 Buddhist leader draws a crowd Hundreds show up for six-day retreat at Estes Park YMCA By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News The internationally renowned Buddhist leader returned this week to one of his favorite Colorado haunts, the YMCA Estes Park Center, where 750 followers from across the country have settled in for a six-day retreat with the man they simply call Thay. (Pronounced "tie," the name means "teacher.") The retreat runs through Saturday. Hanh will also speak next Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre in Denver. On Tuesday, the 80-year-old spiritual leader began his daily morning address with a classic Buddhist opener. "Let us enjoy breathing together," Hanh said to the huge crowd, which had welcomed him, Buddhist-style, in complete silence. In a soft, whispered Vietnamese accent, Hanh, in brown robes, held his audience rapt for nearly two hours, sharing breathing techniques and homespun parables from the Buddha to persuade them to let go of anger and stress. "If you are a psychotherapist please remember all this - you can help your patients," he said in one of several mischievous asides that broke the silence with laughter. The audience, dressed mostly in jeans and T-shirts, opened the day with a yoga session and then met at an open space at dawn for walking meditation. For Hanh's talk, they left their shoes at the door to show respect and sat on folding chairs, prayer mats or cushions. Brown- robed monks with headsets staffed the sound system that put some heft in Hanh's gentle whisper. "This really resonates with me," said Paul McClure, 45, a Fort Collins electrical engineer, who discovered the monk's message just a year ago - and is already at his third Hanh retreat. "It's a simple message about finding peace in yourself and how that can lead to much better relationships with your family, friends and at work." If anyone was motivated to seek inner peace it was Hanh, who was expelled from Vietnam in 1966 for challenging both communist and pro-western leaders to stop the war. He began a lifetime of traveling the world to spread Buddhist thought, settling in France where he founded his headquarters, Plum Village. Along the way came recognition as author of two dozen books and as a prolific peace seeker. This past January, Hanh was welcomed back to Vietnam for the first time in 40 years. He showed up with the fruits of his banishment, an entourage of nearly 200 monks and lay followers, which his staff says is fraction of the hundreds of thousands worldwide. Among the most loyal is Sister Susan, a 61-year-old Seattle native who since age 29 has worn the brown robes and kerchief of a Buddhist nun. Married to a monk, she raised two children in a succession of Hanh's worldwide monastic centers, and lives in a center in California. "He's very gentle, extremely perceptive about human nature and our growing incapacity to slow down and take time for what we need to nourish ourselves," she said. She dismissed speculation that the elderly, though vigorous-appearing, Hanh might stop his whirlwind retreat schedule, saying he expected to be back in Estes Park in 2007. Hanh is known for welcoming children to his retreats, and began his talk by addressing the little tykes, weaving a tale about being "in the womb of your mother, and you didn't have to worry about anything . . ." Such gentleness, and Hanh's call to joy, is what clicked for Eileen Devine, a fairly new follower who came with her husband and 7-year-old son to their first retreat. "This is how I want to live my life," said the Wisconsin high school teacher. "Now we're trying to make plans to get to Plum Village in France." ** Menyadari apa yang sesungguhnya sedang terjadi SAAT INI di dalam diri saya maupun di luar diri saya ** ** Kami kembali tuk hidup dalam kekinian yang menakjubkan; tuk menanami taman hati kami benih-benih kebajikan; serta membuat fondasi pengertian dan cinta kasih yang kokoh ** ** Kami mengikuti jalur perhatian penuh, latihan tuk melihat dan memahami secara mendalam agar mampu melihat hakikat segala sesuatu, sehingga terbebas dari belenggu kelahiran dan kematian ** ** Kami belajar tuk: berbicara dengan penuh cinta kasih, menjadi penuh welas asih, menjadi perhatian terhadap pihak-pihak lain pagi ataupun sore hari, membawa akar-akar suka cita ke banyak tempat, membantu sesama melepaskan kesedihan; dan tuk menanggapi dengan penuh rasa syukur kebajikan orang tua, para guru, serta sahabat-sahabat kami ** YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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