Leaches. Leaches suck the spirituality to the surface of one’s pores, washing, nay basking the meditator with a heavenly aura…
Well, this is at least what I would like to believe having had several of the evil blood-thirsty bastards gnawing at my feet en route to a remote meditation retreat!
“Yeeeeeeeeeeeee, Oooohhhhhhhh, Aggggghhhhhhhhh, Ughhhhhhhhh!” These were the cries bolting distruptfully through the peace of the mountainside. I’m near certain that the meditators located on the top were shaken from their inner peace by the squeals of four hysterical girls. I hate to be a living, breathing gender stereotype, but I was in this situation, nothing less than a screaming girl!
Having unceremoniously ripped the teeth from our skin, we proceeded upwards in the rain to find a world hidden away from reality. Indeed some of the longer-term residents had escaped reality for six years or so. We were escaping for the weekend.
Night was falling so we joined a chanting session before crunching our dinner of crusty bread and tea in silence. Back at our room – a tiny concrete cell with thin mattresses, no electricity and a bucket suspiciously sat in the corner, we tried to sleep at 8:30pm. It was dark but switching off the mind so early on a Saturday night was a foreign feeling.
At 4:45am, a bell rang out, coaxing the meditators out of bed. One hour meditation pulled us into the new day. Having had no real meditation experience, one hour was a challenge. My mind kept drifting away like a pushbike in a cross-wind. Working meditation was another interesting experience… And guess what job I scored? Women’s toilet block! “Meditate Elise, meditate harder Elise, it’s not a toilet, it’s a fountain!”
After Dhamma yoga, soya bean breakfast and meditation in the garden among the flowers and I wanted to shun my heavy, dark clothing for white linen. The awareness hung in the air with such physicality that you could reach out and hold it in your arms. I could definitely revisit this place but at the same time, it made me curious about its long term residents and the lives they had left behind, the people they had left behind. Plus, who could deal with the leaches for six years anyway?!
