Rockhill Meditation

A couple of days ago, I spent a day at the Rockhill Hermitage.  To have my first official lesson in meditation.  I'm glad I went.

The Rockhill Hermitage is a centre for the practice and learning of meditation and Buddhist studies. It's appropriately named because it's located on a mountain side with lots of huge boulders sticking out here and there. At the Hermitage, there are a monastery, a nunnery, a large meditation hall, a Buddhist shrine, and housing for students. 

As a one day student, I didn't see any of the parts for the nuns and monks.  But I did spend a fair bit of time in the student meditation hall, and lunch area.  Both were very simple, but comfortable.

On this day, I did not find enlightenment, the ultimate meditation goal.  But I did learn some useful things.  From the teacher, the Venerable Dhammachari Silmatawa, and from the 3 other students who were there.  I'm grateful to the teacher for letting me come for just one day, but especially to the students, Amelie, Dominik, and Krishna for welcoming me and sharing their experiences.

The piece of wisdom that stuck most in my mind is...in life, we should not be volleyball players hitting the ball right back as quickly as possible, sometimes spiking it.  We should be goal tenders.  Catch the ball.  Hold it. Examine it. Consider it's source, meaning, ...  Then calmly decide what to do with it. 

 Pictures
1- Me in my borrowed white clothes, the other students, the teachers, and kitchen ladies.
2-One of the many staircases at the Rockhill Hermitage. This one is closer to the entrance.  It's decorated in typical Sri Lankan Buddhist  colours.
3- A shrine at the Embekka Buddhist Devalaya/Temple, built by King Wickremabahu III (1371-1394AD) who ruled in the Kingdom of Gampola.  It's amazine how well preserved it is!
4-5 The Embekka Temple is know for its amazing wood carvings. Each post has 4 carvings like the one in the second picture. 
6- 7  The entrance and inside of one of the rooms at the Embekka Temple.  I don't think the white plastic flower ball lamp was part of the original design...
8- Google says....the Bodhi Fig Tree is a large ancient sacred also called the Bo Tree, tree of awakening, and Ficus religiosa. It is said that Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who became known as the Buddha, sat under a Bo tree and refused to move until he achieved enlightenment.  There is a Bo tree with statues of Buddha at all? Buddhist temples.