July 25, 2009 Saturday

Jaimal Yogis – Saltwater Buddha

Last night forty people crowded into the back room of Book Passage in Corte Madera to hear Jaimal Yogis read from his new book, Saltwater Buddha - A Surfer’s Quest to Find Zen on the Sea. Jaimal, who is average height, lean and athletic looking, immediately created a positive rapport with the audience. He exhibited a quiet confidence. The same confidence that I had seen and felt coming form Gerry Lopez when he spoke at Book Passage a year ago and from Laird Hamilton at his book signing last November. With a soft voice he expressed how humble he felt to have so many giving up their Friday evening to hear him speak.

He asked how many were surfers. Ten people, including myself, raised their hands. He then asked how many meditated. Twenty raised their hands. Of course some surfers also meditate, like my friend Mary who was there. Thus most of the audience was more familiar with Buddha than surfing and were here to hear how surfing connects to Zen.

Jaimal began by conducting a five-minute meditation to set the mood for the evening. He led us through a concentration on water: imagine a drop of water that spreads to a pond to a lake to a sea with ripples across the surface to the building of a wave that finally breaks on a beach.

He read the Prologue. This book is in praise of water, a homily about water. It’s a series of short stories about his encounters with the sea and his practice of Zen. The ocean is in constant flux and when you spend a lot of time on the water you become like a message in a bottle, you know where you want to go but you’re at the mercy of the winds, currents and waves. In merging Buddhism and surfing, the wave becomes an excellent metaphor. Waves are pulses of energy through the medium of water. The water doesn’t move, but the pulses of energy (waves) move endless distances. The energy of one creates the energy of another wave. The sea is constant. People are like ripples on the surface the sea. They are numerous and constantly moving, but they have little impact on the depths of the sea.

The book came about by accident. While working in Manhattan, NY, Jaimal became depressed and forced himself to meditate ten minutes a day. From this he wrote a piece on the water metaphor of Buddhism and surfing. The article created quite a buzz on the Internet. Soon Wisdom Books called wanting to see the manuscript of his book. What book? He hadn’t started writing it yet. Wisdom Books, publisher of Saltwater Buddha, is a non-profit company dedicated to works on Buddhism. Their interest led him to compose the story of his journey learning to surf, discovering Buddhism and the relation between the two. At a young age he left his home in Sacramento, took all his money and some of his mother’s, bought a one-way ticket to Maui where he learned to surf and practice meditation. Thus began a series of incidents, insights, and adventures that he presents as short stories in his book.

From his Water-Walking chapter, Jaimal read an excerpt about venturing out to the third bay at Honolua Bay with his Australian surf mentor Roth. The surf was huge and terrifying. He was calling on several of his Buddhist sayings to give him courage to face these waves. Paddling around the second bay to the third bay, the waves transformed from small turquoise into blue open-water surges that exploded against the rocks. Jaimal was repeating a Chinese chant for outside intervention as a big set approached. Roth went for the second wave and missed it. But he was now in position for the third wave of the set, he caught it and disappeared. Jaimal repeated his chant three times, a good six seconds, when Roth reappeared flying ten feet above the collapsing wave.

“This one is yours,” Roth shouted. It was Jaimal’s turn with the next set. He stroked into a big wave, popped up, turned right and picked up speed. Walking on water? No he was running, gliding, flying down the wave, pulling out before crashing into the rocks. A few weeks later Jaimal was back this time without his mentor Roth. In the water was an older, weather beaten surfer who mumbled something about dragons. They traded waves.

“You have to ask permission to surf here,” the old guy said referring to the dragons and the Hawaiian gods. “Some people don’t. They get washed up on the rocks.” Jaimal asked permission.

Jaimal’s stories and Buddhist sayings held my interest and that of the audience. The enthusiasm of the crowd at the end of his presentation encouraged me to read the book. I’m looking forward to it.