Buddhist Camping Trip

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Dharma Punx (AgainstTheStream.org)

Dharma punks, campers, meditators, and Buddhists of Against the Stream, Los Angeles

A meditating "America" wears sweatshop-free American Apparel attire and holds a fine quality made-in-China American flag on a 4th of July parade float in Huntington Beach (KFI AM)

Meet author/founder Noah Levine

Wisdom Quarterly has been on vacation while the world falls apart.

Over the long Independence Day Weekend, we enjoyed a "Buddhist camping trip" at San Onofre State Beach Bluffs with Dharma Punx. It was a sold out, waiting list only event.
 

Dharma Punx of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society and guests reserved several campgrounds for 4th of July weekend at Old Man’s beach.

Body vs. board surfing (loltops.org)

It was not a retreat -- and not party central for the happy, clean living campers -- just an opportunity to spend time with sangha ("spiritual community") members, making campfires, surfing, hanging at the beach, and watching 4th of July fireworks.

Who is "Against the Stream"? This short clip shows a gathering at the Santa Monica branch of  Dharma Punx to see visiting Theravada monk Bhikkhu Bodhi for Buddhist Global Relief.
 

Camping dreams not reality

There were 50 people to begin with, but the camping was rougher than expected. It couldn't have helped that we're all spoiled cosmopolitans. The parties with the earliest reservations, first come first served basis, had it no better than the waitlisters really. Anyone looking for debauchery had to consider that there would be children, RVs, and tents.
 

It was four people to a car, three cars per site, so there was carpooling and ridesharing. That's when the fun began -- in addition to a meditation group sits and other activities throughout the weekend. But somehow someone forgot the Twister, or at least we didn't find it.
 

It was every person for him or herself, a real game of Survivor because we could enjoy activities, but ATS did not provide the food, drinks, water, firewood, tents, towels, or even sparklers! There should have been sparklers. ATS did not want to assume any liability for the weekend. It was only coordinating the logistics, and the rest was up to campers.
 

It's just camping and SoCal socializing

It wasn't free but it was cheap: $9 per person, per night (campsite fees) or $18 per person for the whole weekend, two-night minimum.

• San Onofre Bluffs and San Onofre Surf Beach are located south of San Clemente on I-5 (exit Basilone Road)
• BLUFF SITE: this section of the park offers campsites along the old Hwy 101 next to sandstone cliffs, six dirt trails with steep access to the beach.
• All campsites include fire pit and picnic table.

Bhikkhu Bodhi annually walks at Dharma Punx Santa Monica for Buddhist Global Relief

Sylvia Boorstein on Enlightenment (video)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Buddhist meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein (Spirit Rock), It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness

Marriage ceremony in Phuket, Thailand (Ted Richardson, Esq./flickr/thaiembassy.com)

 

Fischel's wife was a devi glowing in the dark (WQ)

When I started to practice meditation in the early seventies it was hip. Everybody was meditating; every weekend you could take a workshop in another form of meditation. The advertisements for the workshops usually suggested that at the end of the weekend you'd be totally enlightened.

I remember once going to a party that looked like a regular party -- people talking, visiting, and laughing -- and in the middle sat a woman with a strange look on her face, eyes closed, face serene, totally tuned out from the whole scene.

Somebody leaned over to me and said, "Look at her, she's enlightened," and I thought to myself, "If that's what enlightenment is, I don't want it."
 

Meditation for levitation (Ruwan_W/flickr)

What I did want, at least for a while, were exotic powers. I heard extraordinary stories of people who could bilocate or levitate. Sometimes, as I sat on my cushion and experienced an unusual lightness in my body, I imagined I was about to levitate. I hoped I would. I thought it would be a far-out thing, rising up off my cushion and floating in the air.

I think I was also influenced by a story my grandfather told about my grandmother -- a woman who died when I was nine years old. I knew here as a sickly old woman, but my grandfather remembered her as the very beautiful woman he had married when she was 18 years old. He told me she was so beautiful that "she glowed in the dark." I asked him if he really meant that, and he said, "Yes, she really did." 

He said, "At my nephew Murray Fox's wedding, the hall was lit with gaslight because it was before electricity, so it was quite dark, and everyone said, 'Look at Fischel's wife, she shines in the dark!'" I held that as a wonderful, luminous memory and as an ideal. What I wanted to achieve from my meditation practice was to shine in the dark. I think a lot of us in the early days wanted magic.

My Buddhist meditation teachers, whom I met in 1977, talked about enlightenment but not about magic. They talked about "seeing clearly" and how it could mean happiness and the end of suffering. That sounded like the kind of magic I wanted most. More

• It's Easier Than You Think (sylviaboorstein.com)
• Quotes: It's Easier Than You Think (Goodreads.com)

The Avatars Are Coming?

Semjase space devi

(NYC812) Odd narrator speculates that the sun is affecting human DNA causing the emergence of human-star-people hybrids. They are incarnating into avatar bodies birthed by ordinary terrestrial parents. Why? A mother who gives birth to such a baby will love her child no matter how different that child is. In this way, extraterrestrials arrive integrated into the fabric of the existing society. So if a black couple gives birth to a blond, blue-eyed, classically Eurocentric "angel" baby, that baby will be loved. Who can explained such children being born to Asian couples? "The wife cheated" is the rational if harsh conclusion. But then an Egyptian couple has twins, one white one not. How could beautiful, non-albino children be so white they practically glow in the dark?

Spiritual is Ordinary (football)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Buddhist meditation teacher Sylvia Boorstein (Spirit Rock), It's Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness

(MT) FOX NFL Sunday, Part D'oh -- the historic intersection between The Simpsons and FOX NFL

Sylvia Boorstein (OB)

A few years ago I was teaching in another city, and the person who was to be my host telephoned me in advance to see if I had any special food requirements. I appreciated his concern and explained my eating preferences. I also mentioned that I don't normally eat much for breakfast but that I do like coffee in the morning.

He replied, in a very surprised voice, "You drink coffee?" I realized I had just made a heretical confession. I needed to do some fast mind scrambling to find a graceful way to explain to my host (without losing my spiritual stature) that I do, indeed, drink coffee.

"You drink coffee?" (funny-pics.co)

There are some peculiar notions about what constitutes "being spiritual." I have a cartoon on the wall of my office that shows two people having dinner in a restaurant. One of them is saying to the other, "It's such a relief to meet someone who isn't on a spiritual question." I agree. There is an enormous possibility of getting sidetracked into self-conscious holiness, of putting energy into acting the part of a "spiritual person."

Outside of the US, football doesn't matter. But futbol (soccer) means the world.
 

Ball games keep us fit for war (theworld.org)

A dear friend of mine, as he has become more and more established as a meditation teacher, has become less and less hesitant about telling people he loves football games. He even admits he gets very excited about the games, cheering at his television set as if he were sitting in the stadium.
 

No dispassionate attitude of "May the best man win" for him! I know he has a wonderful level of understanding, and he behaves like a regular person in a regular world. Being a meditator and developing equanimity do not mean becoming weird.

I think I chose the title for this book long before the book itself was written. Indeed, I was motivated to write largely because I wanted to tell people that spiritual living does not need to be a big deal. More

• It's Easier Than You Think (SylviaBoorstein.com)
• Quotes: It's Easier Than You Think (Goodreads.com)

(Smithsonian) Video games can become an obsessive distraction.

Loving Kindness with Sylvia Boorstein (video)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Trent Gilliss (OnBeing.org, May 7, 2011)

Extending love (metta) to all quarters of the universe? The Dark Universe exhibition displays works that use light and sound to explore the boundaries of awareness (Rene Passet/flickr)

Accomplished Buddhist meditation teach Sylvia Boorstein speaks with Krista Tippett

 

Boorstein (Trent Gilliss/onbeing.org)

In February, On Being partnered with WDET to hold a live event in a quaint suburban village outside of Detroit, USA. The topic was "raising children in complex times."

Host Krista Tippett’s conversation with Sylvia Boorstein was rolling along nicely: Stories were being told, approaches to child-rearing were being shared...

 

Then, unexpectedly, Boorstein (a Jewish Buddhist teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center near San Francisco, California) offered to lead a loving-kindness, or metta, meditation for a crowd of more than 300.

 

How would the crowd react, whose members may never have attended a meditation or mindfulness retreat of any kind? What to expect? What resulted was a magical experience in which the audience fully participated in this unannounced moment of reflection.

If readers are game, On Being offers this video to use as a guided meditation. Will this live experience translate into a fruitful online experience?

Sex, Intimacy, Communication on Buddhist Path

Seth Auberon and Gary Sanders, Wisdom Quarterly

"Adore," the next "Lolita" with tables turned on boys by cougars (Gaumont/zimbio.com)

Sex, Intimacy, and Communication on the Buddhist Path

Don't stare at my chest; it's censored!

A unique series will explore what the Buddha taught as principles for lay practitioners regarding relationships and sexuality. The format will include meditation, Dharma talks, and open discussions.

 

Facilitator JoAnna Harper will also leap forward 2,600 years to a growing population of non-monastic Buddhist practitioners living life in the world of sensuality, desire, and intimate sexual relationships. Relatively little is found on these topics in Buddhism. 

 

Sex on the brain (GM)

But this class series is a beautiful opportunity to discover our own relationship to these sensitive topics on how to live life fully while causing less distress to ourselves and others around us.

This four-week series covers the third precept -- not causing harm with our sexuality, renouncing clinging through voluntary celibacy, how a strong mindfulness practice can open us to greater intimacy with others and deepen our communication skills.

• Four-Week Series with JoAnna Harper
• Mondays starting Oct. 7, 7:30-9:00 pm
• Against the Stream, Melrose

COST: $20 per evening, plus dana for the teacher. $10 discount if paid in advance. Scholarships and work study are available and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. INFO/REGISTER

JoAnna Harper (spiritrock.org)

JoAnna Harper has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999.  In 2005, her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana (insight meditation) in particular, which is the basis of most of her current teachings. She facilitates adult and teen weeklong silent retreats, day longs, and weekly classes; she also works with at-risk youth and others in institutional and school settings. She has been trained in council facilitation through the Ojai Foundation, is a graduate of Noah Levine's Against the Stream teacher training program, and is currently in the Spirit Rock/IMS/IMC four-year teacher training. She is a grateful mother of two children, CJ and Harris, who are her main inspirations.

• 4300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood/LA (parking around center)
• Chairs, mats, and cushions provided.
• Against the Stream.org or (323) 665-4300
• Donate to the ATS scholarship fund

Buddhism and the 12 Steps (Kevin Griffin)

Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Kevin Griffin, Heather Sundberg, Vajrapani Institute

Laughing Buddha: music steeped in African, Latin, and reggae rhythms, with versatile guitar and lyrics with Buddhist themes recorded by Kevin Griffin, portion of proceeds support American Abhayagiri and British Amaravati Buddhist monasteries (kickstarter.com)

We did drugs, we devolved, and we daily strive to come back --  here's how. Intoxicated, one becomes as much a brute as reality show "cave people" shown here.

 

The Buddha said that craving is the [proximate] cause of suffering. Twelve-Step programs work with the deepest forms of craving, our addictions. How can these two traditions, one secular the other spiritual, work together?

A unique meditation retreat combining Buddhist practices with 12-Step work is in the offing. There is still time to join. It is a four-day intensive with author Kevin Griffin (One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, 2004, and A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery, 2010) and (Jack Kornfield's Spirit Rock/Joseph Goldstein's Insight Meditation Society) teacher Heather Sundberg.

A Burning Desire (kevingriffin.net)

Using silent insight meditation, interactive exercises, lecture, and discussion, the weekend will explore the ways that Buddhism and the Steps complement one another. Such topics as powerlessness, higher power, inventory, amends, and spiritual awakening. All recovery programs and paths are welcome.

The emphasis will be on bringing mindfulness to all our activities, whether in formal sitting meditation, walking, speaking, listening, or eating. Participants will practice Noble Silence outside of the interactive exercises and discussion periods.

Kevin Griffin is one of the leaders of the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. A longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12-Step participant, he teaches nationally on the synthesis of these two traditions.

(heathersundberg.com)

Heather Sundberg has combined her personal experience with meditation and 12-Step work for 20 years. She completed the four-year Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training and is also a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders program. She has studied with senior teachers in the Insight Meditation (vipassana) and Tibetan (Vajrayana) traditions and has sat 1-3 month of retreat a year for over a decade. She is a teacher for Mountain Stream Meditation Center in the Sierra Foothills and also teaches classes, daylongs, and retreats nationally.

• Vegetarian meals and dorm-style room included in $350 cost
  
• Camping is also available for a slightly lower rate.
• Small number of single rooms and cabins are also available.

Teachers and retreat manager/registrar may be offered donations for their efforts at the end of the retreat. They receive no other financial compensation. For registration and information contact Quilley: quilley@yahoo.com or (510) 682-6873.

Kevin Griffin (Berkeley, August 2013) treats us to a soulful, tasty guitar solo as he wraps up a truly wonderful gathering with friends, which included song, dance, and sweet treats in celebration of the release of his newest CD, "Laughing Buddha."

•  Why was J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) a recluse?