Week five

Not too much to report this week, learnt a little bit about rock walls hanging out with one of my neighbours (my neighbours are great!)
I have been trying to focus on meditation, but since leaving the retreat the technique seems 10 times harder, or I am not as good at it. I think this is to be expected and definitely not something to feel disappointed about, or the whole effort of going there would be a waste of time.
Putting the new chainsaw to work on the bamboo has been fun. The less fun bit is dragging it all into piles away from where I am clearing. The cleared area has bamboo trap spikes sticking up everywhere, the bases that are left when i cut them away, that would be very painful to fall on. Hopefully the mattock will dig them up nicely.

There is a really nice space developing where the bamboo is cleared. MAybe new meditation spot.

This morning I was woken by a very distinctive noise in the roof… I went outside and had my first encounter with the resident python. A real beauty, I would guess it was 2.5m in length. Alas no good photos as of yet. But my new camera should be operational tomorrow so hopefully I will see it again soon.

This is the other pile. It is about as big as my house, but not as tall yet. Iam worried about leaving this much dry plant material lying around in a pile, but other than burning it I dont know what to do with it. Ifigure slowly burning it all in a 44gal drum is the idea.

So this is looking down to the same area Iphotoed in a previous week. Progress!

Here’s a bit of cleared space that is starting to look nice, with a view back to the house.

Another cleared bit. The bamboo is quite dense so you don’t know what things look like til you clear it. This will be my area of focus now, Im starting to find the edge, and I want to stop it spreading into the bush any further, so I will cut the edges back next. This area has collected leaf litter and debris in big piles about 2-3 feet deep. Im not sure how far this will continue, but Im very happy to have my nice new chunky comfy gumboots to protect me from all the unknowns and the evil bamboo spikes you can see in the area.

So that’s about it for now. I have finished the Jean Auel Earth’s Children series and I am moving on to some Greg Egan Orthogonal series – Clockwork Rocket. Heavy on the maths most of which is waaay over my head but still a fun story.

Vipassana

So I am just back from 10 days of Vipassana. 

It was both gruelling and amazing. 4:30 am starts through to 9:30 pm bedtime, around 11 hours of meditation each day. Buddha boot camp. Mental marathon. If I were to sum up Vipassana in one sentence it would be: Sit very still and do not complain, not even to yourself. But that is just making light of something incredibly deep and complex.

It is very difficult to describe briefly but I will try. Vipassana is about awareness and equanimity. You are supposed to sit with a straight neck and back and do a specific kind of meditation without reacting to any internal or external stimuli, getting your awareness to the point that you can detect sensations and reactions that happen below your ordinary conscious leve whilst remaining calm and equanimous whilst your mind and body throws every ache, pain, interesting thought, fantasy, doubt and insecurity it can summon at your consciousness. It was a rollercoaster ride of sitting very still. I found it really wonderful to be around 60 other people but not have to talk to them or look at them or even acknowledge them in any way. MAles and females are segregated for the duration of the course, and I really understand why… just the site of a female was enough to send me into lusty hormonal distraction for hours. My brain was very rebellious, so many inventive efforts to try and distract me. I had this song stuck in my head on repeat for two days straight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mui4CM2SKWM

 Amazing things happened to me. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I know some people reading this will be doing vipassana soon and I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. But observing my cravings and aversions really made me understand myself a whole lot better. I feel like Ihave a lot more control over my deciions and reactions now.
The Centre where I did the 10 days is in Pomona in QLD. Very Beautiful. The local animals have learnt that meditators don’t pose a threat to them, and no longer care. Iwould have to walk around kangaroos to leave my room as they wouldn’t get out of the way and enjoyed sunning themselves on my doorstep. Kookaburras would land a foot away from my head and stare at me meaningfully before trying to nose through ones plate of food. Magpies and butcher birds would try to take food out of your hand if you werent paying attention. 

I saw pythons and frogs and birds galore.

This is the friendly chap who wanted in on the food

This was the view from my bungalow door

This is the view from the gardens near the meditation hall

This was a little wattles birds attempt at a nest. He was doing so badly that when I found an abandoned nest on the ground, Iput it near his attempt, he immediately grabbed it and just stuffed it down on top of his pile of sticks. You can see his messy effort under the nice new nest.

One of the little ones. There was a full mob of Kangaroos that lived at the retreat. Didn’t seem to have any reason to leave. There were at least three generations all of whom were very cute.
So thats it for the photos. I don’t feel like Ihave done vipassana justice in my description. It took me to the edge of my mental endurance. Some days I would be awestruck at the profound realisations and experiences I was having, and the next day Iwould be convinced it was all a scam and I should never meditate again. The truth I guess is somewhere in the middle, and the challenge is being aware enough not to get caught in the delusions of either extreme.

Anyhow I feel really good about it, really pleased with myself for giving my best effort at least 90% of the time. Iplan to go back and do another course as a server – preparing food and general assistance with only 3 hours of meditation a day instead of 11. Ill do this when Jess does her first course so I will be there to give her a big hug when she walks out the gate.

I made a friend there who is travelling from Scotland, took him back home to chill out for a few days and talk philosophy which was a nice way to integrate our experiences. I am back on my own now and feeling really confident and motivated to put in a solid effort at meditating 2 hours every day, getting back on the wim hof and revelling in my solitude again.

Oh yeah, anyone with any great designs for a chook shed, let me know. Im about to start building one, if it ever stops raining…

Week Three

So this week has been all about getting over a cold and learning not to feel guilty for not doing any ‘work’.

I was going to set up an archery range, and found myself feeling guilty for not doing all of the things I knew were on the to do list first. Once I realised I was feeling guilty Itook the whole day off to go fishing in the lake.

Which really just means reading in the sun with a fishing rod in the water. There isn’t much to catch in there at the moment. Lots of tiny rainbow fish the other landowners hate and want to get rid of.
There used to be some freshwater bass in the lake, which are meant to feed on tiny fish but they dont breed and are probably gone by now.
The other landowners are also complaining that the water doesn’t seem as clear as it used to be. To me it looks like that would be because there are no aquatic plants. I volunteered to do a bit of research and see if i could find out what would help clean up the water, and how to get rid of pesky tiny fish – I think putting lots of predatorial big fish in to eat them all that I can then fish for sounds like a good idea 🙂

But if anyone knows who I should be contacting to find out more about dams, fish for dams, cleaning up water using plants, do let me know. I have a few ideas but more is always welcome.

Sorry if the pictures are rubbish but its too bright to see what im taking pictures of.

It rained most of the week which helped me relax and not feel like Ineeded to do much.

I got a few more cacti in the ground and chopped some more bamboo. Got my first tick. Awful things.

I am doing lots of stretching, seeing an osteopath and practicing sitting up straight as I am off to Vipassana next week for silent meditation retreat. Don’t know how I am going to hold up to 6+ hours a day of sitting straight meditating, but I’m going to give it a crack.
When I sit real still with the door open curious birds come and peek into the house until they notice I am there. Haven’t yet got them to eat any seed and when I leave meal worms out for them they crawl away before anything has eaten them. Need to make  a nice rat proof bird feeder.

More rat dramas, another failed rat killing method. Projectile apparatus was bloody and looked painful. Onto next method… Carbon Monoxide. Going to use generator fumes channeled into a bucket/bag.

Doing good at wim hof, breath retentions over 4 minutes. I’m really feeling good about the cold showers now. Can jump right under without flinching or gasping, and I know the water nust be bloody cold because it gives me an ice cream headache rinsing my hair!

Bought me  chainsaw but haven’t got to use it due to crappy weather. Ah well sooon.

It’s night time, I can hear noises like something is throwing coconut shells at the house and some kind of non human screaming noises from the bush with much rustling and commotion. I suspect yowies.