2006 School of Living Dharma ~
from the Caretaker

Liberation through the Body
Leander's Liberation Through the Body was a wonderful success (as usual) and precursor to the School of Living Dharma. Many of the participants in the School of Living Dharma arrived early enough to do her workshop and settle in before plunging into the first week of Sangha Explorations.

with Daily Puja at 6am,

breakfast at 6.45 and

the first class of the day (usually two hours) beginning at 8.

Between 10 and 11 there is a short time to review notes, refine practice and start on 'homework' exercises.

11 until noon sees a spell of Caring for the Land. Blackberry demolition is the current overarching theme, but ongoing chores happen then too. Channels across the driveway need clearing, water filters changing, grease trap clearing, maintenance of the vegetable garden (go Tash!) and general chores like sweeping, cleaning bathrooms and so on always need attention.

At 12.30 the lunch bell peals.

Afternoon classes generally run from 3 to about 5. Often these involve Kum Nye (Tibetan Yoga) movements as well as further instruction or Teaching.

The evening meal is served at 6pm,

and evening meditation begins at 7.30pm.

In between we are making art to express notions such as interdependence, mind mapping texts, keeping a questions diary and a dream journal and generally keeping out of mischief!

One joy has been the way our Teachers are participating as students in each other's segments. Terry Hagan and Mala Sikka attended Leander's course to learn more about Liberation through the Body. Terry, Mala and Leander all sat in on Tarchin's first classes of this year's School of Living Dharma. Tarchin and Mary are participating as students in Sonia Moriceau's classes. I find this a beautiful manifestation of accomplished wholesome minds remaining open to exploration.

Sonia Moriceau's Retreat
has begun with two two hour classes per day as well as Daily Puja, Land Caring for at least an hour, evening Walking Meditation, then chanting and a sit after that. (Some people even manage to fit in a swim in the river!). Sonia's Teaching is an exquisite example of Zen at work. It is amazing how much she gets said whilst saying so little! Her body and breath exercises produce very direct personal experiences of deepening calm and brightening awareness.

For contemplations, meditations and song from Sonia's retreat see Our Form, Mind, Peace and the Hara Point. For photos see Courses and Retreats in the WSLD 2006 Album

Running the Centre
In Sangha sharing last week the question of how to work more co-operatively with the tasks that need doing to keep the Centre running smoothly came up. One of the ideas was to share the Orientation session when new groups come in for segments of the School program. Quickly it was seen that the Orientation session really required several different roles to be played by the Caretaker and we allocated different 'liaison officers' to support the practical details of the next retreat. This fit well with the notion of the 'six offices' we read about in 'From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment' which we have been studying as a text during the first Sangha Work segment.

So when the new group joined us on Sonia Moriceaus' segment, we tried a new system which seemed to work beautifully. Jamie took the general 'health and safety and accommodation' issues, acting as a welcome and 'way smoother' for the newcomers and making himself available if retreatants have any questions about those things during the retreat. Natasha introduced the whiteboard chores roster, explaining how the system works and making herself available for any questions about cleaning up and domestic chores. Kathryn, acting as Sonia's assistant, helped get things ready for the first class and also took on the daunting job of rearranging menus and educating the chief cooks when Sonia decided it would be a good idea for us to eat in the Zen monastery style during her retreat. Bill put the 'Land Care Co-ordinator' hat on and did a magnificent job of explaining what needs to be done and organising it in such a way that all the worker-carer-meditators felt inspired and supported at the same time. Mary co-coordinated the co-ordinators which left the Office person free to take registrations and talk about using the phone and email etc, and get on with a back log of office work (including this report).

There have been several nice side effects to this approach. One of them was that the tired new arrivals had several different faces to look at and styles of presentation to listen to, which helped maintain attention through a lot of mundane (but necessary) details. It was a lovely experience supporting, and being supported by each other as the core group in welcoming an influx of new comers. It was incredibly supportive for the Caretaker too, being able to drive to town two days in a row with pick ups and drop offs and shopping for the course and not to be distracted planning the details of the orientation session. It is difficult to put into words the experience of being part of many individuals of good intention as they come together and somehow create a single new whole while at the same time retaining their individuality.

Even though I have gone into great detail about how the tasks usually allotted to one person were shared, the really exciting thing was the way a simple Sangha Sharing session, and the every first one of the program, was able to quickly see a principle, analyse it and come up with a workable solution in an atmosphere of putting the theories of meditation. The Seven Factors of Enlightenment seemed to me to be flowering in that session, as were the Six Paramitas as well.

Land Caring
Dana to the land is not being called that at the moment, with its implication of being something we (subject) do to something else (object) for an hour a day just because it is in the timetable. For a while it was called, 'Doing that Which Needs To Be Done'. Then Bill, who has been co-coordinating it since Sonia's course started a couple of days ago, coined the phrase "Land Caring". And The Centre certainly is looking well-loved and cared for. Sometimes there is time for some practice before lunch, but if not then the work itself is practised mindfully anyway.The long term participants in the School of Living Dharma are truly putting The Practice into practice.

A few days ago the horribly overgrown Waterfall Track (which is the path to our water supply) got cleared in an atmosphere of great goodwill. Mary and Ben went back and cleared out the reservoir after lunch the same day. As Tarchin pointed out before the team got together to do it, formal meditation is all fine and good but if we run out of water then sitting practice pales into insignificance the first time we get thirsty! There is a really strong emphasis on making every moment an opportunity to practice being open, spacious, and present to what is.

Working together on projects deepens a wondrous sense of community - supporting-the-essentials and mutual support in consciously using everyday tasks as a blessed opportunity to practice Mindfulness. Working with posture, breath and meditation with Sonia carried seamlessly into practical physical labour.

.

In recent weeks extra participants have joined the already large core group for a nine day Womb Retreat with Tarchin, nine days of Karma, Biology and Glimpses of Abhidhamma with Mark Webber and parts of the Sangha Explorations segments. We are so full that some hardy souls are even braving tents and a caravan in order to be able to participate in the Autumn Retreat!

As well as these course segments the Sangha Explorations have included a potted history of modern schools of psychology, viewing the David Attenborough series ‘The Secret Life of Plants’ and watching an inspiring series of interviews with the late Joseph Campbell discussing his lifelong study of myth, legend and the human psyche.

Tarchin has put an incredible amount of skill and effort into creating this superbly rich curriculum and a mere summarising sentence cannot do justice to the wisdom and inspiration he gives us with his gifted capacity to see the dharma in all things.

Recently he threw an interesting loop when he gave us a week to produce a full fledged Hero Myth based on our own experiences! Time was limited as we squeezed brainstorming sessions, mask making, and rehearsals between classes, regular meditation practice, a written project, cooking, cleaning and Land Care. The day of the presentations carried a sense of sacredness and awe as we witnessed how each group penetrated the theme of coping with inner demons in startlingly different pieces of work. Because the Hero’s Journey is a universal human myth, it was also an unexpected way to way experience triumph over the odds. (Photos from the three productions are here.)

I'm now going into Retreat and Mary Jenkins will be riding the Caretaking horse until the middle of June. Many thanks for that Mary. I feel certain I haven’t covered everything that might be covered, but it is time to follow Leander Kane’s advice of this first week of the Autumn Retreat and ‘rest in the experience with exquisite awareness’.