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!!
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!!
1 comment:
great too see you made it out there ok and your adventures are beginning. well done on getting a blog together, how about somepictures? hah ha nice to hear what you are up to and all that, I will put a link to it from mine when i get a mo'. have a great time Ruth and its great to be in touch.. love Steve xx
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