Green Earth Awakening 2013: Post-event Roundup

Buddhafield ran its Festival at The Gallops from 2001-2008. The site, a few miles north of Wellington, Somerset, features a couple of fields bordered by a hardcore track that was used at one time for exercising horses. I hadn’t been there since the last time we used the site for the Festival and was slightly apprehensive. Simon picked me up in town, but when we got to the crossroads near the site entrance, I have to confess to a mix of feelings as memory stirred.

There’s nothing quite like revisiting a place to be reminded that memory isn’t like a sort of movie I replay in my head. It plays itself out very physically. I was involved with running the Festival Steward Crew at the Gallops throughout our time at that site and each event was consistently, incredibly intense. That doesn’t mean it was painful (although there were acutely difficult moments), but the breadth of demands that had been on me personally mean that my relationship to those fields left me unsure about whether I could settle back quickly or easily.

Rocket and wood gas stove workshop with Jonathan Rouse

As we drove on site, my feeling was immediately drawn back to positive association. I was reminded of the many beautiful things about The Gallops, especially the bottom field which had been our main ‘arena’. The Buddhafield Café structure was being erected in the same spot it had been traditionally sited (Simon and I arrived just in time to help hoist the skeleton up), with it’s broad view, diagonally across and down the field. It’s bordered by a solid tree line, gradating into woodland to the north at the bottom of the slope, sheep pasture most of the year round, but in itself full of wildlife. There’re at least two substantial badger sets, and amongst the birds I even saw a woodpecker disappear into a nest hole in an old pine.

At the Green Earth Awakening (GEA) I’d agreed to help manage the Buddhafield Café alongside Ruth. We knew we were planning to run a slightly different format of Café to usual, with the shift pattern being shorter and focusing around fixed meal times (for the first time we’d offered pre-booked meals as an option on a ticket price). During setup, the Café was also anticipating inspection by Mid Devon County Council’s Environmental Health, so there was a certain extra sense of pressure. Being a field Café, and one that is fairly unique, we don’t easily fit an off-the-shelf food management model. There’s an ongoing process of reviewing how we do things, because our food handling practice requires ongoing refinement when we often don’t construct the same format of tent (we can’t guarantee the same workflow for dividing unprepared from ready-to-eat foods: it has to be redesigned each time). And of course at the GEA we’d had to take a the best part of our kit out of winter storage, so everything needed a very good scrub. Happily, our inspection went very well and the Buddhafield Café now has a very healthy five-star rating.

We had a very small team, mainly because we’d found it very difficult to recruit enough folk to help with setup. However the people who did arrive were a very easy bunch to work with and setup went remarkably well. It was a very harmonious week. We eat very well and an end-of-day sauna gave us that Ready Brek glow to counter some very cold nights. I think practically everyone was twitchy about weather, given how awful last summer had been and that we were still working around an ongoingly moody spring. In the end, daylight weather was actually mostly good, although the wind and cold on Friday was a bit punishing.

Making willow fish lanterns

Samashuri and Lila in the willow fish lantern making workshop led by Tasha Stevens-Vallecillo

But! What a lovely event weekend! Rosie’s workshop programme was a winner and there was plenty of opportunity to laze around in the sun.

I took quite a few photos and uploaded the best to a photo set under the Buddhafield Flickr account.

There were several talks given over the weekend. Lokabandhu spoke about A Buddhist Approach to Changing the World, Satyajit talked about Awakening to the Earth – An Inconceivably Vast Undertaking and Akasati gave a talk for Wesak on The Wisdom of Letting Go Revealed In the Story of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. (Thanks to The Buddhist Centre and Free Buddhist Audio for their support.)

Lokabandhu did a short interview with Rosie during the event which he’s posted to AudioBoo.

ThankYouThankYouThankYou to everyone who participated! This time next year Buddhafield expect’s to be helping organise the 2014 Triratna International Retreat at Adhisthana near Great Malvern, but we hope to run a second Green Earth Awakening in 2015.

Why Are You Here?

On the February 2013 Weekend Working Retreat, after dinner we did a round of asking everyone to say something about why they’d decided come. Many of us had travelled a long way, to a house in the middle of nowhere, to spend a very chilly weekend doing manual work.

“Lots of people really benefit from Buddhafield and the Festival, from the retreats … and since I first came to the Festival eight years ago I’ve always been really moved by how Buddhafield can transform, or whatever it does to people … you know, its really powerful, just to see one person undergo some sort of experinece of insight or something at the Festival, to me makes it all worth while and … you know, I’m really hooked on that, I’m here because I want so much to be part of actually making that happen for people, even if it means just putting together some wires, or painting stuff, whatever, its all part of the package, right down to the teachings of the Dharma and that’s why I’m here, I want to be a part of making that … it’s doing good service in the name of the Dharma. That sums it up really.”

More on the February 2013 Weekend Working Retreat in a previous post.

Weekend Working Retreat

This photo set was taken on a Buddhafield Weekend Working Retreat held at our HQ Trevince House, near Crediton, Devon. From Friday evening to Sunday lunchtime of the last weekend of February 2013, 12 people did periods of practical work to help prepare for the coming season of camping activities.

Trevor took a party out to a barn to sort through our canvases, which were checked for damage.The team set aside those needing repair. Ratnarashi led a second team sorting through our store of 12v electric lighting, testing LEDs, switches and cables, then sorting and packing them in crates for later use.  Seán supervised the cleaning of our store of Hep2O plumbing joints: we have several hundred in several sizes, and they all needed scrubbing, sterilizing and collating into complete sets, packing and sealing each set into a bag ready for use. Rupadarshin, preparing new geodesic dome poles, led a coppicing team and Satyadarshin cooked (and took the photos).

We based the event around exploring a traditional Buddhist teaching, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Ratnarashi gave a short talk on the theme on Friday evening, and in between work periods he asked us to reflect on our experience of applying the teaching to the work.

We started Saturday and Sunday morning with a 40 minute collective meditation practice and had shorter sessions before lunch and dinner. We ended the event with a vegan roast Sunday lunch.

Photos by Satyadarshin.

[AFG_gallery id=’2′]

Buddhafield Mitra Study 2013

We have planned a Mitra study event for March 2013 which we very much hope you will be able to attend. Whether you can come for the whole week or just the family weekend, it would be lovely to see you and a great opportunity to meet as the Buddhafield Mitra Sangha, study and practise together in beautiful surroundings, and enjoy the unfolding of Spring. The dates are:

  • Women’s study, Saturday 9th (arriving for supper) to Friday 15th
  • Family weekend, Friday 15th (arriving for supper) to Sunday 17th
  • Men’s study, Sunday 17th (arriving for supper) to Saturday 23rd

The Venue

We’ll be staying at the Yarner Trust at Welcombe Barton, Welcombe, a mediaeval farmhouse and barns a mile from a stunning bit of the North Devon coast. We have also booked the camping field and roundhouse so that we could have a big celebratory weekend together, with partners and children welcome too. There are warm dry spaces, big sofas and woodburners, and a good well-equipped catering kitchen for communal eating. There are a few beds in the house, and sleeping spaces in the barn plus plenty of space to camp.

The Study

We will be studying the “four mind turning reflections” from the Triratna Buddhist Community Dharma Training Course for Mitras. This is Module 3 from Year Two, Turning the Mind to the Dharma, based on five talks given by Dhammadinna, Ratnadharini,Vajradarshini and Maitreyi. Download the text of the module, available as a PDF file from Free Buddhist Audio, from where the original talks are also available: we can listen to these during the week, but you might want to check them out before coming.

The Cost

By Dana, meaning you pay what you can afford, with a rough guide of £22 — £28 per night to include all food. Children could be half that. If you can afford to be more generous that would help others to come who would otherwise struggle. The more people we can encourage to come, the cheaper it will be.  (We really must at least break even on this event to make it sustainable.)

Looking forward to studying and hanging out together! To book a place visit the event page on the main website. Please pass the word on to any mitras you think might be interested in joining us.

Devapriya

Recently you may have read that Devapriya has been very ill and in hospital. Having made a remarkable recovery, he was hoping to return home, but we are profoundly sad to have to say that he hasn’t managed to do so and that it now looks as though his time is very short. Please bear him in mind with metta and, if you feel moved to, chant the Tara Mantra for him. (You can find out about more about Tara on the Wildmind website if you aren’t familiar with her, her mantra, or why chanting it might be significant.)

For those of you that don’t know Devapriya, he has made an inestimable contribution to Buddhafield, especially to our Family Friendly Retreat. He has struggled with physical ill-health for many years. Undaunted by his physical limitations and supported by many friends, he has shown the remarkable capacity to participate in Buddhafield activities.

At Dhiramati’s suggestion, Lokabandhu has put together an album of ‘Rejoicing’ for Devapriya. The intention was to print it and present it to him as a book and we hope he still may be able to see it. It’s very clear from all the contributions that came in, over just a few days, that he deeply touched the hearts of many.

The featured photograph was taken at Buddhafield Festival 2012. The weather was mixed and the ground difficult in places, but partly due to Devapriya’s unfailing determination and partly the willing help of the many people that valued him, he participated as best he could. He was carried around site on this makeshift litter. (Thanks to Dharmacharini Osadhi for the use of the photograph.)

Update: Devapriya died very peacefully on 1 November 2012.  His old friends Annie Munro, Rehana, Carl Davies, Kamalashila, Satyajit and Rosie, plus his sister Akasacitta, were with him.

Buddhafield Festival: video by Clear Vision

Thanks to Graham Dellow of Clear Vision for making this short documentary video about the 2012 Buddhafield Festival.

The Clear Vision Trust is driven by a passion for Buddhist values and the possibilities of modern media. A tiny Buddhist audio-visual media project, from one room in the Manchester Buddhist Centre they make Buddhist video available free, worldwide. As well as the Clear Vision Vimeo channel, you can find more videos from them on the VideoSangha website.

Festival 2012: Photographs by Mim Saxl

We were blessed by having two Official Photographer’s at this years’s Buddhafield Festival and I’d like to share the work of one of them, Mim Saxl. You can see a gallery of her 2012 Buddhafield Festival work on her mimsaxl.photography website.

Mim is an Oxford based photographer who specialises in natural light work — no light rigs, no studios. She has a great sense for capturing the personality of a subject and especially in drawing out connection and the magic of the moment. Buddhafield Festival 2012 photographer Mim Saxl She’s caught the evolving warmth between people: people lost in a hug, sometimes a bit shy or curious. I particularly like those people caught in a playful moment: I remember watching the naked dash across the Long Field when I was having tea in Pachamamas on Saturday afternoon! Mim has captured what I recall of the joyous absurdity of the moment.

There are many fleeting details in her work — raindrops from bunting, huge bubbles, children leaping the labyrinth path — and lush colour in others — a family in bright raincoats and a evening inside Small World.

Mim says she took the image in this page just as they were leaving site. She asked her partner to hold his hands up to the sky: “It was how we felt, leaving such a wonderful and fulfilling weekend.”

Mim also has a blog and a Facebook page.

Big Fat Buddha Meets Danceitation!

Danceitation’s first week long retreat this August! Calling all dancers, meditators and musicians! A few weeks ago Jayagita was asked if she’d like to make Danceitation the central theme of The Big Fat Buddha retreat with the Buddhafield team. Of course she said “Yes!” so make room in your diary from August 31st to September 7th 2012! We call it a retreat, but it has a real mini-festival feel about it with around 100 to 150 people. Held in the beautiful Dartmoor countryside we’ll all be camping with opportunity to meditate in the more formal sense and of course lots of Danceitation with at least 3 DJ’d sets and two sets of live improvised music with all the musicians that attend the retreat. Do let your friends know, musicians and dancers alike and hopefully see you there. It’s very reasonably priced, but if you are short of funds please get in touch with Buddhafield Team and talk it through with them. Book now through the Buddhafield website.

If you like Danceitation do like it on Facebook and share with friends if you wish, the more the merrier. Dates this year include:
Norwich
25th May, Doors open 7.45pm for 8pm start at St Thomas Church Hall, Earlham Rd.
Cambridge
26th May, Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start at The Cambridge Buddhist Centre.
Brighton
8th June, Doors open 7pm for 7.30pm start at The Brighton Buddhist Centre.
Buddhafield Festival
11—15th July 2012 Danceitation will be at this wonderful festival again — chill out, rev up, eat, sleep and be merry! The best drug free festival in the world!

Visit Jayagita’s Danceitation website

2012 Triratna International Retreat

On the 2012 Triratna International Retreat at Taraloka, Buddhafield will again be providing many of the outdoor structures — including a huge dinning tent! — and cooking for the whole event.

The retreat will be focusing on making the Buddha more alive, real, and vivid in our imaginations — reflecting on the impressive qualities of the Buddha, contemplating the mystery of Enlightenment. Some of our most dedicated and inspired practitioners will be there to share their ideas and experience, and to help us connect with the Buddha. You’ll be able to choose from a number of different ways of imagining the Buddha — through study and reflection on the traditional texts, or through chanting and singing, or through meditation and recollection of the Buddha, or through writing and storytelling.

You can book through the retreat website … but it’s filling up fast!

Buddhafield Blog: Moving house

After the changes that came about in October of 2011, Buddhafield’s publicity team (both of us!) found ourselves subsumed into a new meeting, the Office and Communications Working Group.

Over the next few months it became apparent that we’ve now got several avenues to share news. A good thing. But Buddhafield being Buddhafield, each avenue — the main website, Facebook, the blog — is being covered by a different person. (Sometimes: there’s a certain amount of overlap. Thus you can see the potential for confusion!) We discovered that we weren’t being consistent about passing news items around between ourselves (because we’re busy), so that it was getting to be a bit too hit-or-miss whether an item on Facebook would make it’s way to the Latest News box on our own website. We’d also begun to talk about using Twitter, which meant that we’d got four or more folk doing essentially the same job.

Thus we thought we’d experiment with setting ourselves up with a new blog and add all the plugins necessary to help us syndicate news items. And this is it!

Let us know how you get on with it: love it or hate it, we don’t know unless you tell us. Comment below or send us an email.