I could have left yesterday morning, no problem. I'm not getting anything more out of these extra days except more of this simple life. Which is fine, I'm not staying to "get anything more" out of being here. It's just a coda. I did my week stay, and these extra days are just to end the piece. It has continued to be cold, especially in the mornings when it dips into the 50s, but today the sun came out a bit. Today was my last day of working on the tents and we managed, during my stay, to move all three tents and all the major moving.

As if to ease me back into returning to material life, this afternoon two monks approached me about driving them into town to buy new sneakers for running! Apparently there was a "second pair half price" sale at the Sports Authority. Yes, it still makes me laugh thinking about it. Just this morning I saw a group of monks head out for a run, so maybe these two were inspired to join them. It was an interesting cap on my time here, walking into Sports Authority with a couple of skinheads in dresses*. For most part I've found Escondido folk very accepting of the monks, no stares or funny looks, and treated quite normally. Even the hour and a half they spent choosing sneakers and the mess of sneakers they created in the aisle didn't evoke any disbelief or exasperation. They ended up getting some pretty high-end sneakers, the kind I would have gotten for a serious running season, but they only paid about $60 each because of the sale. But why did they need sneakers like that? It's not like they're gonna be pushing 7 minute miles on city pavement. But that's just me being a snob and I kept my snob mouth shut. I did opine that they were really good sneakers and should last them several years at least.

That took a while, and it's not like I'm not patient or had anything better to do, but I wasn't thrilled when we passed Home Depot and they wanted to go in to find something. Of course I agreed right away, but I knew that we would be there a while. I was impressed both by how well the monk explained what he needed and was trying to do, and the complete lack of patronization by the Home Depot worker. One of the monks I was with didn't speak English, and the one who did the talking had a pretty good command of English, but with a very strong accent.

* I got that term from Brother Kh*i over dinner. It wasn't a silent dinner and one of the Vietnamese monks mispronounced "monks" sounding like "punks" (Vietnamese has some guttural sounds), and Brother Kh*i, whose race or ethnic background I couldn't figure out, but was from Oregon and spoke fluent English and Vietnamese, turned to me with a faux surprised look and said, "Punks? Did he just call us punks? We're just a bunch of skinheads in dresses."

That actually wasn't the cap on my experience here. That night, after sitting, someone arrived and was going to stay in the same room as me and another person who had been staying since June. This person had stayed at Deer Park earlier in the year and was considered a friend of the Sangha (after I leave I suppose I will also be considered a friend). He lived south of San Diego and grew up in a tight-knit, conservative, Catholic (I think, I didn't ask him to clarify) Chicano community. Unfortunately, his belief system has evolved out of the community, which is where the Deer Park community has come in to provide a sort of sanctuary where he can be himself and speak his mind without fear of alienating the people around him.

After sitting, we ended up in the Tea Room and we just hit it off. With the other guests I shared my week with, one who left on Thursday, we didn't really talk. We just shared our practice there, and from the outside it may have seemed quite cold. But with this guy, we just started riffing off each other's philosophies, beliefs and ideas, explaining our backgrounds and experiences, and we spoke right through the 9:30 temple bell and Noble Silence. It was really incredible, and I think that really capped off my experience at the monastery, bringing me back to myself to remind me to take in the monastic experience critically. It's all fine and dandy that it was a great experience and that I loved the lifestyle and fit in like a fish in water, but I feel I've always been very critical about my belief system and never took in something just because someone said it was so, and I shouldn't do that now, either. Of course, Buddhism, and I still resist the identifying label of "Buddhist", is a pretty heavy and heady religion with some very esoteric and abstract aspects, so obviously there's quite a lot that I do take on faith. But it's important to be critical about the little bit of understanding and clarity that I can scratch as a human being.

We very unnaturally had to cut off the conversation since we still had to wake up at the 5:00 bell.