We're heading into a yearlong retreat pretty soon here . . .

A few days ago I was on a Zoom call with six friends from my internship cohort. We were checking in about this and that, talking about what we've been up to since finishing our doctoral degrees. 

I said, "Ever since I got my PhD, there's been no one around to tell me what not to do. Depending on your perspective, this has either been a great joy or a total catastrophe."

In that spirit, it is my pleasure to inform you all that Devon and I will be starting a yearlong meditation retreat on November 15th. 

This might seem kind of extreme to some people. (weird, right?)

We already have a pretty meditative lifestyle. In fact, we live in a Buddhist temple, spend most of our mornings and evenings in meditation practice, and actually teach meditation and dharma . . . so isn’t that enough?

To be honest, I have moments when I really wonder that myself.

But I suppose what keeps me going, what drives me to do intensive retreat, is something like love: love for the dharma, love for the practice, a certain wild-eyed confidence that what the Buddha promised, and what so many masters after him confirmed, is actually possible in this very life.

I could be wrong, of course. 

So it's a good thing I also just really like to meditate. 

Because even if I never attain a total liberation from mental and emotional suffering for the benefit of every living thing, there is something profoundly satisfying about sitting down hour after hour after hour in retreat with the intention to do so. 

Also, there is something satisfying—inspiring, too, and energizing—about meeting the demons of greed, hatred, and delusion head on, and watching them dissolve into little more than nothing. 

And that definitely happens (sometimes) in retreat.

Not to mention the slow, plodding, but ineluctable cultivation of love and all the other boundless qualities of this human heart. 

So, yes, I believe in retreat. I've experienced its benefits first hand. 

It does mean, though, that things are coming to an end. 

That climate change workshop that Devon and I are teaching on October 2nd? That's our last joint teaching venture for the next year and more. 

I just saw my family on the east coast for a week. I won't see them again for a year. 

I'll really miss all these students and mentees I work with . . . more than I can say. 

It's a lot to give up. 

It’s like the sun is setting on this whole era of our lives, and this day is fading, and the shadows are long . . . and yet the hills are golden with light, blazing with all the possibility of what could happen next.

Sending lots of love your way,
nico hase

p.s. For more info on the climate change workshop click here.