WE WENT TO ANOTHER WORLD TOGETHER

WE WENT TO ANOTHER WORLD TOGETHER

If you follow us on social media or read our newsletters, you’ve probably seen that our team just completed a 5-day meditation retreat.

Two years ago, we went on a spiritual trip to India and Nepal, but I hadn’t done this kind of sealed, immersive meditation retreat in a long, long time!

It is quite something to sit in meditation for 5 days straight.

There are, of course, the common discomforts:

From your sacrum to your hips, thighs, knees and ankles - it aches.

You detox and all kinds of funny things come out of your body.

You have unusual dreams.

You feel exhausted. You cry. Things come up.

And then – in moments, the clouds part, and you can see the sky.

A relief floods in and suddenly you feel better than you have in years.

It’s as if you dropped off some old, heavy luggage a few stops back on the train tracks.

You feel lighter, freer, more joyful.

You feel more connected to yourself and everyone around you.

You’ve acknowledged and met with your pain. You’ve sat with yourself.

Realizations arise. Insights arise. You experience more spaciousness.

Everything settles down inside you, somehow rearranged and more orderly.

You realize how precious life is.

And throughout the whole experience, even during discomfort, there is an acute sense of how rare the opportunity is.

And when I say discomfort, I’m also fully aware that –

We're in our own backyard, in a beautiful building with air conditioning, running hot water, chefs cooking all the meals for us and a meditation retreat master who speaks fluent English, with 40+ years of meditation practice and monastic accomplishments under his belt.

To have true, authentic teachers appear from the other side of the world, and make themselves at home in our home, has been divine and profound.

The retreat's Tibetan Buddhist teacher gestures while reading from the Medicine Buddha Sadhana text, framed by thangka scrolls.

So many times during the retreat I looked around me in disbelief. It almost didn’t seem real or possible.

How could almost the entire LOTUSWEI and SAN Center team come together to devote SO many hours to meditation, motivated to spend hours & hours making prayers for our loved ones, for the earth and for humanity?

Absolutely surreal. That we could so profoundly be on the same page.

Katie Hess and Taylor Rico sitting together at the retreat, Taylor wrapped in a magenta shawl, a blue painting behind them

Katie Hess stands with the retreat's Geshe teacher and a retreat companion in front of colorful Tibetan thangkas.

Woman smiling on a couch with an open journal, mala beads, and water bottle nearby, colorful thangkas in the background.

Katie Hess embraces an older retreat companion in front of colorful Tibetan thangkas at the LOTUSWEI meditation retreat.

Justin Booher smiling at a table of LOTUSWEI flower essence bottles, Tibetan thangka and shrine behind him at the retreat

And all of that with a good, hard look at the fact that: yes, we will die one day, and we’re devoted to making the most of the only thing we can take with us beyond this life.

We will awaken the internal strength to not only help ourselves and others through challenges in life, but also in facing the ultimate challenge: leaving this body, or watching loved ones do the same.

Retreat participants sit cross-legged listening to the monk teacher, Ichi the dog stretched out asleep on a cushion up front.

We don’t really talk about it, but I know the experience was profound for each of us. We entered an entirely different realm for five days.

Watching my team devote this time together gave me so much faith in the world; it was beyond inspiring.

Man laughing warmly at the retreat, seated near a vase of red and orange roses and colorful Buddhist wall art.

Ichi the dog grinning from a pink blanket, the retreat's Tibetan shrine glowing behind it.

A man and woman smile together in a red-carpeted room, a painting of the Medicine Buddha framed in flowers on the wall behind.

Behind the scenes:

Justin Booher kneels beside Taylor, who rests on a couch with a mug of tea, at the LOTUSWEI meditation retreat.

In breaks, people desperately needed power naps; seeing people sprawled out on couches all around the building and on the floor was so endearing.

A person naps wrapped in a magenta blanket on a mustard velvet couch, surrounded by plants and fresh roses, between retreat sessions.

Three retreat-goers sprawled out on the grass for a power nap, palm trees and parked vans behind them.

Tibetan monks make the best chai on the planet.

Katie Hess sharing a tray of chai cups with a Tibetan monk, flowers and Pellegrino bottles nearby at the retreat

Two people toast with cups of chai on an orange sofa, continuing the retreat's tradition of tea with the monks.

Two women share tea on a couch, bare feet on a floor cushion, during a break at LOTUSWEI's colorful meditation retreat lounge.

Dogs are unsurpassed; Ichi did the entire retreat with us.

Ichi the dog rests on a mustard cushion in the retreat lounge, a rust pillow and canvas tote beside him.

More stories from our precious time with the monks coming soon!

May we all support each other on the path.

Love & flower petals,
Katie

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