June 18-24

It was a full week for the participants in the Therapeutic Touch mentorship program as they met throughout each day to hone their skills as healing practitioners. All in all, it was a very harmonious week that also saw the arrival of summer.

The program ended on Friday and as the last participants were being driven to the ferry at midday, raindrops began to splatter on the windshield of the camp van. The rain continued to pour from the sky throughout the rest of the day and on into late Saturday afternoon.

Leonie, Clair, Jen, Cathy, Cedron & Ruth

Program Organizers Julie & Cordy

On Sunday,  the clouds departed just as participants began arriving for week two of the June therapeutic touch programs. It was an amazingly beautiful sunny day that also included a memorial gathering in the grove for Kamala Harrison. Kamala was an Orcas Island resident who was quite involved at Indralaya for several years in the 1990’s. She did a lot of trail work in the  forest and also helped in the library. She and her husband Kiko regularly attended the Wednesday night study group that meets at the Indralaya library during the off-season.

June 11-17

This was a full week of comings and goings. As the days went by, fellowship staffers Jerry (Tuesday), Jennifer (Wednesday), Collin (Thursday), Bonnie and Craig (Saturday) all took their turn and departed.

On Friday, Leonie and I headed to Seattle just as Cordy Anderson and Julie Benkofsky-Webb, the coordinators for the Therapeutic Touch programs, were arriving. We were on our way to a busy Saturday in town, composed of an Indralaya Board meeting in the morning and a memorial gathering for Linda Jo Pym (see April 23-29) in the afternoon.

Leonie returned to camp on Saturday evening, just in time to do the orientation for the nearly 40 people who had arrived during the day for the Therapeutic Touch mentorship program. I stayed over until Sunday to visit with family and run some errands.

Dora Kunz

The last half of June at Indralaya has been devoted to the teaching and practice of Therapeutic Touch for nearly 40 years. Therapeutic Touch developed out of the shared work of Dora Kunz, Dolores Krieger and the experience of hundreds of interested students and practitioners, both here and at Pumpkin Hollow Farm in New York.

A key impetus for the development of this healing modality was Dora’s insight that the capacity for healing is a human quality that can be taught. In her book, The Personal Aura, Dora shared the following thoughts on healing:

Healing is the reestablishment of order within the body’s systems. I perceive its accomplishment as due to a universal energy which springs from the tendency towards order that is at the heart of all living processes... 

Healing involves forces and agencies which we do not fully understand, and certainly cannot command. Rather, we seek to be instruments of the power of healing which exists everywhere in nature. Even in the orthodox sense, medical procedures do not cure the patient; they merely remove the impediments to healing, which the body itself must accomplish...

Since the healing energy is a beneficent power available to all living beings, the ability to draw upon it does not depend upon religious belief. Every person who practices healing may conceptualize it differently. I personally feel that since this healing power or energy is available to everyone, it is essentially the same, no matter how it may be described. 

June 4-10

Indralaya in the Mind

How many of you remember your first visit to Indralaya? Over the years there have been quite a few memorable stories of that first visit. For many there is a sense of having come home, or of feeling a different sort of noticeable energetic in the atmosphere.

For most of us, it is perhaps not so easy to know that we have been here for the last time. There is always the likelihood or at least a possibility of returning at some future point. Nevertheless, that last visit is an inevitability once one has discovered and experienced this special place for the first time.

At the Awakening Kindness program with Nawang Khechog a couple weeks ago, the final session on Sunday morning was composed of program participants offering their thoughts on the experience they had shared over the course of the weekend. One participant, a person who has been here many times, said that she was so glad she had come. She is older now and a little bit unsteady. She hadn't been sure that her knees would be up to the challenge of navigating the terrain. She concluded by adding that she felt that this could well be the last time that she came to Indralaya.

It was a poignant, yet also beautiful moment. It occurred to me at the time that it was quite a gift for her to carry this knowing with her while she was here because it allowed her to be present with that knowing and thereby live into it more fully.

Over the years, there have also been many stories of how the reoccurring memory of a particular special place at Indralaya helped to provide a sense of calm and stability in sometimes chaotic situations. As an example, aid workers in trouble spots around the world have told of the solace and comfort that memories of Indralaya have given while they were immersed in extreme situations.

Each of us carries some aspect of Indralaya with us in our hearts and in our minds. Each of us has the capacity when we are not here physically to return to those places that are special to us during our meditations as well as in the course of daily life. And in this way the presence of this place ripples into the world in subtle ways and helps provide some semblance of balance amidst the turmoil of an oftentimes chaotic world.

May 28 - June 3

MAY ALL BE KIND TO EACH OTHER

This was something of a family week at Indralaya. Leonie’s brother Peter arrived during last week’s work party and stayed the week with us in the RMC. Our niece Collin arrived to begin a two week fellowship mid-week and Arthur Van Gelder, another of Leonie’s brothers, was co-head cook (with Peter) for the weekend program. There were also several Levey family members here: John & Shelagh, sisters Susan Huotari (all the way from Finland) and Andrie Levey-Bates, as well as Andrie's daughter Kelsey.

Arthur arrives by seaplane to meet his head-cooking responsibilities

Collin whips up a batch of oatmeal cookies in the kitchen

Peter with Nancy Lehwalder

The program leader for the weekend was Nawang Khechog. Nawang was born in Tibet and is a world-renowned musician and former hermit monk who teaches about Awakening Kindness. Nearly forty people were here for the program, which also included a free Saturday night concert for the Orcas Island community.

Nawang Khechog in concert

Sunday was our 17th wedding anniversary. We were married one week before we arrived at Indralaya in 1995 and began what was to have been a one or two year stay at camp as resident managers. If we knew then what we know now ... we wouldn’t change a thing!

wedding party members, 17 years later

May 7-27

Standing Stones, Orkney

We’ve been away from Indralaya for most of the past three weeks, attending the gathering of Holistic Centre administrator’s at the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland and touring the country for several days both before and after our meetings.

We arrived in Edinburgh on Tuesday, May 8. While we were there, we met with members of the Edinburgh branch of the Theosophical Society and toured the city for a few days.

Room with a view at the Theosophical Society in Edinburgh

We then headed north to Findhorn and the nearby town of Forres, which is where the Findhorn Foundation’s Cluny Hill campus is located. The conference was stimulating and fruitful on many levels. New friendships were formed and we very much appreciated the opportunity to share thoughts and spend time with others who share similar concerns and responsibilities. It was also a great priviledge to have the opportunity to spend time at Findhorn and learn more about their community and work in the world.

Leonie near the original Findhorn caravan

The Findhorn Sanctuary

After the conference, Steve Murphy met us in Inverness and we headed to the northern Highlands and Orkney Islands. Steve is a life member of the Friends of Indralaya who recently moved to Scotland, where he is teaching physics at the International School of Aberdeen.

Minor & Steve standing along the North Sea Coast

Cawdor Castle Watch Words

We returned from our trip on Wednesday, May 23, and immediately began preparing for the Memorial Day Weekend work party. Over 60 volunteers attended and a lot of great work was completed.

It has been a very full and productive Spring. Projects that have been completed include repairs to Wisteria cabin, rebuilding of the benches and stage in the Grove, and painting of the kitchen floor. The garden is in great shape and well ahead of production levels in previous years. We've also been contending with a serious infestation of tent caterpillars.

freshly painted kitchen floor

restored Wisteria cabin interior

productive garden beds

tent caterpillar nest

A new look at the Grove

April 30 - May 6

For many years, morning meditation in the library has been an element of nearly every work party and program at Indralaya. This year, inspired by our time at the Krotona School of Theosophy and the national headquarters in Wheaton, IL, we've been experimenting with a 9:00 meditation for those who are at camp between programs ~ residents, fellowship staff, wwoofers, and people on personal retreat, for example. The meditation is a work-in-progress that has evolved considerably over the few months that we've been working with it. It follows in its current form. Please feel welcome to adapt it to your own use and let us know of your experience with it. 

 

 

Please begin by bringing your awareness to your breath and through your breath, to the present moment... (2 minutes)

From deep within, let us feel our harmony with each other... (2 minutes)

Let us feel our harmony with nature and the presence of all that is here at Indralaya... (2)

Now turn your awareness to your heart center and align with the wisdom that is present there...  (2)

Let us be in alignment with that aspect of our being that is one with every other... (2)

Let us center ourselves in stillness...  (10)

May our minds be open to the inspiration of those who have dedicated themselves to the service of the world... (2)

Let us send peace, goodwill and healing out to the world around us...  (2)

Let us finish by saying OM together three times 

We begin and end the meditation by sounding a singing bowl.

Travel Time

Later today, Leonie and I will be leaving to attend a gathering of “Holistic Centre Administrator’s”. As you might guess by the spelling of centre, the conference is taking place outside of the country. The gathering is taking place at Findhorn, Scotland. It’s an exciting opportunity to spend time with others who do the same sort of work that we do.

We will be back to Indralaya on May 23, just in time for the Memorial Day weekend work party. I'm not sure when there will be an opportunity to post an entry here. If there’s good internet access at Findhorn, I’ll try to post next week - if not, we’ll see you when we return!

April 23-29

Events at camp this last week were overshadowed by the passing of Linda Jo Pym at age 68. Linda Jo was involved with Indralaya for her entire life and served in every capacity from presenter to resident to head cook to registrar to Board chair to bathroom cleaner. In 2011 she was honored as an Indralaya Elder in recognition of her many contributions to the camp. There are many in the camp community who came to Indralaya for the first time at her invitation.

Linda Jo was a strong advocate of theosophy and the theosophical tradition. Although she was born into a theosophical family, Linda Jo didn’t just fall into membership in the Theosophical Society. She questioned and searched, and these attributes were always a part of how she moved through the world.

Linda Jo & Willamay Pym

For the last years of her life, Linda Jo struggled with significant health issues, but with an amazing strength of spirit she continued contributing to the Theosophical Society, Indralaya and the world around her. Her courage was a source of inspiration to many.

From the theosophical perspective, our passing from this physical realm is simply another step in a long evolutionary journey that unfolds over many lifetimes. In a conversation near the end of her life, she described how her heart always brought her home to the meadow and beaches of Indralaya and promised that after her death she would continue to be present and supportive. The three of us looked forward to the time when we would meet again and continue our work together. Her presence was significant and will always be with those who knew her.

Linda Jo with family and friends on her last visit to Indralaya, September 2011