This weekend Thom and I attended our first Dzogchen Buddhist Retreat.  As seminar junkies, we’ve taken tons of spiritual classes and workshops of an hour or two here or there that focused on Buddhism or meditation.  But this was our first official “retreat.”  And while an evening and one day may not appear to be much of a retreat, it certainly served to get us out and away from our usual lives. More importantly, it pulled the focus of our attention away from our usual thoughts and concerns, and placed it instead on the experience of “mindfulness” or inner awareness and spiritual compassion.   That switch of focus is a SMART thing to do every now and then, regardless of who you are or what you call it. [Read more…]