August 10 - Part 2

A few more favorites taken at Indralaya this summer...

view from the dock

summer sunsets

sunlit web

lily in Fowler's Pond

Indralaya road

Madrona Point under the blue moon

Indralaya... 

Calls to me

Come and stay

Feel and be

Be with spirits

That have made

Indralaya

H-o-m-e!

August 10 - Part 1

Hello.

I am sitting in Indralaya’s tiny office which faces the meadow, listening to the peaceful hum of conversation and watching butterflies dance among the patio’s wisteria.

A Theosophical joke about ghost-writing for Minor has been brewing in my mind for days— i.e. Greetings from the astral realm!— but nothing has quite materialized.. badum-ch. Get it?  Ok ok.

My name is Ashley Clements, and I have been “interning” at Indralaya for over two months.  Camp attendees inevitably ask: Are you a WWOOFer? on fellowship? a staff member?  Not quite.

I’m actually on a field education assignment with my graduate program at Harvard Divinity School.  Since Theosophy is my declared focus, the supportive staff at school accepted my proposal to work at Indralaya as a locale for professional development.  It was an ideal choice, considering my spiritual inclinations as well as intentions to pursue a career as a mystical chaplain.

As an “intern,” my duties have been divided between “grunt work”: gardening, working in the kitchen, leading teens on outdoor clean-up projects; programmatic involvement: attending workshops, leading meditation sessions, helping facilitate the coming-of-age ritual at family camp; and academic study and personal reflection.

This summer has been rife with learning and connection, a sashay between conversations and silence, roadside runs and meditative stillness, exploring outward and roving inward, engaging challenge and erupting with play.  

But mostly, reflecting back upon the arc of my time at Indralaya, I feel enormously blessed and grateful to have been so moved here: by the people, the spirits, the land, and the ubiquitous, ineffable love.  

Photography is my second language, as such I have organized a visual narrative, punctuated by descriptions, which follows the seven programs that I have seen come and go since June.  A similar offering can be found on my blog: www.fleshofheaven.wordpress.com

June 4-7, Psychic Development and Spiritual Unfoldment

In his ever sage and connected style, facilitator Kurt Leland orchestrated a Theosophically-based program that led participants on an investigative journey through various realms of reality.  (Kurt is my spiritual teacher in Boston!)  

Kurt enjoying the ferry to Orcas.

June 13-17, Basic Therapeutic Touch

June 13-19, Therapeutic Touch Mentorship

June 21-27, Therapeutic Touch: a Path of Consciousness, Healing, and Service

Therapeutic Touch is a healing modality started by Dora Kunz and Dolores Krieger in the 1970’s that allows a healer to support, generally by calmly sweeping an energy field with their hands, a healee’s natural tendency towards wholeness.  Both healers and healees were present throughout the three programs, deepening in their wisdom and connecting on sacred ground.

Basic Therapeutic Touch group- initiated and all smiles!

Participants enjoying rest time in the meadow together

July 1-7, Family Week One

July 9-15, Family Week Two

During this program, families of all shapes and sizes converge at Indralaya.  “Play” was the chosen theme this year— and there was no short of practice during both weeks.  The usual suspect activities alit the days, from the morning centering circles and the labyrinth walk to the sock hop and nightly card games.  And this year was also doused with unusual fun as the Indralaya crew marched at Eastsound’s Fourth of July Parade. 

Morning circles

Bruce, one of the facilitators— featured here as “Clooney”— preparing for a play about “play”

Indralaya at the Fourth of July Parade!

Fireworks from Inspiration Point

July 18-23, Deep Singing

Helen Bee and Barbara Bellamy led a full camp of ready singers through heartful chants, simple harmonies, and harmonizing rounds.  Reverbrations of peace, joy, celebration, and gratitude were palpable throughout the premises— dare I say, inviting the spirits and ancestors to dance in glee.

Barbara and Helen look out over the animated meadow

Nature friends coming out to listen

July 25-30, Yoga Week

Program leader, Melanie Whittiker, brought her deep, rooted practice to participants who were led through a blend of yoga from the Iyengar and Ashtanga traditions.  She also brought with her waves of stability and kindness, which cohered the group and invited lively discussion and even an impromptu talent show.

Yoga in session, front

Yoga in session, back

Melanie leading class

August 1-6, The Dharma of Relationships: Meditation, Nature, & Community

Program leaders Joel and Michelle Levy have a broad and dynamic spiritual base, drawing from Buddhist practice and philosophy to Sufi prayer to cognitive science techniques and beyond.  In this program, the spiritual teachers led participants through a mediation on relationship, utilizing a blend of storytelling, practice, dharma talks, song, and periods of silence.

Michelle hanging prayer flags in the meadow to consecrate and create an energetic container for the program.

Joel (right) and one of the program participants

A moment of communed joy.

Finally-- and of course-- Indralaya's gears are greased, fixed, and fully operable thanks to a rotating cohort of generous volunteers and staff.  To all, especially Minor and Leonie, a bow of respect and appreciation.  May the light of your good deeds multiply and be mirrored back, to dance like shimmers upon your heartseats.

Summer work team (from left): Ivana, Leonie, Ashley (me), Minor, Gwenda, Mimi, Lhana

*workers not pictured here: Carole, Genevieve, Mary, Stephanie, Michael, Lori, Kim, Olivia, Tessa, Doris

May 18-24

This week, ‘this week’ offers a post by guest bloggers Macall & David. They have been at Indralaya on fellowship since late April. Macall was also here last summer and this year she brought David along. They will be leaving soon on a voyage of discovery along the west coast, with plans to get as far south as Big Sur before heading back home to Utah. You can keep up on their progress by following this link.

David, Rose, and Macall

We are David and Macall, two wandering kids from the Salt Lake area in Utah. We came to Indralaya to participate in the fellowship program. For the month we have been here, we have seen so many great people come through. It’s awesome to get to make so many friends from such a wide variety of backgrounds and ages. Not only have the people been rad, the programs have also provided new experiences and a chance to open up our minds and drink in some good knowledge. The food has been most excellent, and has given us a chance to try an all vegetarian diet with some vegan and gluten free meals thrown in occasionally. We’ve been able to try so many new things and discover some favorites. As fellowship members, we work in the garden or kitchen every day, both are full of learning and enjoyment. Kitchen duty is cool because we get to see the hard work that goes into the delicious food, while garden duty is nice because we get to see how the things we eat grow and need nourishment and care. When we aren’t working, though, there are multiple trails and beaches to explore.

         

David, Miriam, Leonie & Gale

During the first week, Lama Glenn Mullen came to teach about Tibetan healing meditation. He discussed a lot about compassion and equanimity, and how each of them can enrich our lives. We practiced breathing in the good, clean energy and letting it cleanse us of our bad energy as we breathed out. It was quite interesting to see a new side of meditation and to learn of some new cultures.

Barred Owl

The second week brought Jason Siff, a man who has formulated a meditative practice called recollective awareness. In this form, the goal is not to let go of all thoughts to find inner peace, but to let them flow and pass through freely without restraint. The practice is supposed to help with accepting thoughts and how they make you feel and realizing that everyone is human. One interesting thing about his program is that it was silent, which was a bit difficult for us simply because we are too talkative and staff requires a bit of discussion to be sure the food doesn’t turn out scary.

Qigong practitioners draw down the chi

Kim Ivy came third, and taught us all how to gather energy, called chi, with a slow motion martial art called qigong. It was a blast! Kim was very easy to learn with and the program participants really enjoyed gathering chi and learning a new “formless” practice that leaves you feeling well stretched and energetic. Qigong was our favorite program of the three we participated in.

worker bee

Over Memorial Day weekend a work party was running round the clock to get everything officially ready for the summer season. Cabins were repaired, garden beds were prepared, the dock was installed, and worms were sifted out of many wheel barrels full of compost. We got the opportunity to meet many of Indralaya’s oldest friends and a few new ones.

garden beds

We’ve had a wonderful time. Minor and Leonie are incredible and are such a huge part of the beautiful environment and community that Indralaya has become and continues to grow into. It was a joy to spend time with them and Carole, the kitchen manager, and become part of their small, but happy little piece of heaven. Have no doubt, we will return soon!

May 11-17

Qigong Program Participants

It was another full weekend at Indralaya, beginning with the arrival of participants in the Qigong weekend led by Kim Ivy. Kim is the director of the Embrace the Moon school for TaiJiQuan and Qigong, located in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. This was her second year at Indralaya teaching the Essence Qigong form.

May 4-10

weekend retreat participants

Silence is Golden
The Recollective Awareness Meditation retreat began on Wednesday evening, a day earlier than is usual for most of our Spring and Fall programs. Participants seemed to appreciate having the extra day to settle into the practice and we are considering the possibility of extending the retreat to nine days in 2016. This was a mostly silent retreat, including meals and free time.

Recollective Awareness practice provides a somewhat revolutionary approach to the traditional practices of meditation as handed down from the time of the Buddha over 2,500 years ago. More information is available on the Skillful Meditation Project website.

Annual Meeting & Work Party Weekend
The Annual Meeting of the Friends of Indralaya is just around the corner. The meeting will be held on Saturday afternoon, May 22, here at Indralaya. This coincides with the annual Memorial Day work party. All are welcome to attend both the work party and the Friends meeting.

More information and registration is available through the Indralaya website.

April 27 - May 3

The Program Season Begins

This week saw the beginning of the 2015 program season, with an exploration of Tibetan Healing Practices led by Lama Glenn Mullin. Lama Glenn has devoted his life to the study and sharing of Tibetan spiritual traditions. He has authored over thirty books and his particular specialty is the Dalai Lama lineage.

Not coincidentally, the week also saw the arrival of fellowship staffers McCall & David and new assistant kitchen manager Carole Schor. McCall is here for a return engagement after helping on fellowship last summer, while Carole and David are new to Indralaya. Carole brings an extensive background in cooking and events planning to her job in the kitchen. She will be on staff throughout the rest of the season and into the fall.

McCall, David & Carole

program attendees and teacher Lama Glenn Mullin (center)

From There to Here

Long time Indralayan’s John and Shelagh Levey were here for the program. Last year Shelagh published a memoir titled “From There to Here” that tells an intriguing and compelling story of a full live. The following brief excerpt (printed with permission) shares some of her early memories of Indralaya. Shelagh’s book is available in the Indralaya bookshop.

The first time I attended Indralaya was on my own but I was entranced with the place and couldn’t wait to return with my family... In the seventies, our family attended a few of the summer programs, but four children meant limited funds, and so we were keen participants at free work parties throughout the year. Coming from Victoria, we arrived earlier than other campers. (Camp manager) John (Abbenhouse) would would meet us at Orcas Landing on dark, rainy nights and take us back for a nutritious meal cooked by (his wife and co-manager) Dorothy... Indralaya is family focused and our four children enjoyed the community living, and now return with their own children.

 Indralaya friends Melanie & Shelagh 

April 20-27

After the weekend in Seattle, I stayed over for a few days because I had registered for a plant identification walk in Discovery Park with Michael Pilarski and Arthur Lee Jacobsen. Both are brilliant at this, with long histories in the field. It was a great day.

 Arthur Lee & Michael P

Yarrow 

In ancient China, the yarrow stalk was traditionally dried & used for casting I Ching hexagrams. It is also a powerful medicinal plant with a wide variety of uses. It was well known among the native peoples of the NW.

Time to Mow

I arrived home just in time to hop on the mower and mow the meadow before the grass got totally out of control. There are many stories about mowing the meadow and building of hay piles back in the early days of camp. When Leonie and I first came to Indralaya, there were often brigades of people out raking the grass after mowing. This changed when a camper suggested we purchase mulching blades for the mower. 

Mowing ramps up considerably in the Spring, when we need to mow once a week. We generally do the mowing between programs. With the exception of the garden, the grass usually slows down considerably by mid-July and mowing is less frequent. The grass in the garden never seems to stop growing - it must be those happy nature spirits!

wavy patterns on the volleyball court

It's a lot of fun to mow the meadow, and also time consuming. It takes at least four hours to mow the meadow and another couple hours to get to all the fringe areas and garden. 

freshly cut

Wisteria Time

The wisteria has taken to its new bower very happily. With the mild spring weather that we have experienced it is no surprise that it is blossoming about three weeks early than usual this year.

April 13-19

Picture at an exhibition

Last weekend we headed to the Seattle area and set up a table in the exhibitors room at the 2015 Therapeutic Touch International Association (TTIA) conference. The theme of the conference was “A Community of Healers”. We had a great time. There were a lot of great stories from the frontiers of healing. It was an inspiring gathering of many friends and accomplished women -- including Dr. Dolores Krieger -- who is still going strong in her early 90’s. She gave an impressive keynote address that strongly pointed a path to the future.

On Sunday afternoon it was over to the Theosophical Society in Seattle, where Leonie and I spoke on the virtues known as the Four Immeasurable. These are loving-kindness (metta in the Pali language), compassion (karuna), joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha). They are also known as the Brahmaviharis, which translates as the abodes of Brahma. These are said to be innate qualities that reside within each of us and can be awakened with practice. They are immeasurable (as Brahma is immeasurable) in that once awakened there is no limit to our capacity to put them to good use in helping to relieve suffering and discontent.

April 6-12

It was a lovely week at Indralaya with warm sunshine by day and cool star shine by night. While Leonie was doing battle with the slugs in the garden, the first mowing of the meadow was completed. We are hoping that the steady clear weather will bode well for the fall fruit harvest as the pollinators have had plenty of time to do their work with the blossoming fruit trees.

On Friday we headed to Seattle for a meeting of the Indralaya Board of Directors. It was a very full agenda, including discussion of how best to approach special events that fall outside of the established program schedule, review of the 2014 financials, the possibility of providing wi-fi for program participants, and updates on where things are with the many Spring projects and preparations for the program season that is just around the corner.

A Study in Crabapple

There is one crabapple tree at Indralaya. It is located on the edge of the meadow near the Grove. This year its blossoms have been remarkably effulgent. See for yourself!

from across the newly mown meadow ...

closer ... 

closer ...

close enough

Sunday in Seattle

Leonie and I will be speaking at the Theosophical Society in Seattle this coming Sunday, April 19 from 4:00-5:30 pm. We will be discussing the Four Immeasurables (Loving Kindness, Compassion, Joy & Equanimity). Please join us, we'd love to see you there. The meeting will be at the Theosophical Library, just behind the Quest Bookshop at 717 Broadway Avenue on Capitol Hill.

Policy Interlude

Indralaya is now a non-smoking facility
At their December meeting, the Indralaya Board of Directors voted to change the policies around smoking. As a result, Dogwood cabin has been retired as the smoking lounge and Indralaya is now a smoke-free facility. Those who wish to have a smoke (including e-cigarettes) will be expected to leave the property prior to doing so.

Dogwood Cabin ~ no longer a smoking lounge

The Board is interested in hearing your feedback on this topic. Do you agree or disagree with this decision? What are your views on the balance between individual freedom of choice and the shared values of community?

The Board is looking forward to seeing your replies. Please post your comments here.

March 30-April 5

Walking the Winding Way
Leonie and I have been walking the Indralaya labyrinth more frequently than usual this year. Doing so seems to fit with where we are both in ourselves and in our understanding of the ways of Indralaya. Coinciding with this development has been further study and reflection upon the nature of the labyrinth itself.

I have, for example, been working with the realization that as one walks the winding way to the center, each transition in the path, from one course to another, actually compels one to turn away from the center. It is a curious thing, worth pondering, that one gets closer to the center by continuously turning away from it. Continual approach leavened by continual turning away.

Then there is the center itself. This is a place of visitation, a place where one ‘goes to see’ but not to permanently reside. One who walks the true labyrinth with persistence and a certain measure of luck eventually arrives at the center. But one can not choose to stay there and remain alive. This is, after all, the dwelling place of the Minotaur, a place of heroic testing. The path of the hero or heroine is to heed the calling of the world and return from the center with their hard won ‘pearl of great price.’ The center is not the final destination, it is a place along the way.

As one leaves the center and enters again upon the winding way, one finds oneself turning both towards and away from the center in the transitions between circuits. This alternating pattern provides opportunity to both reflect upon the experience of the center (turning towards) and to prepare oneself for the departure (turning away) from the labyrinth. Eventually one reaches the final turning away and returns again to the world that awaits.

Family Week coordinators: Lars, Sasha, Alayna, Elliott, & Ondine
(that other fellow is Desmo, he won't be attending)

Summer is Coming!

Over the weekend, I headed to Seattle to sit in on a meeting of the folks who will be leading the first family week. This year’s theme for both family weeks is ‘play’. At the week one meeting there were many good ideas being discussed. 

Registrations for summer programs are coming in steadily. Both the Deep Singing Week and Family Week Two are close to being full and are likely to be on wait list status soon. We are quite fortunate that many of our summer programs fill up one year after another. If you are giving thought to visiting Indralaya this summer, now is a good time to be making your final plans and registering for the times that you would like to be here.

March 23-29

There was a profusion of delicate shadings of pink and white and yellow in the meadow this week as nearly every pear, plum and cherry tree burst forth in blossom. The entire lower end of the meadow was abuzz with the accompanying horde of pollinators. An exception to this riotous bursting forth of activity could be found up near the great cedar that overlooks the volleyball court. Here the long shadows of the fir trees that have grown so tall over the last decades delayed the blossoming of these plum trees by nearly a week.

 there’s a riot going on

tall shadow casters

tall shadows

Meanwhile at the kitchen, repairs to the water heater closet got underway. Over the years, 

the wood floor under the heaters has deteriorated and needs replacing. 

More Bird Stories

While work was underway outside the kitchen, this little guy was found inside, exhausted and barely able to move. I was able to pick him up and carry him back outside. After a little bit of therapeutic touch and a few minutes rest, he flew to a nearby bush and hasn’t been seen since. And just today, the first two tree swallows of the season were spotted circling around the garden and considering their nesting options.