Last weekend I joined Aadesh on a backpacking and bouldering meditation retreat. He recently launched his organization, Meditation on Mountains, which is a group for nature lovers to engage mindfully in outdoor activities.

My Background

I had been looking forward to last weekend’s retreat for quite some time. I have been interested in meditation and outdoor activities for the past several years. As a youth, I had been camping a handful of times but never really enjoyed the outdoors–my family spent most of our weekends at sports tournaments. As an adult, I have longed to connect more with nature, develop self-sufficiency, and achieve that paradoxical Instagram aesthetic of someone who unplugs on the weekends.

I started to second guess my RSVP as the weekend of the retreat drew near. I knew that Aadesh is a very active and outdoorsy person, going on long hikes and climbs. I hadn’t backpacked in over a decade and don’t even consider myself a beginner-level climber. I reached out to Aadesh a few weeks before the trip to let him know about my lack of backpacking and climbing experience to make sure I wouldn’t hold up the group or be a burden. Aadesh was very kind and assured me that I would be welcome on the retreat regardless of my skill level.

About the Retreat

A couple weeks before the retreat, Aadesh sent out a PDF with the information about the retreat. We were going to hike the White Pine Lake trail, which is about a 5-mile hike. We would stay the night, participate in a bouldering meditation, and then hike back out the next day. The PDF included information about all the camping equipment we would need and what equipment Aadesh would bring for the group. Aadesh brought plenty of extra food in case anyone didn’t bring enough or found themselves hungry after the long hike. The cocoa he brought for the next morning made for a great alpine breakfast. 😋

It was a beautiful couple of days–perfect days for the retreat, especially given that there had been a winter advisory for the area the day before. There was snow on the ground near White Pine Lake, but that didn’t dampen our spirits at all on the hike in. It did get chilly once the sun went down over the mountains, but we got a fire going and chatted there until everyone was tired enough for bed. The conversation around the fire was one of the most genuinely connecting moments of the retreat as conversation flowed freely and easily through meaningful and personal topics for each of the participants at the retreat. The campfire itself could have been considered a mindfulness meditation in talking, listening, and connecting.

We made some friends at camp, which I’m sure was motivated by our warm fire and the cold night. One camper enjoyed our company so much that she joined us for breakfast and then the bouldering activity the next morning.

My Meditation Experiences

Aadesh guided two group meditations during the retreat: a Deep Time Walk and a bouldering mindfulness activity.

Deep Time Walking Meditation

After the group had gathered in the Little Cottonwood Canyon, we set off on the White Pine Lake trailhead. Aadesh started the retreat with a Deep Time Walk meditation. This meditation involves walking 4.6 miles (analogous to the 4.6B years of the Earth’s history) and recounting the events that constitutes the Earth’s history as you walk.

During the hike, Aadesh would tell us about the events that comprise the formation of the Earth such as the collecting of cosmic gasses; the cooling of Earth’s elements; the creation of the Moon; the arrival of water on asteroids; the development of life; changes in the Earth’s atmosphere, biology, and ecosystems; great dyings; critical evolutions; and the establishment of civilization. He told us about these events until there was just a half step between the Egyptians and this present moment.

Sometimes it would be a few hundred meters and sometimes it would be a couple miles between updates. But regardless of the time or event that happened, this group found every update to be a great opportunity for cosmological discussion. We discussed the relationship between gravity and the cosmological constant, the concept of the Big Crunch, the formation of stars and planets, Hawking Radiation, Entropy, ATP, the nature of energy, and so on. The participants in the retreat had a variety of educational, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, but the conversation was open, light, and yet deeply engaging and connecting for all.

A couple months ago, Aadesh joined the Sleepy Bois Club to lead a discussion on meditation. I recall Aadesh’s philosophy on meditation being very flexible to the activity at hand. If one could be truly present, any activity could really be a meditative practice. This philosophy was very apparent during both of the meditation activities Aadesh led during the retreat. Though to the outside observer, our Deep Time Walk meditation may have simply looked like a hike and nerdy conversation, those who participated felt a deep connection to the Earth, to our existence, and to each other (at least, I can speak for myself that this was the case).

Bouldering Meditation

After some cocoa and breakfast the next morning, we walked along the creek towards the boulder field beneath White Baldy Peak. The retreat was called a bouldering meditation retreat, which I had been nervous about since I have no experience with rock climbing. However, and perhaps because I had expressed some hesitation to Aadesh prior to the retreat, we were not bouldering in the rock climbing sense for this mediation. Instead, the activity we did can be described as scrambling in the boulder field.

Video above feeatures Aadesh giving us instructions for the bouldering meditation.

As Aadesh explained the purpose and details of the mediation we were going to participate in, he talked about how the boulder field was formed over hundreds of thousands of years, starting with the formation of the mountains and then the erosion and other events that caused the giant boulders to break off and fall into the valley. He talked about how those boulders are giant and heavy, and if we hadn’t been heading into that boulder field today, those boulders might not have any reason to move from where they currently lay. The boulders have an aspect of stillness about them. As we engaged in this bouldering (scrambling) meditation, he said we should see if we could borrow any of that stillness from the boulders for ourselves. Even though we would be moving through the boulder field, one purpose of the meditation was to find stillness in ourselves.

Aadesh explained that we should all seek our own path through the boulder field. As we found our own routes and our own destinations, those routes would be an analogy for our lives; each of us takes a unique path in life and none need follow the path that another takes. He instructed us that as we made our way scrambling across the boulders, we should be mindful of each step, each place we put our feet and our hands, the way the boulders move or not, and appreciate each part of the path we take through the boulder field. And as we do this, we might find that we feel that same appreciation for the path that we are taking in life.

Aadesh offered lots of encouraging thoughts and primarily hoped that we would enjoy our time on the rocks. Throughout the exercise, he would scramble between each of the participants multiple times, share a thought, ask how it was going, and then with a grin and a kind word, he would be off again to check in with another participant.

In my own meditation, I had a few interesting thoughts.

A Path of Our Own

First, as I started out moving across the boulders, I found myself moving very slowly, trying to think about, feel, and appreciate every movement I made across these giant granite boulders. I tried to take in the texture of the rocks as I put my hands on them and feel the movement, if any, of the boulders as I pressed my full weight into my feet. I noticed striations in the boulders, the different mineral compositions that made them, and the interesting colors and textures that they created. As Aadesh came by, he brought my attention to the sound of glacier water trickling under the boulders and told me to look for things other than rocks in the boulder field like spider webs and consider how long that web might have been there.

Then, after some time, I found myself a bit stuck. There was a large boulder near me that I was worried I might topple and some smaller loose rocks in the areas around it. I thought about going back the way I came. I looked up at the other participants to see where they had gone and saw that one of them was on top of a very large cool-looking boulder and the other was headed towards another fun-looking area.

As I looked back at the path I had chosen–and that I would now have to double back on–I felt a little jealousy for the paths that my friends had taken. I wished I was on their path and in their shoes. This brought my attention back to what Aadesh had guided us on earlier: that we are all on our own paths in this boulder field and in life. I had chosen a path that I was no longer happy with, and seeing other people’s paths and preferring those to my current path, I was now going to make some changes and head in their direction. I would still have to take my own unique path to get there, but there was nothing stopping me from making the decision to change my mind. Though the situation can seem fraught and be quite challenging at times, we can make the difficult decision to change the path we are on in life and align ourselves more closely with the goals and values we have for ourselves. And just like in the boulder field, that path will be uniquely our own.

Becoming a Boulder

I continued to scramble for a bit of time, moving across several cool boulders on my way up the side of the mountain toward a patch of trees that were growing in this immense boulder field. It took me some time, and also a bit more effort, but I finally scaled the field to arrive at the mountain-side forest. I took some time to appreciate the distance and height I had traversed. My other meditation friends had spread out over the expanse of the large boulder field. Aadesh called out to each of us to know where we were and let us know that the meditation would be ending soon.

Can you see Joe in the expanse of the boudler field?

I took a few more moments to take in the meditation, the view, and the boulder field and then started on my way down the side of the mountain. I noticed almost immediately that I was moving much more quickly down the mountain than I had moved up it. Because I was moving so quickly, and with greater ease, I was receiving far less physical input than on the way up. I no longer felt the texture of each boulder with my hands as most of my moves were made solely with my feet. I even jumped down several feet a few times to descend larger boulders. I felt like it was a lot easier and a lot more fun.

I thought about the role gravity played in my increased enjoyment and realized that it was gravity that pulled these boulders down the mountain to where they were now–it was gravity that made this boulder field in the first place. As I continued my descent, there was a moment in which I was a boulder in a boulder field too. Though I was not still like the boulders were now, I was sharing an experience these boulders knew: the experience of falling down the mountain side. I may not have stolen stillness from them, but I stole gravity for a moment and that brought stillness to my heart.

Final Thoughts

At some point during our hike in, I asked the group a question that I have been asking for several years now: what would you do if you were given 100 million dollars? Each member of the group shared their thoughts, most splitting their money between personal luxuries and charitable causes. Aadesh went last, saying simply, “I would use it all to start monasteries.” He went on to explain that he would like to establish physical places where people can meditate and discuss topics in a way that leads to connection rather than division. And where would Aadesh build his meditation monasteries? At the base of a mountain, of course. It’s no surprise to me that if Aadesh had all the resources in the world, he would do exactly what he’s doing today. 😊

Obviously, this retreat was a lot of fun for me. It was a great way to experience the outdoors, the Wasatch Front, and practice mindfulness in a practical and meaningful way. The company, conversation, and laughs were fantastic. I’m very excited for Aadesh and Meditation on Mountains, and I’m looking forward to joining for another mindfulness adventure in the near future!

-🆗