Zacharias Wolfe interviewed by Christina Schäfers.

 It spoke to me

 You‘ve taken part in Acem‘s first International Young Deepening Retreat ever – what do you think and, even more importantly, how do you feel about it?

I really enjoyed Acem’s first young deepening retreat. I have been eager to go to a deepening retreat before but wasn’t sure if it was the right time for me. When it was advertised to younger people, it spoke to me, and I felt secure in knowing that I would meet people I’ve met before on other retreats. Now I feel very relaxed to go back to my studies, and I have some new perspectives on important things in my life.

Deeper understanding

What did you get out of it – and what are you bringing with you?

The experience was quite different from other retreats: I was able to refine my meditation technique and get a deeper understanding of the meditation process. The activities combined with the longer meditations at the young deepening also gave me a lot more spontaneous activities and actualizations to work with – more than a regular retreat, which is great. It was an opportunity to get a better understanding of some important topics in my life, such as relationships and my future, but I also got to reflect more on what it means to live a good life in general.

An active vehicle             

At certain points in the meditation, I also felt I encountered a very still and peaceful state of mind, deeply restful yet open and clear – full of possibilities, although it was at times also unsettling.

“Am I now in a place of my choice?” In my case a choice between doing what you want in your life or following others’ expectations of you; or whether you are an active vehicle for the good of yourself and others, versus passive in this world? Or as more eloquently put in the book The Power of the Wandering Mind, which I had some time to read before the retreat:

In the quiet stream of consciousness during meditation, we are tacitly and often unnoticeably connected with what is untouched by time and history, happiness and suffering; i.e., the silent core of man’s existential freedom.

(Are Holen quoted in “The psychological potential” by Halvor Eifring, chapter 12 in The Power of the Wandering Mind.)