fairy slipper orchid
An Eclectic Week
It was a week profuse with varied experiences, including an unexpected visit, the first program of the season, good conversations (both through email and face-to-face), and other interesting developments.
The silent meditation retreat began on Thursday evening, with participants arriving throughout the day on Thursday. One of the cars that arrived carried an Indralaya camper from days gone by. Phil “as in dirt” Collier stopped in for an hour or so. He used to come up with his family in the late 1950’s and early 60’s. Leonie sat him down with the old photo albums and we had an enjoyable visit. Phil is in his mid-70’s now and asked to be remembered to those he knew from way back when.
Phil
Joining us in leading the retreat was Juliana Cesano. She and her husband, Chris Bolger, are both on the staff at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Wheaton, IL. Juli helped lead the meditations and offered a meditative yoga session each day. She also spoke at the Wednesday night study group. Chris was helpful in a variety of ways.
Chris and Juli
The first day of the retreat was composed of a drenching rainstorm. One of the effects of the rain was to draw large earthworms out of the ground. There must have been close to 100 of them out on the road that runs up the hill from the dining hall to the upper nessie.
big worms
Saturday was a little bit drier and allowed participants to enjoy the spring time splendor.
Home of Indra
During the week, I also sat in on an online seminar led by David Spangler. During the seminar, David wrote the following about a recent visit to Indralaya, and it is reprinted here with his permission:
In 2011, I was up
on Orcas Island in the San Juan island chain between Seattle and Vancouver,
Canada. I was doing a workshop at the Theosophical retreat camp,
Indralaya. This is a high-energy center, and whenever I'm there, I often find
my inner sensibilities heightened.
The third morning I was there I found myself
in touch with an unusual being unlike anything I'd encountered before. It
identified itself as a Tibetan mountain deva which had apparently formed a
connection nearly a hundred years ago with one of the founders of Indralya who
had been traveling in India and Tibet. In an interesting way, it seemed
to have adopted the center and looked out for it even though it's thousands of
miles away from Tibet.
This was interesting enough in
itself, since in a way Indralaya is a multigenerational project in its own
right, and while the human founders of the center had long ago died, this devic
being continued to overlight the place, providing a level of energetic
continuity with its founding.
What turned out to be even more
interesting to me was something this being showed me. If you've seen the
third movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy--The Return of the King--you'll
remember a dramatic scene when the bonfires are lit from one mountain top to
another to signal the Riders of Rohan to ride in aid to Minas Tirith.
Watching the light spring from mountain to mountain was thrilling.
This devic being showed me
something very similar, a web of Light moving between all the great mountains
of the world, establishing a kind of "council" of mountain devas and
angels monitoring and overlighting the development of many kinds of beings,
including humanity.
Here was a vision of majestic
and very long-lived entities engaged in a truly long-wave, multigenerational
(at least by human standards) project. My life was like a mayfly to them,
hardly worth noticing assuming they even could notice it.
But
the Tibetan mountain deva corrected me. These beings, it said, need
contact with human beings in order to help them in their connection with
physical humanity. As a consequence, I have incorporated into my
spiritual practice a time when I tune in and offer my love and presence to them
(I live in an area surrounded by mountains, so this isn't hard to do!).
What is important, I've come to realize, isn't the content of anything I can
offer but the act of contact and acknowledgement itself.
Solar Update
We have now received donations equivalent to the purchase of more than 11 of the 34 photovoltaic panels that are being installed on the dining hall roof. (See the April 1-7 and March 25-31 posts for more information). This level of support for the project is very much appreciated. And it’s not too late!
Please consider supporting the project by donating $650 for one panel, $325 for a half panel or $167.50 for a quarter panel.
Kunz Cabin Update
On another project front, late in the week we received notice that our building permit application to add a bedroom on the uphill side of Kunz cabin had been approved by San Juan County.
meditation retreat altar
