Raising consciousness was at the root of Lindsay Crouse's decision to pursue a career in acting.
The Academy Award-nominated film and television actress says she has always considered theater a ministry, a platform for teaching and a place to question.
But, it's only after discovering the teachings of Buddhism — and learning how to live, appreciate and enjoy her own life — that she says she's been able to fully embrace that calling. Now, she's dedicated to helping others discover it, too.
Crouse, who with her husband, television and film editor Rick Blue, has spent 10 years studying and teaching the principles of Buddhism, has found she's not alone in her desire for a more peaceful, happy existence.
Since launching an annual spiritual retreat on Cape Ann five summers ago led by her foremost teacher, the Buddhist American monk Venerable Sumati Marut, she's helped direct hundreds of interested individuals of all walks on a path of enlightenment.
After outgrowing its former headquarters at the Windhover Center for the Performing Arts in Rockport, the five-day residential and silent retreat relocates to the campus of The Governor's Academy in Byfield next week.
Titled "Recovering Silence: Meditations on Tranquility, the Way to Freedom and a Genuinely Happy Life," the retreat, which runs from Aug. 25 through 29, will include daily classes in meditation, yoga and Buddhist philosophy and evening devotional singing. And while the content is based on Buddhist principles, it is open to everyone and is designed to complement and deepen all forms of spiritual practice.
Crouse, who has appeared in numerous TV dramas including "Law and Order," "C.S.I." and "NYPD Blue," as well as on the big screen in "The Verdict," "Slapshot," "House of Games" and more, said the campus of the oldest boarding school in the country is a symbolic location for the spiritual gathering.
"I find it fitting that a retreat based on Tibetan Buddhist ideas, which have taken hold so strongly in this country, should be held on a site so steeped in our own American history," she said. "The pastoral serenity of (The Governor's Academy) will serve to sustain our quiet time."
The retreat will serve as one of Lama Marut's last public appearances before entering a three-year solitary and silent retreat starting this fall in Australia.
Crouse and her husband met Lama Marut, a former professor of comparative religion at Columbia University and Barnard College in New York who loved to surf, about 10 years ago when they were in the midst of a family difficulty and seeking moral guidance. They joined a group that met in his small apartment in Venice Beach, Calif., studying Buddhism with him as he continued his own journey to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk.
"He has an amazing balance in his teaching, which is very funny and smart," said Crouse, who with her husband has gone on to complete Lama Marut's Asian Classics Institute teacher-training program. "You just aren't the same after hearing him. He really opens the door to you and piques your interest, and you just tend to step through to look around."
The first year Crouse asked Marut to come to Cape Ann, where she summers, to teach, she was overwhelmed by the community response. The week after an article appeared in the paper, she said 250 people called her, pouring out their stories of hardship, strife and illness and requesting to attend.
"People responded like people who are thirsty given water," she said. "It's really speaking to what we need. ... It's just amazing how far this has come."
Crouse said the purpose of the retreat is to show how a meditation practice that is built around calming down and bringing some perspective and command over one's life can help a person become happy, relaxed and able to create peace. "How badly needed is that?" she said.
In addition to the retreat, Lama Marut will be leading two evening talks titled "Living Simply, Simply Living" next week, by donation only, at Woodman's in Essex.
Crouse said when she began studying Buddhism, she had a library of about 3,000 self-help and other books that she has since given away, saying she has now found a new way to look at life.
"I realized my whole life this was what I was trying to find. Self-help is concerned with ourselves. This teaches how to be concerned with another self," she said. "... Every great spiritual leader has said the same thing — do unto others. Buddhists, monks, lamas give us the details on how to make what we've all been told work; they teach you how to do it.
"These teachings are ancient; they're time-tested. They're not some newfangled idea, not something that someone came up with in a garage. It comes with a lineage, including the Dalai Lama, who really thought this through."
IF YOU GO
What: "Recovering Silence: Meditations on Tranquility, the Way to Freedom and a Genuinely Happy Life," a five-day silent retreat
When: Wednesday, Aug. 25, through Sunday, Aug. 29
Where: The Governor's Academy, Elm Street, Byfield
How: Cost $675, includes room, meals and materials. Visit http://thesummerretreat.com.
Hear more: Buddhist monk Venerable Sumati Marut will lead two "Living Simply, Simply Living" talks on Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 23 and 24, from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Essex Room at Woodman's in Essex. Admission is by donation only. Call Claire Franklin at 978-550-1263 or Alison Landoni at 978-879-8432.
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