I’m a bit tired, but can’t seem to sleep. It’s around 2pm over here, and already this morning I found three things to do! I was so happy and thought that that would fill my day, but after seeing the last of the 3, I came back to the hotel to try and take a nap. Meaning, I still have another 8 hours or so before I call it a day. What to do? I’m on a super tight budget so I really don’t want to tempt myself by going out shopping. I might look around a little bit later tho. [View Full Entry]

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So it doesn’t even matter what happened first thing in the morning (cept for the fact that I was feed for free!), because once I made it to the Louvre and saw the glass pyramid outside, everything stopped. It was amazing. It was breath taking. Hardly ever am I the person who stops and ‘awwws’ at buildings and the such, but this .. wow, I can’t even describe it. In fact, I don’t know why it’s the Mona Lisa that attracts everyone to the Louvre and not the pyramids. If for no other reason, this alone has made my visit to [View Full Entry]

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I get up pretty early and am happy to see Paula up so I give her a hug and wish her well, Hyo-Jin was sweet and sent me and Susan off this morning. I took the same train with Susan and was super grateful, on many levels for that. Not only is Susan an great person to be around, but she also knows more French then me, so when it was time to buy the train the ticket, she handled mine 100% ,Merci! She got me on a train to Paris that was leaving Bordeaux around 10:30am, while her’s left an [View Full Entry]

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So despite what was written in the ‘problems’ section, I had a great time. I think it really took me being away, or leaving, before I’d realize it, and I knew that ahead of time. It’s a different life at Plum Village, for two weeks I have no idea what’s gone on in the world, I watched no tv unless it was a DVD of Thay giving a Dharma talk. There was no internet, and except for a few phones to Jeff (which cost $11 just to connect) I didn’t talk to anyone in the ‘outside’ world. But that also meant [View Full Entry]

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I dunno if “Problems” is the right heading or not. I’ve learned a bit about myself, and some things I learned I knew, I think they just came more into the light here. Thay and others talk about people being social ‘animals’, they need to be together. Living in a community like this has really shown me, …. And I sigh as I think of the right words … another sigh… I’m ok with an isolated life. I don’t mean I’m ready to move up on a mountain, but I’m happy having a few things and people in my life. [View Full Entry]

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Today is Lay Day at Plum Village (11/ 25/2008) it was my first and only encounter with Lay Day. What happens on these days is the monastics have their thing to do, so they leave and all meet together at one Hamlet, while the Lay people (non-monks and nuns, so… me!) get to meet up at another Hamlet and do all the things the nuns do. We walked to upper hamlet after breakfast; I went with Paula who wanted to practice noble silence until we got there. It was amazing, because on the way in the grape fields we saw two [View Full Entry]

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On these days we go to the other Hamlet (and once they came here) for a gathering of all the people to listen to the Dharma and hold a discussion afterwards. My first experience of Mindfulness Day was not a good one. I was happy and looking forward to it the whole day before, and then thinking of Lazy Day the next day was also exciting. But it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be. This talk was in English so we didn’t need to bring our headphones. A nun came up to talk and all she said was [View Full Entry]

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Lazy days are every Monday at Plum Village. All we have scheduled is Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, unless you are on the cooking team, you get free range of your day. In fact I am typing all of this during my last lazy day at Plum Village. The first lazy day was very awesome. I had such a great time. I started out with some Tai Chi before breakfast, then went on a walk with Susan to nearby town of Bernac. They had some little café and convient store and the town was old and completely different then anything I had [View Full Entry]

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Our meals were another source of meditation. I don’t think I was very mindful during these times. Maybe this is something that needed even more work then my sitting. Breakfast was my favorite, I woke up hungry many times, and I also normally ate the same things, but it was all food I enjoyed. I typically got a scoop or scoop and half of oatmeal (and I mean, not that instant stuff with the sugar, just straight up plain oatmeal). I topped it off with raisins (these were some of the best I have ever had!), two pieces of bread with [View Full Entry]

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Walking meditation I have done before, and enjoyed it. Granted it was in a decent sized room, but we walked in a small circle and I never really knew what I was doing. Turns out I was doing just what I needed to, breath, focus, and walk. It was easy to engage and be present out here. France is a new country to me, and being able to walk down the country roads and see the farms, and houses, and notice how different their cattle and other live stock looked was amazing! There were times when I needed to remind myself [View Full Entry]

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