fajrdrako | 20-Minute Retreats...

20-Minute Retreats by Rachel Harris. I liked the way this book is set up. Lots of good quotes. Every chapter is about a trait - Faith, Forgiveness, Intuition - and each chapter contains exercises... no, 'exercises' isn't a good word for it - contains meditations on fostering that trait. And each chapter has questions pointing out why a person would need to retreat. For instance:

You can hardly remember the last time you had a moment to yourself.
You feel an unquenchable inner yearning.
You don't laugh as much as you used to.

These things relate to lives of stress and distraction, and in every chapter my answer to the questions was 'no'. Okay, given the examples above, I do feel an unquenchable inner yearning - but it isn't a desire for spiritual peace, which I think I have, it's a desire to learn and experience life, and I wouldn't want to lose that. Curiosity and a sense of wonder: the most valuable things in my life.

I laugh a lot. Living alone, and currently having no job, I get as much time to myself as I want. I don't feel consumed by guilt or anger, I'm not plagued by anxiety. Which is not to say I don't have my worries; 'unemployed', remember? But on the whole, I began to feel like an impostor just opening the book.

At one point Harris pointed out that saying we can't find twenty minutes in a day to relax, retreat, and meditate, is simply wrong - we probably spend twenty minutes a day watching ads on television. To which I could only think, hoo, boy, this book is so not addressed to me. I don't spent two minutes a day watching ads on TV. Never have, never will, don't want to.

So, okay, accepting that this book wasn't written for me, it was still a good read. Some of the exercises in deep breathing, visualization, chakra work and creativity are things I may well do. Some of the quotes were terrific. For example:

There is only one journey. Going inside yourself. - Ranier Maria Rilke.
If the only prayer you would say in your whole life is 'thank you', that would suffice. - Meister Eckhart.
A meditation:
You see, the whole world is praying all the time. - Schlomo Carlbach.
Not "Be perfect," not "Don't ever make a mistake," but "Be whole". - Rabbi Harold S. Kushner.
Metta is a traditional Buddhist term meaning 'loving-kindness"... The following metta prayer is Lama Surya Das's version of loving kindness:

Interesting how, even though I believe in no religion, the religious mystics tend to say things I agree with. Especially when their comments have nothing to do with a deity or dogma.