beach bum

Slight exaggeration as I have been to the beach a grand total of two times in the past two and a half weeks but I felt I had to keep up the Aussie image of beers, barbie and surf.....hmmmm, seems perhaps that looks can be deceiving!

So, I would be lying if I said a lot had happened since my last entry......However, I did milk a cow in the end, lasting for about 5 mins (in fact you need strong hands and some patience....neither of which I excel in) and I really enjoyed my stay and wwoofing experience at dharmanda. Seeing and being a part of a functioning community, observing the community meeting (at which consensus prevails so major decisions need the agreement of all members) and knowing that this has worked for the past 35 years was a really special experience. Australians seem to have a genuine 'can do' culture and what they may lack on cultural and racial diversity (in the countryside particularly) they make up for in living a life very close to nature and various animals and the creepy crawlies that pervade the landscape. I have been made so welcome wherever I have been which, I feel, is partly common experience of travelling but also indicative of a genuine openness of the people.

For the past 9 days I have been lodged in a wee caravan on the property of Fiona and Roger - two 'English' emigres who have been here a while (Roger since he was 12 in fact). My connection was with Jo who is a friend of my mate Steve who lives in a housing co-op in Wales called chickenshack so, hence, the communal theme continues.

Not so much to report in the last week - some enjoyable 'astro-babble' with Jo (born day after me a few years older) and some interesting conversations re life, the universe and everything in it with Roger, Fiona, Jo and Avi (an Israeli guy who has been here since June and not left yet!). Christmas was fun, we went to the beach in Byron Bay (about 45 mins from this place in the valleys) and had prawns and smoked salmon watching the waves - Marks and Spencer would have been proud. There were numerous men with xmas hats and surf boards who where undoubtedly from blighty - trying the reconcile the 'hot-christmas' situation by plunging half cut into unrelenting waves. I swam briefly - read: was thrown around for about 5 mins in water up to my knees - just so I could say I had done it. We then came back here and had organic chicken, tofu, mountains of food and picked our $10 xmas presents out of a hat just so we could align with the traditions of having something we did not want or need on Jesus's birthday.

So, it is now boxing day and I am off to Woodford folk festival tomorrow with a friend of my cousin's called Keith. We have bought a car together (as you do when you have met once in a night club) and will do some travelling (probably re-visiting all the lovely people I have met on the way up north). I hope to end up in the Blue mountains in mid Jan on (another) retreat to recover from the relinquishing of control I will have to endure in sharing my space with another....

Beyond garlic

It has been and interesting if quiet two weeks since I wrote last. Written on here anyway - I seem to write in my diary alot these days, think it is a travelling thing - more time to think, confront dreams and demons, more time generally...out of the London comfort zone I tend to seek solice on the page.

So I finally got into the garlic harvesting - for a week we (myself and the family I was with) got up around half 5/6 and started work at 7 for about 2 hours, before the sun got too strong and our backs began to ache too much. I really enjoy getting up so early and hence going to bed even earlier than I do in the UK! There was not too much to do in the valley after dark anyway so I did not feel I was missing out on too much! In the afternoon I helped cut and prepare the garlic for drying out over the summer months. Chopping for two hours, picking for two hours, chilling for the rest of the day - naked swimming in the river - not too strenuous but a little bit of focus and work for my board and lodgings....(although think I may have ate more than 4 hours work..)

A highlight of that week was a trip to the 'local' cinema (about 1 hour away) to see Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'. A film I kind of avoided in the UK; felt it may be a case of preaching to the converted, but took the opportunity while I could to get out the valley and meet some of the locals. It was essentially a good film. Aside from the 'Apple Mac' promotions and the shots of Al driving a non-electric car and getting on and off aeroplanes the film showed the raw facts of climate change and global warming. It is clear why this truth is so inconvenient - if we take it on we have to take personal responsibility for our impact on the planet. One of the starkest facts for me was that the percentage of scientists, published in serious journals disagreeing with global warming and rising sea levels etc is 0% but the percentage of US newspaper articles casting doubt over the issue is 53%. Where there is doubt in people's minds there is the excuse not to take action. It seems it suits the politicians and their business supporters to have the public in two-minds so as policies and practices can go on unfettered....increasingly this is the most dangerous of actions.

On leaving garlic world last Monday I went to stay at a community called 'Bundagen' resident to about 160 people, formed 25 years ago and close to the sea. It is an amazing, beautiful spot. One of the things I really appreciate about Australia is this alternative 'can-do' culture. People build the most unusual houses (mostly without planning permission so I gather), and live in a simple and natural way. Bundagen is run on 100% solar, everyone has composting toilets and there are enough skills amongst the inhabitants to make for a diverse and interesting community. I stayed with 'Phil the baker' and his pregnant girlfriend Jane. Even after 24 hours we were good friends, they were so welcoming and open...me doing lots of washing up and cracking jokes.....(I think they still liked me by the end!!). However, perhaps composting toilets and naked swimming on the beach is not everyone's cup of tea but it suited me well. I chilled out at Bundagen for 3 days, did some Chi Gung and had a shiatsu massage with 'cups' (which left large marks on my back...removing the excess heat...I should be so lucky to generate any!!).

So now I am back on the wwoofing trail at a community called Dharmananda. Perhaps you are noticing a theme here (apart from naked swimming).....communities, farming, avoiding backpackers....?! Dharmanda is an intentional community of about 30 years standing. They eat meals together 5 nights a week, taking turns in cooking, and have a thriving organic garden and dairy farm. There is lots of cheese, milk and yogurt flying about and the garden is big enough to feed the 20 community members and more. I have only been here a few days so not ventured into milking the cows as yet....(indeed I am experiencing some resistance) but I would like to have a go.

The next move is from here towards Brisbane and the Woodford folk festival where I hope to hire a camper van and well and truly live the hippie dream.....hope it runs on vegetable oil though as I want to keep Al happy.

Wide open space

Well, it seems perhaps timely to write something as it has been a fair (and sometimes cloudy) few weeks on this enormous island and while alot has happened not much has actually occurred at the same time.

As you may have gathered from my last entry I arrived in Melbourne to 'abnormal weather conditions' - it was bloody cold, wet and miserable - I brought a fleece, a woolen hat and wore most of my layers for the four days I was there. It is strange how expectations can wound us.....I was angry about it - 23 hours across the planet, emotionally drained and it is freezing!!Hmmm...no wonder they call us whinging poms.

Melbourne is a nice city (I still am jaded a little it is true). There are real Indian people, as well as white people on the buses, there is a sense of art, culture, they do great coffee and public transport works. I did not see to much this time to be honest (and was most annoyed the Neighbours tour was booked up). I was there to make work contacts and explore my options as well as recover from jet lag and the seemingly enormous emotional frenzy I had managed to whip myself into before I left. Anyway, planted some work seeds and then, with some relief, headed north for a the 'Dharma Gathering' outside Coffs Harbour in the Yarripanni Rainforest youth centre......things really could only get better.

To assuage my guilt taking planes across the world throughout my life my idea is to see Australia the long way - via train, bus, or car, (camper van - yes please!!) horse or foot.....whatever mode does not involve taking to the skies. Having successfully managed to get a ISIC card (via a forged letter of my full time student status) I get half price on the trains so this was the choice. 12 hours overnight Melbourne to Sydney and then 9 hours Sydney to Coffs....long time....crap seats....but seeing the vastness of the county as well as (unfortunately) being subject to some local conversations concerning the wonderful nature of Australia (no doubt in some ways) and hence the futility of traveling anywhere else in the world less you encounter 'strangers with their strange ways'....thank god for my ipod.

After a night in Coffs at the YHA I got picked up and taken to the rainforest retreat. 100 plus people for a week of discovery debate and some silence reflecting on the teachings of the Buddha (known as the Dharma) and enjoying nature.

I am not sure how to proceed with this, to explain or explore too much....it is hard to find a balance but, as this is my blog and your choice whether you read it I can write for me and from the heart which would seem like the best motivation.

A week before I left the UK I went on an 'Open Space technology' training course in Blossin, East of Berlin. This involved 42 international (mainly European) participants learning about the theory and practice of 'open space' - a form of public participation which is based on the principles of self-organisation and empowerment and where the participants of the conference basically decide, propose and facilitate the workshops themselves during the 1-3 day process and work out action plans and next steps as mixed groups. It is great for diverse groups and organisations and I can honestly say it is an empowering process - respecting the wisdom of the group and the power of group to self-organise and manifest change.

The reason I mention this now is it took place in a youth centre, in the middle of the forest by a large lake. We spent most of the day in and out of the large open space (the gym in this case) and the group quickly became a community, sharing, arguing, caring and developing in an organic way; involving sub groups, based around meal times and intrinsically connected to the natural environment that held and contained us.

The Dharma gathering was not so different. For one week this time over 100 of us made our home in cabins in the forest, spent most of our days going in and out of the large open space of the meditation (and dining) hall. Surrounded by loud birds, inquisitive insects, the odd sighting of a guana or lizard and the ever present company of the forest turkeys we undertook our own exploration into our way of being as humans, or human being.

As many friends know this was not the first 'strange' retreat type thing I have done and I hope it will not be the last. The difference this time was there was only one day of silence (its golden you know) and the rest of workshops, intense conversations, some swimming, too much eating of lovely vegetarian food (brown rice leading to farts) and an appreciation of nature, the trees, the birds, animals and the wild ocean.

I suppose one of the real insights I have had, (it is after all insight meditation so that is one of the 'goals' at least), is that my inner life really drives my outer life and that by observing the changing nature of this inner world - affected by thought, feeling, emotion, desire, pain, aversion, wanting - that I begin to glimpse, to really understand at an intrinsic level, the true nature of reality. Things are impermanent, thoughts, feelings, emotions, desire, pain, aversion etc, humanity is capable of great love and compassion which is consistent and that by giving the inner life some attention, to observe the flow of life from a quiet place, the outer life may also flow with greater ease. Throughout my life I have truly been confronted with my own dis-ease, desire for change, whims, fancies and fears, I have no doubt we all have in various shapes and forms. I also know I am curious and that this curiosity, cultivated into a more skillful desire for investigation, is leading me further down this well-trodden path and has, in this adventure so far, linked me with like-minded people and enabled me to feel I have a community here when my real community is, in my heart, 12,000 miles away.

Please do not fear!! I am not some religious convert, quite the opposite as the beauty of the teaching is that you do not need guru's, to change your name to ullawolla and shave your head (although the last two are not beyond the bounds of possibility)..... I guess I am writing more to remind myself of this understanding and reaffirm to myself and the outside world that is ok to be 'being' for a while, being in nature, being present, being open, being free and that the time for 'doing' has been and will come again.

In fact. I am currently at a farm in the Kulang valley about 20km from Bellingen where I am slowly to be heading towards Byron Bay and Brisbane. I have decided to do some 'Wwoofing' - willing workers on organic farms - so as of Tuesday I will be pulling garlic and warding of the vampires for a week. I joined up with the family who cooked on the retreat and am hanging out with Maya and Khan (13 and 19) until their mum gets back and we start the garlic harvest. Hard life swimming in the river and wandering through the forest in the mean time.....said it was back to doing pretty quickly eh!!

down and out

First day....few hours of mental craziness after whizzing across the world at 500mph (in an aeroplane on this occassion)

And it is raining - cold, windy and a brought a wolly hat.

Improvements please patience if not a cirtue and nor is spelling for those observant wons

still not sure what I am doing here but have not eaten properly for a few days so perhaps a fast

a long way to come for that though