Back In Hot Water

Last weekend saw my first visit to Wilbur this year; they had decided not to have events up on the yoga deck during the winter, which I totally understood, but then it was still a while before I received an invitation to teach up there. I was glad to be back, and the long-time staff said they were glad to have me back – perhaps I will make it back there in the spring.

It was nice to go up with Ruth; we left Georgie with her niece for the weekend and suffered through heavy traffic on the 80. It was still hot when we arrived. Getting out of the car, I appreciated the incredible quiet of the place. We had an early dinner and afterwards stayed in the baths until the stars were out, and the half moon was peeking through the trees.

As always I slept deeply while I was there, but was also awake to go out and watch the sun rise on the burnt hills all around the property from the recent Ridge Fire – I heard about the winter flooding as well, so they have had quite the year there. From my experiences at Tassajara, the charred landscape did not disturb me, and most of the trees seemed to have survived.

It was not particularly busy, so we had small numbers for the meditation sessions, but I was glad that several staff members were able to attend one of the three sessions offered. Other than that, we got to relax in the offline world and the always peaceful surroundings. It was 101 degrees on Saturday, though the wind picked up a little during the day, and Sunday was cool and cloudy (I wondered if I was a harbinger of unseasonal cool after the same happened after we arrived at Tassajara).

When we drove back on Sunday afternoon, we found the Bay Area covered in dreary clouds and with a strong wind blowing for the rest of the day. There was an autumnal feel which was only exacerbated by the cold front that sat over the city for the first part of the week. I had hoped to see this month’s supermoon rise on Tuesday evening, but there was no break in the clouds.

In terms of teaching, on Monday we got the student group together at my place for the first time since Tassajara, and were joined on Zoom by one of our members who has been on a career break and traveling with his family. The Tuesday morning sits have been going well, and I am starting to prepare for my Dogen class, and looking at dates to go to England.

If you follow the fortunes of Roaming Zen, after an announced 100% hike in Meetup organiser dues, I am paving the way for taking Roaming Zen off there (I have almost 2000 members, but the vast majority have never attended an event), and bulking up my email list. I decided to set up an Instagram account as well, so you can find out what’s going on in that world.