Retreat in Athos (Holy) Mountain has just finished. You can stay here only with permission and women are not allowed because this is a practicing place for men only. Athos is not an island but still you can come here only by boat. Mount Athos is home to 20 monasteries.
We stayed in the Megisti Lavra Monastery which was built around AD 960 in an magical surrounding. When you reach here and witness the beauty of the nature you feel like you are in heaven. The monastery has world’s third most important library that possess such important old texts about Christianity which can chance everything the World knows about it. Monks are working on those old texts and they are waiting for the right moment to share the knowledge with the rest of the World.
Monks who live here have such beautiful souls. They are Orthodox and as all other monks, they say “it doesn’t matter what you believe, come what may, because there is one truth, we all just call it with a different names and we seek for it in different ways”. Of course some of them do not have this strong mind to see that yet but they are practicing to see it.
They are vegetarian and they have intense practice here. Practice starts around 2:00 – 3:00 am in the middle of the night and it continues all day long. They are moving with the grace of Divine and they do everything with the intention of reaching and reflecting the Divine. Of course it is not easy to reflect something infinite especially when you have a mind. So they live here and practice to sacrifice themselves to become nothing and to unify with the Infinite. Enlightenment is not an easy way. When you show enough effort, effortless stage comes as its result.
by Cetin Cetintas