Entering the Meditation Retreat Center: A Kongshan Temple Anecdote (Part 9)

Over the decades, since the Venerable Guru began lecturing on the Lamrim and established study groups, the foundation, and the campus, the Teacher has been tireless in continuing this legacy by setting up the monastic and lay five-major-treatise curriculum and giving teachings on the two stages of Calm Abiding and Special Insight.

After decades of effort, our curriculum is now well-established. However, one key matter that the Teacher has frequently brought up in recent years is the establishment of a formal meditation retreat system for earnest practice. Consequently, in early 2024, the Teacher not only selected the site for the temple in New York but also found a hotel to serve as a future meditation retreat center for lay practitioners.

Meditation itself is a form of healing. The power that meditation exerts in transforming the mind stream is different from the power of listening to the Dharma. It helps us directly engage with and transform those obstacles we find hardest to overcome, thus healing deep-seated inner pain.

There are certain pains in our lives that we cannot forget, no matter how hard we try, nor can we simply pretend they are not there—they persist. Yet, when we gradually shift the attention of our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body from external objects toward the depths of our inner mind, we discover something profound: the moment our entire body and mind become still, we suddenly gain the capacity to face that challenge, and ultimately, to transcend it.

This is just one of the benefits of meditation that the Teacher wishes for us to personally experience.