Sixty Impermanent Years
Thursday 02 April, 05:07 PM
ON 14 APRIL I'M CELEBRATING MY 60th BIRTHDAY!
You're welcome to join me wherever you are. In a 24 hour event to include meditation, walking meditation, a talk, dharma exploration, overnight practice, tea, cakes, south indian food, music ritual and dancing
8:00 - 10:00 Meditation, walking, meditation
10:00 Celebratory BREAKFAST
11: STUDY (Satipatthana Sutta) also online on Facebook
2:00 Talk: Sixty years of Impermanence
Hanging out and conversation, more tea
3:15 Meditation, Walking, Meditation
5:00 Tea, cakes, other talks, discussion and more hanging out
6:30 Meditation
7:30 Celebratory Dinner FANCY OR BEST DRESS!
9:00 Ritual Celebration Dedication and Dancing
10:30 Meditation into the night
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still building
Saturday 28 March, 06:35 PM
WE'RE STILL AT IT - still building the platform for the 23' yurt in which I and my partner Yashobodhi will be living a retreat life here at ecoDharma.. from sometime soon! It has taken much longer than I expected, but then I did not forsee the high standard of building that we'd need to work to. When I lived in Tipi Valley I did something similar - cutting a level platform into a hill (for a 16' dome) - and it took three guys a couple of days. But then the platform was smaller, we didn't make a stone retaining wall, and all I had on the floor was rushes. This time we are building a proper wooden floor, and it's got to be level! Nor was it snowing, and the ground was not full of enormous stones. All in all, we've done very well with the help of lots of friends. Hopefully we'll be finished in time for the celebration I've got in mind for my 60th birthday - see next blog entry..
Exploring EcoDharma
Saturday 10 January, 03:36 PM
It is great that EcoDharma is attracting younger people. For several retreatants it was the first Dharma event they'd attended where they had not been the only person under 40. For me it was my first retreat with such a large age gap between myself (59) and the rest. The nearest other person was 44 and most of the rest were in their 20s and 30s. Interesting, and very pleasant!
We divided the time into three week long sessions focusing first on ‘Eco’ (Guhyapati), ‘Dharma’ (Kamalashila) and ‘EcoDharma’ (Maitrisara). It was a powerful mix of politics, ethics, science, philosophy, engaged Buddhism, insight, community, solitude, and silent meditation. G. set us up in the first week with excellent talks discussing, for example the interface between emerging ecological worldviews and those which currently dominate western society. My week was largely in silence with teachings on meditation, in particular the development of compassion. Maitrisara's week focused on the integration of Dharma and Ecology and it included some wonderful group work. Both G. and Maitrisara are highly experienced facilitators very used to working with both activists and Buddhists. We were a very good combination as a team.
Each week there was a 'solo day' which began, for each of the retreatants, with an exit through a magically manifested portal where they emerged invisible to others.
