Seaside Meditation

1. Have friends who invite you to stay at their fabulous place on Molokai, the most undeveloped of the Hawaiian Islands.

2. After number 1 is fulfilled the rest is easy.

3. Walk across the parking lot, saying hello to a resident peacock, then on to  the beach path.

4. Follow the path through the waving grass.

5. Soon you start hearing the breakers. They're especially loud today.

6. Keep walking, taking in the beauty and the majestic sound of the waves.

7. Find a good rock to leave your shoes.

8. Keep walking, enjoying the resistance of the sand, feeling it cover your feet as you move down to the softer areas.  Marvel at the unbounded power and beauty of nature.

9. Take enough photos to satisfy your desire to preserve this moment. (No breaker or spray on the rocks is safe from my camera!)

10. Find a flat rock that's fairly comfortable with a good view that you will eventually force yourself to ignore.

11. Give thanks for it all. Fill your eyes with the glory of nature and being here at this peaceful moment. Then, do the hardest thing of all - close your eyes.  Focus on that other glorious beauty, which is eternal and all-satisfying: the spiritual eye.

I Get IT Now

I've been on the island of Molokai, Hawaii less than 24 hours and I see now why people love it. Why they will completely reorganize their mainland lives so that they can get back to their island paradise.  Yes, I know, in this world there is no perfect paradise.  Human and mechanical problems will follow us to the end of our days. But you know what I mean.  Paradise in the sense that being here puts world news and problems in a larger perspective.  A place where the world may indeed be going to hell in a hand basket, but look at that sunset, those endless waves, feel the soft winds of the 'trades.'  It's a place where TV and the Internet are available but you don't want to access them.  Even this is too much verbiage.  Simply be here.  Just listen, feel, experience.