Blogging Fast

It occured to me this morning that it would be a good idea to stop blogging until I start to come down from 14 rounds. I'm finding it to be too distracting. And besides, you guys aren't missing out on much anyway ; )

So I'll be typing to you again in another couple of weeks with all of my experiences. Thanks in advance for your understanding!

Surrendering

It's been a while...

We've been on 14 rounds now for about a week now. As you can imagine, I haven't had much time for blogging. I have had some interesting experiences though---from extreme boredom to quite fantastical. I highly recommend this rounding business as an excellent way to peer into the depths of the mind, body and soul and see what's in there.

I've tried working several angles to make rounding easier for myself, including: rounding outside, rounding throughout the night with no sleep, group rounding, eating between rounds, fasting during rounds, using a clock, not using a clock, trying to induce sleep, etc etc etc.

And the conclusion is that nothing makes doing 14 rounds a day any easier or go by any quicker than simply surrendering to the process---the one thing I haven't done very successfully.

I guess I had to go through all of that to really get the whole "surrender" thing. So I'm going to try to surrender. Ha ha ha... sounds like an oxymoron. But I'll let you know what happens...

In the meantime, all is lively here in Flagstaff.

~L

A Round And A Round

There was a scene in Kevin Reynold's film version of the Alexander Dumas tale, 'The Count of Monte Cristo', where the main character, Dantes (a sailor who is falsely accused of treason by his best friend Fernand) winds up imprisoned on the island prison of Chateau d'If for a 13-year stretch.

And through a random set of circumstances, after spending the first few years in complete and utter solitude, he encounters a fellow prisoner called "Priest".

Now, it's been a while since I've seen the movie, but the scene goes something like this:

Dantes: There are 2,372 bricks in my cell.

Priest: Oh?

Dantes: (spaced out) I've counted them many times...

Priest: Yes---but have you named them yet??

...and this pretty much sums up what doing 14 rounds a day is like.

My rounds start at about 3am. Each one lasts about an hour (if you don't oversleep during savasana). There's a little break after the 7th round. And then they continue until just before 8pm.

So basically, from the time you guys shuffle into the bathroom in the middle of the night to pee, until the moment when you all pull up to your respective tables for dinner, think about us in Flagstaff still rounding.

And if you can, please continue to send your warm, supportive, encouraging energy to stay in the moment while we get through this phase of the training ; )

Appreciate it. Now, I've gotta go because I've gotta get started with my Rounds in less than 3 hours.

Goodnight and sleep tight!

Tribe

Sorry I've been out of touch for a couple of days.

All is well here in Arizona. We're starting to amp the meditations up a notch. Which means I'll probably have to start waking up even earlier (3:30am maybe?). It's all good though.

The group bonding experience is unlike any I've had before. It's very tribal. I was doing the math and I figured out that I have never consistently spent this much time around a group of people (including my family). Except for the time we spend meditating, we are together pretty much all day long.

Strangely, the lack of sleep and group bonding experiences are making me have flashbacks from my old college fraternity pledging days (sans the physical abuse of course). But that seems like another lifetime ago...

Anyway, off to our group dinner. Enjoy the evening!

L

Saturday

The highlight of my Saturday was not remembering that it was Saturday!

I was reminded when I went to get some take-out at one of my favorite local vegetarian restaurants, Morning Glory, and all they were serving---to my dissatisfaction---was brunch.

So I settled for a sandwich and a chair massage at the local health food.

The massage was pretty good, but not exceptional. And I'm on a search to find a very good massage therapist in Flagstaff. If you know of anyone, lemme know.

L

A Cosmic Voyage

This photo of Will Dalton and I was snapped at Lockett Meadows in the Coconino National Forest.

We took a field trip to Lockett Meadows yesterday as a way of resting and relaxing from all of our "unstressing", which can be a by-product of rounding.

The trip was welcome because we got to spend some quality time with each other in one of the most beautiful natural settings. I never imagined that Arizona was so topographically diverse.

The course is going well. We are going to start upping the daily number of rounds this coming week. So everyone is speculating and bracing themselves for that.



Just for the record, I try not to make a habit of blogging about my colleagues only because I would like to keep them and their experiences private.


Anyway, the night of my birthday Thom brought over a DVD called Cosmic Voyage. Morgan Freeman narrated us through a trip out to intergalactic space and back into microcosmic space---literally and visually, from the farthest reaches of the known Universe to the smallest particles that make up everything we see.

It was absolutely fantastic! And I highly recommend it. It offers a very useful a glimpse of the bigger picture of life.

So check that out when you can and I'll keep you guys posted on anything else good that comes my way.

L