Aum Namah Sivaya

Several days ago, during the lunar retreat, several of our monks headed down the hill to Kealia Beach just north of Kapaa, for a beautiful stroll along the oceanside walkway. Arriving just in time to see the sunrise begin, our monks capture a few lovely photos of our island's natural radiance. Aum.

Over the last retreat, Siddhanathaswami, Tillainathaswami, Yogi Dayanatha and Alexander traveled to the southern shores of our island for a beautiful hike along the Maha'ulepu cliffs. The cliffs are made of countless layers of compacted sand and lava rock. They are slowly being eroded by the powerful ocean waves, creating unique and stunning formations along the cliffside. This part of the coast is also incredibly windy, with constant gusts that make it hard to hear anything else apart from the clapping of the salty waves.

The hike began with a walk along the Makauwahi cave trail, which leads past this ancient cave and down to the Makauwahi tortoise reserve. After that our adventurers made their way along Maha'ulepu Beach and around the point to Kawailoa Bay Beach which marks the beginning of our cliffside walk leading to Kamala Point.

"From the top of the mountain looking down, you see the natural role of a raging ocean and the steep cliffs below--they are beautiful. From the bottom of the mountain, the ocean can appear ominous and the cliffs treacherous. The fact remains that deep inside you is perfection. So, you see, you have a choice. You can remain in the valley, live in fear of the stormy ocean of life and death, or you can scale the nearby mountain and see from the top how it is from that perspective. Either way, you and everyone in the world are all right in the now." - Gurudeva

"Nom nom nom"

This morning, this happy snail was fed an apple slice by our taksforcer Alexander, who took a timelapse of the little creature's lengthy meal. These lands snails are one of the largest terrestrial snails. Full-grown, they can reach almost 5 inches (13 cm) in diameter and 8 inches (20 cm) in length. These gastropods are also surprisingly intelligent, being closely related to cephalopods like octopuses and squid.

A recent sunrise captured by one of our monks

"You are perfect this very moment. You are all that you will ever be."

Aum Namah Sivaya

Recently we took some new aerial photos from our little drone. It was a chance to discover our aadheenam grounds, temples, building and gardens from a new perspective. Our hilly landscape and fascinating species of plants make for quite a picture. It's important to get an overview once in a while to keep the little things in proper perspective. They're just smalls strokes in a grand painting of life. Aum.

Recently the island of Kauai received a bout of heavy rains which fell for several days upon Mount Waialeale. This in turn caused the sacred Wailua River to flood its banks in a spectacular display of natural energy. Large branches and whole trees were whisked downriver. Here, we flew our small Quad Copter out over the waterfall to get a closer look. Aum.

The State is upgrading a section of the ditch which flows from Wailua Reservoir (a short distance from the monastery) and winds its way through the entire monastery grounds. It is a source of water for our cows, gardens, the Rishi Valley ponds and more. It was shut off about two weeks ago to do this work. The engineers decided that the open ditch on the outside slope of the dam was weakening the overall structure by soaking the ground. They decided to upgrade that section of the ditch to a 200 foot section of concrete pipe, connecting to the culvert under Kuamoo Road. The water then opens to the ditch on the University of Hawaii's Agricultural Station adjacent to the monastery and then flows into our streams.

Recently Nirvani Tejadevanatha (camera man), Yogi Dayanatha and Yajatadeva took an exploratory journey up river. After our recent, record deluge this was a good opportunity, not only to hike through some of Kauai's natural beauty, but also to survey the many changes that had taken place following the storm. Countless trees and plants have been washed away and many rocks and boulders have been relocated. In the morning the three set out from our waterfall and walked upriver towards the mountain as far as the ford that we use to cross over to our agricultural land.

Several days ago the monastery witnessed a powerful lightening storm, which brought with it tremendous rains throughout the night. Many suggest this was the Wailua's largest surge in the last 50 or 100 years. By 2:00am the flooding river had broken the state river gauge and would soon remove trees and strip bare the the banks of plants and silt, leaving only rock. Though none of us saw it while it was at full hight, the massive instant landscaping was more than obvious the next morning. Thankfully it didn't quite reach our large banana patch!