For all of you keeping up, thanks.
I returned home this week and will not be posting for awhile. I may post once more and attach the powerpoint presentation I am currently working on. To finalize my Howes grant from DePauw, I will be doing a public presentation on campus in the coming weeks. I will be reviewing everything I got to witness this summer, and presenting some of the themes I saw.
To retrace my steps. I began with a generous grant from my school in Greencastle, IN for my proposed project entitled, "New American Inquiries into the Nature of Consciousness", went home to Kansas City, and then headed toward:
1. BOULDER, CO. I visited Naropa University, spoke with students, faculty, and administrators; toured the grounds; and read literature about their graduate schools. I was personally interested in the Religious Studies programs and the Contemplative Psychotherapy and Transpersonal Psychology programs and how they took an alternative approach to studying consciousness. After Boulder, my friend Olivia and I drove to . . .
2. CRESTONE, CO. There we camped and stayed at various houses and hot springs. We spent most of our time visiting the plethora of spiritual centers there: Buddhist and Catholic monasteries, Hindu ashrams, and secular groups. Crestone is a unique place in the United States because it hosts around a dozen spiritual centers all within the vicinity of one small Colorado town. The centers started springing up there when a the family of a wealthy developer began funding their construction. The mountains are/were considered sacred by the various Native American groups who live there, and are admired for their spiritual power by traditions from all over the world. After Crestone, we drove to
3. TUSCON, AZ. I attended the bi-annual IONS conference for five days. I stayed with friends and Olivia flew on to California. The IONS conference hosted a diverse mix of workshops from alternative healers to spiritual gurus, long-time professors to fringe consciousness researchers, mainstream environmental geopolitics to myriad variations of new age ideology. I was exposed to the variety of research being done on the mind to investigate everything from altered states of consciousness and mystical experiences to whether or not we can obtain information from the dead. After TUSCON, I headed for
4. CARMEL VALLEY, CA. I stayed three days at Tassajara Retreat Center. The first and longest standing Zen Buddhist monastery in the U.S. During the Fall, Winter, and Spring months, Tassajara is a training monastery in the Soto Zen tradition where students follow the formal disciplines of ethical conduct, meditation, work practice, and frequent silent retreat. During the summer months, while I was there, the focus becomes work practice and many students visit to work and sit zazen. Most of the work is oriented toward maintaining the grounds and hosting guests who come to visit the hot springs and enjoy Tassajara's infamous cuisine. After learning more about their practice from students and teachers, I headed less than a hundred miles to the California coast to visit
5. BIG SUR, CA. I did a weekend retreat at Esalen Institute, a long-standing retreat center that has hosted workshops, concerts, and forums of all kinds of countercultural breed. The workshop I attended was entitled "When the Past is Present: Healing the Wounds of Past Relationships", hosted by David Richo who had recently published a book by the same title. The workshop was surprisingly potent for such a short period of time, and I learned a lot about myself. I was most interested, however, in how group therapy works and got to learn from Richo, a master at facilitating large groups. The sessions were a seamless flow of his own lectures, poems, readings, and answers to the groups questions, comments, and insights. I also researched how Esalen has structured itself as an educational institution and how it facilitates communities of learning through its unique and dense workshop schedule. After Big Sur, I drove into
6. SAN FRANCISCO, CA. Right in time for the gay pride parade! After an overwhelming introduction to the city of love, I stayed at a hostel, and met the next morning with a counselor from CIIS, California Institute of Integral Studies. My exposure to CIIS was brief, but I got to tour the facilities and ask questions about the school, specifically the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness (PCC) and East-West Psychology programs. I also met multiple people along my journey who had studied in the PCC program and picked their brains about what to expect at CIIS. After CIIS, my final leg of the trip was to
7. OREGON. I first stayed with friends in Portland then headed to Clatskanie, OR where I would stay at Great Vow Monastery for almost a month and a half. Great Vow is a Soto/Rinzai Zen Monastery run under the instruction of Co-Abbots Chozen and Hogen Bays. This was intended to be the "in-depth" portion of my research, and it certainly turned out to be a rich investigation of another way to investigate, study, and transform one's own mind. My experience at Great Vow was so rich and varied, it's very difficult to adequately summarize it. I didn't have enough time to post very much about my experience while I was there because words seemed so inadequate at the time. They still do, but as my presentation approaches, I will muster up some inadequate expression and hopefully post it. I began this project and entered Great Vow with the hope that there were effective and meaningful approaches to understanding one's own consciousness outside traditional academic life. Needless to say, that hope was answered.
Now, as I begin to summarize my summer experience, I realize there are conclusions to draw on multiple levels. On one level, the American university is in good company in its traditional search to understand life and its meaningfulness. On another, I have been exposed to future opportunities for myself - monastic, academic, and otherwise - as I graduate from college next Spring. On another level, I found this research extremely helpful in my attempt to assist others on their own paths. I have already met at least a dozen people seriously interested in the institutions I've visited and have been able to answer at least some of their questions.
A lot of what I learned about these places still remains pretty superficial, however. Not even a month gets me anywhere close to adequately appreciating a place and what it does for people. Leaving DePauw, I can still think of so many corners of its campus about which I know nothing. On the flip side, however, its amazing how just a morsel of information about a place can completely re-orient our impression. All and all, this summer did a lot to give me hope for the U.S. in its own spiritual quest. It also exposed me to how much I'll never know about this place.
Thanks again for reading. I appreciate any feedback about the blog or comments about how I can improve it on my next trip.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Great Vow - After 2 1/2 Weeks
My time here has been well spent. Zen practice has been simply fulfilling. Each day brings new challenges, yet new insights.
The entire community - abbots, senior and novice priests, long and short-term residents, and occasional visitors - creates a nurturing environment for investigation into life's deepest questions: who am I? what's my purpose? what's permanent and impermanent in life?
Personally, I have already begun to develop greater awareness of my body, my own behavioral and thought patterns, and most importantly, the simple joy of just being. At the monastery we spend a lot of time working and reflecting on our lives, but we also spend a lot of time just sitting, just working, just walking, just listening . . . The schedule is intended to give the individual sufficient time to focus on just one activity. About half of the day is spent in silence so that we can focus on what's in front of us: our food, our toilet, our bed, our emotion, our opinion, our open awareness into wider space.
Contrary to many people's assumptions about meditation, Zen practice is not about disengagement from the world, but 24/7 engagement through opening the senses, the mind, and the heart. It's not about about sensory deprivation or going somewhere else; it's about letting it in and staying right where you are. It's about what's here. In Zen, we're constantly encouraged to ask of our own experience, 'what's here?' 'What stays?' The remarkable thing is how easily most of my experiences changed or passed away when I truly paid attention to them.
I've also been surprised at how much fun I'm having! The other people here are a lot of fun to hang out with and talk to. A lot of the senior practitioners are kind, wise, etc. but they're also really clever and witty. I think it's because they've spent so much time paying attention to the present moment that they can crack a joke on the spot. Also, humor is a desperately needed relaxant to the lifestyle of constant work and meditation. There isn't a lot of free time, but just enough to play a quick game of basketball or sit down with a friend and drink coffee. I've found that I don't really desire that much entertainment when I'm fully present with the entertainment I'm given. Often, I think I'm caught in the opposite cycle: constantly desiring more entertainment, while I'm not paying attention to the joys in front of me.
As for work, I've been spending most of my time helping a regular volunteer build a greenhouse. It's been really nice to direct my mind on some kind of project. Consequently though, I have lots of images of screws and bolts come up in meditation! One time, I fell asleep during meditation and dreamed that I was walking down the side of a mountain with these 6 foot screws drilled into the side!
The screwy dream doesn't even begin to touch the highs and lows of sitting zazen (Zen meditation): the pain, the ecstasy, the hallucinations, the vivid present moment, the sheer dull boredom, the list goes on . . . Teachers emphasize that, in zazen, we must let these states come and go without getting stuck to one in particular, no matter how many times it repeats over and over again. Sounds easy, right? That's another point of Zen practice; the most profound spiritual teachings are the simple ones we already know, but haven't taken the time to fully realize all the way to our bones. It really is about just letting go, about just sitting and being with whatever happens.
Well, I go into sesshin tomorrow, which is a weeklong silent retreat. Wish me luck and thanks for reading.
P.S. For those of you wondering, I'll be leaving the monastery on August 9 and returning to Kansas City August 17.
The entire community - abbots, senior and novice priests, long and short-term residents, and occasional visitors - creates a nurturing environment for investigation into life's deepest questions: who am I? what's my purpose? what's permanent and impermanent in life?
Personally, I have already begun to develop greater awareness of my body, my own behavioral and thought patterns, and most importantly, the simple joy of just being. At the monastery we spend a lot of time working and reflecting on our lives, but we also spend a lot of time just sitting, just working, just walking, just listening . . . The schedule is intended to give the individual sufficient time to focus on just one activity. About half of the day is spent in silence so that we can focus on what's in front of us: our food, our toilet, our bed, our emotion, our opinion, our open awareness into wider space.
Contrary to many people's assumptions about meditation, Zen practice is not about disengagement from the world, but 24/7 engagement through opening the senses, the mind, and the heart. It's not about about sensory deprivation or going somewhere else; it's about letting it in and staying right where you are. It's about what's here. In Zen, we're constantly encouraged to ask of our own experience, 'what's here?' 'What stays?' The remarkable thing is how easily most of my experiences changed or passed away when I truly paid attention to them.
I've also been surprised at how much fun I'm having! The other people here are a lot of fun to hang out with and talk to. A lot of the senior practitioners are kind, wise, etc. but they're also really clever and witty. I think it's because they've spent so much time paying attention to the present moment that they can crack a joke on the spot. Also, humor is a desperately needed relaxant to the lifestyle of constant work and meditation. There isn't a lot of free time, but just enough to play a quick game of basketball or sit down with a friend and drink coffee. I've found that I don't really desire that much entertainment when I'm fully present with the entertainment I'm given. Often, I think I'm caught in the opposite cycle: constantly desiring more entertainment, while I'm not paying attention to the joys in front of me.
As for work, I've been spending most of my time helping a regular volunteer build a greenhouse. It's been really nice to direct my mind on some kind of project. Consequently though, I have lots of images of screws and bolts come up in meditation! One time, I fell asleep during meditation and dreamed that I was walking down the side of a mountain with these 6 foot screws drilled into the side!
The screwy dream doesn't even begin to touch the highs and lows of sitting zazen (Zen meditation): the pain, the ecstasy, the hallucinations, the vivid present moment, the sheer dull boredom, the list goes on . . . Teachers emphasize that, in zazen, we must let these states come and go without getting stuck to one in particular, no matter how many times it repeats over and over again. Sounds easy, right? That's another point of Zen practice; the most profound spiritual teachings are the simple ones we already know, but haven't taken the time to fully realize all the way to our bones. It really is about just letting go, about just sitting and being with whatever happens.
Well, I go into sesshin tomorrow, which is a weeklong silent retreat. Wish me luck and thanks for reading.
P.S. For those of you wondering, I'll be leaving the monastery on August 9 and returning to Kansas City August 17.
Monday, July 6, 2009
First Few Days at Great Vow
Well, I arrived at Great Vow Monastery Thursday evening and now it's Tuesday.
Simply put, I love it here. However, my experience so far has been pretty skewed. This summer period happened to (or was intentionally designed to) begin at one of Great Vow's more relazed moments in the year. Every year, they have a July 4 celebration that involves participation in the parade, an open picnic with games for the public, and a full day off for residents. Then the next day was their open program, then the regular weekly day off! So of the 4 days I've been here, only one has been on the regular meditation/work schedule which is probably the most rigorous thing I've ever tried. So, the schedule starts up again tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes! All and all, though, I'm really looking forward to it.
I've been really enjoying the company of the other temporary residents as well as the more permanent residents at Great Vow. They're generally very mature, curious, and open-hearted people. Particularly, the long-term residents and the two co-abbots, Chozen and Hogen Bays, are inspiring role models and teachers. I'm really drawn to the teachings of the two abbots and the relevance of their teachings for everyday life.
Here's their bios ripped right from the website:
"Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi
1945 -
Jan Chozen Bays has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 1973. She received Jukai (lay precepts) in 1975 and Tokudo, Priest's Ordination, in 1979 from Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. From 1978 to 1983 she lived at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, studying with Maezumi Roshi and directing the Zen Center's non-profit Medical Clinic. She finished formal koan study in 1983, and she was given Dharma transmission, authorization to teach, the same year. Following the death of Maezumi Roshi in 1995 she has continued her training with Shodo Harada Roshi, a Rinzai Zen teacher, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan.
Since 1985 Chozen has been the teacher for the Zen Community of Oregon. In 2002 she helped to found Great Vow Zen Monastery and currently is the co-abbot.
She has published articles about Zen in Tricycle and Buddhadharma magazines. Her book, Jizo Bodhisattva, Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice (Tuttle Publishing, 2002), has been re-issued in paperback as Jizo Bodhisattva, Guardian of Children, Women and Other Voyagers by Shambhala Publishing. Chozen is also a pediatrician, mother and wife. As a physician she is very interested in how meditation and science interface. She is particularly involved teaching how to use meditation to work with eating disorders and grief.
Hogen Bays, Zen Teacher
1949 -
Hogen Bays began practicing in 1968 with Philip Kapleau, Roshi and was part of the residential staff at the Zen Center of Rochester in Rochester, New York until 1975.
He lived and trained at the Zen Center of Los Angeles under the direction of Taizan Maezumi , Roshi from 1980-1984. In 1990 he took Tokudo, Priest’s Ordination, with Maezumi Roshi. Since 1990, Hogen has continued his Zen studies with Rinzai Zen teacher Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan and One Drop Zendo in Tahoma, Washington. In 2000, after advice and consultation with Harada, Roshi and other Zen teachers he received Dharma Transmission from Chozen, Roshi.
He has been a leader of the Zen Community of Oregon since 1985 and worked full-time for the sangha since 1997. He is co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery.
Hogen holds a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and Master’s Degree (MS) in Psychology. He worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections for 15 years."
There's also a lot of really interesting features to the monastery. It was once an old grade school, unused for a long time, and converted to a monastery by the Bays when they bought it in the 90s. The structure is still relatively the same, except major renovations of an old gym to make it a zendo (meditation hall). Otherwise it has all the same components of a grade school converted for monastic use: cafeteria, classrooms (now residences), offices, bathrooms, mass showers, etc. Also on the grounds they have Zen Works (a space partitioned off, dedicated to sewing and building meditation supplies), a statue studio (an old pottery room with kiln where they make statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas, particularly Jizo Bodhisattva), a large organic garden, smaller berry garden, greenhouse, recently built meditation tree house and meditation hut, hiking trails, rock gardens, music room, and Jizo garden.
To explain the music room and the Jizo garden . . . First, much to my delight and surprise, Hogen and Chozen have both been playing marimba and leading marimba groups for about a decade. So, in the school's old music room, they have 6-8 marimbas, including a massive bass marimba, along with other percussion instruments, acoustic guitars, keyboards, and piano. I used to take marimba lessons and was happy to hear they had marimbas here to practice on. I've even been practicing with a few people to prepare a performance of a couple really simple songs! Now these are pentatonic marimbas, meaning they don't have the flats and sharps of a regular keyboard, so the music is super simple. It's simpler than what I am used to doing, but I also didn't enjoy what I was doing before as much as I am now.
Second, the Jizo garden is an area dedicated to the memory of children who have died. In Japanese Buddhism, Jizo Bodhisattva is the bodhisattva of women, children, and travelers. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is similar to saints and angels in Christianity, but they aren't exactly historical figures. Chozen-san has a particular affinitiy for Jizo and even wrote a well-published book about him. All over the monastery there are dozens of Jizo statues, and the monastery is dedicated to the bodhisattva. The Jizo garden is located in the woods behind the monastery. In the garden there are dozens of Jizo statues; each one is dedicated to the memory of a lost child. Each Jizo of the dozens had its own ceremony with the parents and loved ones who wanted to commemorate their child's memory. Each guardian also sewed a garment for their Jizo. The garden is very powerful.
I'm currently living in a large classroom with four other guys, but our beds are separated by a complex of walled desks and tables. It sounds odd, but it's actually pretty nice. It gives me enough privacy, drawers for my stuff, and room for yoga, and that is all I really need.
Well, those are some details about the monastery. I'll probably get more into my personal experience as the schedule intensifies. Keep in touch and thanks for reading.
Simply put, I love it here. However, my experience so far has been pretty skewed. This summer period happened to (or was intentionally designed to) begin at one of Great Vow's more relazed moments in the year. Every year, they have a July 4 celebration that involves participation in the parade, an open picnic with games for the public, and a full day off for residents. Then the next day was their open program, then the regular weekly day off! So of the 4 days I've been here, only one has been on the regular meditation/work schedule which is probably the most rigorous thing I've ever tried. So, the schedule starts up again tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes! All and all, though, I'm really looking forward to it.
I've been really enjoying the company of the other temporary residents as well as the more permanent residents at Great Vow. They're generally very mature, curious, and open-hearted people. Particularly, the long-term residents and the two co-abbots, Chozen and Hogen Bays, are inspiring role models and teachers. I'm really drawn to the teachings of the two abbots and the relevance of their teachings for everyday life.
Here's their bios ripped right from the website:
"Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi
1945 -
Jan Chozen Bays has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 1973. She received Jukai (lay precepts) in 1975 and Tokudo, Priest's Ordination, in 1979 from Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. From 1978 to 1983 she lived at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, studying with Maezumi Roshi and directing the Zen Center's non-profit Medical Clinic. She finished formal koan study in 1983, and she was given Dharma transmission, authorization to teach, the same year. Following the death of Maezumi Roshi in 1995 she has continued her training with Shodo Harada Roshi, a Rinzai Zen teacher, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan.
Since 1985 Chozen has been the teacher for the Zen Community of Oregon. In 2002 she helped to found Great Vow Zen Monastery and currently is the co-abbot.
She has published articles about Zen in Tricycle and Buddhadharma magazines. Her book, Jizo Bodhisattva, Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice (Tuttle Publishing, 2002), has been re-issued in paperback as Jizo Bodhisattva, Guardian of Children, Women and Other Voyagers by Shambhala Publishing. Chozen is also a pediatrician, mother and wife. As a physician she is very interested in how meditation and science interface. She is particularly involved teaching how to use meditation to work with eating disorders and grief.
Hogen Bays, Zen Teacher
1949 -
Hogen Bays began practicing in 1968 with Philip Kapleau, Roshi and was part of the residential staff at the Zen Center of Rochester in Rochester, New York until 1975.
He lived and trained at the Zen Center of Los Angeles under the direction of Taizan Maezumi , Roshi from 1980-1984. In 1990 he took Tokudo, Priest’s Ordination, with Maezumi Roshi. Since 1990, Hogen has continued his Zen studies with Rinzai Zen teacher Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan and One Drop Zendo in Tahoma, Washington. In 2000, after advice and consultation with Harada, Roshi and other Zen teachers he received Dharma Transmission from Chozen, Roshi.
He has been a leader of the Zen Community of Oregon since 1985 and worked full-time for the sangha since 1997. He is co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery.
Hogen holds a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and Master’s Degree (MS) in Psychology. He worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections for 15 years."
There's also a lot of really interesting features to the monastery. It was once an old grade school, unused for a long time, and converted to a monastery by the Bays when they bought it in the 90s. The structure is still relatively the same, except major renovations of an old gym to make it a zendo (meditation hall). Otherwise it has all the same components of a grade school converted for monastic use: cafeteria, classrooms (now residences), offices, bathrooms, mass showers, etc. Also on the grounds they have Zen Works (a space partitioned off, dedicated to sewing and building meditation supplies), a statue studio (an old pottery room with kiln where they make statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas, particularly Jizo Bodhisattva), a large organic garden, smaller berry garden, greenhouse, recently built meditation tree house and meditation hut, hiking trails, rock gardens, music room, and Jizo garden.
To explain the music room and the Jizo garden . . . First, much to my delight and surprise, Hogen and Chozen have both been playing marimba and leading marimba groups for about a decade. So, in the school's old music room, they have 6-8 marimbas, including a massive bass marimba, along with other percussion instruments, acoustic guitars, keyboards, and piano. I used to take marimba lessons and was happy to hear they had marimbas here to practice on. I've even been practicing with a few people to prepare a performance of a couple really simple songs! Now these are pentatonic marimbas, meaning they don't have the flats and sharps of a regular keyboard, so the music is super simple. It's simpler than what I am used to doing, but I also didn't enjoy what I was doing before as much as I am now.
Second, the Jizo garden is an area dedicated to the memory of children who have died. In Japanese Buddhism, Jizo Bodhisattva is the bodhisattva of women, children, and travelers. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is similar to saints and angels in Christianity, but they aren't exactly historical figures. Chozen-san has a particular affinitiy for Jizo and even wrote a well-published book about him. All over the monastery there are dozens of Jizo statues, and the monastery is dedicated to the bodhisattva. The Jizo garden is located in the woods behind the monastery. In the garden there are dozens of Jizo statues; each one is dedicated to the memory of a lost child. Each Jizo of the dozens had its own ceremony with the parents and loved ones who wanted to commemorate their child's memory. Each guardian also sewed a garment for their Jizo. The garden is very powerful.
I'm currently living in a large classroom with four other guys, but our beds are separated by a complex of walled desks and tables. It sounds odd, but it's actually pretty nice. It gives me enough privacy, drawers for my stuff, and room for yoga, and that is all I really need.
Well, those are some details about the monastery. I'll probably get more into my personal experience as the schedule intensifies. Keep in touch and thanks for reading.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Tassajara (June 24-26) and the New Month at Great Vow Monastery
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center was fascinating. It was the first, and now oldest, Zen monastery in the U.S. Tucked away in the Ventana mountains near Big Sur, Tassajara squeezes into a valley along gorgeous mineral springs and hiking trails. They dedicate the winter months to practice periods for the monks and nuns in residence but open up their doors to visitors during the summer guest season. During the guest season, monks and nuns work more and sit zazen less. Guests have the option of joining in on work and zazen for a discounted rate, while others just enjoy themselves without touching a broom or sitting on a cushion.
Tassajara has its own gender-divided, but clothing optional baths (springs, hot tubs, sauna, plunge, and pool) which attracts many of the guests. Tassajara is also famous for their organic, vegetarian meals. Since the Tassajara Bread Book released decades ago, people have been drawn to Tassajara for the delicious full-course meals. While I was there I ate dishes like mung dhal with home-made naan, eggplant lasagna with local greens and home-baked baguettes. The desserts were killer: blueberry cornbread with whipped cream, ginger cheesecake . . . you get the picture. Tassajara is also off the grid, so most of the rooms are lit with kerosene lanterns. The dim ambiance from these lamps, in the dining room or in the cabin, overshadows (or perhaps under-shadows) their ironically less sustainable use of energy. Overall, the working staff was extremely courteous and kind. I made friends immediately. From their aprons, to the made beds, to the tablecloth, the straight-laced, 90-degree-angle aesthetic of Zen neatness laced elegantly throughout this quasi-resort atmosphere. They’ve also had decades to make it work.
The efficiency and resilience of their system was also impressive. The turnover rate at Tassajara is high with a lot of people staying just a week or weekend, fewer staying for a few months, fewer a few years, and then perhaps a dozen or so that have been there beyond 5 years. They’ve mastered the art of hospitality as well as shuffling people in and out.
What aroused my curiosity was that many had little experience with Zen practice before they jumped into a long summer of hard work and zazen (Zen meditation). Of course, some were well-seasoned in the sutra literature, the principles of practice, and the history of Zen. It has also been traditional in Zen to throw people into the deep-end of practice and to let one’s rational understanding follow and flow from experiential understanding, whereas with most things in a culture of maps, manuals, and cookbooks, we do it the other way around . . . However, at least in my experience, the frequent problem with Zen is that one practices his or her misunderstanding over and over again, without being corrected. A close relationship with a teacher is necessary to make sure one isn’t, say, repressing all their thoughts . . . trying to not think. I don't know if this is a problem at Tassajara though.
I’d be interested to know more about the internal teaching structure of Tassajara; they may very well check against this. For resident students, they have weekly classes and routine small discussion groups with senior students. They also bring in a lot of visiting teachers as guest lecturers. While I was there, a Zen teacher named Daigaku Sensei held an introductory workshop to traditional calligraphy and gave a lecture on the meaning of “work practice” (more or less, working as a form of meditation). Their library was also pretty impressive. It was only a couple rooms, but I could find almost any title on Buddhism or Eastern philosophy that I could think of. Certainly students have access to readings, although they may not have the time to go through with it. They spend roughly 6-8 hours a day working on top of morning and evening periods of zazen. But that’s the life! It disciplines one’s mind, forces you to make priorities, conserve and use your energy wisely, and, most importantly, work with others and your self in a selfless way that doesn’t dwell excessively on individual thoughts or concerns. I’ve often found it difficult transitioning into and out of environments like this, but once you’re in, there’s a new strength, courage, vitality, and focus in daily activities.
Great Vow Monastery
That’s the lifestyle I’ll more or less be living for the next month at Great Vow Monastery, a Zen training monastery where I experienced my first retreat two years ago. I naturally have a lot of hopes and fears, as I’ll be leaving to arrive there within the next hour. I won’t dwell on them too much right now, and will (hopefully) be updating my blog about the details a little more when I actually get there. I will be there for the whole month of July. If you are interested in knowing what the summer training practice is all about, the website says it much clearer than I can: http://www.greatvow.org/summerworkexchange_readmore.htm
The daily schedule is pretty rigorous!
Regular Schedule
3:50 Wake-up Bell
4:20 Zazen
6:20 Service
6:45 Temple Cleaning
7:30 Breakfast
9:00 Work Period
12:00 Service
12:15 Informal Lunch
2:00 Work Period (with possible Exercise/Art period)
5:20 Service
5:30 Dinner
7:20 Zazen
9:20 Evening Chants
10:00 Lights Out - Closing rounds
Work might include gardening, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, or office work; we’ll see what I get assigned.
If you’re interested in sending me mail, the monastery’s address is:
PO Box 368
Clatskanie, OR 97016
I’ll have weekly access to the internet. My time off is Sunday evening and Monday, so that would be the best time for me to talk on the phone. I can call at nights and on breaks, but would really prefer not to. Call me any time and leave a message, and I’ll try to call you back on my off-time.
Wish me luck!
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center was fascinating. It was the first, and now oldest, Zen monastery in the U.S. Tucked away in the Ventana mountains near Big Sur, Tassajara squeezes into a valley along gorgeous mineral springs and hiking trails. They dedicate the winter months to practice periods for the monks and nuns in residence but open up their doors to visitors during the summer guest season. During the guest season, monks and nuns work more and sit zazen less. Guests have the option of joining in on work and zazen for a discounted rate, while others just enjoy themselves without touching a broom or sitting on a cushion.
Tassajara has its own gender-divided, but clothing optional baths (springs, hot tubs, sauna, plunge, and pool) which attracts many of the guests. Tassajara is also famous for their organic, vegetarian meals. Since the Tassajara Bread Book released decades ago, people have been drawn to Tassajara for the delicious full-course meals. While I was there I ate dishes like mung dhal with home-made naan, eggplant lasagna with local greens and home-baked baguettes. The desserts were killer: blueberry cornbread with whipped cream, ginger cheesecake . . . you get the picture. Tassajara is also off the grid, so most of the rooms are lit with kerosene lanterns. The dim ambiance from these lamps, in the dining room or in the cabin, overshadows (or perhaps under-shadows) their ironically less sustainable use of energy. Overall, the working staff was extremely courteous and kind. I made friends immediately. From their aprons, to the made beds, to the tablecloth, the straight-laced, 90-degree-angle aesthetic of Zen neatness laced elegantly throughout this quasi-resort atmosphere. They’ve also had decades to make it work.
The efficiency and resilience of their system was also impressive. The turnover rate at Tassajara is high with a lot of people staying just a week or weekend, fewer staying for a few months, fewer a few years, and then perhaps a dozen or so that have been there beyond 5 years. They’ve mastered the art of hospitality as well as shuffling people in and out.
What aroused my curiosity was that many had little experience with Zen practice before they jumped into a long summer of hard work and zazen (Zen meditation). Of course, some were well-seasoned in the sutra literature, the principles of practice, and the history of Zen. It has also been traditional in Zen to throw people into the deep-end of practice and to let one’s rational understanding follow and flow from experiential understanding, whereas with most things in a culture of maps, manuals, and cookbooks, we do it the other way around . . . However, at least in my experience, the frequent problem with Zen is that one practices his or her misunderstanding over and over again, without being corrected. A close relationship with a teacher is necessary to make sure one isn’t, say, repressing all their thoughts . . . trying to not think. I don't know if this is a problem at Tassajara though.
I’d be interested to know more about the internal teaching structure of Tassajara; they may very well check against this. For resident students, they have weekly classes and routine small discussion groups with senior students. They also bring in a lot of visiting teachers as guest lecturers. While I was there, a Zen teacher named Daigaku Sensei held an introductory workshop to traditional calligraphy and gave a lecture on the meaning of “work practice” (more or less, working as a form of meditation). Their library was also pretty impressive. It was only a couple rooms, but I could find almost any title on Buddhism or Eastern philosophy that I could think of. Certainly students have access to readings, although they may not have the time to go through with it. They spend roughly 6-8 hours a day working on top of morning and evening periods of zazen. But that’s the life! It disciplines one’s mind, forces you to make priorities, conserve and use your energy wisely, and, most importantly, work with others and your self in a selfless way that doesn’t dwell excessively on individual thoughts or concerns. I’ve often found it difficult transitioning into and out of environments like this, but once you’re in, there’s a new strength, courage, vitality, and focus in daily activities.
Great Vow Monastery
That’s the lifestyle I’ll more or less be living for the next month at Great Vow Monastery, a Zen training monastery where I experienced my first retreat two years ago. I naturally have a lot of hopes and fears, as I’ll be leaving to arrive there within the next hour. I won’t dwell on them too much right now, and will (hopefully) be updating my blog about the details a little more when I actually get there. I will be there for the whole month of July. If you are interested in knowing what the summer training practice is all about, the website says it much clearer than I can: http://www.greatvow.org/summerworkexchange_readmore.htm
The daily schedule is pretty rigorous!
Regular Schedule
3:50 Wake-up Bell
4:20 Zazen
6:20 Service
6:45 Temple Cleaning
7:30 Breakfast
9:00 Work Period
12:00 Service
12:15 Informal Lunch
2:00 Work Period (with possible Exercise/Art period)
5:20 Service
5:30 Dinner
7:20 Zazen
9:20 Evening Chants
10:00 Lights Out - Closing rounds
Work might include gardening, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, or office work; we’ll see what I get assigned.
If you’re interested in sending me mail, the monastery’s address is:
PO Box 368
Clatskanie, OR 97016
I’ll have weekly access to the internet. My time off is Sunday evening and Monday, so that would be the best time for me to talk on the phone. I can call at nights and on breaks, but would really prefer not to. Call me any time and leave a message, and I’ll try to call you back on my off-time.
Wish me luck!
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA (June 26-28)
Esalen Institute
Back in the 60s, Esalen was a hub for experimental education and exploration. The founders Michael Murphy and Dick Price envisioned a space that welcomed the wisdom of East and West and that honored, respected, and sought to develop body, mind, and spirit. The utopian retreat center runs around its workshops: weekend, weeklong, or monthlong explorations on the widest range of subjects I’ve ever seen an institution entertain. The categories include: visual arts, writing, music/rhythm/dance, creative expression/theater, bodywork/somatic practices, psychological/transpersonal process, relationship/sexuality/gender, myth/ritual/shamanism, children/families/education, neuropsychology, social/political issues, professional growth/training, nature/ecology/sustainability, contemplative/spiritual studies, yoga, ceconomics/business/workplace, health/healing, and integral practices. You could take a workshop on permaculture or gestalt therapy, sustainable cooking or insight meditation, “Writing Your Life” or “Mindful Motherhood”.
Esalen has a history of bringing in cutting edge thinkers to talk, teach, and lead others on fringe subjects within the academic world. Workshop leaders range from academics and activists to non-profit leaders and spiritual contemplatives. The likely profile of a workshop leader is someone who has published or developed a unique approach or style to familiar traditions. For example, from November 1-6, Esalen will host a workshop called “Moving Into Meditation: A Silent Yoga and Meditation Retreat”, hosted by four experienced meditators. The most famous is probably Sarah Powers: a yoga, tai chi, and Buddhist meditation teacher, who has blended styles of yin and yang tai chi with vinayasa, Iyengar, and Ashtanga yoga to create a physical mindfulness practice that compliments a blending of vipassana and Dzogchen mediation practices. She has written a book called Yin/Yang Yoga: Integrating Yin/Yang Yoga and Buddhist Meditation. Workshop leaders often bring such a unique synthesis or style, often catalyzed into published work.
When I was at Esalen I did a workshop called "When the Past is Present". The workshop leader David Richo, a well-publshed psychologist and spiritual teacher, focused specifically on the topic of transference, the psychological phenomena of carrying over the model relationships of our past onto relationships in the present. The major area of focus was how our parental relationships and formative romantic relationships shape how we experience relationships now. Richo, himself, fits the model of an integral teacher working from his own published material. A former Catholic priest and present Buddhist meditator, Richo has integrated a unique style of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations with the wisdom of Catholicism and Jungian psychology. This simple weekend workshop was truly transformative, especially for its brevity. I got a lot out of it personally and in exploring the possibilities of group therapy.
Esalen has hosted these leading, eclectic thinkers for the past 5 decades. Notable visitors or long-time residents include Aldous Huxley, Fritz Perls, Abraham Maslow, Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson, Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, Timothy Leary, Albert Hoffman, R.D. Laing, Terence McKenna, and Gary Snyder. Arts events have hosted everyone from Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel to George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Scholar Jeffrey Kripal recently published a definitive history on Esalen called "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion", a thorough investigation of the place's complicated history.
The physicality of the place itself was quite stunning. The Big Sur coastline gets really temperate, breezy weather. June is 60s and 70s with a frequent, big fog that rolls off the ocean. Much of the coast is rock. Esalen hangs over the sea on a cliff. They have a lot of gardening space, and a small organic farm. The cabin dorm I stayed in was pretty typical for retreat centers. They had many other buildings for workshops as well as an “art barn” (art studio for people to use), dance dome, elementary children’s school, offices, and dining hall. The dining hall was also pretty typical in structure with a beautiful patio for eating outside. The food, however, was really tasty. They always had a densely abundant salad bar, along with multiple grains, various dishes, and all kinds of teas, coffees, juices, and alcoholic drinks (the alcohol was for sale).
The most distinguishing feature of the Esalen ‘campus’ were its hot mineral spring baths. Esalen used to have hot spring tubs until a fire a few years ago destroyed them. They put forth a multi-million dollar effort to rebuild newer and better baths, and did they . . . The building doubles as a massage parlor and hot tub spa with almost a dozen hot tubs or single bath tubs. It was clothing optional, which practically means dozens of naked, middle-aged Californians, most of whom were somewhere between relaxed and self-conscious. It’d be fair to say that you oscillate between the two states when you first arrive, but the first dip into the soothing tea kettle, the first rush of warmth up, around, and inside one’s genitalia melts away any doubt or self-consciousness! One’s mind wafts away in the mist of the ocean as it carries up and off the beating waves below. The tubs practically dangle on the cliff’s edge. You can lean your elbow’s on the tub’s rim and gaze off into the infinite gray sky, gray sea . . . Or you can turn around and stare into the infinite gray hair of your baby boomer compatriots, aging but grinning – finally at rest from their busy, likely successful, lives. The major shadow of Esalen, however, is its echelon.
This utopian paradise is only affordable for a minority of the world, a minority of Americans, a minority of wealthy Americans. A weekend workshop could cost anywhere from $400 - $2,100, a weeklong workshop could cost $900 - $6,200 depending on whether you’re on the floor in a sleeping bag or cooped up in a deluxe suite. Esalen also offers monthlong work studies where you work 32 hours per week while doing a daily workshop for a month. But even to do that, you have to pay a $1000 entrance fee on top of working! As the founding boomer generation has aged from hippy idealism to even more idealistic, post-modern silicon suburbia, Esalen seems to have paralleled in its own shift toward a new age vision for all . . . to be experienced by few.
However, the place isn’t without consciousness of this problem, and I would have to spend much more time at a place like Esalen to label it as classist. Indeed, classism has been a defining feature of higher education since its inception, and it is perhaps too much to reasonably expect an institution to reverse such a tendency. It would be interesting to research what initiatives Esalen is taking to provide scholarships and programs or workshops for the underprivileged (not just about the underprivileged). All I know of is the $50 work discount I got. A lot of its workshops are also on niche subjects; so one would have to know if a workshop on tai chi and yoga integration is of interest to people without access or if it is such a niche subject that only those who could afford to have learned about it could afford it anyway. I know at least, that I personally, would love more access to what Esalen offers but can’t afford it. Students may be the group most interested in Esalen with the most difficulty getting in. One can’t even look around Esalen Institute without a reservation, an indication of the price it costs to build an American dreamland.
Back in the 60s, Esalen was a hub for experimental education and exploration. The founders Michael Murphy and Dick Price envisioned a space that welcomed the wisdom of East and West and that honored, respected, and sought to develop body, mind, and spirit. The utopian retreat center runs around its workshops: weekend, weeklong, or monthlong explorations on the widest range of subjects I’ve ever seen an institution entertain. The categories include: visual arts, writing, music/rhythm/dance, creative expression/theater, bodywork/somatic practices, psychological/transpersonal process, relationship/sexuality/gender, myth/ritual/shamanism, children/families/education, neuropsychology, social/political issues, professional growth/training, nature/ecology/sustainability, contemplative/spiritual studies, yoga, ceconomics/business/workplace, health/healing, and integral practices. You could take a workshop on permaculture or gestalt therapy, sustainable cooking or insight meditation, “Writing Your Life” or “Mindful Motherhood”.
Esalen has a history of bringing in cutting edge thinkers to talk, teach, and lead others on fringe subjects within the academic world. Workshop leaders range from academics and activists to non-profit leaders and spiritual contemplatives. The likely profile of a workshop leader is someone who has published or developed a unique approach or style to familiar traditions. For example, from November 1-6, Esalen will host a workshop called “Moving Into Meditation: A Silent Yoga and Meditation Retreat”, hosted by four experienced meditators. The most famous is probably Sarah Powers: a yoga, tai chi, and Buddhist meditation teacher, who has blended styles of yin and yang tai chi with vinayasa, Iyengar, and Ashtanga yoga to create a physical mindfulness practice that compliments a blending of vipassana and Dzogchen mediation practices. She has written a book called Yin/Yang Yoga: Integrating Yin/Yang Yoga and Buddhist Meditation. Workshop leaders often bring such a unique synthesis or style, often catalyzed into published work.
When I was at Esalen I did a workshop called "When the Past is Present". The workshop leader David Richo, a well-publshed psychologist and spiritual teacher, focused specifically on the topic of transference, the psychological phenomena of carrying over the model relationships of our past onto relationships in the present. The major area of focus was how our parental relationships and formative romantic relationships shape how we experience relationships now. Richo, himself, fits the model of an integral teacher working from his own published material. A former Catholic priest and present Buddhist meditator, Richo has integrated a unique style of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations with the wisdom of Catholicism and Jungian psychology. This simple weekend workshop was truly transformative, especially for its brevity. I got a lot out of it personally and in exploring the possibilities of group therapy.
Esalen has hosted these leading, eclectic thinkers for the past 5 decades. Notable visitors or long-time residents include Aldous Huxley, Fritz Perls, Abraham Maslow, Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson, Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, Timothy Leary, Albert Hoffman, R.D. Laing, Terence McKenna, and Gary Snyder. Arts events have hosted everyone from Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel to George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Scholar Jeffrey Kripal recently published a definitive history on Esalen called "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion", a thorough investigation of the place's complicated history.
The physicality of the place itself was quite stunning. The Big Sur coastline gets really temperate, breezy weather. June is 60s and 70s with a frequent, big fog that rolls off the ocean. Much of the coast is rock. Esalen hangs over the sea on a cliff. They have a lot of gardening space, and a small organic farm. The cabin dorm I stayed in was pretty typical for retreat centers. They had many other buildings for workshops as well as an “art barn” (art studio for people to use), dance dome, elementary children’s school, offices, and dining hall. The dining hall was also pretty typical in structure with a beautiful patio for eating outside. The food, however, was really tasty. They always had a densely abundant salad bar, along with multiple grains, various dishes, and all kinds of teas, coffees, juices, and alcoholic drinks (the alcohol was for sale).
The most distinguishing feature of the Esalen ‘campus’ were its hot mineral spring baths. Esalen used to have hot spring tubs until a fire a few years ago destroyed them. They put forth a multi-million dollar effort to rebuild newer and better baths, and did they . . . The building doubles as a massage parlor and hot tub spa with almost a dozen hot tubs or single bath tubs. It was clothing optional, which practically means dozens of naked, middle-aged Californians, most of whom were somewhere between relaxed and self-conscious. It’d be fair to say that you oscillate between the two states when you first arrive, but the first dip into the soothing tea kettle, the first rush of warmth up, around, and inside one’s genitalia melts away any doubt or self-consciousness! One’s mind wafts away in the mist of the ocean as it carries up and off the beating waves below. The tubs practically dangle on the cliff’s edge. You can lean your elbow’s on the tub’s rim and gaze off into the infinite gray sky, gray sea . . . Or you can turn around and stare into the infinite gray hair of your baby boomer compatriots, aging but grinning – finally at rest from their busy, likely successful, lives. The major shadow of Esalen, however, is its echelon.
This utopian paradise is only affordable for a minority of the world, a minority of Americans, a minority of wealthy Americans. A weekend workshop could cost anywhere from $400 - $2,100, a weeklong workshop could cost $900 - $6,200 depending on whether you’re on the floor in a sleeping bag or cooped up in a deluxe suite. Esalen also offers monthlong work studies where you work 32 hours per week while doing a daily workshop for a month. But even to do that, you have to pay a $1000 entrance fee on top of working! As the founding boomer generation has aged from hippy idealism to even more idealistic, post-modern silicon suburbia, Esalen seems to have paralleled in its own shift toward a new age vision for all . . . to be experienced by few.
However, the place isn’t without consciousness of this problem, and I would have to spend much more time at a place like Esalen to label it as classist. Indeed, classism has been a defining feature of higher education since its inception, and it is perhaps too much to reasonably expect an institution to reverse such a tendency. It would be interesting to research what initiatives Esalen is taking to provide scholarships and programs or workshops for the underprivileged (not just about the underprivileged). All I know of is the $50 work discount I got. A lot of its workshops are also on niche subjects; so one would have to know if a workshop on tai chi and yoga integration is of interest to people without access or if it is such a niche subject that only those who could afford to have learned about it could afford it anyway. I know at least, that I personally, would love more access to what Esalen offers but can’t afford it. Students may be the group most interested in Esalen with the most difficulty getting in. One can’t even look around Esalen Institute without a reservation, an indication of the price it costs to build an American dreamland.
Tucson, AZ: IONS Conference (June 17-21)
The 13th Annual IONS Conference
In Tuscon, I stayed with Josh, an abstract painter, and his wife Anita. I met Josh through a professor at DePauw, Beth Benedix; they were kind enough to host me without even meeting me first! I didn’t get to spend much time with them, except for a couple dinners. Josh's art is just incredible; I’m really attracted to it. His process is fascinating too; and it means so much more to have him narrate his work. I’ve got a few pics on my camera of his stuff. He told me some interesting stories about Maezumi Roshi (a famous American Zen teacher) too. I guess they met when Josh was the director of a university museum. He put together an exhibit on “Seeing and Blindness” oriented towards the local school for deaf and blind. It was E.Asian art oriented; he called and asked Maezumi Roshi to come in and talk about Zen art and vision/blindness as metaphors for wisdom and ignorance. I guess Roshi stayed at Josh’s house, played with the kids, sat zazen on a chair in the morning in Josh’s home gallery. Josh told me a story about how he and Maezumi went out to dinner one night and Roshi ordered a steak. Josh said, “Aren’t you supposed to be vegetarian?” Roshi laughed. I left Josh and Anita's happy, clean-clothed, and well fed. Thanks to them!
The IONS conference was pretty spectacular. The spiritual energy was very high; it felt good to be around so many like-minded people where any minute you could strike up a conversation and just click. It also felt physically good. It was like my subtle body was beaming. I really clicked with a lot of people there; the younger people in particular. I made lots of friends, one of whom, Vlad, drove with me from Tucson to Long Beach; it was a really great, chill ride. We’ll definitely be keeping in touch, especially as he continues to research American institutions where meditation research is being done.
While I was at the conference I volunteered for various activities as a door monitor. It was easy, and I saved some real green!
Full info about conference events is at: http://ionsconference.org/2009/. I attended the major plenary sessions with a variety of different speakers. The specific “pre-conference”, “post-conference”, and “breakout” sessions I went to were:
1. Wednesday (6/17), Daylong
(PW5) Survival of Consciousness: A Matter of Life and Death—Dean Radin and Julie Beischel
Half a dozen classes of scientific evidence exist for some form of survival of consciousness after bodily death; some are more persuasive than others. We will review this evidence and assess the current state of the art. One of the most intriguing classes of survival research focuses on mediums and the information they report. We will examine recent advances in mediumship research methods, and attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a demonstration with certified research mediums. We will also suggest ways of advancing our understanding of the perennial question of survival, which is literally a matter of life and death.
Tim says: This session blew me off my feet and made re-think how consciousness exists beyond death. Dedicated scientists have apparently been researching this topic for years in a lot of different ways. Dean Radin, probably IONS biggest scientist, began with a presentation on the research surrounding consciousness generally and, simply put, whether or not consciousness is an interaction, a bi-product of brain chemistry, or if in some way, or to some degree, consciousness exists independent of the brain structure. The word on the street is that scientific research has already shifted in large part from a materialist paradigm, to one influenced by quantum research. Personally, like most people, I can’t thoroughly describe why, but I’ve read enough to at least follow the argument.
Research of sub-atomic particles now reveals a number of phenomenon that defy a reductionistic, materialist paradigm. What the hell does this mean? For one thing, the behavior of sub-atomic energy depends on our perception of it (as say, waves or particles). Experiments are now able to show that the same particle can appear in two different places at once; some experiments have done this across the distance of a city. Another theoretical claim is that energy behaves “non-locally” on a microscopic level, meaning that what we normally conceive of as particles don’t really exist as particles until we conceive and measure them as such . . . The major hop, skip, and a jump for scientists now is that one’s consciousness exists in a similar field-like way a priori to its concentration at a particular point in something like . . . a brain. This aligns with what spiritual people have been saying for millennia but have never had a way to prove (i.e. we can go out of our mind, connect with other minds, “read” other minds, dissolve into a higher mind, etc.).
Radin’s research is much more concentrated and scientific. Since the early 20th century, people have been doing experiments to see whether or not one’s intention and concentration can manipulate the physical reality. Dice experiments began to confirm superstitions that one could intend a certain outcome, if they really wanted, or wished, or intended for it to happen. There are more or less two kinds of experiments. The first is with people who claim they can do this and have been working at it for some time. Sometimes their scores are off-the charts in terms of what basic probability would deem. They also do popular surveys with people who’ve never really tried it until then. Even with these experiments, the results are statistically significant. For example, with one die you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting any of the numbers 1-6. If you get a bunch of people two intend “two”, then all the sudden the average jumps to 2 out of 6, you don’t have a miracle, but you do have something that significantly defies statistical probability and would require an alternative explanation than mere chance. Now instead of using dice, they use “random number generators” to see how someone’s intention can direct the appearance of otherwise random numbers.
The same goes for experiments with spirit mediums who claim to talk to the dead. The second presenter after Radin, Julie Beischel runs her own research lab on mediumship. In experiments like this, as with similar one’s involving telepathy, you isolate a medium from a client and test how accurately they can obtain information about the client’s dead loved one whom they want to contact. They create a system of ‘blindings’ where the medium, the client, the researcher, and the numbers recorder don’t know certain factors in an experiment, so that the medium can’t get information about the dead person without using some alternative psychic means. As with the dice, professionals’ abilities often scored off the charts, while untrained, ungifted people might’ve been statistically significant if not just guessing.
We also got to witness a medium reading, which I’d never seen before. Now there was less blinding, and more cooperation, but it was still pretty impressive what the medium knew (or perhaps deduced) without the client saying anything.
2. Thursday (6/18), Daylong
(PT1) Working with Fields of Consciousness: Practical Strategies for Group Leaders—Chris Bache
For reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendency to synchronize is one of the most pervasive drives in the universe. —Steven Strogatz, Sync
Fields of consciousness spring up whenever we engage in sustained collective activities. Knowing this, how can we accelerate and deepen this natural process? How do we harness the power of these fields to teach, problem-solve, create, or heal? In this workshop, we will explore the dynamics of collective intelligence in group settings. Learn practical, hands-on strategies forged through 30 years of classroom experience: opening and closing fields, strengthening fields, visualization and meditation exercises, and managing episodes of spontaneous resonance.
Tim says: This workshop began with the assumption that consciousness operates in fields to some degree. Chris Bache used this idea to talk about his experience in working with his own college classrooms as fields. As Chris used it, a “field of consciousness” is a degree of higher order that resides to some degree in time and space that guides and structures human organization and interaction. Most of the time, these fields are unconscious; we participate in these structures of higher order without being aware that there is a higher order. For example, we think of driving a car on a busy, jammed freeway. One might be only conscious of one’s own position and perhaps those of nearby cars. But, in fact, there is actually a web of conscious relations spanning for miles that coordinates the spacing between cars so that everyone eventually gets to move, within certain peramaters, in the same direction. Most of us nowadays, can even drive unconsciously. With experience we tap into a network of sensory experience and response that manages our accelerating, breaking, etc. without even thinking!
Chris talked about, the even deeper situation of a classroom. In his experience, his private meditation practice effects his students. They often undergo similar realizations as him when he experienced it that day. As Chris perfected a system of “opening”, “nourishing”, “visualizing”, and “closing” these fields, more and more students began to get more and more out of the class, often having “peak” or even “mystical” experiences of mysteries they had never considered. Chris does all kinds of intention practices. He begins meditating over the class roster when he immediately gets it, psychically intendeding for those ready for the class to stay, and those who would be disengaged to drop and come back another time. To “close” fields, he has very boundaries for what conversations he continues even years afterwards with students. Closure is very important!
3. Friday-Afternoon (6/19) Breakout Session
(F6) The ESP Enigma: A Comprehensive Model for Understanding Psychic Phenomena—Diane Powell
Enjoy this scientifically accurate yet provocative model that integrates neuroscience, parapsychology, and physics. Become acquainted with the past century's research on psychic phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, and psychokinesis. Discover why some people have more psychic experiences than others. Incorporate this new understanding into your clinical work with people who experience psychic phenomena.
Tim says: Diane Powell’s talk was also pretty riveting, although it was so broad that it’s difficult to summarize. The summary says most of it. I mostly got brief exposure to the latest literature and discoveries about the psychic phenomenon. Probably the two most interesting thoughts I got from her were (1) neuroscientifice research (brain scans and the like) consistently shows amongst psychics of various abilities a highly developed angular gyrus, an area right above the pineal gland. (2) Diane’s current theory is that psychic phenomenon are possible due to reality being fundamentally holographic.
What does that mean? Various neuroscience theories (brain-focused), Chinese medicine (body focused), even reflexology (foot-focused!) stipulate that we hold within our vary own cells, reflections, or holographic representations, of the entire external universe. Following this theory, psychics are just people who have trained themselves to access information which we all fundamentally possess in our unconscious mind (or unconscious body, or collective unconscious depending on your theory). So, telepathics don’t send some kind of a beem from their brain to yours, retrieve information and beem it back! The idea is that, they get in touch with the holographic reflection of the client already within themselves and deeply empathize with that. Even minor acts of compassion are possible because we can already intuit what’s going on in others, because it’s already inside us. Hua-yen Buddhism, fractal imagery, and advanced mathematics come to similar conclusions: the whole is completely immanent in its entirety even within the smallest part. Hua-yen uses the image of “indra’s net”: an infinite web of jewels spanning in all directions. Each jewel reflects all the other jewels within itself. Theoretically, each person reflects the entire universe in that way . . .
No wonder it’s so easy to fall in love!
4. Saturday-Afternoon (6/20) Breakout Session
(S6) From Timbuktu to Santa Cruz, from Segou to Selma: What Does It Mean to Be a Global Citizen?—Coumba Touré
Coumba Touré has participated in and been instrumental in facilitating hundreds of educational workshops, gatherings, and struggles for social change around the world. In this session, she welcomes you into an exciting conversation about bridging divides and navigating through the diverse worlds on our interconnected planet.
Tim says: Very interesting workshop, but I don’t have time to talk about it . . .
5. Sunday-Afternoon (6/21) Post-Conference Institute
(PS4) Technologies for Inner Well-Being—Sadhguru
No other generation has been as comfortable as we are today, but we are still not any more joyful than those who have lived before us. It doesn't matter how much we fix the external aspects of our lives; the basic quality of human life—of being joyful or miserable—remains the same. The way we are within is the way we experience our life. Just as we have a science and technology for understanding and creating external situations through our desires and choices, an inner science and technology is available to us to create our inner situation as well—a technology to take charge of one's ultimate destiny. Join Sadhguru for a guided meditation and an entree into this ancient technology for spiritual evolution and healing
Tim says: I’ve seen a lot of gurus of Sadh Guru’s style in the States and in India, so I approached this talk with a lot of expectations, baggage, and “heard-it-befores” already in my head. Sadhguru took a while to wear on me, but by the end of his 2 ½ hour talk I was on the edge of my seat laughing, practically crying. His insights from consumerism to death were often cliché, but true. The more and more I listened, however, he was throwing curve balls left and right, addressing the audience’s needs. Some good quotes:
“Peace is an invention of the disturbed mind.”
“The mind cannot be contained. It is boundless. No philosophy can contain it. It’s constantly striving for boundlessness . . . The longing for boundlessness isn’t a problem; you’re just using the wrong methods to achieve it.”
“Death is an invention of the ignorant.”
In Tuscon, I stayed with Josh, an abstract painter, and his wife Anita. I met Josh through a professor at DePauw, Beth Benedix; they were kind enough to host me without even meeting me first! I didn’t get to spend much time with them, except for a couple dinners. Josh's art is just incredible; I’m really attracted to it. His process is fascinating too; and it means so much more to have him narrate his work. I’ve got a few pics on my camera of his stuff. He told me some interesting stories about Maezumi Roshi (a famous American Zen teacher) too. I guess they met when Josh was the director of a university museum. He put together an exhibit on “Seeing and Blindness” oriented towards the local school for deaf and blind. It was E.Asian art oriented; he called and asked Maezumi Roshi to come in and talk about Zen art and vision/blindness as metaphors for wisdom and ignorance. I guess Roshi stayed at Josh’s house, played with the kids, sat zazen on a chair in the morning in Josh’s home gallery. Josh told me a story about how he and Maezumi went out to dinner one night and Roshi ordered a steak. Josh said, “Aren’t you supposed to be vegetarian?” Roshi laughed. I left Josh and Anita's happy, clean-clothed, and well fed. Thanks to them!
The IONS conference was pretty spectacular. The spiritual energy was very high; it felt good to be around so many like-minded people where any minute you could strike up a conversation and just click. It also felt physically good. It was like my subtle body was beaming. I really clicked with a lot of people there; the younger people in particular. I made lots of friends, one of whom, Vlad, drove with me from Tucson to Long Beach; it was a really great, chill ride. We’ll definitely be keeping in touch, especially as he continues to research American institutions where meditation research is being done.
While I was at the conference I volunteered for various activities as a door monitor. It was easy, and I saved some real green!
Full info about conference events is at: http://ionsconference.org/2009/. I attended the major plenary sessions with a variety of different speakers. The specific “pre-conference”, “post-conference”, and “breakout” sessions I went to were:
1. Wednesday (6/17), Daylong
(PW5) Survival of Consciousness: A Matter of Life and Death—Dean Radin and Julie Beischel
Half a dozen classes of scientific evidence exist for some form of survival of consciousness after bodily death; some are more persuasive than others. We will review this evidence and assess the current state of the art. One of the most intriguing classes of survival research focuses on mediums and the information they report. We will examine recent advances in mediumship research methods, and attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a demonstration with certified research mediums. We will also suggest ways of advancing our understanding of the perennial question of survival, which is literally a matter of life and death.
Tim says: This session blew me off my feet and made re-think how consciousness exists beyond death. Dedicated scientists have apparently been researching this topic for years in a lot of different ways. Dean Radin, probably IONS biggest scientist, began with a presentation on the research surrounding consciousness generally and, simply put, whether or not consciousness is an interaction, a bi-product of brain chemistry, or if in some way, or to some degree, consciousness exists independent of the brain structure. The word on the street is that scientific research has already shifted in large part from a materialist paradigm, to one influenced by quantum research. Personally, like most people, I can’t thoroughly describe why, but I’ve read enough to at least follow the argument.
Research of sub-atomic particles now reveals a number of phenomenon that defy a reductionistic, materialist paradigm. What the hell does this mean? For one thing, the behavior of sub-atomic energy depends on our perception of it (as say, waves or particles). Experiments are now able to show that the same particle can appear in two different places at once; some experiments have done this across the distance of a city. Another theoretical claim is that energy behaves “non-locally” on a microscopic level, meaning that what we normally conceive of as particles don’t really exist as particles until we conceive and measure them as such . . . The major hop, skip, and a jump for scientists now is that one’s consciousness exists in a similar field-like way a priori to its concentration at a particular point in something like . . . a brain. This aligns with what spiritual people have been saying for millennia but have never had a way to prove (i.e. we can go out of our mind, connect with other minds, “read” other minds, dissolve into a higher mind, etc.).
Radin’s research is much more concentrated and scientific. Since the early 20th century, people have been doing experiments to see whether or not one’s intention and concentration can manipulate the physical reality. Dice experiments began to confirm superstitions that one could intend a certain outcome, if they really wanted, or wished, or intended for it to happen. There are more or less two kinds of experiments. The first is with people who claim they can do this and have been working at it for some time. Sometimes their scores are off-the charts in terms of what basic probability would deem. They also do popular surveys with people who’ve never really tried it until then. Even with these experiments, the results are statistically significant. For example, with one die you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting any of the numbers 1-6. If you get a bunch of people two intend “two”, then all the sudden the average jumps to 2 out of 6, you don’t have a miracle, but you do have something that significantly defies statistical probability and would require an alternative explanation than mere chance. Now instead of using dice, they use “random number generators” to see how someone’s intention can direct the appearance of otherwise random numbers.
The same goes for experiments with spirit mediums who claim to talk to the dead. The second presenter after Radin, Julie Beischel runs her own research lab on mediumship. In experiments like this, as with similar one’s involving telepathy, you isolate a medium from a client and test how accurately they can obtain information about the client’s dead loved one whom they want to contact. They create a system of ‘blindings’ where the medium, the client, the researcher, and the numbers recorder don’t know certain factors in an experiment, so that the medium can’t get information about the dead person without using some alternative psychic means. As with the dice, professionals’ abilities often scored off the charts, while untrained, ungifted people might’ve been statistically significant if not just guessing.
We also got to witness a medium reading, which I’d never seen before. Now there was less blinding, and more cooperation, but it was still pretty impressive what the medium knew (or perhaps deduced) without the client saying anything.
2. Thursday (6/18), Daylong
(PT1) Working with Fields of Consciousness: Practical Strategies for Group Leaders—Chris Bache
For reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendency to synchronize is one of the most pervasive drives in the universe. —Steven Strogatz, Sync
Fields of consciousness spring up whenever we engage in sustained collective activities. Knowing this, how can we accelerate and deepen this natural process? How do we harness the power of these fields to teach, problem-solve, create, or heal? In this workshop, we will explore the dynamics of collective intelligence in group settings. Learn practical, hands-on strategies forged through 30 years of classroom experience: opening and closing fields, strengthening fields, visualization and meditation exercises, and managing episodes of spontaneous resonance.
Tim says: This workshop began with the assumption that consciousness operates in fields to some degree. Chris Bache used this idea to talk about his experience in working with his own college classrooms as fields. As Chris used it, a “field of consciousness” is a degree of higher order that resides to some degree in time and space that guides and structures human organization and interaction. Most of the time, these fields are unconscious; we participate in these structures of higher order without being aware that there is a higher order. For example, we think of driving a car on a busy, jammed freeway. One might be only conscious of one’s own position and perhaps those of nearby cars. But, in fact, there is actually a web of conscious relations spanning for miles that coordinates the spacing between cars so that everyone eventually gets to move, within certain peramaters, in the same direction. Most of us nowadays, can even drive unconsciously. With experience we tap into a network of sensory experience and response that manages our accelerating, breaking, etc. without even thinking!
Chris talked about, the even deeper situation of a classroom. In his experience, his private meditation practice effects his students. They often undergo similar realizations as him when he experienced it that day. As Chris perfected a system of “opening”, “nourishing”, “visualizing”, and “closing” these fields, more and more students began to get more and more out of the class, often having “peak” or even “mystical” experiences of mysteries they had never considered. Chris does all kinds of intention practices. He begins meditating over the class roster when he immediately gets it, psychically intendeding for those ready for the class to stay, and those who would be disengaged to drop and come back another time. To “close” fields, he has very boundaries for what conversations he continues even years afterwards with students. Closure is very important!
3. Friday-Afternoon (6/19) Breakout Session
(F6) The ESP Enigma: A Comprehensive Model for Understanding Psychic Phenomena—Diane Powell
Enjoy this scientifically accurate yet provocative model that integrates neuroscience, parapsychology, and physics. Become acquainted with the past century's research on psychic phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, and psychokinesis. Discover why some people have more psychic experiences than others. Incorporate this new understanding into your clinical work with people who experience psychic phenomena.
Tim says: Diane Powell’s talk was also pretty riveting, although it was so broad that it’s difficult to summarize. The summary says most of it. I mostly got brief exposure to the latest literature and discoveries about the psychic phenomenon. Probably the two most interesting thoughts I got from her were (1) neuroscientifice research (brain scans and the like) consistently shows amongst psychics of various abilities a highly developed angular gyrus, an area right above the pineal gland. (2) Diane’s current theory is that psychic phenomenon are possible due to reality being fundamentally holographic.
What does that mean? Various neuroscience theories (brain-focused), Chinese medicine (body focused), even reflexology (foot-focused!) stipulate that we hold within our vary own cells, reflections, or holographic representations, of the entire external universe. Following this theory, psychics are just people who have trained themselves to access information which we all fundamentally possess in our unconscious mind (or unconscious body, or collective unconscious depending on your theory). So, telepathics don’t send some kind of a beem from their brain to yours, retrieve information and beem it back! The idea is that, they get in touch with the holographic reflection of the client already within themselves and deeply empathize with that. Even minor acts of compassion are possible because we can already intuit what’s going on in others, because it’s already inside us. Hua-yen Buddhism, fractal imagery, and advanced mathematics come to similar conclusions: the whole is completely immanent in its entirety even within the smallest part. Hua-yen uses the image of “indra’s net”: an infinite web of jewels spanning in all directions. Each jewel reflects all the other jewels within itself. Theoretically, each person reflects the entire universe in that way . . .
No wonder it’s so easy to fall in love!
4. Saturday-Afternoon (6/20) Breakout Session
(S6) From Timbuktu to Santa Cruz, from Segou to Selma: What Does It Mean to Be a Global Citizen?—Coumba Touré
Coumba Touré has participated in and been instrumental in facilitating hundreds of educational workshops, gatherings, and struggles for social change around the world. In this session, she welcomes you into an exciting conversation about bridging divides and navigating through the diverse worlds on our interconnected planet.
Tim says: Very interesting workshop, but I don’t have time to talk about it . . .
5. Sunday-Afternoon (6/21) Post-Conference Institute
(PS4) Technologies for Inner Well-Being—Sadhguru
No other generation has been as comfortable as we are today, but we are still not any more joyful than those who have lived before us. It doesn't matter how much we fix the external aspects of our lives; the basic quality of human life—of being joyful or miserable—remains the same. The way we are within is the way we experience our life. Just as we have a science and technology for understanding and creating external situations through our desires and choices, an inner science and technology is available to us to create our inner situation as well—a technology to take charge of one's ultimate destiny. Join Sadhguru for a guided meditation and an entree into this ancient technology for spiritual evolution and healing
Tim says: I’ve seen a lot of gurus of Sadh Guru’s style in the States and in India, so I approached this talk with a lot of expectations, baggage, and “heard-it-befores” already in my head. Sadhguru took a while to wear on me, but by the end of his 2 ½ hour talk I was on the edge of my seat laughing, practically crying. His insights from consumerism to death were often cliché, but true. The more and more I listened, however, he was throwing curve balls left and right, addressing the audience’s needs. Some good quotes:
“Peace is an invention of the disturbed mind.”
“The mind cannot be contained. It is boundless. No philosophy can contain it. It’s constantly striving for boundlessness . . . The longing for boundlessness isn’t a problem; you’re just using the wrong methods to achieve it.”
“Death is an invention of the ignorant.”
Friday, June 26, 2009
Crestone, CO
Now, I'm blogging in lag-time. This entry is about our adventures in Crestone which ended a couple weeks ago. Since then I've been to a conference in Tucson, AZ, Long Beach, and spent a weekend at Tassajara in California. Right now, I'm writing at Esalen retreat center in Big Sur, CA. I'll write about all these places when I get the time! For now, Crestone . . .
Crestone was a magnificent place a haven for serious spiritual practicioners and spiritually curious retirees. The current manifestation of Crestone begins with the unlikely story of a wealthy entrepeneur, some ambassador or UN official who moved into Crestone later in life with the intention of tapping its vast water reservoirs and perhaps mining. Long story short, his wife went with him. One day at their house somebody knocked on their door, she answered, and her visitor said, “It’s about time you arrived; I’ve been waiting for you.” He explained that he was a hermit living in the mountains. He had visions that she would come, buy up the land, and use it to support the construction of spiritual centers from the world’s religious traditions. It would become a place of inter-cultural and inter-religious solidarity, a haven for spiritual practioners in the U.S. Over the next twenty or thirty years the Strongs discounted or completely funded the building of spiritual centers. We visitied Tibetan and Bhutanese Buddhist centers, two Zen centers, a secular Japanese spiritual-environmental group (Shumei), an ashram, a Sri Aurobindo center, and a hermitage for Catholic Carmelite monks. Other smaller groups get together to do Sufi zikrs, taichi, and yoga. The alternative healing scene is also very big in Crestone; Crestone hosts some of the countries foremost alternative healers.
Crestone was also scattered with various Tibetan Buddhist stupas. In the town there was a couple cafes and hotels, a bar, and a natural foods grocery. There couldn’t have been more than a few thousand people living there. The elevation was 8,000 ft.
Olivia has a complete schedule of what we did while we there, but we visited almost all of the known centers and stupas that were open to the public. A few Tibetan centers were closed for retreats. The local monthly paper published a lot of the events open to the publicc and we also called ahead. We joined a woman with a couple other people at her house for a Sufi Zikr. We visited the stupas, circumambulated, chanted, and made offerings like good devotees. We joined the people at the Lakshmi ashram for their morning puja (just two other people) and the revealing of their gorgeous but syncretic Laskhmi (+other deities) statue. At their facilities they had an Earthship and a lot more sustainable projects going on.
(Now I'm writing on 6/24/09 at Tassajara Zen Center.)
The Sri Aurobindo center visit was disappointing; it was simply an open invite to sit in their dome and meditate. We visited a vacant Bhutanese place, but were just in time to catch a retreatant who was coming down to the temple for his occasional shower; he let us in and showed us around. The last night we also visited a smaller Tibetan place called Vajra Vidya, where we participated in a Medicine Buddha practice in a small shrine room.
The other Tibetan Buddhist place we visited was the Dharma Ocean center. The teacher there is a former Naropa professor: Dr. Reginald Ray, whose stuff I’ve read, namely excerpts from a book called Indestructible Truth. Dr. Ray was a student of Trungpa, and he has a rather large sangha of Vajrayana practioners, Katherine, our Boulder host, being one of them. His primary emphasis is unleashing the wisdom of the body. The simplest meditation they do is one that I have taken up because it has really helped me get in touch with my back pain, and general bodily energy. You lay on your back with your feet face down on the ground and knees up like you are going to give birth. After calming your mind, you focus your energy at different points of the body, from the feet to the head, breathing into each part and relaxing any tension. It’s a particularly good exercise for contacting, inhabiting, and moving stuck energy. It’s a very good substitute for zazen (Zen sitting meditation) when the pain is too excruciating. I am going to ask my teachers at Great Vow if I can do it on days were my back pain is bad.
Another morning we sat at the Dragon Mountain Zen Temple, then stayed for a dharma talk. The structure of the place was a really interesting use of straw bale adobe. The zendo was circular, and two or three rows were a few feet below each other. The head teacher used to sit with the San Francisco Zen people for a long time. I was told that one point, he also followed Richard Baker Roshi (mentioned later) out to Crestone Zen Center to become his student, but I guess that didn’t work out. He apparently got formal transmission from a Japanese teacher and built his own temple/zendo/complex in the valley of the Crestone mountains. Apparently his wife, and student, is rather wealthy and was a big funder behind the project. After sitting zazen with him and some others in the circular zendo, we joined them for a dharma (Buddhist teaching) talk, tea, and conversation on the second floor of their very new, but well-decorated (zen meets southwest adobe) home.
His talk was impromptu, abstract, and surprisingly intellectual. He was able to express his own non-dual experience with a lot of wit and insight. He made an explicit effort to tie Zen with a range of other traditions and to make sense of it in a Western context, even by frequently alluding to Western literature. As he expressed it, his personal position was not to form strict hierarchical relations, particularly guru/disciple, and claimed that that model wasn’t right for our cultural context. He had a good sense of humor, was extremely intelligent, and clever with words. His impromptu talk was roughly centered on Jean Gebser’s theory on worldviews. He made the point that we operate in multiple worldviews, multiple logics, and that some tasks or enterprises are specific to certain worldviews. He gave the example of people going to astrologers or I Ching anagram readers (mythological) to make specific decisions in their life (rational). Using the wrong tool for a particular outcome simply doesn’t work. It was refreshing to see a Zen teacher take such a post-modern, integral, and, frankly, intellectual, approach to his path. If I return to Crestone I would certainly like to visit the temple again.
I also visited the Crestone Zen Center, the senior of the two Zen centers. Crestone Zen is a more formal training monastery, started by Richard Baker Roshi. I did not enjoy my visit there. Perhaps primed by ideas of it as highly formal and unwelcoming, as well as recent pain in my back. I arrived at 5:45 am for a 6:30 am sit, but was given a seat as soon as I got to the zendo, so I sat for almost two hours straight. Those who spoke to me were very terse, straightforward, and otherwise unwelcoming. The zendo, however, was exquisite. The most beautiful and authentically Japanese zendo I’ve ever come across. It has everything from the sliding doors, dim lights, and elevated platforms to the drawers beneath the platforms for monks to cram all their possessions. Crestone Zen is also known for their sizable dome which they inherited with the property. It’s apparently pretty magical and acoustically prime for musical events.
On another note, while at Dharma Ocean, Olivia accidentally stepped on a wasp, which stung her and kept her from really walking for the next 24 hours. The people at Dharma Ocean were really helpful, and it was someone there, Wayne, who let us stay at his house (or rather the house he house-sits) for a night. The first night we slept at a bed and breakfast with a character named JoAnn, maybe I’ll talk about her later. The second night we camped at the “closed for renovation” campground in North Crestone. The third, the campground spots were taken so we drove about 20-30 miles outside of Crestone to find a campground. The last night (after Wayne) we stayed at a clothing optional hot springs which we accidentally came across in our search for camping.
Wayne has been here and there since the 1960s. He has worked on farms, Zen centers, and who knows what else for decades. His home is his van, but when he found us he had been house-sitting in a rich family’s summer house for 6 months and would continue to for another year. He had practiced at Crestone Zen full-time for awhile. He’s also been into other stuff, particularly skiing and tai chi. He’d been practicing tai chi for 30 years and had studied under some people in California. He’s also read a lot. We talked about Ken Wilber (an author) quite a bit. His personality was extremely chill and refreshing. He talked about spiritual matters with such casualness and open-mindedness,
“Yep, zazen, yeah. It’s all about the posture. Sit straight, like a hollow tube, I say. Sit like that for days on end and you’re good to go. It’ll hurt real bad, but you’ll see something while you’re at it. A sesshin will squeeze you until you pop . . . My first sesshin, a couple friends and I drive up to the Zen center for the weekend. We thought we’d be sitting around relaxing. We were in for a real surprise. Changed my life; I wasn’t the same after that.”
He saw the positive side to everything, but not in a cheap way.
He gave me my first longer tai chi lesson. I learned a ton just in 30 or 40 minutes. It’s a good practice for sinking my butt down and lengthening my spine, getting in touch with my chi and the energy out of my tanden (energy center in the lower belly), rooting my feet into the ground and taking the work out of my upper body. Frankly, a month of straight tai chi would do me a lot of good. This practice might just be what I’m looking for in order to work with and balance out my bodily energy.
That was Crestone. It’d be a great place for retreat; I don’t know about living there though or how one would make money there. It could certainly become a major spiritual hub in the U.S and a pilgrimage site. It’s also rife with New Age vibes and conversation. There’s a real consensus amongst almost everyone we met there that NOW is the time of crucial transformation across the globe. The abbott from Dragon Mountain, idealistically put Crestone in its place. He talked about how religious exploration is perhaps the deepest American tradition. A, if not THE, major motivation for the early pilgrims was religious freedom, a place to practice various forms of Christianity outside of the church (although this complicated by the indigenous American spiritual traditions that have been gradually wiped out in the process). It has also been a place of (relative) religious tolerance and pluralism, separation of church and state.
“We’re shipwrecked on the shore of nirvana,” Steve said. New spiritual realization and potential is background for our fragmented, experimental, spiritual expeditions. Steve might be right in situating Crestone as a place for fruitful experimentation in “a world gone mad.”
Next, the IONS conference in Tucson . . .
Thanks for reading.
Crestone was a magnificent place a haven for serious spiritual practicioners and spiritually curious retirees. The current manifestation of Crestone begins with the unlikely story of a wealthy entrepeneur, some ambassador or UN official who moved into Crestone later in life with the intention of tapping its vast water reservoirs and perhaps mining. Long story short, his wife went with him. One day at their house somebody knocked on their door, she answered, and her visitor said, “It’s about time you arrived; I’ve been waiting for you.” He explained that he was a hermit living in the mountains. He had visions that she would come, buy up the land, and use it to support the construction of spiritual centers from the world’s religious traditions. It would become a place of inter-cultural and inter-religious solidarity, a haven for spiritual practioners in the U.S. Over the next twenty or thirty years the Strongs discounted or completely funded the building of spiritual centers. We visitied Tibetan and Bhutanese Buddhist centers, two Zen centers, a secular Japanese spiritual-environmental group (Shumei), an ashram, a Sri Aurobindo center, and a hermitage for Catholic Carmelite monks. Other smaller groups get together to do Sufi zikrs, taichi, and yoga. The alternative healing scene is also very big in Crestone; Crestone hosts some of the countries foremost alternative healers.
Crestone was also scattered with various Tibetan Buddhist stupas. In the town there was a couple cafes and hotels, a bar, and a natural foods grocery. There couldn’t have been more than a few thousand people living there. The elevation was 8,000 ft.
Olivia has a complete schedule of what we did while we there, but we visited almost all of the known centers and stupas that were open to the public. A few Tibetan centers were closed for retreats. The local monthly paper published a lot of the events open to the publicc and we also called ahead. We joined a woman with a couple other people at her house for a Sufi Zikr. We visited the stupas, circumambulated, chanted, and made offerings like good devotees. We joined the people at the Lakshmi ashram for their morning puja (just two other people) and the revealing of their gorgeous but syncretic Laskhmi (+other deities) statue. At their facilities they had an Earthship and a lot more sustainable projects going on.
(Now I'm writing on 6/24/09 at Tassajara Zen Center.)
The Sri Aurobindo center visit was disappointing; it was simply an open invite to sit in their dome and meditate. We visited a vacant Bhutanese place, but were just in time to catch a retreatant who was coming down to the temple for his occasional shower; he let us in and showed us around. The last night we also visited a smaller Tibetan place called Vajra Vidya, where we participated in a Medicine Buddha practice in a small shrine room.
The other Tibetan Buddhist place we visited was the Dharma Ocean center. The teacher there is a former Naropa professor: Dr. Reginald Ray, whose stuff I’ve read, namely excerpts from a book called Indestructible Truth. Dr. Ray was a student of Trungpa, and he has a rather large sangha of Vajrayana practioners, Katherine, our Boulder host, being one of them. His primary emphasis is unleashing the wisdom of the body. The simplest meditation they do is one that I have taken up because it has really helped me get in touch with my back pain, and general bodily energy. You lay on your back with your feet face down on the ground and knees up like you are going to give birth. After calming your mind, you focus your energy at different points of the body, from the feet to the head, breathing into each part and relaxing any tension. It’s a particularly good exercise for contacting, inhabiting, and moving stuck energy. It’s a very good substitute for zazen (Zen sitting meditation) when the pain is too excruciating. I am going to ask my teachers at Great Vow if I can do it on days were my back pain is bad.
Another morning we sat at the Dragon Mountain Zen Temple, then stayed for a dharma talk. The structure of the place was a really interesting use of straw bale adobe. The zendo was circular, and two or three rows were a few feet below each other. The head teacher used to sit with the San Francisco Zen people for a long time. I was told that one point, he also followed Richard Baker Roshi (mentioned later) out to Crestone Zen Center to become his student, but I guess that didn’t work out. He apparently got formal transmission from a Japanese teacher and built his own temple/zendo/complex in the valley of the Crestone mountains. Apparently his wife, and student, is rather wealthy and was a big funder behind the project. After sitting zazen with him and some others in the circular zendo, we joined them for a dharma (Buddhist teaching) talk, tea, and conversation on the second floor of their very new, but well-decorated (zen meets southwest adobe) home.
His talk was impromptu, abstract, and surprisingly intellectual. He was able to express his own non-dual experience with a lot of wit and insight. He made an explicit effort to tie Zen with a range of other traditions and to make sense of it in a Western context, even by frequently alluding to Western literature. As he expressed it, his personal position was not to form strict hierarchical relations, particularly guru/disciple, and claimed that that model wasn’t right for our cultural context. He had a good sense of humor, was extremely intelligent, and clever with words. His impromptu talk was roughly centered on Jean Gebser’s theory on worldviews. He made the point that we operate in multiple worldviews, multiple logics, and that some tasks or enterprises are specific to certain worldviews. He gave the example of people going to astrologers or I Ching anagram readers (mythological) to make specific decisions in their life (rational). Using the wrong tool for a particular outcome simply doesn’t work. It was refreshing to see a Zen teacher take such a post-modern, integral, and, frankly, intellectual, approach to his path. If I return to Crestone I would certainly like to visit the temple again.
I also visited the Crestone Zen Center, the senior of the two Zen centers. Crestone Zen is a more formal training monastery, started by Richard Baker Roshi. I did not enjoy my visit there. Perhaps primed by ideas of it as highly formal and unwelcoming, as well as recent pain in my back. I arrived at 5:45 am for a 6:30 am sit, but was given a seat as soon as I got to the zendo, so I sat for almost two hours straight. Those who spoke to me were very terse, straightforward, and otherwise unwelcoming. The zendo, however, was exquisite. The most beautiful and authentically Japanese zendo I’ve ever come across. It has everything from the sliding doors, dim lights, and elevated platforms to the drawers beneath the platforms for monks to cram all their possessions. Crestone Zen is also known for their sizable dome which they inherited with the property. It’s apparently pretty magical and acoustically prime for musical events.
On another note, while at Dharma Ocean, Olivia accidentally stepped on a wasp, which stung her and kept her from really walking for the next 24 hours. The people at Dharma Ocean were really helpful, and it was someone there, Wayne, who let us stay at his house (or rather the house he house-sits) for a night. The first night we slept at a bed and breakfast with a character named JoAnn, maybe I’ll talk about her later. The second night we camped at the “closed for renovation” campground in North Crestone. The third, the campground spots were taken so we drove about 20-30 miles outside of Crestone to find a campground. The last night (after Wayne) we stayed at a clothing optional hot springs which we accidentally came across in our search for camping.
Wayne has been here and there since the 1960s. He has worked on farms, Zen centers, and who knows what else for decades. His home is his van, but when he found us he had been house-sitting in a rich family’s summer house for 6 months and would continue to for another year. He had practiced at Crestone Zen full-time for awhile. He’s also been into other stuff, particularly skiing and tai chi. He’d been practicing tai chi for 30 years and had studied under some people in California. He’s also read a lot. We talked about Ken Wilber (an author) quite a bit. His personality was extremely chill and refreshing. He talked about spiritual matters with such casualness and open-mindedness,
“Yep, zazen, yeah. It’s all about the posture. Sit straight, like a hollow tube, I say. Sit like that for days on end and you’re good to go. It’ll hurt real bad, but you’ll see something while you’re at it. A sesshin will squeeze you until you pop . . . My first sesshin, a couple friends and I drive up to the Zen center for the weekend. We thought we’d be sitting around relaxing. We were in for a real surprise. Changed my life; I wasn’t the same after that.”
He saw the positive side to everything, but not in a cheap way.
He gave me my first longer tai chi lesson. I learned a ton just in 30 or 40 minutes. It’s a good practice for sinking my butt down and lengthening my spine, getting in touch with my chi and the energy out of my tanden (energy center in the lower belly), rooting my feet into the ground and taking the work out of my upper body. Frankly, a month of straight tai chi would do me a lot of good. This practice might just be what I’m looking for in order to work with and balance out my bodily energy.
That was Crestone. It’d be a great place for retreat; I don’t know about living there though or how one would make money there. It could certainly become a major spiritual hub in the U.S and a pilgrimage site. It’s also rife with New Age vibes and conversation. There’s a real consensus amongst almost everyone we met there that NOW is the time of crucial transformation across the globe. The abbott from Dragon Mountain, idealistically put Crestone in its place. He talked about how religious exploration is perhaps the deepest American tradition. A, if not THE, major motivation for the early pilgrims was religious freedom, a place to practice various forms of Christianity outside of the church (although this complicated by the indigenous American spiritual traditions that have been gradually wiped out in the process). It has also been a place of (relative) religious tolerance and pluralism, separation of church and state.
“We’re shipwrecked on the shore of nirvana,” Steve said. New spiritual realization and potential is background for our fragmented, experimental, spiritual expeditions. Steve might be right in situating Crestone as a place for fruitful experimentation in “a world gone mad.”
Next, the IONS conference in Tucson . . .
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Boulder, CO
Hi everybody,
Today, Olivia and I arrived in Crestone, the quietest place on earth. We’re staying at a bed and breakfast in a sustainably designed straw bale house and are being hosted by a wonderful woman named Joann. We haven’t seen much of the town besides the eerie White Eagle retreat center. We might camp if it stops raining, or camp even if it doesn't.
I was just sitting out on the porch, in the dark night, in the silence, looking out over the vast valley bordered by the snow-topped mountains. Crestone is a void. My mind-chatter is far too obsolete in it.
So, I've been keeping a much more extensive, private journal for this trip. Below are just some excerpts. Some are obviously geared toward blog readers while stories like the one about Gustav are taken directly from my journal without much edits. Enjoy!
Gustav Greets Us for Breakfast in Boulder
Breakfast. Granola with bananas and strawberries, no milk. A grey morning sky, slightly cold. Olivia and I, still in our socks. We were mindfully munching with our legs folded in our chairs, when above me I heard pattering. I looked up to the top of one of three walls that enclosed this tiny patio. Two black beady eyes reciprocated - a jittery squirrel. Moving back and forth along the fence, but unusually interested in me for a squirrel. He had some sentience and concentration to him. There was a degree of recognition in his gaze. These are humans. They are eating.
I tilted my head back and baby talked to him, “Hey squirrely-burly. Hello! Hello there!” I was squishing my lips together, blowing kisses, Olivia laughing. A great leaping laugh, a gasp, a silence (she’s laughing so hard she isn’t breathing in), a gasp, another burst aloud.
I keep baby-talking, “Hello there! Hi! Have you come for breakfast? Is it breakfast time?” The squirrel’s eye contact hardly broke. “Olivia get the camera and some nuts.” She came back. I grabbed an almond. And gently, ever so slowly, reached it out to the squirrel. He would occasionally run away a couple feet, then turn back around still interested.
“Yes, yes. We couldn’t hurt you. We’re just vegans. It’s time for your breakfast. Time for nuts. Come, come Gustav. It’s time for your morning almond.” The name just came out and stuck.
Gustav slowly approached me, then grabbed the almond and quickly shot into his mouth. He continued to glare at me, then dropped the nut back into his hand. Gustav nibbled like a hummingbird beats his wings. His bites were minisicule, but an almond could only occupy him for a good fifteen seconds. I fed him pumpkin seeds, then more almonds, then more pumpkin seeds. “Yes, Gustav. We are friends. You are hungry.” Occasionally he would take the seed and run out of sight, only to return a minute later.
Olivia was over-joyed, flashing pics with her camera phone. She only fed Gustav once or twice and left the rest to me. We eventually had to go inside because Gustav had no self-discipline, courtesy, or lack of appetite. Never estimate an animal’s greed in the face of abundance. Scarcity the concept is not scarcity the reality.
Noah
It turns out that my host's housemate, Noah, is also from Kansas City. He just graduated from Naropa as an undergrad but stayed in a lot of Zen monasteries before then. It also turns out that he went to my high school, Rockhurst. It also turns out he had a lot of the same teachers, Tony Severino, Don Ramsey, Andrew Hagedorn. Weird.
Boulder and Naropa
Boulder finished off quite nice. I could see myself living there although the place is far too white and upper-class. Somebody said that it’s 98% white! Yeesh. It’s also got a lot of suburban, mall development.
Yet, it’s very liberal and fun. Not to mention the air is so fresh and crisp. The most outstanding feature is of course the mountains, who tower like white-hair grandfathers over the whole city. There’s a great deal of comfort in being surrounded by such obviously old geography. One feels small. You forget that when you’re surrounded by annual corn/soy fields that humans seem to have ‘under control’. I don't miss Indiana . . .
Anyway, I really clicked with the people at Naropa - a lot of liberal, creative, independent crunchies interested in Buddhism. “Crunchy” is a term Olivia taught me. It’s apparently derived from the term “granola crunching”, which refers to the unusual amount of granola eaten by a certain American, liberal demographic, which I seem to be apart of.
As an institution, Naropa fascinates me. Started in 1974 by the eccentric, but extremely popular Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa, it seems to have morphed and evolved every few years to meet the relentless spiritual/political progressivism and idealism of its community. Although Naropa adopts a lot of the traditional liberal arts university model, it’s also grounded in the rather ungrounded ideals of the American counter-culture and Buddhist-inspired psychology – both areas which have been constantly evolving in expression, particularly throughout the 20th century. More details at naropa.edu.
I had the pleasure of taking official tours, meeting with an admissions counselor, and talking with people from the graduate programs in Religious Studies, Transpersonal Psychology, and Contemplative Psychotherapy. All programs are deeply inspired by Chogyam Trungpa’s teachings and require various degrees of meditation and retreats as requirements. The people from each department were very careful to say that one doesn’t have to be a Buddhist to join these programs, nor follow the Shambala teachings (Trungpa’s lineage). However, specific concentrations like the Religious Studies concentration in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and the Contemplative Psychotherapy draw considerably from Trungpa. I or anybody else going into these programs would want to read Trungpa’s work and be interested in investigating his teachings more before entering.
The overarching goal for Naropa, however, is “contemplative education”. The following page gives a much better explanation that I could type up: http://www.naropa.edu/conted/conted_primer.cfm . All in all, the goal is to integrate those aspects of awareness and knowledge gleaned from meditation and Eastern religious traditions generally, like Buddhism, with the traditional benefits of a Western liberal arts education. Depending on their program, undergrads and graduate students are asked to maintain a regular meditation practice and to attend retreats. However, Noah had the excellent point that a lot of the ideals are retained from a traditional liberal arts education, where one’s studies about the outside world are complimented with reflection and introspection about their value and relevance for one’s own life. Naropa tries to revive and revise that spirit.
Although I am a Religious Studies major now, I was most interested in their graduate psychology programs, by far the most popular at Naropa (I think someone said there are more graduate psychology students than total undergraduate students. Naropa is 400 something undergrad, 600 something graduate). A lot of the programs are modeled off a “help the helper” scheme, where the individual student undergoes all kinds of exercises, workshops, retreats, reflections, meditations, conversations, etc. to work out their own psychology so that they are prepared to handle those of their clients in a clinical setting. Those I asked seem to agree that the psych programs were “pressure cookers” intended to test and provoke, break down and build back up a student so that they are ready to be with others throughout all kinds of confusions, traumas, and transitions.
The transpersonal psychology programs (I think they were clinical, wilderness therapy, and art therapy) are drawing from a new movement in psychology built on the religious mysticism, contemplative experience, and deep psychology that aims to bring their client into union and harmony with the non-dual ground of reality. The methods and fields taught within the program vary wildly, and I’m not familiar with a lot of them. Nonetheless, the goal appeals to me a lot. Can the clinical psychotherapy setting be a space for one to come into deep spiritual experience? To unite with all reality? It's a bit different than Freud . . .
I’ll update more later as the Crestone adventure evolves. Thanks for reading.
Today, Olivia and I arrived in Crestone, the quietest place on earth. We’re staying at a bed and breakfast in a sustainably designed straw bale house and are being hosted by a wonderful woman named Joann. We haven’t seen much of the town besides the eerie White Eagle retreat center. We might camp if it stops raining, or camp even if it doesn't.
I was just sitting out on the porch, in the dark night, in the silence, looking out over the vast valley bordered by the snow-topped mountains. Crestone is a void. My mind-chatter is far too obsolete in it.
So, I've been keeping a much more extensive, private journal for this trip. Below are just some excerpts. Some are obviously geared toward blog readers while stories like the one about Gustav are taken directly from my journal without much edits. Enjoy!
Gustav Greets Us for Breakfast in Boulder
Breakfast. Granola with bananas and strawberries, no milk. A grey morning sky, slightly cold. Olivia and I, still in our socks. We were mindfully munching with our legs folded in our chairs, when above me I heard pattering. I looked up to the top of one of three walls that enclosed this tiny patio. Two black beady eyes reciprocated - a jittery squirrel. Moving back and forth along the fence, but unusually interested in me for a squirrel. He had some sentience and concentration to him. There was a degree of recognition in his gaze. These are humans. They are eating.
I tilted my head back and baby talked to him, “Hey squirrely-burly. Hello! Hello there!” I was squishing my lips together, blowing kisses, Olivia laughing. A great leaping laugh, a gasp, a silence (she’s laughing so hard she isn’t breathing in), a gasp, another burst aloud.
I keep baby-talking, “Hello there! Hi! Have you come for breakfast? Is it breakfast time?” The squirrel’s eye contact hardly broke. “Olivia get the camera and some nuts.” She came back. I grabbed an almond. And gently, ever so slowly, reached it out to the squirrel. He would occasionally run away a couple feet, then turn back around still interested.
“Yes, yes. We couldn’t hurt you. We’re just vegans. It’s time for your breakfast. Time for nuts. Come, come Gustav. It’s time for your morning almond.” The name just came out and stuck.
Gustav slowly approached me, then grabbed the almond and quickly shot into his mouth. He continued to glare at me, then dropped the nut back into his hand. Gustav nibbled like a hummingbird beats his wings. His bites were minisicule, but an almond could only occupy him for a good fifteen seconds. I fed him pumpkin seeds, then more almonds, then more pumpkin seeds. “Yes, Gustav. We are friends. You are hungry.” Occasionally he would take the seed and run out of sight, only to return a minute later.
Olivia was over-joyed, flashing pics with her camera phone. She only fed Gustav once or twice and left the rest to me. We eventually had to go inside because Gustav had no self-discipline, courtesy, or lack of appetite. Never estimate an animal’s greed in the face of abundance. Scarcity the concept is not scarcity the reality.
Noah
It turns out that my host's housemate, Noah, is also from Kansas City. He just graduated from Naropa as an undergrad but stayed in a lot of Zen monasteries before then. It also turns out that he went to my high school, Rockhurst. It also turns out he had a lot of the same teachers, Tony Severino, Don Ramsey, Andrew Hagedorn. Weird.
Boulder and Naropa
Boulder finished off quite nice. I could see myself living there although the place is far too white and upper-class. Somebody said that it’s 98% white! Yeesh. It’s also got a lot of suburban, mall development.
Yet, it’s very liberal and fun. Not to mention the air is so fresh and crisp. The most outstanding feature is of course the mountains, who tower like white-hair grandfathers over the whole city. There’s a great deal of comfort in being surrounded by such obviously old geography. One feels small. You forget that when you’re surrounded by annual corn/soy fields that humans seem to have ‘under control’. I don't miss Indiana . . .
Anyway, I really clicked with the people at Naropa - a lot of liberal, creative, independent crunchies interested in Buddhism. “Crunchy” is a term Olivia taught me. It’s apparently derived from the term “granola crunching”, which refers to the unusual amount of granola eaten by a certain American, liberal demographic, which I seem to be apart of.
As an institution, Naropa fascinates me. Started in 1974 by the eccentric, but extremely popular Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa, it seems to have morphed and evolved every few years to meet the relentless spiritual/political progressivism and idealism of its community. Although Naropa adopts a lot of the traditional liberal arts university model, it’s also grounded in the rather ungrounded ideals of the American counter-culture and Buddhist-inspired psychology – both areas which have been constantly evolving in expression, particularly throughout the 20th century. More details at naropa.edu.
I had the pleasure of taking official tours, meeting with an admissions counselor, and talking with people from the graduate programs in Religious Studies, Transpersonal Psychology, and Contemplative Psychotherapy. All programs are deeply inspired by Chogyam Trungpa’s teachings and require various degrees of meditation and retreats as requirements. The people from each department were very careful to say that one doesn’t have to be a Buddhist to join these programs, nor follow the Shambala teachings (Trungpa’s lineage). However, specific concentrations like the Religious Studies concentration in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and the Contemplative Psychotherapy draw considerably from Trungpa. I or anybody else going into these programs would want to read Trungpa’s work and be interested in investigating his teachings more before entering.
The overarching goal for Naropa, however, is “contemplative education”. The following page gives a much better explanation that I could type up: http://www.naropa.edu/conted/conted_primer.cfm . All in all, the goal is to integrate those aspects of awareness and knowledge gleaned from meditation and Eastern religious traditions generally, like Buddhism, with the traditional benefits of a Western liberal arts education. Depending on their program, undergrads and graduate students are asked to maintain a regular meditation practice and to attend retreats. However, Noah had the excellent point that a lot of the ideals are retained from a traditional liberal arts education, where one’s studies about the outside world are complimented with reflection and introspection about their value and relevance for one’s own life. Naropa tries to revive and revise that spirit.
Although I am a Religious Studies major now, I was most interested in their graduate psychology programs, by far the most popular at Naropa (I think someone said there are more graduate psychology students than total undergraduate students. Naropa is 400 something undergrad, 600 something graduate). A lot of the programs are modeled off a “help the helper” scheme, where the individual student undergoes all kinds of exercises, workshops, retreats, reflections, meditations, conversations, etc. to work out their own psychology so that they are prepared to handle those of their clients in a clinical setting. Those I asked seem to agree that the psych programs were “pressure cookers” intended to test and provoke, break down and build back up a student so that they are ready to be with others throughout all kinds of confusions, traumas, and transitions.
The transpersonal psychology programs (I think they were clinical, wilderness therapy, and art therapy) are drawing from a new movement in psychology built on the religious mysticism, contemplative experience, and deep psychology that aims to bring their client into union and harmony with the non-dual ground of reality. The methods and fields taught within the program vary wildly, and I’m not familiar with a lot of them. Nonetheless, the goal appeals to me a lot. Can the clinical psychotherapy setting be a space for one to come into deep spiritual experience? To unite with all reality? It's a bit different than Freud . . .
I’ll update more later as the Crestone adventure evolves. Thanks for reading.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Arrived in Boulder
Olivia and I arrived in Boulder, CO last night and stayed at my friend Katherine's arpatment.
The mountain air is clean.
We woke up this morning and ate granola and bananas silently on her back porch. An incredibly friendly squirrel approached us. I named him 'Gustav' and fed him almonds and pumpkin seeds. I got to shake his paws. He nibbled on my fingers.
Tomorrow we will be touring Naropa's campus and visiting with professors.
I'll be leaving much more extensive posts later.
- Tim
The mountain air is clean.
We woke up this morning and ate granola and bananas silently on her back porch. An incredibly friendly squirrel approached us. I named him 'Gustav' and fed him almonds and pumpkin seeds. I got to shake his paws. He nibbled on my fingers.
Tomorrow we will be touring Naropa's campus and visiting with professors.
I'll be leaving much more extensive posts later.
- Tim
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