blogs/brentspodek

Two weeks ago, when Zoketsu Norman Fischer was here, I had the opportunity to talk with him briefly about the dynamics beteween the Zen householder and monastic traditions.

In short, there is a Buddhist monastic practice, in which people retreat from worldly pursuits in order to fully devote themselves to spiritual work and there is a householder practice, in which people have families and houses and jobs and practice Buddhism in that context. Most interesting, and to my mind, most important, was the fact that often, people transition between householder and monk and back to householder with regularity.

Over the course of the fabulous BHA Shavuot Retreat at Isabella Freedman, I thought about that dynamic a great deal. Over the course of four days, about 35 people from our community were together in a gorgeous, joyful, Jewish setting along with about 150 other people of all types of backgrounds. Every one of us - myself very much included - addresses (or ignores) our spiritual needs in the context of working, parenting, cooking, mowing the lawn, and more. It can be a very hard balance to maintain.

A retreat, however, is a setting where we could largely, if not entirely, focus on our spiritual needs. One of our members, who was able to do six Torah Yoga classes in four days, said she felt more open than she had in years. "I don't know if, or how, I could do that at home, but it was beautiful for what it was," she said.

This was by no means a monastic experience (for starters, the food was incredible), but it was an opportunity to operate at a level of greater spiritual intensity and focus, with no pre-suppositions about how experiences - of yoga, of davvening, of meditation, of learning - will or won't carry over to "regular" life.

Of course, one of the joys of the retreat was a transition which will carry over to "regular" life - Julia Alexander's conversion to Judaism. Julia and her wife Wendy have been core members of our community since they arrived in Beacon and it was a tremendous joy and honor to formally welcome Julia not just into the BHA community but into the Jewish people on Friday afternoon. On Shabbat morning, Cantor Ellen Gersh and I led services together with Rabbi Kaya Stern Kaufman and called Julia up for her first aliya to the Torah. When I finished offering Julia a blessing, the entire room - full of BHA folk and the rest of the retreat - erupted in song and dance. It was a beautiful, beautiful moment.

I hope that the energy and enthusiasm of this Shavuot retreat will effect all of our communal and individual lives in many different ways that will take time to unfold. Whatever the future might hold, a community retreat in and of itself offers spiritual opportunities that aren't easily available otherwise.

If you think you might be interested, you might want to mark your calendars for the BHA Men's Camping Trip on July 17, 2015 and the weekend of June 11 2016, when I suspect we'll be back at Isabella Freedman for the next Shavuot retreat!