Retreat to Blue Cliff Monastery
Written on October 4, 2026.
I went to my first ever meditation retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery which is a place that follows the Plum Village Tradition of Buddhism. For most of my life, I didn’t really let negative emotions in. I always welcomed positive thoughts, but negative ones are tuned out through consumption and distraction. But about a year ago, my therapist introduced me to this poem by Rumi called “The Guest House”:
هذا الإنسان هو بيت ضيوفكل صباح يستقبل زائر جديد.بهجة، حزن، احباط ولحظة وعيتأتي كضيف غير متوقّع.استقبلهم واعتني بهم جميعاً!حتى وإن كانوا حشداً من الأسى،يجرفون بعنف كل أثاث منزلك،عامل كل ضيف باحترام.ربّما هو ينظّف لك المكانلاستقبال فرح الجديد.الفكرة السوداء، الخزي، الرذيلة،استقبلهم على الباب بضحكة،وادعوهم للدخول.كن ممتناً لكل من يأتي لأن كلّ منهميتم إرساله كمرشد من بعيد.– جلال الدين الرومي، بيت الضيوف
This human is a guest house.Every morning, a new guest arrives.A joy, a grief, a despair, some momentary awareness comes, as an unexpected visitor.Welcome and entertain them all!Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweeps your house empty of its furniture,
Still treat each guest honorably.
They may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a mentor from beyond.
My therapist recommended I just sit for 10 minutes and let the emotions in so that I can listen to them and see what they’re trying to tell me. I found it to be really useful in understanding myself better, so it got me interested in meditating more regularly and sitting for longer chunks of time.
I also saw that I felt calmer whenever I meditated. I think it’s because focusing on my breath and staying in the present moment is helping me process my anxieties about the future. The future feels so bleak and terrifying that I would spiral and feel incapacitated with all my worries, so mindfulness meditation has helped me tell myself that the present moment is happening right now, and I’ll miss it if I don’t let go and worry about the future too much.
I was telling a friend about practicing mindfulness meditations and reading “No Mud, No Lotus” from Thich Nhat Hanh, and she mentioned that I should check out Blue Cliff Monastery for their retreats especially since the monastery follows the Plum Village Tradition that Thich Nhat Hanh started.
So I signed up for their 5-day BIPOC retreat, and I had a really great time! It was a bit difficult for me at first because staying in a tent, having a set schedule, and all the singing in the retreat reminded me of being in Boy Scouts and also a little bit of Catholic school which I didn’t really enjoy as a kid. I remember wanting to bury the feelings and distract myself with my phone, but we had surrendered our phones over to the monastics for the duration of the retreat. It felt like a long time, but I’m glad that I started feeling better on the second day.
Everyone who attended were so sweet and kind. I felt seen and supported by the people around me. We learned how to apply mindfulness into our daily lives through eating meditation (where you sit in silence for 20 mins and you take your time chewing your food properly), walking meditation (where you walk really slowly in the forest), working meditation (where you’re focused solely on your tasks like gardening or washing the dishes), and we even had deep relaxation in the afternoon which were a bit like guided napping. Oh also, every 15-mins there is a bell that would remind us to stop and be aware of what we’re doing in that moment I thought that helped me be mindful throughout the day.
I’m so glad I went, and I cherished all the connections that I had there. I’m doing my best to continue to be mindful now that I’m outside the retreat what an amazing experience that was.