A Half Day in the Mountains at Jikoji — A Quiet Bay Area Weekend

On Saturday, June 20th. The DAI took a small group up to Jikoji Zen Center for an outing

From Palo Alto, it's about 45 minutes into the hills behind town. The cell signal drops one bar at a time until it's gone. In the carpool, the newer folks loosened first — once the bars disappeared, the conversation slid into the mode where nobody is starting a topic, and nobody is wrapping one up. Whatever surfaces, surfaces.

Arriving

We signed in at Jikoji and drifted into the zendo before doing anything else. The wood in that room has been sitting there long enough that you smell it before you see it, and your steps slow on their own. Rebecca walked everyone through a little of Jikoji's history — quietly, in the way the room asked for.

The walk

From the zendo we headed up into the back hills. Pine needles crunching the whole way. The forest was wet — water in the air, moss covering the stones in that bright, almost glowing green you only get in the Santa Cruz Mountains after a damp week. The creek was always somewhere nearby, running softly off to the side of the trail.

Then at one bend the trees suddenly opened, and there — far out — was a thin strip of the Pacific where the sky and the sea meet, in that pale, washed-out blue you almost can't believe is real. Everyone stopped for a moment. I think each of us was having our own private version of that moment 🍑.

Coming down

Back at the bottom, we did a few minutes of standing meditation, then spread out blankets and ate. A couple of people went back into the zendo, or wandered down to the lake behind it to sit on their own. The mountain only had three sounds in it: birds, the creek, and the occasional laugh from someone in our group. Nature has a way of doing that work for you.

For most of those hours, nobody seemed to remember their phone or their laptop existed 🍑.

If this sounds like your kind of Saturday

We have a mindfulness space in downtown Palo Alto, and every so often we open the door out into the mountains instead. The next time we do this, you're welcome to raise your hand 🍑.

When was the last time you went half a day without your phone? Probably longer ago than you think.

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湾区周末｜jikoji山中半日，悠哉小聚🌿

上周六空间组织了 jikoji 慈光寺踏青活动（撒花～～）从 Palo alto 往山后开了半个小时，信号一格一格掉光。车里 carpool 的新朋友们反而松下来，开始进入一种不用起头也不用收尾的聊天模式，聊到什么是什么。到了慈光寺签到后先晃进禅堂，木头沉淀下来的气味让步子自己就慢了下来，旁边是 Rebecca 带着大家介绍着 jikoji 的一些故事。往后山走，松针脆脆地铺了一路，林子里水汽很足，石头上覆满青苔很漂亮，溪水声始终在近旁轻轻地流动着。走到一个拐弯处树影忽然散开，远处露出一小片海天相接的太平洋，蓝得很淡很淡。大家驻足了片刻，应该是各自在享受各自的瞬间吧🍑

下山站了会儿桩，铺开垫子吃东西，还有的朋友回到禅堂和后面的湖边自行冥想。山里只有鸟叫，溪水声和时不时的笑声，大自然总是有着治愈的力量。这段时间似乎没人想起手机和电脑～🍑

我们在 Palo Alto 有个正念空间，偶尔就把门开到山里去，下次还来欢迎举手报名～🍑

你上一次完全不用手机是大半个月前了吧？

#硅谷生活 #湾区活动 #冥想 #山间漫步吃喝 #山野主理人 #旧金山湾区 #Jikoji慈光寺 #湾区周末去哪儿 #将冥想带入生活 #spiritual

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