Musings From Snack Street and Beyond

Storms, Scorpions, and Solitude: A CA Adventure to China
By Brett James

Raise your hand if you were brave enough to eat roasted scorpion on a stick at age 16.  How about dog?  What about eating silkworm cocoons, sea mushrooms, stinky tofu or a sheep’s penis?  None of these menu items caused any hesitancy in the minds of 14 CA Upper School students and two faculty chaperones who recently made an afternoon stop at Snack Street in Beijing, China.  We all knew this travel experience was going to be an exciting one.  What we did not expect was to be submerged into a culture so completely different from life in the United States that nearly every experience would change us in some fashion or another.

Our trip started in Beijing, which allowed us to visit the typical tourist sites: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Temple of Heaven, and the Summer Palace.  On the excitement level, however, the Great Wall left us with one of the most intense experiences.  Bussing to a mountain road almost three hours out of Beijing, our hike began in our guide’s back yard.  Hiking up a mountain through trees and shrubbery, we made our way to a remote location on the Wall devoid of tourists, busses, and souvenir shops.  The rain that would foretell the coming of an electrical storm started on the last half hour of the hike.  Reaching the Wall, we climbed to the top of a fortress that once housed military generals and their troops.  Everyone’s adrenaline rushed as we took in views none of us had ever before seen of a structure that spans that more than 5000 miles.  What we did not yet know was that the beautiful electrical storm we were watching from afar was quickly headed directly for us.

Neither our adrenaline nor our walking speed were enough to outrun the storm, and before we knew it many of us could feel the electricity on our bodies before the lightening strikes.  Increasing our speed from a rapid walk to a run did not help, either.  As the Wall was built to define boundaries and provide fortification, there was no way off.  Thus, we were on a kind of alley with the storm bearing down on us.  We simply had to outrun the storm, and we were failing at doing so.  The faster we ran away from the storm, the closer it moved toward us, shortening the time between lightening strikes and thunder claps.  It was when the time between the lightening and the thunder was hardly two seconds that we finally found respite at a run-down section of the Wall that allowed us to return to the woods below.  A nearby fortress provided us with protection until the storm passed.

With the sun finally shining, we hiked another six miles on the Wall, where most of the group descended to the bottom of the mountain on an alpine slide.  None of us imagined that a day that started with such a dangerous and intense experience would end with so much fun.  Letting off stress and fatigue, we hollered and squealed all the way down!

The middle of the trip took us to Zhongdian, Dali, and Shangri-la in the south-western province of Yunnan, where we continued to feast like royalty on unusual and remarkable local cuisine.  In Shangri-la, three of our students and two of our adults were blessed by a monk and given bracelets of prayer beads at a 600 year-old Buddhist temple.  The influence of Tibet can be seen throughout Shangri-la, where the local dress and culture make a dramatic change from Beijing.  Our students purchased more than enough souvenirs and locally made jewelry to take home.  The days in Shangri-la ended with our group dancing with local shop owners, residents and other tourists in the old town square.

The first 10 days of the trip provided us with exciting and dynamic experiences; the last four days allowed us to breathe and get some perspective on our journey and on our lives.  Wu Wei Si, a Buddhist temple, monastery and orphanage hidden in the hills above the city of Dali, forced us to slow down and appreciate our experience.  This is easy to do with neither electricity nor running water and three consecutive days of rain.  At Wu Wei Si we participated in the monastic traditions of chanting services, solitude, mindfulness, meditation, vegetarian meals, and six hours of daily kung fu lessons.

Reverence for all forms of life were encouraged and practiced every minute of our stay.  We could kill nothing, not even the mosquitoes that landed on our bodies or the spiders, rats and mice that made their homes in our rustic rooms.  Monastery rules required us to eat every grain of rice in our bowls and to leave each meal not quite full.

Mealtime took the same reverence and discipline as every other aspect of the monastery.  In many ways we were not guests, but residents living out a monastic life.  Our meals were sandwiched between the recitation of “Ah Mi Tou Fo,” a prayer meaning “Buddha of Infinite Life and Boundless Light.”  Waiting for the signal from the Master, we would bow over our tables and in unison chant “Ah Mi Tou Fo.”  Having just finished a demanding kung fu lesson before each meal, we dove into our food, but stayed mindful of the reverence for our sustenance.  “Ah Mi Tou Fo” with a bow was recited again at the end of the meal.

While our kung fu training started at 6:30 every morning, our day really started at 5:30 when the Cantor rang a very large and very loud bell in front of the temple to call the monks, nuns, and orphans to morning chant.  For the next hour we were treated to the sounds of the monks and children chanting Buddhist prayers.  While some students traded the melodic chants for their iPods and more sleep, most of us slowly awoke to the glorious chant that started each day.

In addition to morning chant we were treated to three more hours of chant every afternoon as one of the monks or nuns would walk the temple floor, chanting without interruption.   Having the afternoon free, we stayed in the temple square and listened to the chant while playing cards, reading, meditating and writing.  As if that beauty was not enough, the last chant of the day took place at dusk, where one of the monks or one of the children would again ring the large bell while chanting outside the temple entrance until it grew completely dark.  On our last night, sophomore Reid Aronstein was fortunate enough to ring the bell while our kung fu instructor chanted.  For a clip of evening chant during our stay at Wu Wei Si, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUB94pVihsc.

Taking advantage of three free hours each day after lunch, we gathered to talk about mindfulness and solitude.  On our first full day at the monastery, we spent two hours in silence.  We could not communicate with anyone in any form, nor could we listen to music or sleep.  Reading, walking, sitting and journaling were the only options on this afternoon.  This gave us all a chance to slow our pace and spend time in mindfulness.  Many found it challenging to spend two hours in solitude and silence but also came to realize the importance of at least attempting to understand the self through personal exploration.

The second full day we discussed the difficulties of solitude and silence and came up with some ideas for how to be more mindful and present.  We shortened our time in solitude, but all we could do was sit or walk.  Reading or journaling were not options.  Many of us meditated in a smaller temple that afternoon, creating an informal Sangha to deepen our experience by meditating with others.  Once the hour of solitude, silence and meditation was over, students journaled about their time alone.

The final component of our stay at Wu Wei Si, kung fu training, started within a few hours of arriving and did not end until our departure four days later.  Up and ready to train at 6:30 in the morning, we practiced kung fu for 6.5 hours each day.  Our martial arts program consisted of running, rock carrying, stretching, and learning moves that culminated in a complete kung fu routine.  Training complemented our mindfulness training.  Intentional or not, we were all reminded of the importance of being focused on our one goal.  We also discovered muscles we never knew we had!  Each training session added a new dimension to the routine, and by the time we finished, we were a highly polished group of mindful kung fu masters.

With so many incredible experiences behind us, it was difficult to get on the plane to come home.  A 28-hour adventure back to Denver finally allowed us to sleep in our own beds, to satiate pangs for specific American foods, and to tell the abundance of stories that came from this adventure.