Ashram to ashram

Well, out with the OMG, and in with the om.

It seems - at least to The New York Times - that "Hard Times are Jamming the Ashrams."

Hey, it's not for everybody, but if you want to meditate, practice hatha yoga, pore over spiritual texts, walk in the woods, and eat organic vegetarian meals that you help prepare, you can live at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, for $3,000 for a year.

Which is where one pink-slipped Intel technician is riding out the recession. Steven Odnoha thought he'd only be there a year, but time flies when you're picking wild thyme, and he's coming up on his second anniversary.

There are a number of these retreats where you can live very cheaply in exchange for a couple of hours a day of labor "washing dishes, cleaning rooms or weeding gardens." They're reporting an up-tick in applications, full-houses, and a shift in their demographic. Back in the day, they were more apt to see writers and others with free-time kinds of lives. Now it's recent college grads and un-sized professionals.

You can't just walk in and plunk your $3K down and be done with it, of course:

The long-term residencies usually begin with a monthlong foundational program in which participants commit to a full schedule of classes and meditation. At the Himalayan Institute’s 28-day self-transformation program, the day begins with a 6 a.m. meditation and continues with a full roster of hatha yoga classes, breathing and relaxation practicums and about four hours of light chores, like making beds and chopping vegetables.

While this certainly has plenty of appeal to folks between jobs or those who are just plain old-fashioned burnt out, I personally wouldn't be that thrilled with "self-transformation program."  I'd be okay with the four hours of light chores, but I think I'd bog down on the relaxation practicums, unless they involved the relaxation practicums that I already enjoy - reading novels that don't take place in current times, eating Skinny Cow fudge bars, googling people I went to kindergarten with, and not turning on talking-head television .

Somehow, I don't think my practicums would make the Himalayan cut.

And, while I don't eat tons of meat, I'm sure I'd get an occasional jones for a hamburger or buffalo chicken wing. There's also no mention of wine. Hmmmmm.

I also didn't get much of a sense from The Times of how much of your day's your own there. I get the couple of hours of food chopping and toilet swabbing, but I'm not sure how much "me" time you get. And whether that "me" time can be doing Sudoku puzzles and watching re-runs of  the Bob Newhart Show vs. meditation and course work with some swami.

So I'm guessing that this is not a me kind of place.

Too bad, because I wouldn't mind a couple of years of $3K living  (plus health insurance, of course, mustn't let that lapse).

And I've got admit that the idea of being away from smartphones, dumbphones,and  incessant fretting about the economy and climate change for a while sounds pretty darned appealing.

Om mani padme hum.