Retreat

夏天的花園、水池到處有花茂出來，特大的芙蓉花。我們參加其中一天的禪修營，继如法師特從閉關期出來給佛法講座，這是他閉關的住所。午休時，他出來到池邊，不知他是賞蓮還是遙望觀音？我們聽說開始是他自己遊下池種蓮，我們没看到他之前的艱難，卻享受欣賞到如今中美佛教會的美景。

In the summer, the garden and pond sure have a lot of flowers blooming. What big hibiscus flowers. We joined one day of a meditation retreat and Venerable Jiru was still in his silent retreat for two years, but he came out to give us a Dharma talk. This trailer is his place for silent retreat. He came out to the lotus pond after lunch for a little while. Does he see lotus or look at ‘Kuan Yin’? We heard that he swam to the bottom of the pond to plant the lotus himself. We didn’t see how difficult it was for him to do all the hard work to establish & build this temple; however, we enjoy seeing this beautiful scenery at Mid-America Buddhist Association now.