February 20-26

This will be a short posting as we are sitting at the airport this morning, waiting to catch a flight. We will be visiting the Theosophical Society in America headquarters in Wheaton, IL, this coming week.

It was another surprisingly busy week, as there was a lot to do before heading to Seattle on Friday for a weekend meeting of the Indralaya Board of Directors. The board meeting was on Saturday and a wide range of topics were on the agenda. One important topic was the consideration of proposed revisions to the by-laws which are intended to make the Board election process flow more smoothly.

The bylaw revision process requires that any proposed changes be sent to all members of the Friends of Indralaya at least one month prior to their adoption by the Board. So those of you who are members will be receiving more information about this in the next week or so.

Our flight is being called, so it’s time to go!

Minor, Lin, Kim, Jeannie, Meg, Megan, Kelly, Crystal, Leonie

February 13-19

Much of the week was spent preparing for the President’s Day weekend and first work party of the season. The work party was a relatively quiet one, with around 25 people participating.

A wide range of work was done, ranging from replacing posts for the garden fence to gutting much of the interior of Wisteria cabin. A good start was made on pruning the meadow fruit trees, potholes were filled along the road into camp, fallen trees were cleared off of the trails in the woods and garden beds were attended to.

Scott, Madeline, Amy & Liz tend a garden bed

Carol transfers tree prunings to the chipper area

Wisteria cabin was gutted

fresh bread

“Tree of Life Pie - thank you pruners!”

The kitchen prepared great food all weekend and a fine spirit of camaraderie prevailed.

All in all, it was a good start to Indralaya’s 85th year, with the promise of more to come!

February 6-12

Krotona Courtyard

We returned from Ojai on Saturday and got back to Indralaya on Sunday. The workshop on ‘cultivating virtue’ was well received. It was a busy time, and good to see many friends and connect with Krotona, which feels like a second home to us. All in all, it was a great week.

Less than an hour after arriving who should we see but David Christensen, who was also visiting from the NW and was showing some friends around the grounds.

Fritz Kunz & friends (that’s Fritz with the hat and mohair sweater)

The following incidental remarks about Indralaya come from the transcript of a talk that Indralaya co-founder Fritz Kunz gave in Seattle in 1958. The talk is titled “The Path - Its Natural Background” and included some insights on virtue that were referred to during the Krotona workshop. The transcript was prepared by Jen Edington.

There (at Indralaya) amid beautiful surroundings, where nothing has been killed for years and years, and where families have (spent time) together on the whole with wonderful amity, affection, and mutuality, and in terms of quiet, inner quiet given by trees that have been loved personally for years. I give you my word on this. Loved as much as animals, (these) individual trees.

There’s a kind of serenity and depth which those who have visited in right terms don’t fail to feel....I’d like to ask you where in the Theosophical Society you find people of advanced years, of middle years, young married people, children of all ages in goodly numbers, all studying the theosophical philosophy out of doors. Where do you find that? Not many places. You really are happy people to have something like that.

Fritz Kunz speaking at Madrona Point

Some 43 years later, much of what Fritz said still rings true, wouldn’t you agree?

January 30 - February 5

After a busy week, we left Indralaya on Saturday, bound for Ojai and the Krotona School of Theosophy, where I am leading an afternoon program this coming week on “Cultivating Virtue”. We are here now, and the wi-fi connection is incredibly slow, so this posting will be short and sweet.

The program is rooted in the idea that all cultures and traditions have pointed to certain human qualities as being admirable and worthy of esteem. Actions rooted in kindness, compassion, generosity and unselfish love seem to engender universal acclaim and respect. During the program, we'll be exploring our relationship with these and other virtues and consider how we can engender and give strength to these qualities within ourselves. It should be an interesting week and I'm looking forward to it.

We'll be back to Orcas on Sunday, and then on into preparations for President’s Day Weekend and the first work party of the season.