Day 2 - Light Start, Enlightened Perspective

“Avoid eating in excess, sleeping in excess, working in excess.” (*) Monday is structured with a light schedule, since people are leaving and also to recover from the previous days (celebrations, socializing, eating). I am grateful of this timing, since it allows me to recoup energy. I went to the meditation hall but did not get in, just looked from outside briefly -safer than interrupting-, I had 30 minutes and preferred to go for a walk, after being sitting for a day! So I went for this walk up and down the hills, and came back for a cup of green tea and hot oatmeal, enjoying the silent breakfast. The first twenty minutes of each meal are supposed to be silent, until a bell rings advising otherwise.


I realize again, how much I enjoy simple things, not just enjoy them, I find them soothing and energizing, reconstructive and liberating. Unlike 5-star life which I find exhilarating, draining, emptying, pro-dispersing of energy, distracting.

All the buildings and rooms have TNH’s (**) thoughts, like “Peace is every step”, or “Time is Now”. Although I have not been yet to any formal, serious activity, I am enjoying it already. I am grateful I can be here, now. I remember I was going to come in October ‘08, but I had an invitation to visit New Paltz instead, For some reason, going to New Paltz seemed closer to me and my life, and what my gut asked me to do. And I do not regret. I feel I was also more ready and thirsty for this type of experience now than a few months ago. Ah… timings, our desires, our wishes…! There is a saying in Spanish: “God’s timings are not our timings.”

Sometimes though, I can get impatient, so impatient because our timings may be different, but the issue is we do come with an expiration date, unlike him! Maybe this gives you a hint of why I am in the monastery. Yes, let go, “Go as a river” as one of TNH’s posters says...

(*) basic Buddhist principle.
(**) TNH stands for Thich Nath Hanh, aka Thây, Buddhist monk, zen master, poet, founder of the Eglise Bouddhique Unifieé- in the USA they have Blue Cliff Monastery (NY) and Deer Park Monastery (CA).

PHOTO: sun rising behind the meditation hall.