Note to Self
It’s not generally recommended to take notes on a retreat. This is because real, lasting wisdom is experiential — not conceptual — and that whatever words we use to describe what we have come to know can only be an approximation…a translation….of the actual experience of understanding something. That said, I often jot down (after the retreat) a phrase or two that really seemed to speak to me.
In the case of the Rebecca Bradshaw retreat, I wrote down a quote she used in one of her dharma talks, actually a variation on a quote by Anthony de Mello:
The Secret to Serenity is Wholehearted, Unrestricted Cooperation with the Unavoidable.
Worth taking note.