Why do we do this Retreat(s)hopping
— when we have life?
We are buying retreats, because we believe they save us from burn-outs, we believe they let us regain strength and stability, we believe they allow us to discover past lives, reasons for suffering or unknown illnesses. We are buying retreats, because we are striving for enlightenment. And we forget right then that we are already here. In the biggest retreat ever. We are living bodies and minds in this beautiful world. We are alive. We forget, that we can find what we search for in retreats, in life. Or rather, that the things find us as if by themselves. Life is a treasure hunt without us hunting for the treasure. Life itself is our treasure. It is our path into a new state of being. Life is our retreat.
When we are born, there is no price-tag on the life we are entering. All we need to do is, allowing our souls to enter a physical shape, a body and mind, making us human. This body and mind allow us to play. To communicate. To move. They allow us to walk, to think, to build. They empower us to discover any scent, sensation, thing. They enable us to look into any corner of this very planet. With this body and mind, we can learn what pain is and what well-being. We can let tears of sadness and of joy run over our cheeks. We can discover feelings of love or hate and other feelings. There are innumerable facets of being human. This all can be what we call contemplation. And it can become just the opposite, and maybe both ways even lead to the same.
Body, mind and soul can either encounter each other in a dance — and we will not at all feel how time goes by. Or body and mind take over the soul — at least for some time in life, and the supposedly hundred years we live as such seem just not enough. We let ourselves entangle in the mind-set or believe system, which we call “being human”. We are competing, we are striving for knowledge, we are comparing, we are inventing. We are creating problems, dependencies or sufferings. And in these means we are allowing retreats to become part of life. And by then, hundred years will, for sure, not be enough. As we create even more entanglements.
Still, we are these magical souls. And we are here to learn something, there it is once more, the glimpse of the dance. Maybe it is about the magic we inherit with our souls. Maybe we shall learn, how precious it is to let mind and body express the magic we are. Maybe we ought to realize, how fast we can lose what we have here, as beings, as souls. Maybe we need to humbly embrace this beautiful gift, we have in our hands, to being able to use it wisely on our next path of the journey.
So, this is life. Having lived through a burn-out is what strengthens us and lets us regain stability, not the retreat. Having survived an unknown illness or a suffering is what allows resources to emerge and lets us discover well-being and the beauty of life, not the retreat. Having spent some time in darkness or fear is what allows us to explore light and lets us become aware or find enlightenment, not the retreat. Yes, life is the biggest retreat ever. We are in it together as well as we are independent beings.
Let us live. Let us just be. Let the treasures of life find us.
We are magical souls in living bodies and thinking minds — in this beautiful world. We are alive. Life is a treasure hunt without us hunting for the treasure. Life itself is our treasure. It is our path into a new state of being. Life is our retreat.
And then, once we have lived through it, let us — magical souls — meet on the other side.
With joy of life I bow to you.
Princess Gaia.
