Dear friends, brothers and sisters,
I
hope you're all well and enjoying a delicious summer. I'd like to
update all of you who've shown an interest and/or offered ideas and
support in the progress of the 'Place to Meditate' project. I'm calling
this part 2 because, at almost exactly the same time last year, I wrote
Part One and that's still on my blog
www.claresadventuresinyogaland.blogspot.com.
I'd like to share a visualisation
of the project and welcome your comments, additions etc. I think this
has been a good way of getting people to connect with the idea and
that's what I really need on a personal, as well as a practical level,
right now.
Imagine a large deciduous tree, a proud old horse chestnut perhaps or a wise oak.
It's thick branches heavy with large, green leaves and fruit.
Observe the enormous roots, steadying and strong.
Connection to the life force.
Our roots are LOVE, FREEDOM, EQUALITY and NON-HARM
See the trunk, wide and steady
The channel of energy from root to leaf
This is our COMMUNITY, our FAMILY.
INTERACTION and RELATIONSHIP
Connect with the many branches of the canopy
From boughs to twigs
These limbs are our actions that will bear the fruit of right livelihood
Growing- our fruit, nuts and vegetables.
Raising and nurturing- chickens, ducks, goats, bees
Healing- with yoga, meditation, counseling workshops
Learning- with permaculture, green-building courses
Sharing- with community projects (schools, elderly people's homes)
At the moment I'm in
the south of France (I've been from the west coast around Bordeaux to
as far east as Aix-en-Provence), my main aim being to identify an area
to start the work. This has to be mainly based on my feelings for the
place, as well as observations of terrain, climate, population, local
economy and politics etc. So far I feel a great affinity for the region
of Aude which stretches from the south-east of Toulouse as far as the
coast at Narbonne. It's a mountainous region with highish peaks and
lower foothills, widely forested (oak, sycamore, hazel and some
evergreen) and sparsely populated. This is part of the area once
inhabited by the Cathare people, a gnostic Christian group with ideas
and practices that the Catholic establishment found threatening and
which led to their widespread persecution around the time of the Spanish
Inquisition. It's an area steeped in enlightened spiritual
practices as well
as in great violence. I hope the attached photos give you some idea.
Until the next time, much love to you all and may all beings be free.
Clare
