The World Beyond The Ones We Know: A Look Back

Prajnasisya's look back on our first Urban Retreat, which took place in Deal (at Sholden Village Hall and at the beach at Walmer) on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th September 2024:

What a delight our sangha retreat was at the weekend, it couldn’t have gone better. There were 24 of us and seven of those were from Canterbury. It was skilfully led by Danapriya and Vanaraji who both gave excellent talks (which we have included below). And we also had talks by Ingrid, Janice and Jon which were very moving and heartfelt.

The weather Dakinis were on our side as we had glorious sunshine so that we were able to have discussion groups and our lunch outside in the sun. And we also went for a mindful walk around the country paths of Sholden.

On Saturday evening most of us went to the beach for vegan sausage and chips and then Kit and myself led a meditation and 7fold puja looking over the sea as the moon rose above us. Magical.

Some people had organised to stay over, Kit and Jon had pitched their tents in our garden and were joined by Janice and Richard, so for us the retreat continued overnight and into breakfast. 

I think that the quality that shone out over the weekend was the warmth and friendliness of our sangha, Vanaraji mentioned that too. That sense of sharing our lives together, being honest and open with each other, deepening friendships and exploring the dharma together with both laughter and tears.

There was definitely a sense of something other than the world we know with us. And we hope to organise another one in January.  Sadhu to all of us who were there, each person brought something of themselves to offer and share and left with something deeper.
 

Thankyou.
With metta,
Prajnasisya

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Danapriya shared the following poems:

Danapriya also had a recommended reading list for those who wished to investigate further the things he addressed in his talk. The list is as follows:

After by Dr Bruce Greyson

Proof Of Heaven by Eben Alexander

Testimony Of Light by Helen Greaves.

Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss. 

(If you like this one then there are 3 more of his which I valued: Same Soul, Many Bodies/ Only Love Is Real/ Through Time Into Healing).

Life After Life by Raymond Moody.

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Vanaraji also gave us a wonderful talk. Here are the notes of Vanaraji's talk which she kindly shared with us:

THE WORLD BEYOND THE ONES WE KNOW
1. What is the world we know? How do we access it/connect with it?

2. Where do these quotes come from?
a. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… (Star Wars)
b. Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its
continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and
new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before! (Star Trek)
c. Sometimes, the thing you’ve been looking for your whole life is right there by
your side all along (The Guardians of the Galaxy – Peter Quill)

Why do you think that some people are fascinated by films like these? 

Does exploring new worlds/dimensions resonate somewhere within you? 

Do they give you a glimpse of something beyond the world we know?

3. Three examples of glimpses to a world beyond the one I know from my life:
i. St George and the Dragon (qualities: integration, wholeness, Truth, mystery)
ii. Meditation: found myself in the night sky among the stars (qualities: expansiveness, peace, home, harmony, joy)
iii. Magic Secret Garden (qualities: harmony, peace, life as it should be, luscious plants, beauty, protection)
Something felt aligned, just right, more real than the chair I’m sitting on.

4. Can you relate to these descriptions? Have you ever had a similar experience? 

Close your eyes for a moment, can you recall an experience when you felt that you touched
upon a world beyond the world you know? 

Concentrate on the feel/the qualities more than the experience itself. 

5. These experiences point to a Truth that maybe has laid dormant in us

A Truth we have forgotten, they point to a different dimension of being. A different dimension of being: string theory physicists are carrying out experiments to show that instead of 3 dimensions, the universe has up to 11 dimensions. Is that what Philip Pullman refers to in his Trilogy: His Dark Material? The middle book, called The Subtle Knife, has Will as the bearer of a subtle knife, a dagger that can cut windows between worlds. It fires the imagination!!!

6. These experiences of something extraordinary, unexplainable or outside the contexts
of what we would consider ‘normal’ experiences could be called ‘foretastes’: 

An initial glimpse of something altogether beyond the ways we usually experience ourselves and our lives. Ursula Le Guin in her book Earthsea calls these foretastes ‘fantasy’: Fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that it’s truth challenges, even threatens, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living.

7. There’s something of that Ursula Le Guin quote that relates to the 5th Precept: 

I undertake to abstain from taking intoxicants. With mindfulness clear and radiant, I purify my mind. Dissatisfaction/dukkha – distraction/intoxicants. Consciously or unconsciously we know that life is more than the material world. That there is something that just escapes us that is more true than the world we know but we don’t know how to access it so we seek distraction from that pain. The Buddha felt that dissatisfaction and he didn’t distract himself, he dedicated his life to finding out the Truth. We stop ourselves from going deeper, why?

8. So, let’s explore this further: 

Why do we stop ourselves from going deeper, how can we move towards the world beyond the one we know? Meditation, of course, is supremely important. We give ourselves an opportunity in meditation of going within and connecting with the deepest part of ourselves. So, we can ask ‘what is the deepest part of ourselves?’ 

This leads us to self-inquiry. Self-inquiry is so important. We need to keep asking ‘Who am I?’ (long corridor – past crowding behind/future in front but does that tell us who really are?) Our identity is built up through a collection of ephemeral thoughts, emotions, memories, and so on. But it doesn’t tell us who we really are. These are just thoughts. We are much more than our thoughts. 

Thought/gap/thought. Gap – do we not exist? That gap points to something more fundamental at the core of our being. Use your imagination: long corridor, past behind, future in front, allow yourself in the present moment to fall through a trap door into an unbounded flow of compassion and wisdom. Foretastes are like falling through that trap door, getting a glimpse of who we really are at an absolute level.

9. Let’s talk about awakening (not full Enlightenment). 

Awakening is simply a shift in identity: from the I of the corridor to the boundlessness at the core of our being. That is our True Nature. ‘The crucial transition in Dharma life is, then, a movement from self- orientation to a selfless motivation. ‘Selfless’, of course, does not mean merely lacking in a self, a kind of blank automaton. Selflessness has its own positive character, although not in terms easy for us to grasp. It seems that to the degree that one is selfless on responds spontaneously to the needs of whatever situation one finds oneself in’ (Subhuti). But the survival instinct in all of us fears falling into this boundless flow, fears annihilation. 

Kalil Gilbrain poem called ‘Fear’:
It is said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has travelled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk

of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that’s where the river will know
it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.

10. The possibility of awakening is always there, it comes from the inside not from the
outside.

 It’s more about having the courage to let something come to you from your own depths than it is about finding something ‘out there’. It’s about being receptive to the possibility that you’ve been trying to wake yourself up all along. Cultivating receptivity to these experiences, these foretastes, can be quite potent. JS – space – quiet – not doing all the time. Allowing the whisper within you to speak its Truth.

11. But a foretaste should never be interpreted as awakening itself. 

Some foretastes can be extraordinary but interpreting them as awakening can lead to a lot of misunderstandings and even become a roadblock if one gives these events too much attention – they can reinforce a false identity. Awakening is beyond experience. These foretastes/experiences come and go. When awakening occurs, it’s quite clear there’s been a fundamental shift into pure, unbound being that is clearly seen and felt to be more real than what you had experienced before the shift occurred.

12. So how should we think about or view these pre-awakening experiences? 

If they do occur, don’t make a big deal about them. They are a good sign that things are happening. But once the moment has passed they really have no value other than allowing yourself to continue being open and receptive. Let these pre-awakening experiences go. Be alert for the tendency to daydream about them or recreate them. We all tend to do this. Recognize that these experiences had their time and place, and now something else has its time and place. Honor what is happening, which is far more valuable than using memory to try to resurrect something that has already passed and can never come back in the same way. And watch out that you don’t use these experiences as spiritual currency with others. This will not help you awaken – it is better to be humble and not settle for experiences. Don’t settle for anything short of awakening.

13. So, what can we do to open up and be receptive to the possibility of awakening? 

I would suggest 3 things:
I. Have a serious and sincere desire to wake up. Make that the priority in your life. Do whatever it takes to get under the identity structure that causes you suffering. Your True Nature free from suffering is your birth right, give yourself permission to open up to it.

II. Commit yourself to meditation and self-inquiry every day. Immerse yourself into that 1 question: Who am I? Have a willingness to go beyond the conceptual mind/beyond what you know. Trust your intuition.

III. Be prepared to be vulnerable. Be willing to feel discomfort. There will be times when you see what you don’t want to see. Do not distract, accept what is happening. Do not resist. Ruthless authenticity is essential.

14. ‘Awareness becoming aware of itself’ 

HS: Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Several times a day: ‘this body is the boundless flow of compassion’ (or words that resonate for you).

15. To conclude: 

The Dharmadatu exists solely as a fount of compassion directed towards suffering beings … When the boundaries walling off the totality dissolve, the
full flood of the compassion of reality itself can issue forth, through the incarnated being we are, through our mind, our words, and everything we do. Without human beings, performing this role of being utterly nothing in this way, the compassion of the universe is unable to express itself fully and freely. Such is the ultimate benevolence of the human person. Such is the mystery of the human incarnation.

(With thanks to Vanaraji)

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The following recipe was made to share on this retreat:

CARDAMON (OR CHOCOLATE) VEGAN CUP CAKES (OR CAKE)

(Makes 24 or halve ingredients for a smaller cake for 12 people)

16oz wholemeal/white plain flour, any combination 

2tsp baking powder 

2tsp bicarbonate of soda 

6oz brown sugar 

2 bananas 

4tsp ground cardamon seed - (If you want to make a chocolate cake substitute 3.5 oz cocoa powder instead of cardamon)

2tsp orange blossom water 

10fl oz sunflower or rapeseed oil 

10fl oz soya milk 

1 tbsp cider vinegar 

METHOD

1.Mash banana with sugar 

2.Mix cider vinegar with soya milk and watch it curdle! 

3.Combine all dry ingredients. 

4.Mix all ingredients together. (Do this fairly quickly before the raising agents have a chance to activate). 

5.Spoon into cup cake cases or lined baking tin and bake for 25-30 minutes in a medium oven. 180°C or 160°C fan oven.

6.Test with knife, if it comes out clean it is cooked - If wanted you can make an icing with soya spread, icing sugar and a drop of vanilla mixed together and sprinkled with broken pistachios or walnuts.