Morning Mist.....

First morning of the retreat....after breakfast i headed out with my camera...the mist was so dense and heavy, raindrops dripping from every branch!

This image somehow made it for me...the raindrops, the fog and Ani Lhamo one of the teachers from Gampo Abbey - heading over to the meditation room after breakfast.

It's been a very enlightening morning....listened to a talk given by Pema Chodron, one of my favorite Buddhist writers.....talking about a very difficult subject to encapsulate....Shenpa .....has to do with those emotional hooks we find ourselves constantly trying to change, get rid off or as least just understand. That moment when you realise you are behaving in a habitual way, and you really don't like the outcome or the process...but still you find yourself repeating the old pattern. Scientist have now proven that we can in fact redirect the impulse that heads us off in that old pattern, treading again on those well worn neurotransmitter pathways.....always with the same outcome...be it yelling, smoking, eating too much, drinking too much...whatever the habit is....whichever drug of choice you are addicted to! Meditation is a huge part in the process. It would be too crazy to even attempt to put forward my understanding of this teaching!!! Suffice to say, it generated a great deal of discussion which is always so revealing.

Now, after a delicious veggie pizza and salad lunch....time for a bit of reading!