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Published: January 22nd 2014
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Departure
Today I departed for Hilo, Hawaii. Thus begins my 2014 travels, whose length and itinerary are indeterminate. I had originally planned to start in Bangkok, Thailand, or at least somewhere in SE Asia. The reason for my change to start in Hawaii is that it's the location I was soonest able to get into a 10 day
Vipassana meditationcourse/retreat. There are many in SE Asia, but most were booked 1-2 months in advance. My interest in meditation practice is one of the several reasons that I'm going to SE Asia. Many of the countries there have strong Buddhist roots, and continuing opportunities for honing one's mental skills at Buddhist monasteries.
My interest in a Vipassana course was piqued in by a friend in Zurich back in the fall. The courses are given at
centers worldwide. They teach the secular (although the roots are Buddhist) meditation techniques of a guy named
Goenka, via recorded lectures. I'm primarily interested in having 10 days of solitude, cut off from electronics, familiar people, and even speech (it's silent) in order to give undivided attention to my practice. Learning a new technique is not of primary importance to me, as I've had spectactular results
in the past when I've been able to devote all my attention to Buddhist mindfulness/breath meditation. However, I'm always open to learning something new, and will engage 100%!w(MISSING)ith the methods taught in this course.
Dhamma
There have been a few hiccups already. Last night, I happened to check my email to find that my flight leaving at 11am to Hawaii had been cancelled, and I had been rebooked 2 days later. This was problematic, as I would miss 2 days of the course, and have to arrange alternate transportation there. Fortuntely, a phone call to United easily got me onto an alternative flight today, and I'm 10,000 m in the air right now :D.
Another minor hiccup is that my phone seems to have suffered a sudden and untimely death. It turned off and is totally unresponsive. Maybe it's just preemptively preparing for silent meditation retreat also 😉 I'll try some basic jumpstart procedures when I get the chance, but the prognosis is poor. These small snafus are a good prompt to practice one most basic dhamma lessons: don't compound your suffering by needlessly creating adverse mental states in response to adverse circumstances. My
favorite teacher
Ajahn Geoff puts it something like:
The first arrow causes us some injury, but it's really the subsequent 99 self-inflicted arrows that cause the real damage
Perhaps the most important intermediate level mental skill to learn is how to uncondition your mental state from the events of the world. Couple this with an ability to generate positivity and pleasure at will, and you are in business. If any skill is worth developing, this one is.
Travel Plans
My route is now: Washington DC (DCA) --> Houston (IAH) --> Hilo, HW (ITO). I departed at 07:55, and am scheduled to arrive at 21:06. I'll spend the night on Jan 21st at
Hilo Backpacker's Hostel, and am hitching a ride with a fellow attendee to the Vipassana center around midday of the 22nd. Then silence until Feb 2nd. From there I'll spend some more time on “The Big Island,” seeing Kona, the volcano, other natural beauty, snorkling, and surfing, before moving on to Oahu, where the bulk of Hawaii's residents reside. Oahu is where the capital, Honolulu is. It's also home to the famous Pearl Harbor and Bonzai pipeline. I'll depart February 20th for Bangkok, with an overnight in Hong Kong on the way.
The last leg of my flight was cool. I was sitting next to a masseuse who accepts bitcoin for her services, and is also into nutrition. Needless to say, we had much to talk about 😉. I also won a contest to guess the time where we would be halfway to our destination. Just some simple arithmetic really. The prize was the Lonely Planet guide book that I had purchased a Kindle copy of the day before. Physical books are obsolete, how long will it take everyone to figure that out? :P
Packing
For the record, I thought I'd document what I'm bringing with me. A few of the items are specific to the meditation retreat, where I'll be camping. They will be donated to Vipassana Hawaii, if they want to keep them.
Retreat only • Tent - Wenzel Alpine 8.5 X 8-Feet Dome Tent
• Sleeping bag - Cocoon Mummy wrap
• Sleeping pad - Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Trekker Mattress (Large)
• Meditation Pillow
General • Travel Backpack - Osprey Atmos 65L
• Day Backpack - Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Day Pack 20L
• 3L Camelbak
• Travel sheet - Cocoon, Silk
• Large Travel Towel - REI
• 3x boxer (1x Icebreaker, 2x ExOfficio)
• 3x T-shirt (Icebreaker crew, Icebreaker Casual fit, Bitcoin promotional cotton shirt)
• Long sleeve casual - Minus33 Merino Wool Men's Chocorua Midweight Crew
• Long Sleeve button-down
• Hoodie - Icebreaker Sierra Long Sleeve Hoodie
• Athletic shorts (to double as swim suit)
• 2x convertible (to shorts) pants - REI Endeavour, REI Sahara
• 4x socks - Icebreaker
• Sandals - Crocs Unisex Modi Flip Flop
• Shoes - Merrell Moab Gore-Tex (comes in wide)
• Pant belt with zipper-pouch
• Clothes line
• Spork
• Egg protector
• Sun hat
• Warm hat
• 120g
matcha green tea+ bamboo whisk (I don't go anywhere without it 😉)
• Sunblock
• Umbrella - Lewis and Clark Travel
• Backup wallet - Holding some extra credit and bank cards, in case my primary is lost/stolen.
• Rubber bands - I don't know why :P
Electronics • Dell Venue Pro 11 - A Windows 8 netbook/tablet hybrid
• Iphone 4, jailbroken (perhaps the first casualty) + Mophie Plus battery pack
•
Stormflybootable USB persistent Ubuntu OS.
• USB drives
• Peripheral connectors
• Mouse
• Adapter - World adapter with 2xUSB plugs
• Flashilight - Small keychain/pen version
Hygiene
• Shampoo/Conditioner
• Toothpaste
• Floss
• Rubber gum stimulator + extra tips
• Deodorant - Arm & Hammer - no parabens, no aluminum
• Shaving oil (King of Shaves)
• Razor - Mach 3 + extra blades
• Thermometer
• Condoms
• Earplugs - Probly the single most important item!
• Sleep mask
• Small Swiss Army
• Hand Sanitizer
• First Aid kit
• Malarone (Malaria med)
Pills
• Vitamin C
• Resveratrol
• Krill oil
Papers
• 5 Color photocopies of passport
• 10 Passport photos
• 1 Notebook
Bag weight with camping stuff: 13.1 kg
Bag weight without camping stuff: 9.8 kg
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