: In the retreat in particular, as you're all old students, try to use the break times for the practice, as well. It's not going to be as intense in your efforts to stay mindful and reflective in a wise way as during the formal sessions, but you do want to use that time to train yourself. Now, when you think of training, when you think of the word "conditioning", you are training your mind to be more compassionate and loving. Where else do you want that compassion and love to arise? You want it to arise in your normal life, wherever you go, you want it to arise in your rest periods. If you're at the lookout, maybe you're looking at the ocean during a break time, and you see the boat going over to Koh Samui, can you start doing Compassion/Lovingkindness thoughts for all the beings traveling on the boat? You've been on the boat, you know what type of people are on the boat. There are young, there are old, lots of young people looking for fun, people with families, whatever. Can you start using that time in your rest breaks when you are just looking at the boat going off into the water to develop your mind?
Can you train on the pillow so the Dhamma will come up more automatically every day? That's one thing you want to do. Sometimes in your rest periods, when you're lying down, your mind starts wandering to all sorts of things, and many of them bring Dukkha. As soon as you become aware of that change, perhaps you are thinking something you did in the past that you are not happy about, then that is an occasion to bring up Compassion/Lovingkindness. You can bring it up for all the people you've known in your past.
You could ask yourself, "What other reflections help to bend these thoughts?" Perhaps the reflection on Kamma, what were you doing? What was the result? If it was not a good result, how would you do it better? You could be lying there and just reflect that way, just reflect on Kamma, on your past activities. For future thoughts, you can reflect on death. It may never happen.
During our rest periods, during our day, sitting on the pillow, standing still and walking back and forth, we'd like to bring the Dhamma into our normal life as much as possible.