When we practice meditation, we open the opportunity to experience and know our true self.

          There are other times in our lives when we may make these types of discoveries. A young person going through Basic Combat Training learns physical limitations, to some degree.  Mountain climbers learn even more, as they often have to push themselves to the limit of their ability.  Navy SEALs and Army Paratroopers learn the physical and mental abuse they can endure -- truly more than they could have imagined.  In the above examples, people learn what they are capable of when they are pushed, tired and short on sleep.  Few people who have not gone through this type of training can understand the human body and mind.
            The monk, or lay person who enters a monastery for a weekend or longer period, experiences the testing of limits. A retreat can be one revelation after another as we discover what we are capable of.  For those who have not slept on the floor since they were children, in doing so, find they can sleep somewhere other than their own bed.  They may not be comfortable.  At first, they may not sleep well, but given time (sometimes many nights), they will begin to sleep, and sleep soundly, on the uncomfortable floor.
            Though we attend a retreat to gain insight into our true nature, understand the teaching of the Buddha, or show our devotion as Buddhists, some attend to prove something.  At first glance this appears to be the wrong motive.  The practice is often described as a way to overcome our ego, but here is someone proving they can do something (last month it may have been rock climbing), and making their ego bigger in the process.  We have all met these people and may have become irritated with them, as they bragged  about their accomplishments.  We consider them conceited and self-centered in the least case, or irritating and overbearing in the worst cases.  From an everyday standpoint, these are the people we avoid. We would conclude from this everyday point of view that they do not understand the practice of Zen.  We might even offer the opinion that they have missed the whole point of Buddhism.  In feeling this way we may not be wrong but, then again, we may not be right.  Zen Master Dogen taught that to study the way, is to study the self.  This implies that any activity that teaches us about ourselves is to study the way. The key here is that we learn about ourselves.
             No one can attend a meditation retreat without running into some physical discomfort. We learn when we observe how we react to the discomfort. Part of the learning is toughing it out:  we really are not going to be permanently damaged by sore legs (from sitting cross legged). More importantly, we learn how we deal with discomfort, how we try to avoid it. 

            Physical discomfort and suffering are not the same thing.  If this were true, everyone with arthritis would be constantly suffering. They may be in constant pain, or discomfort, but they also may have accepted the pain and discomfort as something they cannot escape. This acceptance puts an end to suffering for them -- if they stop being consumed by the desire for the pain to end.  This desire is the source of the suffering, not the pain and discomfort.
            To relax and accept the unchangeable is one of the lessons that can be learned in the meditation hall. Years ago an American Zen Master said, "Change it if you can change it, let go of it if you can't." Most of the things we don't like, in our lives, cannot be changed by us, this is when we need to let go, and stop suffering.