I'm always wondering how I can become a happier person. The past two years of my life were spent rather unhappily striving for a work goal that ended up not being attainable. I have also observed that my mind never ceases to chatter, and the endless stream of thoughts that I am subjected to makes me a tenser, more negative person. The tension that I feel and the negativity inside of me are sensed by those around me which in turn makes their lives more miserable.
Having left my previous job, and getting ready to start a new job, I was thinking, a job is just a job: "Isn't there more to life than just endlessly striving at work or in life? Is that all there is? And who cares anyway?"
Since I was going to utilize my time off to work on my wedding, and since part of that involved driving down to Catalina (the site of the wedding) down in Southern California, I thought I would make a personal retreat to the Esalen Institute, which being in Big Sur, is on the way down the California coast. The Esalen Institute is a non-profit education center in psychology, philosophy, and generally anything do with the mind-body connection. It also serves as a spa retreat for those interested in soaking in natural hot springs, or receiving massages. Coincidentally, there was a weekend meditation workshop being held at the Esalen that interested me very much. The course name was: "Being Present for Your Life: Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation". I thought that the class might give me some insight on how I could approach my life more mindfully.
History of Esalen
Wikipedia provides an illuminating article on The Esalen Institute, which you can find here. However, I will provide a quick summary of Esalen's famous past. Two former Stanford alumni, Dick Price, and Michael Murphy founded the Esalen Institute in 1962. Dick Price did his continuing studies in psychology at Harvard. While Michael Murphy moved on to study at an ashram in India.
At the suggestion of their Stanford "comparative religions" professor, the two met and founded a center in Big Sur, CA where people could discuss and explore schools of thoughts that were outside of mainstream academia. I get the sense from talking to other Esalen guests that the Institute back in the 1960's was a highly "experimental" time.
Past Luminaries at Esalen
There were a number of influential artists and thinkers who have taught at Esalen:
- Linus Pauling (science)
- Richard Feynman (science)
- Abraham Maslow (psychology)
- Deepak Chopra (spiritual)
- Ansel Adams (art)
- Joan Baez (art)
- Ida Rolf (body work)
- Moshe Feldenkrais (mind-body)
- others...
Although these days, the Esalen serves more as a spa retreat then a center for cutting edge theory, there are still interesting workshops and seminars to attend taught by good teachers in their fields.
Meditation Lodge at Esalen Institute
To be continued...
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