Travels, Blue Bunny Retreat, 2010

Click here to see the next page of this series.

Click on click here to see the prior page of this series.

Click on any of the little pictures to see it at normal size. Click on the '=0=' after the picture to see it in giant size (about 2 minutes to download on dialup connection and larger than screen size). This could be useful if you wanted to really look at one part of the picture or to make a print.

After Hatha Yoga (or whatever we were doing that morning), we have breakfast from 8AM to 9AM at Horizon. They try to keep the cost of the retreat down by asking that each participant help with various tasks. That was actually one of the practices at the retreat, karma yoga (or seva with Siddha Yoga Meditation). I signed up for cleaning the pots as I love hard work and many people don't like to clean the pots. The only problem was that it was hard to clean all the serving pots by 9AM for the next practice. Another task was preparing the next meal. Here is Lamala with Kay, Kristi, and Sue chopping vegetables for lunch. You can also see me (or at least my shoulder) slaving away over the pots! :-) Now I know how Cinderella felt. ;-) Lamala, Kay, Kristi, and Sue.
Another task is to serve the Lama. Here is Shelli serving Lamala with Kay's help. Shelli works with Dawa in Denton and was only here for Thursday / Friday (she had to help run the store). Below are more pictures of Shelli. Lamala, Shelli and Kay. =0=
Shelli. =0= Shelli. =0=
From 9AM to 10AM (or 10:30AM in most cases) there is some form of meditation. If the weather is nice it is walking meditation and we had great weather, so for the 2010 retreat there was walking meditation every morning except Friday morning when we were packing. The walks all start at Discovery with Lamala giving us direction (video) such as being silent, spaced five or six feet apart, and mindful (so that it isn't just a nice hike in the woods). Meditation Walk. =0=
Here and below is a picture of the mindful meditation walk; there is also a short video. We normally hike to a very nice location and then meditate there (below). I also made a video of us meditating by a stream. Meditation Walk.. =0=
Meditation Walk. =0= Meditating at top of hill. =0=
On the first day we took the easy route (road most of the way) to the top of the hill that overlooks Camp El Tesora where we meditated for about five minutes (above and here). View from top of hill. =0=
The next day we hiked to the stream. Maureen wanted to see this picture, but I only had my Droid cell phone. I am not sure what she was looking for.... I took the pictures below of the stream as well as a video so you can hear the stream. The sun gave my Droid fits in the pictures, but is not such a problem in the videos as I changed the angle in the videos. We end each meditation with a chant on 'Om Mane Pinme Hung' as you can hear in this video (though I need to learn to stop chanting when making videos as I am too loud in the video). Stream, Camp El Tesoro. =0=
Stream, Camp El Tesoro. =0= Stream, Camp El Tesoro. =0=
The stream and river were much higher than usual as there had been heavy rain the week before. On the road between Discovery and Horizon there is a nice view of the Brazos River (shown here). I made a short video so you can hear the river (which was not usual). Brazos River Overlook. =0=
Click here to see the next page in this series.

This page was last updated on April 15, 2010.