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VACATIONING PEACEFULLY AND CHEAPLY AT A BUDDHIST RETREAT
-by Susan Seliger
Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine, October 2002


In North America, interest in the chief spiritual outlook of East Asia is growing so rapidly that more than 100 Buddhist centers are today attracting sizeable numbers of cost-conscious visitors for weeklong and longer stays.

From paperback best sellers (Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has spawned Zen-and-the-Art-of Nearly-Anything-You-Can-Name) to popular films (Little Buddha, Kundun, Brad Pitt in Seven Years in Tibet), from TV ads (can a guy meditating in a yoga class really sell online stock-trading) to rock-and-roll classics (Bonnie Raitt, Tina Turner, Jerry Garcia, the Beastie Boys), from front page news (the award of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize to the Dalai Lama) to celebrity gossip (Courtney Love schlepping Kurt Cobain's ashes to a Buddhist shrine in India), Buddhism has been inching its way into everyday American life.

"Ten years ago there were, at most, 40 Buddhist retreats in the United States and Canada.  Now there are two or three times that many," says Jeff Wilson, Web columnist for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (a quarterly magazine) and author of the Buddhist Guide to New York.

If you've been thinking that you need a different sort of vacation this year - one that might let you not simply change your venue but your view about life and living as well - take a deep breath and consider a Buddhist retreat.  You'll discover that enlightenment (or at least a week on the way there) can come cheap.  

What should you expect at a Buddhist retreat?

Meditation:  Buddhism has undergone many changes in its trek from India 2,500 years ago through Tibet, China, Japan, and other parts of the world to America, emerging in three dominant strains (Theravada, the oldest; Mahayana, which includes the slightly stricter Japanese Zen practice; and Vajrayana, the more relaxed Tibetan version).  But the one common element in all of them is the practice of meditation.  It is mostly done sitting (the Japanese called it zazen) on little cushions in a meditation hall where you are not allowed to doze off (catching zzzzzz) but must sit absolutely still, erect, hands poised just so (a mudra posture) and focus on nothing but your breathing, to start off.

Silence:  There's a lot of that; some retreats are completely silent.  "We call it Noble Silence," explains Julie Wester, a teacher at Spirit Rock Retreat Center in California.  "We've all been silenced by an adult as children, not a good feeling.  here the silence allows us to drop the automatic social rules - always looking pleasant and feeling you have to smile," Wester says.  "Once people get a taste of how peaceful this can be, they choose this instead of going to, say, Mexico," Wester adds.  "Typical vacations often aren't really restful."

Compassion and Acceptance:  Buddhism is refreshingly nonjudgmental and adaptable.  Do you like to meditate but don't know all those funny-sounding syllables to chant?  No problem, Rodger Kamenetz, author of Jew in the Lotus, talks about passing by Allan Ginsberg during a teaching of the Dalai Lama in New York:  "While others were dutifully chanting Tibetan syllables, Ginsberg was intoning 'eenie meenie miney mo."

Buddhists Wake Up Early:  At nearly all retreats, you'll hear an otherworldly gong penetrate your slumber at 5 or 6 A.M.  Buddhist of all stripes like to get up early and meditate.  Even if you turn over and fall back asleep, you'll find the gong's pleasant pulsations take (nearly) all the edge off the early hour.  Why doesn't everybody get up this way?

Good Health:  In a recent issue of the British Medical Journal, researchers report that subjects who recited a mantra (in this case, "om-mani-padme-hung"), as well as those who recited the Hail Mary portion of the Rosary in Latin, naturally slowed their respiratory rate to six breaths per minute, which turns out to synchronize perfectly with the body's natural cardiovascular rhythms in a way that reduces stress, increases feelings of well-being, and seems to protect them from heart disease.  Studies on transcendental meditation (TM) at Harvard Medical School in the mid-'70s showed TM to lower levels of blood lactate, which is associated with anxiety, to decrease blood pressure in people with hypertension, and to slow the heart rate, leading to a deep level of relaxation.

Doing Nothing isn't Always Easy:  Learning mindfulness, as they call focusing on the moment, yourself, and your place in the cosmos, can be tough.  As Woody Allen once said, "I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown."  It's worth it, "Don't expect a radically altered mind state," write Sylvia Boorstein in Don't Just Do Something, Sit There: A Mindfulness Retreat," unless feeling happy and relaxed is radical for you."

Buddhist Retreat Centers
Here (is one of) my top seven retreats, (with most) preferring you to stay at least a couple of night to soak it all in.

Wood Valley Temple and Retreat Center, Wood Valley, Ka'u, on the Big Island of Hawaii.  This is one of the best kept local secrets.  You would never happen upon it because it's tucked away in a lush, green valley, far from the normal tourist path - but still within driving distance of Hilo and Volcanoes National Park, which are two attractions on the Big Island.  

This tiny Tibetan center, established in 1973 by the Venerable Nechung Rinpoche, was visited by the Dalai Lama twice: He dedicated the center in 1980 and visited again in 1994, drawing a crowd of several thousand to a facility that that can only sleep 25.  Throughout the year, you'll find some formal retreats with guidance from teachers and lamas; the center is also open to groups for any spiritual, social, cultural, or health activities.  Private individuals can stay at any time of year and simply join in with the two resident monks during morning and evening prayers and chanting..or just kick back (easygoing Buddhism practiced here).

'We've preserved the original main shrine, built in 1902, which was the first Nichiren Shu Buddhist temple in Hawaii to service the Japanese immigrants who work on the sugar plantations," explains Marya Schwabe, codirector.  "But we've added modern Tibetan colors, the bright Crayola colors, which are beautiful."

If you feel you must leave the compound, ten minutes away you'll find a black-sand beach where the green sea turtles come in to reset and feed.  For groups over 15, directors Marya & Michael Schwabe will cook your meals; otherwise you are free to use their big modern kitchen.

"It's very heavenly," says Ione, psychotherapist and author in New York City and Kingston, New York, who has just come back.  "We sit on the veranda of our second-floor room (furnished in modern, simple Hawaiian style, with single or double beds) looking out on the most luscious flowers (red ginger, bird of paradise, spider lilies, and cup of gold flowering vines thrive there) and palms, listening to the sound of the peacocks on the grounds.  You can go down and pick an avocado from the trees for your lunch.  They raise coffee there, picked by the monks, which is fantastic at breakfast,"  Ione says, her voice softening at the memory.

"I've traveled a lot in the world," Ione says, "and this is one of those places with a special feeling, a great feeling of peacefulness, beauty, and simplicity that calls you to return."

WOOD VALLEY TEMPLE AND RETREAT CENTER (a.k.a. Nechung Dorje Drayang Ling, which means small, Immutable Island of Melodious Sound) P.O. Box 250, Pahala, HI 96777.  808-928-8539.  www.nechung.org

When there's no formal retreat, rooms are $75 for a couple in one room, not including meals; $50 for a single person, $35 for a dormitory bed.  Discounts for groups of 15 or more.  When there's a formal retreat, $75 - $125 per night includes three meals, tuition, and taxes.  

 

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Nechung Dorje Drayang Ling is a 501(c)3 non-profit religious organization.

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