Playing with (or was it harrassed by?) a Seal

Mark and I have had harbor seal encounters before on our dives in Monterey, CA. But this past Saturday, was the first time we could characterize our encounter as being "harrassed" by a seal.

Our dives were at McAbee Beach, just off Cannery Row in Monterey. McAbee beach is famous for its playful seals. It is so famous for its seals that after our dives were completed, even our friendly parking lot attendant at McAbee asked us whether we had played with the seals.

Our seal first swam in front of us to get our attention. I wanted to engage the seal, and had read about seals imitating humans after doing barrel rolls. So I attempted to do a barrel roll in the water to entertain the seal. The seal reacted by becoming shy for an instant, and meandered behind a rock to hide. We of course knew where it was hiding and snuck up upon it. Upon being found, it looked up at us slyly before surfacing for air. After this little game of hide and seek, the seal no longer felt any shyness and released an onslaught of harrassment our way.

This juvenile seal not only nipped at our fins, but muzzled our bodies. It came right up to our masks, with its eyes just inches away from ours, much like in the picture above. The seal kept exploring our masks with its claws and nuzzling our hoods with its nose. The seal was particularly interested in clawing at Mark's tank, whereupon Mark would turn around in dismay, and I would chuckle into my regulator. To keep its interest at one point, I offered it my dive slate (mmm, yummy). It quickly went straight for my pencil and nuzzled it a bit. When I reached and rubbed its belly, the seal wasn't fazed. Through my neoprene gloves, its belly felt more jiggly and soft than I had anticipated. At one point, the seal and I were getting so friendly, that we were holding hands as though we were dancing. The video below from another diver at McAbee pretty much characterizes the type of experience we had.



After 15 minutes of this, we had to head to shore, otherwise I would have liked to experiment with playing fetch with the seal, maybe with a piece of kelp. My friend, Dr. Bill from Catalina, said he once conducted an entire dive playing fetch with a seal.

Even without our seal visit, our dives were awesome, characterized by good visibility, and a couple of other unusual marine life sightings (rare orange adult wolf eel sighting, and my first Dirona albolineata nudibranch).


Dive #1 (cumulative dive #161): McAbee Beach
Max Depth: 38 feet
Time: 0:53 hour
Buddy: Mark
Temperature: ?? didn't look
Visibility: 40+ feet past the first kelp bed
Weight worn: 24 lbs (10 in BCD, 14 on weight belt)
Mark's weight: 24 lbs

Observations:

• Mark spotted an adult, orange wolf eel. According to Humann's fish ID book, this coloration is rare.
• Mark spotted a Dirona Albolineata nudibranch (see right). They are as luminescent and glowing in real life as they are in the photos.
• Conducted an official REEF fish count on my own for the first time, and it was a lot of fun.
  

Dive #2 (cumulative dive #162): McAbee Beach

Max Depth: 33 feet
Time: 0:42 hour
Buddy: Mark
Temperature: ??
Visibility: 25+ feet
Weight worn: 24 lbs (10 in BCD, 14 on weight belt)

After our dives, Mark and I had lunch at the Trailside Cafe overlooking McAbee Beach, where we gorged ourselves on clam chowder and fish and chips. I then insisted that we visit the Monterey "World Famous" Wax Museum for the first time. This Wax Museum had scenes from Monterey's past history, and even featured scenes from John Steinbeck's novels. At the Wax Museum, I learned that Monterey had changed hands from the Native Americans, to the Spaniards, to the Mexicans before becoming American land. I also learned that McAbee Beach, the site of our dives, used to be squatted upon by numerous Chinese immigrants back during Cannery Row's hey day.

Mindfulness Meditation, Part III

For readers unfamiliar with this blog, this entry is a continuation in a 3 part series on a meditation seminar that I attended 3 months ago before starting a new job. See this entry and this entry for part I and part II respectively.

(All pictures were taken from my trip down the California Coast during which I attended my Meditation retreat.)

My Mindfulness Meditation seminar began first by entering a large round “yurt” that overlooked the blue Pacific Ocean and that was sheltered by Cypress Trees. About 20 other strangers and I took off our shoes before entering the shag carpeted round room, which was empty except for large pillows lining the perimeter of the room.

This Mindfulness Meditation seminar was being taught by James Baraz, whom I knew nothing about other than that others held him in great respect. “You are in very good hands,” one of my dinner companions told me the night before, “James Baraz is one of the cofounders of Spirit Rock.” This meant nothing to me, of course. (Later, I learned that Spirit Rock is a famous Vipassana Meditation center in Marin County.)



Sitting in the yurt, I wondered which person would actually be teaching. On my right, there was an old man with crazy long white-hair who was lying down on his back. He looked crazy enough to be a meditation guru, I thought. My eyes rested on him, waiting for him to begin speaking. All of a sudden, a soft voice spoke from the opposite side of the room, introducing the class. The man who spoke looked like a librarian. He wore a dark plaid button down shirt, a conservative gray wool vest, and khakis. Gentleness emanated from his person in both his demeanor and his voice. His conservative wear made him more credible to me.



Every day, for 3 days we would attend three 2 hour lectures, with a 20 - 30 minute meditation session during each session. I am by no means knowledgeable of Vipassana meditation, but Baraz walked us through the mechanics.


To begin with, one focusses on the breath, how it feels in the nose, and in the chest. This part is not different from other branches of meditation. But where Mindfulness Meditation differs subtly from other meditation practices can be found in the following:

• When feeling an emotion, negative or positive, feel the emotion deeply, immerse oneself in it, and you will eventually feel the emotion dissipate.
• When thinking a thought, don't chastise yourself. Acknowledge the thought and understand that it is normal to think, and then bring yourself back to focussing on the breath. Only the truly enlightened, say Buddha himself, could meditate without thinking.
• Vipassana meditation is also known as Insight meditation. Baraz claims that this form of meditation leads to greater wisdom, and self-understanding. Other forms of meditation, such as Transcendental Meditation, which focusses on breathing or chanting, leads to higher focus, but not necessarily greater wisdom. For a better explanation on how Vipassana Meditation can lead to greater wisdom, please read this "Art of Living" article.
• View yourself as being one living organism among a much wider network of living things. In my case, I envision a camera in the corner of the room looking down upon me.

In addition to practicing seated meditation (in which I almost fell asleep on one occasion), we also sampled eating meditation, a walking meditation, self-love meditation and a "loving-kindness" meditation. For our eating meditation, Baraz handed out 2 raisins per person. We were supposed to eat each raisin over the course of a minute. This exercise was supposed to teach us to focus only on the moment, instead of chewing and swallowing without actually experiencing it.

For our walking meditation, Baraz led us out of the yurt down to the grassy lawn below. Walking barefoot, heel to toe, I focussed purely on my sensory input at that very moment. This exercise, too was designed to teach us how to be in the moment.

The self-love meditation was useful to me. I am a person who oftentimes doesn't like herself very much. This meditation was helpful to be more forgiving to myself. We were asked to meditate on someone who loves us. We were asked to think about why they loved us. And whether or not we could find it in ourselves to feel the same way about ourselves as they did.

The "loving-kindness" meditation was a moving experience. We were asked to think of someone we don't know well, such as a neighbor whom we never speak to. We were then asked to send them a prayer of altruistic love. Then, we thought of someone we disliked, and we then sent them a prayer of altruistic love as well. Finally, we were asked to summon someone whom we love, and sent them a prayer. At the end of this meditation, one of the girls in the room was crying. She had just lost her father and had come to the retreat to help deal with her grief. I knew who she must have dedicated her loving-kindness prayer to.

In addition to how to meditate, Baraz talked about some Buddhist teachings and how they might apply to our lives, regardless of our religious leanings. What made sense to me was:

• Daydreaming might feel pleasant, but it takes us away from being in the now. It is a feeling that contracts us (our soul?).
• Avoid feelings of self-aggrandization, such as, "I am so smart", or "this company would fall without me." This too is a contracting thought. I think of it as the opposide side of self-loathing thoughts which are also harmful.
• There is nothing that makes us feel happier than being altruistic to others, and to spread goodness and loving-kindness to others. The world could be a better place if all of us could emanate our good feelings (karma?) to the world.

Summary

Would I recommend James Baraz's Mindfulness Meditation retreat to others? Absolutely. It may have changed my outlook on life. I am still neurotic, as many people near me know. But I believe I am handling the problems in life with greater composure, some due to my learnings gained at this retreat.

For more information on the next Mindfulness Meditation seminar at Esalen, please click here.

Spaghetti con Tonno e Pomodoro

Ingredients:

5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 handfuls of black kalamata olives, seeded and chopped in quarters
5-6 fillets of salted anchovies from a can, chopped finely
2 tablespoons of capers
1 handful of roughly chopped fresh arugula (1/4" square)
1 large can tuna fish stored in water or oil (12 oz)
1 large can of San Marzano tomatos (28 oz)
1/2 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (preferably Sagra brand)
1 package of Barilla "thick spaghetti" or other pasta
1-2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons of regular Morton’s salt
1-2 tablespoons of red chili flakes

Instructions:

1. In a large skillet over medium-low heat, fry the garlic until golden but not brown (4-5 minutes). Add the chopped anchovies midway through and stir together.
2. Push the anchovy garlic mixture to the side of the pan where the temperature is lower. Put the quartered olives on the other side. Put the tuna at the center of the pan. Raise the temperature to medium-high. Cook until slightly brown (4 minutes). Add 1-2 tablespoons of coarse sea salt and 1 tablespoon of red chili flakes and mix together.
3. In parallel cook the thick spaghetti with generously salted pasta water (2 tablespoons of Morton’s salt). Cook until al dente.\
4. Add the chopped can of San Marzano tomatoes with juice to the sauce and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Take the sauce off the heat and add the chopped arugula and capers.
5. Transfer the cooked pasta directly into the sauce. It is okay if pasta water drips into the sauce. Place back on medium-low heat. Mix all the ingredients together including the arugula and capers until heated through.
6. Plate the pasta on large rimmed bowls or plates. Finish the pasta with 1 tablespoon of high quality fresh olive oil.

Story and Insights behind this recipe
After living with former professional cook professionally for many years, and after watching many cooking shows starring such Italian chefs as Lidia Bastianich and Michael Chiarello, I have incorporated some learnings that differentiate decent pasta from mediocre pasta. Here are some of these insights as well as some of my subjective opinions.

1. It is important to cook garlic over low to medium heat. It is worth the extra 4 minutes to do so.
2. Anchovies add flavor to tomato pastas. You can’t even taste the anchovies in the finished product, but the anchovies make the dish richer and more striking.
3. Adding arugula was an accident. I was trying to clean the refrigerator of excess ingredients. But the arugula marries so well with the tuna, that I would recommend this combination over adding parsley or basil (as recommended in other recipes).
4. Generously salt the pasta water and the pasta will taste as though it absorbed the pasta sauce better.
5. Add pasta water to the pasta sauce. It is better that the sauce taste soupy than too dry.