So, here's another insight I took away from my meditation retreat down at Gaia House in April 2025. It was the longest retreat that I've done. Having only done weekend short retreats before that, this one, five days, four nights of silence, was the longest. But fortunately, it was a nice change in routine to break that silence, not by speaking myself, but by listening to the wise and experienced teachers we had at the retreat, Bernat Font and Martine Batchelor.

They were helping to translate the Satipatthana Sutra, the Buddha's discourse on mindfulness. They were breaking it down—especially Bernat, a scholar—practitioner—sharing his interpretations of these translations from the Pali Canon. He was discussing these Buddhist concepts.

Of course, Buddhism itself is a religion. For those of you who don't know, "Buddha" means "awakened one." The Buddha is more of a title than a name; it was assigned to Siddhartha Gautama, who was a prince around 2,500 years ago. After his awakening, he was assigned the title of the Buddha.

Essentially, a Buddhist follows the Buddha's teachings in their attempt to become a Buddha themselves—to awaken. And of course, the Buddha himself was not a Buddhist. He was just an experienced human being with personal experiences to draw on. He was even conflicted about whether he should teach after his awakening because it's said that he felt people wouldn't be able to understand it, as many of the concepts in Buddhism are abstract.

However, he did his best, and the first Buddhist council was formed around 100 years after his death. After that, many other councils were formed, splits occurred, and different denominations of Buddhism were established. Some of these—well, many of them—have much in common, but many have differences.

The biggest thing that struck me about Bernat's speaking about the teachings of the Buddha was one word he used very frequently: practitioner—to be a practitioner. A practitioner of what exactly? When he gave more details, he used the term Dharma practitioner.

And what is the Dharma? If you were to look at the word Dharma in the most recent Pali dictionary, it would be a description 15 pages long, because Dharma can mean different things in different contexts. But to try and put it in the vernacular, Dharma simply means the teachings of the Buddha—what the Buddha taught. To follow the Dharma is to follow what the Buddha taught.

On this retreat, it was frequently mentioned that I was a Dharma practitioner, and that was something I'd never thought of before. I'd always followed the teachings of the Buddha and tried to cultivate wisdom, compassion, mindfulness, and patience in my own life, but I'd never felt comfortable identifying as a Buddhist. I've never liked identifying with any school of thought, as I take inspiration from many religions and philosophies. So it never felt right to just identify with one of them.

But seeing myself as a practitioner—and as a Dharma practitioner, somebody who practices what the Buddha taught—made much more sense to me. It gave me a new way of identifying with the teachings of the Buddha and how I related to them.

When you begin to see yourself as a practitioner, you will find smaller opportunities to practice Dharma. Whether it's mindful driving, practising patience, or compassion—be that in your family life, social life, or career—all these are opportunities. Even in the most minute detail, life provides many opportunities to be a Dharma practitioner. It's just up to us to take them.