A decent from the clouds: Nilambe Meditation Center

Meditation hall :)

Cloud livin'

hiking up to Nilambe, me myself and I

botanical gardens: Kandy

Tea plantations

Our hotel in Trinco (aka traveling with no guide book is the best thing ever)

Rafa y yo, and a delicious king coconut

Buddha felt like coming home compared to all the gods of India

This might be hard for some of you (cough cough dad:) ) to believe, but I love being quiet. I've arrived back into the city of Kandy from a wonderful retreat at the Nilambe Meditation Center. The schedule is a little something like this: 445 gong wakes us, 5-6 morning meditation, 6-630 the most deliciously needed cup of tea, 630-730 yoga, 730-8 scrumptious mindful breakfast, 8-915 working meditation, 930-11 meditation, 11-12 outdoor meditation, 12-1230 lunchmm, 1230-230 library hours and rest time, 230-4 meditation, 4-430 the precious tea and mindful talking time, 430-530 yoga, 530-630 watching the sunset, 630-730 chanting and meditation, 730 snack, and at 8 there is a talk or we retreat to our rooms.

I love being in a room with people for hours, just sitting, breathing, being quiet. I love walking in a forest with friends, no words needed to form such friendship and no words capable of describing the beauty of that very moment, the majesty of the trees. Words are another structure, a necessary tool, sometimes failing to do justice to a moment, a place, a peace.

When one is quiet, each moment is a fresh, blooming flower. Flashes of unspeakable beauty passed before me, memories of all the things that fill me with awe, all the people. And yet as the present moment whispers of the only truth capable of touching, a smile cracks on my face. What if "god" was a similie for the smile of a rare orchid, a hungry child, a lost friend? What if it was the wind waltzing with your hair, or every single molecule in your body? god, peace, allah, rama, love, jesus, prabhujee, hope, buddha, yahweh, earth.

I long for the breaking of structures, language, borders--so that our uniquely universal experience could decend upon our collective consciousness. We are all someone's child. We all come from love.

If you desire to check out more about this place, which I can imagine you must be, check out their website here :)
http://www.nilambe.org/

Namaste,
Laurita