Have a great trip Den!

We'll miss you Den!!!!

Well Hi ladies,

I am back for another try at this. I have gained 2 dress sized and do not want them at all! SO I'm going to try my darndest to get the extra weight off plus all the rest of the weight that I need to loose!

I'm still working on updating with all the posts, so I am just going to start fresh from here.

Talk to you all soon!

Den, have a wonderful time, sweetie!!

Bella, welcome back!

I am starting fertility drugs this cycle. I decided I am not getting any younger and I have been off bc for a year now. So I am going to concentrate on excersice and eatting healthy. It isn't just about me anymore! Yes, this is secondary infertility for me, my boys are now 15, 11, and 4.

Hey girlies, help me remember. Who was doing that "write a book in a month/year/minute (i can't remember)" and what was it called??? I was trying to remember it so I could look it up on the net but that brain cell went off with some tequila and I haven't heard from it since.

Jess

It was ellis

flower- good luck with that

Welcome back Bella

Welcome back Bella!

Flower-Best of luck.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone!! I'll see you all in two weeks!!

Jessica, it's called NaNoWriMo. Don't worry... you've got lots of time. It starts in November. There's a support forum there which I believe is year-round. I'm registered there as "Ellis".
I hope you do it this year! It's a riot!!
http://www.nanowrimo.org/index.php

That project sounds really neat. Too bad there's nothing like that for writing/revising a thesis I could really use it in October .

Well, I promised I would tell you guys all about my experience at the Zen Center, so here goes. I'll start by saying that it is still really hard to put a lot of it into words, which is probably one of the reasons I've been largely unwilling/unable to talk about it, but I want to give it a shot. The atmosphere of the place was actually sort of like a summer camp. Very utilitarian, with bunkbeds, very few showers, six people to a room. The land used to belong to a Catholic monestary, which still exists on the adjacent land. However, Hosen, the abbot and one of the most amazing women I've ever met, has done a lot to make the place more "Zen" than summer camp.

We started each morning at 4:45AM when Hosen walked around the grounds with a small bell and quietly turned on the light in each room. Some people found it a tough way to wake up, but I found it to be incredibly gentle and easy. At 5AM we had meditiation. First we were served tea, then we walked to the "Sutra Hall" (incedentally this is a new building designed by Hosen with the assistance of Anthony Predock and his son) where we chanted and bowed. At first I found it a bit odd to be chanting and bowing, but I began to feel that it was an incredible communal experience when people's voices blended and we all moved in unison. After chanting we walked back to the zendo (meditiation room) where we did sitting meditation (zazen) for 25 minutes. Then we did walking meditation, which is another exercise in communal movement, for 10 minutes. Finally, there was another session of zazen for 25 minutes. Having never sat completely still for 25 mnutes I found that most days I was unable to do the second session, so I would go shower or stretch.

After meditiation we had breakfast. The style of eating was really neat. Each meal consisted of three distinct dishes and each person had three bowls. The first (largest) bowl is used for a grain dish of some sort, the second (smaller) is for something else which was usually a soup, eggs, or casserole, depending on the meal and day.

Ack! my battery is running out! More later!

Finally the smallest bowl was always for something really special, like a sweet, or a really good vege, etc. Each person was responsible for maintaining his or her own bowl set for the whole retreat.

After breakfast we had class for four hours with a short break in between that usually involved cookies and coffee. The classes were on everything from different types of meditation to very academic examinations of texts. After class we had a short break, then lunch.

My favorite part of the day was actually the hour long work meditation period called samu. During this time we did menial chores that didn't take much skill or thought such as weeding a garden, sweeping the eating hall, collecting eggs from the chickens, or installing statues around the grounds. The point of the activity was to see how our actions affect the world around us.

In the hottest part of the day (late afternoon) we either had free time, or open discussion, then dinner. After dinner we had slide shows of China and India that related to the classes, texts and discussions. After the slides we had about 2 hours until lights out at 10 PM. Depending on our moods we could do all kinds of things. Some nights we went to the little bar down the road. Other nights we went for walks, or just sat around and told jokes. Most of us made it a habit to go to the hot springs every evening "when the stars come out" and soak and talk until the last two people went to bed, usually me and this other guy, around 10:30.

It was such a unique experience in all ways. I learned so much about myself and about Buddhism that I could never have learned in a classroom environment. If anyone is interested in more information about the seminar, which is open to anyone with an interest, please let me know. The price is pretty reasonable too, since it is geared toward a student budget.

Well, now I have to get back to the paper I'm writing for the seminar on Buddhist Ethics. I'm headed out of town again tomorrow to hang out with my family in the Poconos at a lake for a week. I'll talk to y'all when I get back.

Hannah, sounds really cool!

Wow Hannah, what an amazing experience. It sounds like a simplistic yet profound experience. The hot springs and the stars! Nice.

Wow, Hannah! What a wonderful experience!! Thanks for sharing with us...

"It sounds like a simplistic yet profound experience."

That's exactly it. The whole experience could be summed up by saying that for ten days I lived, worked, talked, ate and meditated, but it goes so far beyond that. I really, still, have trouble putting words to it. I told one of the monks, as I was leaving, that "everything looks different now, but nothing has changed" and I think that is the closest I can come to summing it all up.

Well, I'm off to catch a plane. Vacation time!