my ghost like to travel: backdated entry
It was supposed to be a seven and a half hour drive from San Francisco to Escondido, just north of San Diego, but since I left at 9 in the morning, I hit Los Angeles at 3 in the afternoon. Read: traffic jam galore. LA is ass. I shoulda known better. So instead of getting to the monastery at 4:30, I got there at 6. They said to arrive before 5:00, but if that was impossible, then certainly not past 8:00, but since I'm terminally responsible and punctual, I started getting antsy when I realized I wouldn't get there by five. And to make matters worse, Murphy's Law was in full effect! Every lane I was in or switched to was the slowest moving lane. Really, I exaggerate not. At first, I was, "I can't believe this", and then I was thinking, "ha ha, Buddha's having a little fun with me", and finally I just smiled and relaxed and I'd get there when I got there, and figured the monastics wouldn't think anything of it. And that turned out to be the case, so that was a lesson in letting stress levels go up, because even though I told myself to relax, everytime the traffic let up, I drove like a demon to make up time.

From the start it was a pretty loose affair. No guide or instruction on where to be or what to do, just some helpful folk who directed me to Solidity Hamlet (the monks' hamlet) and then someone suggesting I go to the dining hall for dinner, which I found after a bit of wandering. Do as the natives do. The monks each have scheduled nights where they don't eat dinner, but many choose not to eat on Friday nights, too, opting for . . . whatever a monk would opt to do instead of eating. Food is set out on a long table, and you just go down the table taking what you want to eat. I think I had it in my subconscious from my reading a long time ago to take a bowl and I would only eat what I could fit into the one bowl. I didn't think of this, but that's what I did and what I ended up doing for my entire stay there.

It was a brilliant, warm, Summer-like night and I ate outside on a chair facing twilight, over-looking the new Meditation Hall under construction, with some other people - some monks, some civilians. Very peaceful and serene, no forced conversation, just eat and watch the evening set on. The vegetarian food was stunningly good! Eventually one of the monks asked if I was so-and-so, and I said, yes, please call me so-and-so. I think it was then when a monk, Brother Du*g, and I talked, and he asked "Feels like home?", "I bet you smiled when you saw the sign, 'I have arrived'". I had. I wasn't sure if word had gone around that my initial email to the monastery inquired about joining the monastery. Looking back, it's possible, even though the monastics don't engage in idle gossip. Maybe more than one monk saw the email.

After dinner, I was shown a bed in a room in a guest dorm (six beds in the small room, four occupied for the weekend, only three for the rest of the week), and then an orientation was given about the monastery and the practice here.

today:
The wake up bell was at 5:00. It was surprisingly easy to get up. Sitting in the Meditation Hall began at 5:30 with a half hour of guided sitting for newbies, then a short walking meditation around the Hall, and then another 30 minutes of self-guided sitting. It had been years since I'd sat on a cushion (I have my own little unorthodox set up at home). I can't even get into a half-lotus position. A brother helped me into a position with my legs folded in front of me (which is the same position I used when I did use a cushion), and then pushed a knuckle into my lower back to straighten up my spine. The feel of his knuckle on my lower back lasted longer than the push and it took a few seconds for me to realize he had already gone back to his cushion.

Breakfast was at 7:30, eaten in mindful silence, after which we washed our own dishes. At 9:00, we had working meditation, or working in mindfulness. The other guests and I worked on a physical project moving three tent-fulls of crap to make room for another guest dormitory that will be built for the monastery's Winter Retreat. It was grungy work (and the Black Widow Brother N*o found as soon as I got there wasn't encouraging), but that changed through the week as I came to enjoy it.

At 11:30 was walking meditation, which doesn't sound too exciting, but . . . no but, it isn't exciting at all. Actually, yes but - but it contributed to the cumulative effect of the entire practice. You walk slowly and mindfully for this chunk of time, and if you did this in the city, it would feel like a complete waste of time. There is certainly always something better, with a purpose, you can be doing in material life. The pace of modern, material life is much faster, and the walking meditation was kind of like a punctuation of the slowness and simplicity of monastic life. Still, I think it is possible to learn something of value in walking meditation that is able to be applied in material life.

Lunch was at 12:30, also in mindful silence, then the rest of the afternoon was spent in rest or "personal practice" - the monks are entrusted to be responsible for their own cultivation. I had brought along my shakuhachi which I hadn't played in a long time and decided to get re-acquainted with it.

There were musical instruments around. This isn't an ascetic monastery. There was a guitar, another monk had some hand drums and others had Asian style wooden flutes (horizontal design, different from my vertical, bamboo shakuhachi). Through the week, we would have . . . I wouldn't call them jam sessions; more like spontaneous creative noise making. None of us were particularly expert at our instruments, but we made a joyous, uninhibited noise, often trading instruments.

At 5:00, there was a chanting ceremony in the courtyard garden for pretans, or "hungry ghosts", which in Buddhist belief are beings in one of the realms of hell who suffer horribly from insatiable hunger and thirst. My personal belief is that pretans are human in form, and are people like junkies, corporate CEOs, and the like.

Dinner at 6:30 followed by 45 minutes of sitting in the Meditation Hall at 8:00.

Most nights end with the temple bell ringing for 20-30 minutes starting at 9:30 to call for "Noble Silence" which lasts until after breakfast the next morning. Minimal talking during Noble Silence, heightened mindfulness in all things. Lights out is about 10:00-ish.