There is a sudden shift; many mental phenomena, particularly the main narrative thought stream, shift out away from the illusory sense of “the watcher”. This is an important insight, as it shows us clearly and directly in some basic way that we are not “our” mind or “our” body. Reality can seem just a bit […]
Mind and Body – 1st Insight Stage Read More »
and The Three Characteristics In the stage of Cause and Effect, the relationships between mental and physical phenomena become very clear and sometimes ratchet-like. There is a cause, such as intention, and then an effect, such as movement. There is a cause, such as a sensation, and there is an effect, namely a mental impression.
Cause and Effect – 2cd Insight Stage Read More »
Impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and no-self. It becomes more obvious that all the constituents of our experience are quickly arising and passing, somewhat jarring, and not particularly in our control or to be identified with as “me”. Further, as these sensations are all observed, including the crude mental impression that follows them (“consciousness”), it becomes clear the
THE THREE CHARACTERISTICS – 3rd Insight Stage Read More »
This stage – ‘A&P’ tends to be very impressive. The applied and sustained effort of attention begin to drop away, and meditation seems to take on a life of its own, and has the basic attentional phase quality of having maximum clarity at the center of attention, this stage is noted for perceiving things clearly
Arising and Passing Away – 4th Insight Stage Read More »
ENTRANCE TO THE DARK NIGHT So begins what is called the “Knowledges of Suffering” or “The Dark Night of the Soul” (to use St. John of the Cross’ terminology) The Dark Night spans stages five through ten in this map, namely: 5. Dissolution 6. Fear 7. Misery 8. Disgust 9. Desire for Deliverance, and 10.
DISSOLUTION – 5th Stage of Insights Read More »
The clarity and intensity begin to return, but now the stage of Fear can involve all sorts of frightening distortions of perception when sitting, accompanied by intense feelings of unease, paranoia, terror, dread, and/or “the willies”. It can even sometimes seem that our body is falling in tatters through the floor or that we are
FEAR – 6th Stage of Insights – Part 2 of THE DARK NIGHT Read More »
The stage of Misery is characterized by intense feelings of sadness, grief, and loss. Again, for some who can appreciate what such emotions teach, there is a redeeming quality to the heartfelt depth of grief and melancholy, but this tends to be greatly overshadowed by their dark and engulfing aspects. In Misery, we are having
MISERY – 7th Stage of Insights – Part 3 of THE DARK NIGHT Read More »
We become disgusted with the whole thing. We begin to feel completely tormented by our noisy and repetitious minds (a classic sign of this stage), by a body that is full of suffering and unpleasant sensations, and by a world that is falling apart, as well as an image of ourselves, that, while seemingly growing
DISGUST – 8th Stage of Insights – Part 4 of THE DARK NIGHT Read More »
At the stage of Desire for Deliverance, we are fed up with basically everything, often including dharma practice, but at a level that transcends mere suicidal thoughts, though definitely it may include such thoughts for an unfortunate few. It will likely pass soon enough; you need to stay alive so you can get to the
DESIRE FOR DELIVERANCE – 9th Stage of Insights – Part 5 of THE DARK NIGHT Read More »
This stage is often, though not always, like a brick wall, particularly the first few times we collide with it. It can be as if all the worst aspects of the Dark Night stages converge for one last important lesson, that of Re-observation. We must perceive the true nature of the sensations that make up
RE-OBSERVATION – 10th Stage of Insights – Part 6 of THE DARK NIGHT Read More »
Maui Marrying Man – Making Dreams Come True on Maui’s Romantic Beaches.
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Our business was doing great, but we still couldn’t afford to buy a house or a condo. Renting in Maui for another 30 years was not an option we wanted to take. Then, Bobbie Jo suggested we buy a sailboat that is comfortable to cruise and live in. By the end of January, we started looking for our new home.
After a long search, we found our dream boat in Mazatlan, Mexico. COVID-19 was not yet a concern when our boat hunt began, but masks were starting to appear at airports by the time we flew to Mazatlan. Originally, we had planned to get the boat ready as fast as possible to cover a full calendar for the busy wedding season. However, it was apparent our business was going to tank amid the pandemic, and the struggle went on until the end of the year.
Luckily, we scored an awesome condo for only $19 a day at Mazatlan. On the 10th day of our stay, we received the news that all harbors will be closed the next Monday morning. We thought we’d be stuck in Mexico longer, but another sailor advised us to leave before sunrise.
We felt the adrenalin of escaping the Mexican harbor master just before the sun rose that faithful day. The seas were rough as waves were building up in the tight channel that led us to the open ocean. We ended up anchored off an adorable little isle just a mile offshore. We enjoyed cruising to many spectacular anchorages and cute villages on our way to Puerto Vallarta, where we would depart for Maui on May 7. On May 30, 2020, we completed our 24-day passage from Mexico to Maui.
