(no subject)
Sorry if I was snappy with anyone toward the beginning of this week.
Here's something to try and make up for it.
And I found this from the second day of NM. I liked that day.:
"Our first stop today was the completely secluded ¬Fa Yun monastery at the top of a mountain outside of Taos. After finding out that we all meditate, the monk that greeted us invited our party to sit in the meditation room in the middle of the monestary. Afterward, he brought us tea (one with jasmine), and we talked for about an hour without exchanging names. He seemed excited to have visitors showing a genuine interest in Buddhism and invited us back to meditate and possibly for lunch. On the way out of the monestary, Sigrid commented on the beauty of the water flowing below the ice lining the sidewalk. The monk who had walked us out, and who spent the last 2 hours instructing us, became stone faced for a moment and corrected her. He said something to the effect of: if you name something as beautiful, then you are labeling it as good or evil and it is not good or evil. It simply is. You are not good and you are not evil. You are a person and that is water.
We picnicked on the other side of the mountain, outside the gate of what we figured to be an indian reservation. Then we spent a while talking about whether or not they were still called “indian reservations”. The climb down the mountain was much faster than the one going up and I became less high as we reached a lower altitude.
Before making it to the hot springs, which were our next destination, we stopped at Royal Gorge Bridge, parked on one side and walked to the middle. Well, first we browsed over the tables that the three vendors had set up on the side of the road and made polite conversation with the vendor in a slick green suite. He was trying to “unload some stuff”, which included a number of small purses, fake silver jewelry, a large number of glass pipes, pill boxes, and three one-hitters. Quite a tourist trap. The view from the bridge wasn’t disappointing. Standing so exposed in the middle of a gorge was exhilarating.
The hot springs were at the bottom of a cliff and we had to hike down to them. The sun was setting and we swam naked and if I had to come home now, I would say that this has been a very fulfilling vacation."
Here's something to try and make up for it.
And I found this from the second day of NM. I liked that day.:
"Our first stop today was the completely secluded ¬Fa Yun monastery at the top of a mountain outside of Taos. After finding out that we all meditate, the monk that greeted us invited our party to sit in the meditation room in the middle of the monestary. Afterward, he brought us tea (one with jasmine), and we talked for about an hour without exchanging names. He seemed excited to have visitors showing a genuine interest in Buddhism and invited us back to meditate and possibly for lunch. On the way out of the monestary, Sigrid commented on the beauty of the water flowing below the ice lining the sidewalk. The monk who had walked us out, and who spent the last 2 hours instructing us, became stone faced for a moment and corrected her. He said something to the effect of: if you name something as beautiful, then you are labeling it as good or evil and it is not good or evil. It simply is. You are not good and you are not evil. You are a person and that is water.
We picnicked on the other side of the mountain, outside the gate of what we figured to be an indian reservation. Then we spent a while talking about whether or not they were still called “indian reservations”. The climb down the mountain was much faster than the one going up and I became less high as we reached a lower altitude.
Before making it to the hot springs, which were our next destination, we stopped at Royal Gorge Bridge, parked on one side and walked to the middle. Well, first we browsed over the tables that the three vendors had set up on the side of the road and made polite conversation with the vendor in a slick green suite. He was trying to “unload some stuff”, which included a number of small purses, fake silver jewelry, a large number of glass pipes, pill boxes, and three one-hitters. Quite a tourist trap. The view from the bridge wasn’t disappointing. Standing so exposed in the middle of a gorge was exhilarating.
The hot springs were at the bottom of a cliff and we had to hike down to them. The sun was setting and we swam naked and if I had to come home now, I would say that this has been a very fulfilling vacation."