Breakfast:
In the dining room or outside dining area.
Morning:
We will join our meditation leader for our guided meditation focused on relaxation and inner joy. After a short break, we’ll engage in a watercolor class given by a local artist featuring step-by-step demonstrations, which will include color theory, color mixing lessons. We will practice these techniques with assistance provided by our painting leader.
Lunch:
In the dining room or outside dining area.
Afternoon:
After lunch, we'll have a healthful expert-led nature walk in a majestic redwood forest, learning about redwood ecology, wild herbs, and bird as we appreciate the beauty and peace of our surroundings in this pristine environment. After a snack in the dining room, we will continue learning watercolor techniques and practicing color mixing and creating washes.
Dinner:
In the dining room or outside dining area.
Evening:
Returning to the Gompa, a Buddhist practitioner will lead us around the room while pointing out the array of Tibetan Buddhist symbolism throughout. We will learn about each as we see them, accompanied by educational commentary. Upon seeing it, our exploration will include a rumination on the stunning tradition carried out by Tibetan monks when they create incredibly detailed mandalas made out of colored sand. The process often takes days or even weeks and is an enormous meditative act of patience in itself and usually it ends with a ceremony during which the mandala is ritually destroyed, the sands collected, and then scattered into lakes, rivers, or the ocean. This is a metaphor for the Buddhist concept of impermanence, and a blessing for beings living in the water.