Monastery Day #1

  • By onthemat
  • 14 Apr, 2016
We met the “Warden”and she was delightful. She wants the girls to do yoga… Whatever we think is best, but no feet higher than the head. That eliminates some postures but not as many as you might think. Then we watched as our beds were made, including our mosquitos netting! The really amazing part of […]
We met the “Warden”and she was delightful. She wants the girls to do yoga… Whatever we think is best, but no feet higher than the head. That eliminates some postures but not as many as you might think.
Then we watched as our beds were made, including our mosquitos netting!
The really amazing part of the day was watching the novice nuns have their heads shaved. The girls were either joining the monastery from outer villages for years or coming to experience the nunnery for a week, 2 or more during summer holidays. Water Festival and the New Year marks the beginning of school vacation.
We all felt very emotional about watching the girls lose their hair. It felt like such a part of their identity but the girls did not seem stressed or regretful.
At 6 pm we went to the meditation hall for dharma talks from the monks and devotion and meditation.
We were also handed our retreat schedule. Wake up at 4:30. Devotion and Meditation at 5, breakfast at 6, teaching from 7 to 9. Then the rest of the day alternated between free time and meditation. We teach the same group of 8th, 9th and 10th graders again at 5. No dinner!! No meals after 12 noon, but we do have some snacks. Phew! We teach the little ones from 7 to 8 and fall into bed, if we can avoid the jet lag middle of the night wake ups. The 4:30 am wake-up gong comes early!

On The Mat Yoga Blog

By Linda Malcomb 03 May, 2020

“There is a light in the core of our being that calls us home—one that can only be seen with closed eyes; We can feel it as a radiance in the center of our chest. This light of loving awareness is always here, regardless of our conditioning. It does not matter how many dark paths we have traveled or how many wounds we have inflicted or sustained as we have unknowingly stumbled toward this inner radiance. It does not matter how long we have sleepwalked, seduced by our desires and fears. This call persists until it is answered, until we surrender to who we really are. When we do, we feel ourselves at home wherever we are. A hidden beauty reveals itself in our ordinary life. As the true nature of our Deep Hear is unveiled, we feel increasingly grateful for no reason—grateful to simply be.”

—John J. Prendergast, PHD, The Deep Heart  

By Linda Malcomb 02 May, 2020

Seems like it’s been rainy, windy, dreary for eons. Which may have helped us shelter inside a bit more. I remember reading years and years ago in a Seth book that weather can be influenced, and even created by mass human emotion. Why not? We are far more powerful than we currently acknowledge, and science is beginning to validate many phenomena that had seemed inconceivable before. Those seemingly endless days of “bad” weather seemed congruent with the emotional tone of covid her in New England. And now SUN! Glorious, warming, invigorating, hope-filled Sun! Today I will be outside basking and gardening and thanking. And I’m sure the whole neighborhood, and most of New England will go outside, stand with our faces to the sun and breathe a huge healing breath of joy. And maybe the collective energy of that will resonate out across the word as a promise of brighter days to come.     


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