Naked of Mind

I want to share with you all a tiny taste of Tibetan Buddhism. I have been reading a bit of it lately, and have found it wonderful in it's crystal clear wisdom, guidance, and truth. One of the great authors I have been reading is Lama Surya Das. He is a western author who has spent much time learning the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhist masters. Lama Surya Das writes in Awakening the Buddha Within:

What is meant by Big Mind is the essential nature of mind itself. This is our true nature- the pure boundless awareness that is at the heart, and part, of us all. The Buddha described it as still, clear, lucid, empty, profound, simple (uncomplicated), and at peace. It's not really what we think of as our mind at all. It is the luminous, most fundamental clear light nature of our ground of being.... This is raw, naked awareness, not something we've learned or fabricated.

Surya Das makes a distinction between Big Mind and Small Mind. He also refers to Small Mind as "monkey mind". It is the part of our mind that is deluded, clouded, unclear. It is what fools us, tricks us, and befuddles us.

I would love to hear any comments or "naked thoughts" from any and/or all of you! That is what this blog is all about- being naked in every sense of the word! I did a search on the internet yesterday for Naked Words, and came up with a plethora of porn links. Not that there is anything wrong with porn, but they are clogging the search engine so much that a blog of that name doesn't even remotely show up! I hope to reclaim the word naked in the name of truth, clarity, and nudity! This may take some work, but I've got time (at this point anyway)!

Pirate's Cove

Jen and I just made a trip down to So Cal, and stopped off at Pirate's Cove on our way there. It was a beautiful day, and once we were there a little while and had to leave to beat the traffic in LA, I really wanted to stay the rest of the day! It was really gorgeous and warm! As we were getting in our vehicle a man just getting there asked us if they had the volleyball net setup yet! This just sounded so awesome, we really considered staying... but ended up getting on our way. I was bummed too because Jen actually thought the weather was warm enough she would consider going nude at the beach! This could have been an awesome first time social nude experience for her. I'm sure she'll try social nudity when it's right for her. The possibility of it happening just really excited me, and I really look forward to future outings like this with her!

The gorgeous weather taunted me the rest of the drive down the coast. I even got out of the truck to look for the trail down to the Nude section of Gaviota state beach, but to no avail. All I found were some unused sketchy routes down to rocky patches of shoreline. I think the Nude section was probably further South at a well used turnout off of 101. More research required before my next visit.

Pirate's Cove is really a sweet beach. I highly recommend it to anyone who plans to be in the area! It is located near my hometown of San Luis Obispo. The beach itself is sandwiched between two beaches I spent the summers at growing up: Avila beach, and Shell Beach. I wasn't raised as a Nudist, so I spent my summers in soggy boardshorts. Nevertheless, I have spent so many happy days at these beaches body surfing and skimboarding and sunbathing, I feel an incredible bond with these beautiful pieces of seashore.

Oh yeah, I tried catching a few waves (as you can see in one of the photos above). The waves ended up swelling up all the way until they finally broke right on the sand. No riding possibility really at this point. The beaches are always changing and shifting, so hopefully there will be rideable waves there sometime soon!

Back from the Trail!

After six months and 2,400 miles my wife Jen and I are back from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail! We would have kept going to the Canadian border another 260 miles away, but there was just too much snow ahead, plus I had a staph infection on my wrist that needed to be rested and babied for a good week or more. We were also running out of money, so ending early wasn't all that frustrating. My in-laws graciously came to pick us up in Seattle and took us around to visit trail buddies for a few days before finally taking us back home to California.

On our way back, we had fun at Fish Brewing's brewpub in Olympia, WA. Lots of great food (including delicious fish tacos!), sweet ales, and nice locals! On the way out Jen filled up our Growler (a german styled glass 1/2 gallon jug with a "flippie" lid) at the bar with some organic IPA. As usual, plenty of compliments were given about the coolness of the Growler. This was the first time though someone asked us if we were hiking the PCT in the nude! She was quick to say that her husband had hiked some of the trail happily sans clothing. The local thought hiking naked was the only way to go! Woo Hoo!!

We are at a bit of a loss of what to do now.. It seems the easiest thing to do would be to just keep hiking. I'm sure we would go and hike the Florida trail this winter if we had the funds to do it. Instead, we are back in Ukiah looking for interesting work. We hope to find work somewhere new (to us) either around the country or around the world. We are looking at volunteering with the peace corp, seasonal forestry jobs, and seasonal organic farm internship positions. One of the organic farms is a nudist farm, Rising Sun Farm, that could be really cool!