A Much Better High

Yoga above the clouds
Originally uploaded by carl kalabaw

Junkies, and especially 'needle freaks'(addicts who will inject anything ) have needle scars and collapsed veins or 'tracks'. At AFR there are plenty of those type of tracks so I found it curious that the assorted elective evening programs are called 'tracks'.
The Holistic track is run by an earnest young ex-acid freak who has studied yoga and meditation. I tried one yoga session on a saturday afternoon and kept up with the youngsters pretty well; the next oldest person was 23, only 39 years younger than moi! Alas, I woke up in the middle of the night with the damndest head and back aches. Oh well, so much for the parsva dandasana posture. Fortunately, I healed quickly. Most evenings, Matt leads the group in different types of meditations and I went to those when the Indigenous group watched movies that I had already seen, but on Tuesdays, Buddhist Bob came in to answer questions about Buddhism and to teach us mindfulness meditation. I went to those religiously (little play on words there, he he). Actually, that was one of the first things Bob, a Buddhist priest in his late 60's, addressed with us. Many of the people were surprised that Buddhism is non-theistic and so not a religion in the traditional sense. Bob was so lucid and down to earth that I got as much from his visits as I had from all the books and articles I have read about Buddhism over the years, perhaps more, a living experience. Bob, who also runs meditation groups in a prison in Michigan, embodied the spirit of the bodhisattva for me and I have come home determined to undertake a disciplined meditaion and study practice, not as a 'tool' in my aftercare plan, but because it is the right thing for me to do. Thanks, Bob. If you are interested in learning more about Bob and his work check out http://www.sokukoji.org