and also what hope do you have?
Question Three: What particular verse from the sastra (scripture) inspires you the most?
The presentation by members was good.
What else did you take away from this weekend's retreat? I noted a few items from the notes affixed to the walls of our conference room—notes which were a result of our collected wisdom.
"The by-products of listening and reflecting are feeling understood and validated, empathy (feeling pain), being respected and cared for, [knowing] you are not wrong for having an emotion, [understanding] there was need to give advice and input, vulnerability (expressing our own shortcoming), shared understanding, and the most useful thing [was] completing the cycle. "
Also "The Four Principles":
1) Whoever comes are the right people
2) Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened
3) When it starts is the right time
4) When it over it's over
The last item for me today was taking a lead at the Washington temple.
Comments