Beaver Creek

Light at Beaver Creek, AZ.















We finally came down from high rounds, and as a reward my mates and I went to Beaver Creek for some hiking, fresh-water swimming and lounging to help ease our cabin fever.

It was our first outing in weeks and the temperatures got into the triple digits. However, the water was cool and refreshing.

We are entering the 4th quarter; the final stretch of this journey---only 20 days to go here in Arizona. Boy-oh-boy how time flies.

Anyway, have a safe holiday---remember to be careful with any fireworks you might use, and I'll chat with you later...

Light

Ams and me overcoming frustration....

Fly On The Wall

This was a conversation that took place between myself and my course-mate, Ams (her name has been shortened to protect her anonymity). You get to be a fly on the wall in our room. Here's what we had to say:

Ams: I've got cabin fever. You?

Light-Man: I'm definitely getting bored with being holed up in this complex. Looking forward to getting away for a day trip or two.

A: Today I actually had a vision of myself in the future and felt really happy and excited about the life I'm going to create.

L: You don't feel happy now?

A: I do. It's just in the last few days I felt a kind of ambivalence about what I'm doing here. We've been outside of the context of our "regular" lives for so long that it's been easy to forget why we're here. Have you found this to be a radically transforming experience?

L: Honestly, I feel much like the same person. But I don't think it's up to me to say whether I've changed a lot or a little. I'll leave it up to those who haven't seen me in awhile, like my girlfriend and my other close friends. Hopefully, if I have changed, it has been for the better.

A: I didn't know you too well before this but my experience is that you have unfolded to reveal more and more of yourself...

L: Like how? Our readers would love to know.

A: Well apart from referring to yourself as "The Light-Man" your sense of humor and the subtlety of your insights into human behavior have been a really nice discovery for me.

L: Thanks Ams....

A: However, I'm going to have to start calling you "The Light Bulb" to keep your feet on the ground.

L: That's okay. I've been called worse. (To be continued)

Blogging Fast

It occured to me this morning that it would be a good idea to stop blogging until I start to come down from 14 rounds. I'm finding it to be too distracting. And besides, you guys aren't missing out on much anyway ; )

So I'll be typing to you again in another couple of weeks with all of my experiences. Thanks in advance for your understanding!

Surrendering

It's been a while...

We've been on 14 rounds now for about a week now. As you can imagine, I haven't had much time for blogging. I have had some interesting experiences though---from extreme boredom to quite fantastical. I highly recommend this rounding business as an excellent way to peer into the depths of the mind, body and soul and see what's in there.

I've tried working several angles to make rounding easier for myself, including: rounding outside, rounding throughout the night with no sleep, group rounding, eating between rounds, fasting during rounds, using a clock, not using a clock, trying to induce sleep, etc etc etc.

And the conclusion is that nothing makes doing 14 rounds a day any easier or go by any quicker than simply surrendering to the process---the one thing I haven't done very successfully.

I guess I had to go through all of that to really get the whole "surrender" thing. So I'm going to try to surrender. Ha ha ha... sounds like an oxymoron. But I'll let you know what happens...

In the meantime, all is lively here in Flagstaff.

~L

A Round And A Round

There was a scene in Kevin Reynold's film version of the Alexander Dumas tale, 'The Count of Monte Cristo', where the main character, Dantes (a sailor who is falsely accused of treason by his best friend Fernand) winds up imprisoned on the island prison of Chateau d'If for a 13-year stretch.

And through a random set of circumstances, after spending the first few years in complete and utter solitude, he encounters a fellow prisoner called "Priest".

Now, it's been a while since I've seen the movie, but the scene goes something like this:

Dantes: There are 2,372 bricks in my cell.

Priest: Oh?

Dantes: (spaced out) I've counted them many times...

Priest: Yes---but have you named them yet??

...and this pretty much sums up what doing 14 rounds a day is like.

My rounds start at about 3am. Each one lasts about an hour (if you don't oversleep during savasana). There's a little break after the 7th round. And then they continue until just before 8pm.

So basically, from the time you guys shuffle into the bathroom in the middle of the night to pee, until the moment when you all pull up to your respective tables for dinner, think about us in Flagstaff still rounding.

And if you can, please continue to send your warm, supportive, encouraging energy to stay in the moment while we get through this phase of the training ; )

Appreciate it. Now, I've gotta go because I've gotta get started with my Rounds in less than 3 hours.

Goodnight and sleep tight!

Tribe

Sorry I've been out of touch for a couple of days.

All is well here in Arizona. We're starting to amp the meditations up a notch. Which means I'll probably have to start waking up even earlier (3:30am maybe?). It's all good though.

The group bonding experience is unlike any I've had before. It's very tribal. I was doing the math and I figured out that I have never consistently spent this much time around a group of people (including my family). Except for the time we spend meditating, we are together pretty much all day long.

Strangely, the lack of sleep and group bonding experiences are making me have flashbacks from my old college fraternity pledging days (sans the physical abuse of course). But that seems like another lifetime ago...

Anyway, off to our group dinner. Enjoy the evening!

L

Saturday

The highlight of my Saturday was not remembering that it was Saturday!

I was reminded when I went to get some take-out at one of my favorite local vegetarian restaurants, Morning Glory, and all they were serving---to my dissatisfaction---was brunch.

So I settled for a sandwich and a chair massage at the local health food.

The massage was pretty good, but not exceptional. And I'm on a search to find a very good massage therapist in Flagstaff. If you know of anyone, lemme know.

L