yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

I have attended 2 retreats at Tushita . An introductory retreat during June 2022 and an intermediate retreat during May 2023; each spanning 9 days. During the first I did not end up taking notes other than during the couple of days towards the end. It was more about just being there, observing, absorbing, and walking in the campus. During the second I enjoyed putting the pencils, the sharpeners, and the diary I had taken along, to work. Perhaps I was more at ease during the intermediate retreat, perhaps I had an urge to just get it all out, or perhaps I was just enjoyed the act of writing, the sound of pencil caressing paper amidst the silences of the Himachal hills. Some musing from my notes. Tushita A meditation centre, around 50 years of age, and if you enjoy walking in the hills - a pleasant walk uphill from the main traffic junction at Mcleodgunj. The Hyatt Hotel and the Goenka Vipassana Centre are its neighbours. We Indians seem to be flocking to Dharamkot only during the recent ...

Old Path White Clouds People wiser have taught us how it is the book that decides how and when it will interact with us and not the other way round. Old Path White Clouds underscored this dictum yet again for me. It is 7 months now that we had purchased the book (from, of course, our favourite book store ). Since, it sat (needless to add, peacefully) on the rack - an arm's length from where we sit and chat at the end of each day.   Reading Old Path White Clouds accompanied by the vacation sounds (read quality silences) on the campus has been special. I had enjoyed, on similar lines, my time with the two books I had read during the previous vacation - Learning from silence and Sachha Sur .  Like I did with the previous two books, with this book too, I went slow and after every few pages or so I took a break to absorb what I had read. The mahaul around only helped - the silences outside gelling aptly with the inner silences, peace, and calm these books talk about.  I read...