The act of moving houses always reveals to us how much stuff we actually own. It is invariably more than we thought.
Once we move to a new place, we rid ourselves of the clutter and enjoy a spacious and roomy house, until we fill the new house with more stuff and the cycle continues.
A silent meditation retreat is analogous to moving houses in many ways. When we sit down for several hours with our thoughts, its contents are emptied in front of us. We then realize how much junk we actually store within our minds. We are then free to discard what doesn’t serve us. And like an uncluttered house, our mind is able to function better.
Then we return to our normal lives, which gradually clutters up our mind once again.
Its hard work to move houses – to let go of what we hold dear and move on. But this challenge also presents the opportunity to be mindful of what we buy, thereby interrupting this cycle of accumulation and purging.
It’s hard to get through a meditation retreat. But the experience makes us mindful of what we pay attention to.
Observations 