Zen Buddhist Retreat

Last year my mother went on a retreat to a Zen Buddhist monastry and so on this most recent trip to England I signed up for Throssel Hole's introductory retreat. I arrived there early after a drive with my mam through some pretty dramatic scenery. I was greeted by one of the 4 monks who had been assigned the task of running the retreat for the weekend. The retreat was to be a silent retreat, although the monks is not a silent order.

The Abby is surrounded by well kept lawns which are full of rabbits grazing in the sun. It was a bit nippy (after all we are talking England in October), so my strolls outside were limited. That first evening we were given a presentation on how to meditate and set about the first of many meditations in the meditation hall. I really liked the feel in this hall. The big statue of Buddha dominated the room and during meditation the place was overtaken by silence. There were 9 people on the retreat and that night we all slept in the meditation hall. I was worried I would not sleep well but I actually slept like a baby. My bed was closest to the alter and there was something nice about sleeping under the big lit statue of Buddha. It felt like sitting under a giant Christmas tree and during the night monks would come and light incense under the Buddha - I guess I fould the smell relaxing.
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I enjoyed the silent part of the weekend. The Abbey had been my first stop in England after New York and my head was buzzing with thoughts of BF, and experiences of the last few days. It was good to decompress. The schedule on the retreat was fairly strict. Morning meditation at 6.30am followed by service at 7am, breakfast at 8, a talk on some element of spiritual practice, a work duty (I got to carry wheelbarrow loads of rocks up and down a hill - it was good to be outdoors though and the body heat generated by the hard labor was welcome!). Then lunch, an other work duty, meditation, evening service and bed.
I did not love the rigid routine although I can see that for some it might be easier to meditate in a situation where everything around you is being taken care of. I enjoyed the silence but found it hard to be around people all of the time. I believe I am a bit of a loner in that it is very important for me to spend a few hours by myself every day. It is good for me in Cozumel that my BF works so many hours as I am left to my own devices for most of my day. I found that during the odd 15 mins of down time at the Abbey I would go off and find somewhere to sit alone.
I found the meditation easy the first few times. After a while my back started to hurt and I found myself longing to leave the Abbey and sit on a comfy chair, eat what I wanted when I wanted etc.
It was an interesting place though and I wonder how it would be to submit yourself to a regime of Zen meditation for a longer period like a week or a month. The Abbey would have been nicer in warmer weather too as the walk from the meditation hall to the common room was along a corridor which was almost outdoors with a flagstone floor which was very cold to walk on.
I prefer my meditations with Selene in Mexico, on the whole, although am certainly considering making the odd Zen meditation part of my weekly routine.
I would recommend the Abbey to anyone interested in Zen - but go in the summer and take a good pair of slippers!

England

I did have a wonderful trip back to England and New York and will write about it soon. I just wanted to get some pics up of the land as people have been asking about it:)

Back in Cozumel

After a month of being at home in England (via New York) I am finally back on my little Island with my BF. It was wonderful to see my BF again as the month appart was very difficult (thank goodness for skype!).

Its taken a week for me to get relaxed into the pace of life here again, get over my jet lag, get back into a healthy eating and exercise regime and get my stuff in some state of organization. Those of you who know me well will know that I am not a happy bunny when things in my life are not in a state of good order. Just before I left the Island the external hard drive on my computer started to overheat. Good timing, in a way, as I was able to buy a new drive in the US and bring it back with me. The frustrating thing has been setting the thing up. I'm almost there and for now have worked out a system for cooling my old external drive down with fans while it is at work. Life is returning to the kind of order I can deal with. The Archers (my favorite radio show) is again accessible and I am happily able to watch my favorite TV shows again. I'm back at yoga and meditation and my yoga studio has added three new classes which I am really excited about. Work is slow but set to pick up by the end of the month, which gives me a nice easing in period. We have a tropical storm approaching us right now, which is bringing a lot of rain with it. Great weather for tidying the apartment, cooking and getting some work done on my computer.

Apart from seeing my BF the most exciting thing about being back has been seeing the progress on our piece of land. BF worked hard while I was away, buying materials, organizing contractors and generally supervising the building of the wall which will surround our property. The wall is 2.4 meters tall (the tallest it can be without a more detailed and costly planning permission than the one we have). Anyway building work has gone well. All of the labor has been paid for and we have most of the materials. Here is the foundation of the wall:
The wall that you see on the right hand side of the back of the land is on the property behind ours and we plan to build our wall right up against it. We don't want to share any wall with our neighbors so that we can do what we want with it. Here is the first part of the wall built:
The gaps you can see have now been filled with rebars and cement to make the wall strong. The contractor has also made it round most of the back of the property and part of the other side. It has been an expensive job and has taken probably as much materials as it will take to build the ground floor of the house. When the contractor is finished building the wall he will cement over it to make it look nice and protect the bricks. We'll build the front part of the wall with rocks so it looks nice and doesn't need to be painted every year or so. We're very pleased with it as we both like our privacy. It will be wonderful to sit in our own little private back garden:)

Unfortunately the tropical storm which will be with us into next week has put a halt to building work for the time being. I am pretty calm about this though. A friend advised me to keep all thoughts of finishing our house out of my head. He said if you get excited about completing in any kind of time frame you will be faced with dissappiontment after dissapointment. Very good advice - slow but sure, I'm just excited that the building of our new home is underway!

Progress on our Land

Before...
After...
We hired a contractor to do most of the clearing, but two days ago, aided by two of BF's friends, we removed two truck loads of undergrowth and trash from the middle of the land. I helped initially but after the first tarantula limbered out of the branches, I decided to retire. Hard work I do not mind, but tarantulas clawling on me is something I cannot do! My retirement was well timed because the tarantula's husband or wife was discovered soon after. On the up side, we found two tortoises (one was a baby). I hope they stick around when we're moved in.

Yesterday my current landlord was having a wall demolished on his property. Our land has some very large slabs of flat rock in the middle of it. We will build our foundation on top of this rather than dig it into the land. This will mean a small wall (about 1.5') that will need to be filed with rocks. We decided to take the rubble from the wall onto our land. 30 buckets and 3 car loads later, with aching limbs we managed to accomplish the small pile of rocks you see in the center of the 'after' picture. Poor BF carried most of the buckets, but I would say I carried a good 1/3 of the total, and I have the sore muscles to prove it. The pile looks bigger in the flesh!

Here is a rough sketch of the wall we are planning (this should keep the dogs/ poop off the land):
I'm off to England for the month of October, leaving BF in charge of the project. I'm hoping the next update will show quite a lot of change, but I've been counseled by my friend Fernando, that when you are building a house you have to not focus on it becoming completed, just take things little by little as there will be MANY set backs!!!

Juice Fast Over!!!

My 5 day juice fast is over and I feel great - super healthy both physically and mentally. It made me think that people who follow macro-biotic or raw food diets may have something. I'm resolved to try and keep my diet more healthy and well proportioned. Eating enough to sustain your body without overeating and making yourself sluggish while digesting food. I'm resolved to stay off the coffee and diet coke for good now and no more pre-dive chocolate bars.
I would say though my skin has retained a sensitivity to the sun which I think may have some from some deficiency due to relying solely on juicing - or perhaps some nutrient has done that. Going to go back to juices for breakfast from time to time and plan to do another fast in the New Year, but perhaps with porridge for breakfast so I can continue to dive.

Juice detox day three

Today was the best day so far. Last night I went to yoga and meditation. I think the yoga really helped to work some of the toxins out of my system and my nasty headache started to lift. I slept really well last night, aided by a torrential rainstorm. This morning, I made a beet, celery and apple shake for me and BF. He's being very supportive and joining me for my morning juice. I felt full of energy on the way to and at work. We had some clients who one of the other instructors will teach and one client for me on Sunday. I'll prefer diving on Sunday as it is my last day of fasting.

When I got home after work (at 10.30am! just like to throw that in to remind myself of how lucky I am) I prepared for my salt water flush. I made 1 liter of water with just two teaspoons of sea salt. It was such a horrible prospect to drink this mix that I decided to add a little freshly squeezed lime juice. Actually it was not so bad. The idea is that the stomach can only hold two cups of liquid. I drank 4 which flushes the salt mix right through your intestines flushing out any matter. Within 5 mins the salt water mix began to take effect. No stomach cramps or pain but out it all had to come. No more food in this lady - jut freshly squeezed juices!! It feels pretty clean and I feel full of energy.

So far this has been an interesting experience. I think it is a great exercise in mental control. This is one of the aspects useful to yogis in fasting. You need to mentally be in fasting mode. It will be intolerable/ impossible if you are continuously thinking of chocolate or marmite on toast or... (you get the idea - I cant bear to write any more about delicious foods). You need to be in flight mode. Once I get on the airplane, I don't think of the hours of long journey I have ahead, I just concentrate in the now and then on sleep, actually. Or the frame of mind you take to the dentists - just concentrate on other things until it is all over. Actually because of the nutrition you are getting from the juicing real HUNGER is not a huge problem. A juice or water will keep hunger at bay for the most part.

Another aspect of fasting is that the clearing of toxins also clears out emotional baggage. I have to say that after the excesses of my trip to New Jersey and Sue's stay I was not feeling to hot mentally. I was worrying feverishly about things which weren't worthy of the worry. Now I feel much more at peace. Going to yoga again tonight. Tonight's class is an advanced class so it will be much more physically taxing. Still when it is over I intend to flop right into bed.

In retrospect I think it would have been a good idea to prepare for the fast by excluding coffee, fatty food, etc. from my diet - this would probably have aleviated most of the headaches of days 1 & 2. It is clear to me now that living as I do in Cozumel not only makes me feel good, but it is almost necessary for me. I can't cope with the way excessive living makes me feel and I can't cope with New York or England without excessive living. My body is not designed to be able to cope with all of the rich foods and alcohol. I get easily depressed when I live like that and honestly the only way I can get through the days living in a big stressful city like New York is rewarding myself with a big fatty meal with friends and definitely far too much alcohol. Even one glass of wine at night is enough to send me off balance, into a pre-depression worry, the next day.

So this has been a great experience so far and one that I will repeat, probably in November as work is too hectic in the New Year and fasting will not give me the calories I need to dive every day.

There is one little downside to all of this goodness and that is that I am starting to take on a reddish color from all of the carrots and beet juice I am consuming. I'm going to concentrate on green vegetables this evening!!

Day 2 almost over

Its almost 6pm on the second day of my fast and I am still nursing an almighty headache. I am hoping that yoga tonight will help work some of these toxins out of my system so that the headache leaves. My BF made today much more bearable by collecting three fresh coconuts for me. I drank one fresh, right off the tree and another a little later with strawberry and pineapple juice. A great cocktail mix BTW!!
I have to say I did not anticipate this headache and I am also feeling mentally groggy. I think I will walk to yoga tonight because driving seems to require a little more concentration than usual. I am drinking plenty of water and this week I may buy some Ice Lollipop makers as the pulp from the fruit juices I'm making would taste great frozen.
two days down three to go. Tomorrow will be like cresting the hill. I do not know how Allie managed to do this for 10 days. I am going to feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction after 5.