vedana.net

The Vipassana course last week was wonderful. Ross (the assistant teacher for the course) recently completed a 60-day course with Goenkaji in India, and we could definitely feel the energy in the meditation hall. Also participating were some of the guys from the Tehi Tu prison rehabilitation program, as mentioned here. Hearing their stories on Day 10 was just like the Doing Time, Doing Vipassana video. So inspiring!

One of the students at the course is a classical sculptor living on Waiheke Island, and he did a bunch of stuff for Lord of the Rings, so I'm headed over to hang out on the island with him for a few days. He did the Mirror of Galadriel, several of the pieces in Rivendell and some from Lothlorien. There's a huge International Jazz Festival next weekend on the island, so I may end up staying a bit longer. Hopefully Delilah isn't getting too lonely back on the South Island!

I finally found some bandwidth here in Auckland, so I got the past month's batch of pictures online. I have heaps of stories to tell about them, so I'll get those online when I get a chance. In the meantime, enjoy and keep the comments and emails flowing!

There's a new woman in my life... Her name is Delilah, and she's a 1989 Nissan Sentra sport station wagon (picture coming eventually...). Beth and I parted ways about two weeks ago (peacefully of course, no animosity, yadda yadda) and I picked up the new ride back in Wanaka. Since then I've kept quite busy- an overnight horse trek in Cadrona, scuba diving in Milford Sound, an overnight kayaking trip in Doubtful Sound and most recently a fishing/oystering weekend trip to Stewart Island (where we heard speeches by and had tea with Sir Edmund Hillary [the first person to climb Mt. Everest] and Helen Clark [NZ's Prime Minister]).

All were amazing experiences, and I've much to post about them, but that'll have to wait another few weeks- tomorrow I'm flying up to Auckland for another 10-day Vipassana course at the center north of the city, so I'll be offline until the 25th. Gotta kick my spiritual development back into gear after a bit of down time...

I haven't found a decent Internet connection in weeks, which is why I'm so far behind on picture uploading. As for posting, I'll try not to let this happen again... Thanks for bearing with me!