Small Boat, Vast Ocean

My Years in Solitary Buddhist Retreat

Diane Rigdzin Berger

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English

Butter Lamp Press
01 March 2023

Memoirs; Tibetan Buddhism; Popular psychology; Mind, body, spirit: meditation & visualisation

In this time of serial distraction, an engaged-in-the-world American woman chose to jump feet first into solitary retreat in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition -- lasting three and a half years. Small Boat, Vast Ocean brings the reader intimately into her unfolding inner and outer adventure. It's the story of what this quest brought forth from the psyche, how healing was found, then giving way to a pure spiritual journey. Based on her writing from retreat, the memoir is a collage of expository writing, reflection, essays, poetry, and observations of the natural world, offered in chronology. An intimate relaying of experience, it includes meetings with bears, scorpions, one cougar, and other adventures while making this oceanic crossing, soul's journey.

The sacred container of three-year retreat exerts particular pressures on the retreatant, sometimes bringing up deep issues of one's psyche, while simultaneously offering its very antidote: the practices themselves, and the time and space to allow that ""medicine"" to do its work. As well as individual issues to be overcome, there are those shared through culture and humanity -- attachment, goal orientation, the addiction to distraction, and concepts of duality. Yet this was no methodical vanquishment, but a gradually unfolding story, Berger meeting head-on what naturally arose, finding her way to journey's end.

After decades of immersion in the world of Tibetan Buddhism, Berger is well-versed in issues of ""Buddhism coming to the West,"" which emerge here not only as reflections that arose during the retreat, but also in the adaptations made to the traditional form of retreat, and, as she calls it, ""making the retreat my own.""

It's this message of learning to trust -- oneself and one's innate wisdom, along with one's chosen spiritual path and authentic teachers -- which may be one of the most important messages of her book. After many years working, studying, and checking in with her Tibetan teacher, Berger shares ways in which she has made astute adjustments in her practice in order to further her progress on the path. Readers might make extrapolations to their personal practice, by using their own ""intuition to improvise where informed improvisation is really required,"" as one inspired reader wrote.

Berger shows how all of this inner work clears the space for the greater work of giving up the usual concepts, some very subtle -- and that what you see is ""real"" -- yielding to the realization that we are the masters of all our perceptions.

Finally, Berger's journey is filled with wonder at nature. Where meditation leads to observation of the innate inner self, and to an understanding of ""no self,"" here in long retreat, developing an acute sensitivity and merging of self with ""other,"" Berger writes of nature with transcendence, with the eyes of an artist or a naturalist, or a mystic.

By: Diane Rigdzin Berger
Imprint: Butter Lamp Press
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 445g
ISBN: 9798986694504
Pages: 302
Publication Date: 01 March 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Diane Berger is a native of the Pacific Northwest, where she graduated from The Evergreen State College in journalism and anthropology. She then went into publishing, including newspaper reporter-photographer to copy editor, including a stint with the book division of Rolling Stone. As a member of the press, Diane first encountered a reincarnated Tibetan lama--the Dalai Lama--on his first trip to the West in 1978. A decade later she stepped fully into the Buddhist world, attending many retreats, including one with HH Dilgo Khyentse in 1990, whom she still considers her heart teacher.On a one-year adventure with her teenage twins, Diane's life took a significant turn in the south of India when she met the reincarnated lama, Dza Kilung Rinpoche. Already an experienced Tibetan Buddhist practitioner, she began assisting this young lama, eventually bringing him to the West, to her city of Seattle. While initially the goal was to find funding to rebuild his monastery in Tibet, the work took off, and they created a thriving humanitarian foundation and Buddhist sangha. After 15 intense years of worldly accomplishment, Diane felt it was time to shift her focus inwardly, to direct spiritual practice, choosing traditional three-year retreat, the subject of this book.Diane completed her retreat in 2015, with an additional nine months in 2016. Since then she has been teaching meditation and Buddhism in Seattle. www.dianerigdzinberger.com

Reviews for Small Boat, Vast Ocean: My Years in Solitary Buddhist Retreat

""In this lyrical exposition, Diane takes the reader through the details of life in long-term retreat, the big and little ups and downs, the challenges of balancing the practical and the ideal, the periods of peace and the unexpected interruptions, the triumphs and tribulations, the intimate conversations with nature in all its different guises, the discovery of the peace of silence, and the unfolding of understanding, elusive, unanticipated, and stunning in its clarity and simplicity."" - Ken McLeod, author of Wake Up To Your Life, and The Magic of Vajrayana ""Small Boat, Vast Ocean provides a rare and fascinating glimpse into the heart of solitary spiritual practice. Berger is an eloquent writer whose book reveals the challenges, illuminating insights, and beauty of her plunge into the inner ocean of psyche and spirit."" - Brian Hodel, co-author of Embracing Mind: The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality ""An intimate look at healing and devotion through a spiritual journey that most people will never have a chance to experience. A celebration of the sacred within the mundane, inspiring each of us to slow down long enough to appreciate this tender life we lead."" - Lodro Rinzler, author of The Buddha Walks into a Bar and Take Back Your Mind