Enlightenment Training

Sunset at Asilomar State Beach

I've been gone, working on the long neglected spiritual side of myself. Before I was gone, it was the usual whirlwind of getting ready to leave. That combined with late evenings watching the Olympics accounts for my drought here of late.

The operative word here is training. This is not "Enlightenment Finished". It's not like you go off to college, get a degree and you're done. Enlightenment Training is a lifetime of work, or many lifetimes, if you believe in that kind of thing.

Yesterday morning, I was getting my last fix of enjoying the natural surroundings of my spiritual retreat. I took advantage of low tide and got my fill of searching for starfish. It's odd that in the four years I've gone to Asilomar, I haven't ever seen a starfish before. It wasn't until this year that I really looked. I'd been too busy looking for sea otters. The same is true of myself. If I'm always looking for one particular aspect of myself that I like that plays effortlessly in the waves, I miss the other gems that are tenaciously holding to the rocks while getting bashed by the impact of the waves.


I was able to recharge my batteries at the retreat and take a rest from all the craziness of the world, including the internet. I was able to connect with my spirit again, and drop the story of my recent trauma, if only for a short while. If you want a summary of what we learned in the retreat, you can read a book that my teacher wrote that came out a few months ago.


A. H. Almaas is the name my teacher writes under, like Phoebe is my writer's name. This book was written based on a retreat I attended five years ago. While we covered other topics in our retreat this year, the content is basically the same as this book. It all comes down to living in the present.

Coming soon: Life springs from the ashes of the Big Sur wildfire.