Blue Mountain Meditation Retreat

In late August, I attended a regional retreat of the Blue Mountain Center for Meditation at Cabrini Shrine outside of Denver. I've been practicing passage meditation and following the Eight Point Program of Eknath Easwaran for nearly ten years now. (Slowing Down is the third of these Eight Points.) This retreat was as much an excuse to see old friends in the Golden meditation group as it was to refresh and deepen my practice.

The theme of the retreat was renewal, and much of the focus was on getting out of 'doldrums', periods in which our meditation (or any spiritual practice, for that matter) seems flat and unfulfilling. We explored ways to rejuvenate our practice, such as identifying and eliminating bad habits (I notice that I unconsciously shift my feet during meditation, for example), ways to choose and deepen our relationship with the passages we use for meditation, and strategies for using time set aside for specifically for renewal. I found this to be an appealing concept - periodically, I do need to reflect on my practice, and more often than at an annual retreat.

I thought the idea of renewal also spoke to changes with the Blue Mountain Center. Easwaran died before I began this practice, so I never met him. My sense is that his unexpected death meant that the organization struggled for some time, first just to survive, then sort out leadership and direction. Easwaran did not want to create a religious organization in the eastern tradition, so he did not formally ordain other teachers. The organization is now affirming its identity under the leadership of Easwaran's wife Christine, and moving on an expanded mission, a time of renewal, with specific programming for youth and for elders and those confronting death. Even though I'm just an ordinary practitioner and occasional retreatant, I'm excited and hopeful about this new phase. The Eight Point Program has been valuable for me, and I want to see these teachings continue to be kept fresh and offered to others.