If you haven't joined in with the Urban Retreat online, there's still time! Already a wonderful, inspiring event - some great retreat teaching (only the introductory posts are visible if you aren't taking part), and the chance to witness moving practice going on around the world...

Here's Munisha's lovely introduction from the Stockholm sangha in Sweden.

The music is “Erbarme Dich”, from the St Matthew Passion by JS Bach, with mezzo soprano Janet Baker. The poem is ‘A High Blue Day on Scalpay’, by Kenneth White. Here it is, with Viryabodhi’s translation into Swedish.

A High Blue Day on Scalpay

This is the summit of contemplation, and
no art can touch it
Blue, so blue, the far-out archipelago
and the sea shimmering, shimmering
No art can touch it, the mind can only
try to become attuned to it
To become quiet, and space itself out, to
become open and still, unworlded
Knowing itself in the diamond country, in
the ultimate unlettered light.
 

Kenneth White
 

En blåhimmelsdag på Scalpay

Det här är kontemplationens höjdpunkt, och
ingen konst kan fånga den;
blå, så blå, skärgården långt därute
och det skimrande havet, skimrande,
ingen konst kan fånga det, sinnet kan bara
försöka stämma in med det:
att bli stilla, vidga sig utåt, att
bli öppen och stilla, bortomvärldslig
och fånga sig själv i Diamantlandet, i
det yttersta ordlösa ljuset.
 

Kenneth White, trans. into Swedish Viryabodhi