Back from Retreat

Tom returned from retreat last Thursday. It was an interesting experience. (Think Chinese curse.) The first day one student had a bad asthma attack, EMTs were called, her doctor consulted and she was sent home. Otherwise the retreat started reasonably well—-some frustration with students not taking the opportunity seriously and skipping the sitting but Tom felt he was making new discoveries in his meditation practice. Then a few days before a 48-hour mid-retreat break, whatever meditative atmosphere had developed was shattered by allegations that one of the male students had been sexually harassing/assaulting some of the females. The same student also had what was described as a ‘psychotic break’ and driven back to Boulder. Back at the retreat center, much shouting and name calling ensued between factions of victims and their supporters and friends of the offending male. Students left for break upset and angry, not only with each other, but, in a sequel to last semester’s crisis, also with the perceived lack of response and communication from the administration.

One good result of the mayhem was that Tom decided to come home for break. Apparently our normal home environment is less chaotic, stressful and amped up than a meditation retreat in the wilderness. Go figure.

The second half of the retreat was marred by a series of unfortunate events and, at least for Tom, never recaptured the meditative experience. The spouse of Tom’s retreat roommate visited at the center over break and brought a stomach virus, which over the remainder of the retreat infected 25 of the 30 students and staff attending, including the cooks. (Think bathhouse in a separate building with a concrete floor.) Tom was one of the early victims. (As was I, after driving him back after break and hanging out for an hour.) The septic system broke. The dishwasher broke. In addition, for the second half of the retreat, rather than sitting meditation, the students were to practice ‘space awareness’ by assuming various postures in different colored rooms. (I think each color had its own posture.) Tom’s not a color person and didn’t find this practice helpful, (though some other students reported major experiences.) By the end of the retreat twice as many of the students than at the beginning were cigarette smokers and 2 students had left the program.

So far Tom is cigarette free (not much cause for worry there) and still in the program. Spring semester classes started yesterday. We’ll see how it goes from here.