Ashram Life

So I've found myself staying at this Ashram near Neyar Dam. It wasn't till I arrived that I realized there was an actual dam near by. Things are pretty mellow up here. I'm in the jungle and quite ironically I'm staying in a tent. All the rooms were full, but there are some places for tents and here I am. Fortunately, I'm used to it, so I'm happy. In fact, the loud moldy rooms are far from what I want and if I could of had a choice. I would have chose this.

The daily routine is simple. I wake at five am to the clanging of a bell. Some days the bell ringer is mellow, some days it seems like his pants are on fire. At 6am, it's time to meditate. I never really thought about meditating before, but it's good for me. My brain is full of ideas and paintings and projects and all sorts of stuff, so it's good to give it a rest. It's like taking a vacation from myself.

The more I do it, the more I realize that I've meditated for years. When I paint, I'm basically doing the same thing, but at the end of the hour, I have something nice to look at. Yoga is at 8am and it's a two hour session. By the end of this month I'll have done more stretching then I have in my entire life. I'm actually doing pretty good with it, I never realized what having a dedicated one on one teacher all summer long would do. Having Ashlee around really helped me out and I didn't realize it till I came here.

10am: Breakfast. Vegetables every meal. No meat, just veggies and rice. You all would be so amazed at my eating habits. I know I am. The food is good here, although other people complain about the lack of variety. Since I lived off of pizza for nearly 10 years of my life, I can deal with the same food, so long as it's good food.

The afternoon is free and I'm usually out painting something or other. The are is pretty so the painting is going well. My watercolors improve with each piece. At 3:30 it's yoga time again. Another two hour session. This time in the hot, humid air. The afternoon class is brutal. Six o'clock and it's dinner time. More veggies, nothing else. Well there's some rice sometimes. After dinner it's guitar playing time. Actually it's free time, but someone here brought a guitar and is usually too busy to use it, so she let me keep it in my tent. It's been a savior. At 8:00, it's time to meditate again. Such repetition is bound to produce some results, but I can't tell you just what yet.

I'm in bed around 10, and the next day I repeat the same schedule as before. So all in all, things are mellow and good. My dreams have been intense and a little wacky. The people I'm surrounded by are some quality folks. I'll write more and post pictures some other day.