The Italian center

I was happy to see my friends Ed and Junko from Japan were the Assistant teachers for this course. I arrived a day early, so spent some time doing some clean up around the center, and admiring the sensational view that, during the course, only the women are able to appreciate. (Once the course started I felt a tinge of jealosy, but it passed fairly quickly with observation :)

The Satipattana course is a special course for old students only, that involves comparing one's own meditation experience with a famous sutta the Buddha gives in the town of Kuru. The atmosphere is excellent and students work very seriously. From the very beginning, even Day 0 before the course begins, one can feel a marked difference in the calm pervading. It is really wonderful motivation to sit a long course. For me, these eight days were a very nice kind of summary of the previous courses in Massachussetts and Switzerland, where I wasn't really able to settle down into the more subtle points of the technique. I was able to really benefit from this, and I hope to have some more sitting opportunities very soon to build on this-- it is so difficult to keep these subtle awarenesses away from this concentrated environment. "It is a hard path, really, a hard path" I kept thinking during this course, and by the end, I remembered how amazing it is that this practice leads to real inner purity and peace. This is the actual product of all that time on the cushion, though only direct experience can confirm this.

After the course I stayed a day or two longer to chat with Ed and Junko and sample some more of those pasta dishes. I also took a small trip with a friend to try to find some gelato in a nearby town. A word on gelato... I had first had this seven years previous on my last visit to Italy. I completely forgot how this tasted during this time, but felt that I was never able to find ice cream since that could compare. Just before going to the center, I had a cup, and was blown away by how good it was! So after the course ended, we found this very small town where old men and teenagers alike stopped and stared open-mouthed at the new arrivals, and found some home-made gelato in one restaurant. Funny, after so long of training the mind to observe objectively, it was totally impossible to roll in the pleasant sensation and craving this very good gelato was trying to induce... the whole world is maya :)

I got a ride and took the train to Milan, wanting a day by myself in the "real world" before my flight to London. A nice walk around the city, seeing the impressive Duomo cathedral (with Latin chanting in the background) and a castle, but as usual, it couldn't compare with where I had been within...