This month, the biggest one is the tea retreat by far:

• 7 day meditation, tea & QiGong retreat with WuDe and the global tea hut organization.
  • I learned to meditate, we were doing 50 minute sitting + 10 minute meta meditation sessions, 3 times a day. I learned about pain, it is humbling. I learned about comfort seeking and how it gets us in trouble. I continued this meditation style practice until late November, where I switched to 30 minute meditation style guided by Ajhan Brahm (my other teacher, see December).
  • I learned to perform tea in a ceremonial fashion. WuDe also gave out his book “Tea Medicine”. The book inspired me to do ceremonial tea practice as my daily routine. I will be posting a summary with excerpts of the book in my leadership section, stay tuned!
  • I learned about QiGong, meridians and working with DanTian. This work also inspired me to go away from the Yin style like TaiQi and QiGong and go more yang -> yoga. I noticed my natural inclination to moving towards Yin practice, so I will be balancing it out in Bali.
  • I realized I do not love tea. Which was what I thought the journey was all about. This was the beginning, this was why Taiwan even happened. I may be using tea as a vehicle/tool to get people together, to enjoy the beverage, but I definitely had done it as a consumer, not someone who loves it. WuDe loves tea, I just use it for its taste & the magical ability to get people together.
• I learned to appreciate New Delhi, despite the chaos and constant harassment. And thus the wisdom of a sleeping dog came (I actually did see the dog). How can you be mad at the dog sleeping in the middle of the busy road? Its only a natural response to sleepiness. Same as how can you be mad at a poor man for begging? How can you be mad at a desperate taxi driver for trying to get you somewhere?
• I was brave. I stopped a street fight between to young men.
• I stood strong. I made sure to confront the person every time they try to scam me on the bus. I will fight for my 5 Rupiah (obviously not physically)!
• I was silly and patient. I entertained many people at the New Delhi airport by sitting on the floor for an hour, waiting for the bathroom to open. Yes, there were other bathrooms.