August 3-8, 2023 – Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel CA

August 3 to 8, 2023 – Land of Medicine Buddha, Soquel, CA
I just attended the Road Scholar course called “California Vegetarian Cuisine, Buddhist Thinking, and Qi Gong”.   I picked it because I wanted to get away for a few days and this intrigued me.
I drove from Monterey to Soquel.  The drive was uneventful until I turned onto the road where Land of Medicine Buddha is located.  It is a winding, one lane mountain road through redwood trees with shear cliffs on one side. I drove slowly and had to pull over twice to allow others cars to go by. 
The schedule has us starting each day in a meditation/Buddhism class. These were very interesting. I am not sure if I have ever been this relaxed before.  We also spent an hour each morning learning Qi Gong.   This is movement based exercises that coordinate breathing and meditation with the movements. 
We also had classes on Vegetarian nutrition, Vegan cuisine, self-massage, and body alignment.  The Land of Medicine Buddha is in the middle of a 2nd growth redwood forest.o One day we had a walk with a woman who pointed out every plant and tree while telling us the history of clearing cutting redwoods along the coast.  The route we took passed signs with each of the eight verses of training the mind.  One of my pictures shows one.
One day I hiked up to the Wish Fulfilling Temple.  The Buddha statue there appears to be about 30 feet tall. 
The food was all Vegetarian. We had one Vegan and one gluten-free in the group. They made sure that they never went hungry.  I have never eaten so much in my life and then at home found I’d lost 2 lbs.   This was the best time to go because the CA crops are abundant now.

We had 13 of us in my group and every person was amazing. We became a tight community very quickly.
I’d highly recommend this or any of the other Road Scholar retreats at Land of Medicine Buddha.   Breige is the coordinator and did an excellent job.