Esalen. The word itself summons up tantalizing visions of adventure, of unexplored frontiers, of human possibilities yet to be realized.
Not my words, and perhaps not the most concrete description to offer a vacation-seeker who might not know Esalen from Iceland. And yet … it’s so true. I spent last week in this little slice of heaven on earth, and as always, left full of joy, completely relaxed. It’s really quite impressive.
From this short visit, I have so many stories and learnings to relate, I hardly know where to begin. Deep thoughts will arise (as we say in the Buddhism biz) over time. Here’s a vignette from late night at the hot tubs:
Two hot tubbers (paraphrased): Running hurts. We have ITB syndrome.
Ashish (paraphrased): My ITB and other problems disappeared just as soon as I began running barefoot. Read Born to Run.
Fourth hot tubber: That is terrible advice. If the nerves ending on my feet become desensitized from running barefoot, how will I use my feet to caress my lover?
Ashish:
Maybe you had to be there. I do hope you get to go. I can’t promise you the experience I had, but I can promise that you will be changed.
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