Buddhafield has been able to continually reinvent itself because it’s a collective. We’ve been able to seamlessly adapt to changes in personnel because, as one person’s inspiration has naturally moved on, another’s has flowed towards us. This has led to a series of cycles in the shape of the collective that have occurred naturally and steadily, keeping the project fresh and fluid.
We’re now at the end of one of the biggest cycles in our evolution, but this time the transition can’t be seamless. For the first time in 17 Festival years, we feel the need pause, get back in touch with who we are and what we’re about, and from within that space invite a new generation to join the collective. In order to achieve that, we think the wisest move is to not run our Festival in 2014.
Buddhafield only exists and functions because of the ongoing generosity of hundreds of people. Many of the Festival organising team annually give up considerable amounts of their spare time to plan and organise their Area, even going so far as to work at the Festival in their own holiday time.
Clearly this is done from a great love – a fire in the heart – for Buddhafield and we’d like to thank everyone who’s given so much, especially the crew and workshop leaders. This year’s programme of workshops and music is a terrific one, so if you’re at all moved or inspired by Buddhafield, want to know what we’re about, maybe get involved in the future, please come and join us at this year’s Buddhafield Festival.
Come to the Buddhafield Festival by Bike or by Foot!
To reward your green credentials we have some great prizes to give away, courtesy of Permaculture magazine.
• A copy of Glennie Kindred’s new book Letting In The Wild Edges and a year’s subscription to Permaculture magazine
• A copy of Ben Law’s The Woodland Way (new edition) and a year’s subscription to Permaculture magazine
• A copy of Aranya’s Permaculture Design: A Step By Step Guide and a year’s subscription to Permaculture magazine
• Plus 50 copies of Permaculture magazine for runner’s up.
Come to the Land and Permaculture Area at Festival (see the site map in your programme) and write your name, and distance travelled, on our “Fossil Fuel Free Travellers Notice Board.“ Winners will be selected at random and announced on Sunday July 21.
Taking a well earned rest at the Permculture Space Photo by Charlotte Baxter 2012
Spread the Lurve!
We know how much many of you love Buddhafield, so we’d really appreciate some help with spreading the word. This is a link to an A5 copy of the 2013 Festival flyer: if you know a noticeboard that can squeeze on in, you could even go all the way to A4! Pin one up at a cafe near you! ThankYouThankYouThankYou x
What’s On
Those Area Co-ordinators that book workshops are starting to send me their programme information, so I’ll be sharing some highlights via the blog over the next few weeks. Today I’d like to tell you about something from the Live Arts, Theatre and Play section of the Workshops programme, the Shadow Puppet Show and Workshop run by Liz Dever and Jack Glover called The Handless Maiden. I’d also like to introduce you to Hornman, one of the live music line-up you can find on the Music, DJs & Cabaret page.
The Handless Maiden
The show is an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm classic tale of a young woman’s journey to adulthood, complicated by the wily trickery of the Devil. Of course, there’s a prince and a good deal of magic to help her on her way, but its her own resourcefulness that wins the day! This poignant tale features beautiful handmade shadow puppets, great live music and is suitable for children (7+) and adults. Jo Bedford, Education Producer, Opera North said, “The Handless Maiden is a haunting and enchanting theatrical experience. Storytelling at its magical best.”
Liz Dever is a puppeteer, drama practitioner and a musician. After an initial introduction to Javanese and Balinese Wayang Kulit through a Javanese artist, Ted Setya Nugraha, with whom she worked for 5 years, she went on to form her own company, Shadowdance Puppet Theatre. She has worked with various theatre companies and arts organisations including Welfare State International, Horse and Bamboo, Darts, Lawrence Batley Theatre Outreach Team, Artists in Schools and Opera North. She has performed and facilitated puppetry/drama workshops in schools and at festivals throughout the country.
Jack Glover is a musician and composer. He was musical director for Interplay Theatre Company, Heads Together, Alive and Kicking and Major Road Theatre Co. He has composed many large-scale choral pieces for Koros and other community choirs, which have been performed in venues throughout Yorkshire. He has worked with Welsh National Opera’s librettist, Martin Riley, for many years, composing and directing community musicals and oratorios in conjunction with venues and production houses such as Brewery Arts Centre, Countersthorpe College, Leicester, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds City Varieties and Opera North.
Hornman
Formed in 2011, and featuring Carl Davies who helped found the Festival, Buddhafield Retreats and our land at Broadhembury. Hornman are based in the vibrant Dalston and Shoreditch area of London. They mix electronic bass and beats, live on stage, with riff-driven electric guitar and a phat horn section that their audience loves to dance to! They’re a distinctly catchy festival sound and like nothing better than an up for it crowd that wants to play!
This year’s Festival theme is Fire in the Heart. It sounds simple, effective as a theme but, to be honest, I have struggled with the concept, feeling that I haven’t had any fire in my own heart for what seems like a long time. This, in turn, effects my faith in my capability, as the Festival Decor Co-ordinator, to convey this theme visually to a festival full of people without just falling back on the obvious symbols of love hearts and flames. I can see that these do have their place, but there is much more underlying this theme and that is what I have been struggling to connect with. Intellectually I see inspiration, passion, determination, beauty and these are all ideas that I try to put very solidly at the forefront of my life. However, I feel that lately I have had a lack of emotional connection to these qualities. I have wondered why and have come up with two possible reasons:
1, I am scared of realising the full power of this theme to launch me into the stratosphere of emotional, spiritual, physical understanding.
2, I am not giving myself enough credit for how far I come in the last year and the lack of obvious moments of passion or inspiration make me feel that I have had no inspiration or passion. Which simply is not true.
It’s only now, after having been able to gain some valuable perspective over the shifts in my life, that I have realised there has been fire burning in my heart throughout it all. The determination not to be beaten, the pockets of inspiration that I come across all feed this fire that gently warms me and guides me to places and activities that will feed it further.
During this time I have had on my own I have faced many aspects of myself that I don’t like, have had many people reflecting things back to me in compassionate and not so compassionate ways. For much of this year I have felt like I have been walking through a thick fog only being able to see my hands in front of me. The more the fog lifts, the more curious I am in testing my strength to see what I am capable of. I watch others unfold as well, blooming more and more vibrantly in the promising sunshine.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Metta Bhavana, it is a practice of cultivating loving kindness for all beings including yourself, which for many people is the hardest aspect. It is the practice that I find most difficult because of its honest undoing of dark as well as light, accepting it all as something that is a part of who I am. The practice isn’t about trying to convince yourself that you are good or pure or to try to convince yourself that you don’t have an issue with someone you are having difficulties with. It is about bringing awareness around a situation, understanding how it is making you feel and what is behind that feeling so that you can move forward with a greater understanding. I get jealous often, it can be debilitating, drawing me into a world of not being good enough, not getting to a place, state of mind, quickly enough. What I have come to understand is that this is the reaction, when I get jealous it is because I am not meeting a need of my own. There is something that I have been neglecting and as soon as I go towards that need, the jealousy is diminished.
I see that this theme has brought into my awareness the things that do inspire me. Inspiration is the first step into making something in life a reality. Initially fire in the heart evokes a great image of a captivating blaze but a blaze will not last unless it is fed and as there is so much change and heartache going on in so many peoples’ lives, it is worth learning how to utilise those inspirations, practise the things that bring you joy and see that there is new life everywhere, all the time. There is a fierceness inherent within this theme, something much deeper then just a simple visual interpretation, it is an opportunity to turn the love, that is so easily bestowed on to others, inwards and let passion and beauty bring you guidance.
Where better to be on a sunny bank holiday weekend at the end of May [23—27; Green Earth Awakening Camp 2013] than in a field in the Blackdown Hills near Taunton with Buddhafield? About 150 people gathered together to share skills and inspiration for living a greener, more connected and more satisfying life. The gathering coincided with Wesak, the celebration of the Buddha’s enlightenment and a glorious full moon over the beautiful tree-lined fields.
There was a spacious and varied programme of activities and workshops, meditation, ritual, talks, music, eating together, camp fire, sauna and sun bathing opportunities. From the many craft activities and workshops on offer I explored just a few. I was inspired by a talk on Permaculture, spent an absorbing morning carving a spoon from a beautiful piece of wood, then drew some energy from the earth to dance like a dakini. For me, one of the highlights was a talk by Akasati on The Wisdom of Letting Go Revealed in the Story of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. Akasati described how the soon-to-be Buddha, Gautama, had followed a path of deprivation and mortification of the body, before admitting that this approach was bringing him close to death rather than enlightenment. He let go of the status he had achieved amongst his fellow ascetics and instead sought another way. The story shows us, explained Akasati, that we too may do well to let go of ideas, attitudes or views of ourselves that no longer serve us well. This can be difficult, giving rise to fearfulness, but our practice can help us draw courage to change, and reinvent ourselves. Maybe I can start with letting go of small things in order to train myself for a larger letting go? Akasati explained that seeking awakening is about letting go of our experience of a divide between self and other.
The Manadala shrine featuring Padmasambhava
Lying on my back on the grass, gazing up at a blue sky, watching some birds high above, that divide dissolved away for a few moments. I can see the merit of living closer to the earth, away from the concrete and pavements of the city, enjoying the simple absorbing activity of shaping a piece of wood with a knife. Even if I haven’t let go enough yet to walk away from life and work in the city, I am deeply grateful to Buddhafield for giving me the experience of simple and connected living for a few days. This experience was even deeper for me on a Buddhafield retreat that I joined at the beginning of May, when we camped in the Ashdown forest in Sussex. After a week there I felt a strong connection with the trees and the many living beings in the forest, including my fellow retreatants and the ants.
Back home in Norwich, I’m now looking forward to my next Buddhafield experience — the Buddhafield Festival from 17 to 21 July. I hope to see some of you there!
The Dharma Parlour is an Area of the Festival dedicated to exploring the teachings of the Buddha and how it applies to us in the modern world. It has a full programme of activities over the weekend including a series of talks, study and workshops. You can see the whole Dharma Parlour programme as well as an outline for the Meditation Space on the main Buddhafield Website.
Highlights include:
From the Triratna Buddhist Order we have Lokabandhu, Shgantigarbha, Kulamitra, Maitridevi and Dhivan giving talks on topics from 10 Ways to Misunderstand Buddhism to The Buddha Broke my Heart; Theravadin monk the Venerable Amaranatho will be talking on the topic of The Listening heart and later leading a panel discussion on The Impact of Mindfulness; Dr. Tashi Zangmo and Marie Thesbjerg will be giving their own series of talks around themes arriving from their work with the Buthanese Nuns Foundation.
TBO members Dhivan and Mahabodhi will be leading daily study over the weekend where you can investigate two themes from the Buddha’s teaching, love as a means to Enlightenment and the Buddhist perspective on feelings and emotions.
The Dharma Parlour has it’s own workshop programme, and there’s something for everyone, from meditation for parents with Upayavira, to an introduction to Buddhism with Advayasiddhi, and an exploration of traditional “elements” meditations with Caroline Brazier.
Recordings from the 2012 Dharma Parlour
Thanks to Free Buddhist Audio for hosting the talks recorded at last year’s Buddhafield Festival. Dharma Doorways and Deadends: not all that glitters is gold. Lokabandhu explores the fascinating Buddhist notion of “near enemies”, those seductive but misleading lookalikes to authentic spiritual qualities. Living in an Illusion … Dying to Escape: Khemasuri talks about everyday experience as virtual reality, focusing on death to turn towards the truth, and “thin moments”. Embracing Love: Vajrasara explores the joys and challenges of love, empathy, passion and compassion on the spiritual journey. Doors to Freedom: the Buddha’s Psychology of Liberation with Dhivan, author of This Being, That Becomes: the Buddha’s Teaching on Conditionality, talks about some of the historical Buddha’s ideas on how conscious awareness can influence unconscious patterns that keep us imprisoned in a fixed sense of self.
The Eco Dharma Centre is Buddhafield’s cousin project in the Spanish Pyrenees.
Meeting The Wild
29th June to 13th July 2013
This is a retreat with an emphasis on meditatively inhabiting the wild landscape which surrounds the EcoDharma Centre. It is part of our Nature Based Practice and Learning series. It brings meditation and mindfulness into relationship with wilderness immersion.
Our deepest nature is untameable. Yet, spending so much time living in a world constructed in service of a humanity, this can be hard to remember. So step out of the narrow dusty world for a while and meet the wild. Immersing ourselves in direct contact with wild nature, and deepening that connection through meditation, mindfulness, and reflection, can heal the wounds of alienation that are so present in our times. This helps us to re-connect with deeper aspects of ourselves and the world we inhabit – in a way that is enriching, empowering and transformative.
Permaculture & Deep Ecology
20th to 27th July 2013
This course explores both the practical wisdom and the theoretical underpinnings of a shift to a life-sustaining future – set within a framework of nature and dharma based learning. It draws together the practical wisdom of permaculture design, experiential nature-based learning, and the theoretical foundations of deep & radical ecology. It weaves together study, meditation, and hands on learning.
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.
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.
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.
