It is still early in the month but its been eventful already. Two weeks ago, due to an unfortunate negligence, we had a small fire in our beautiful new Shrineroom. The material damage, though relatively minimal has amounted to about 2000 euros (paint, new floor, new meditation mats and so on) leaving a nasty dent in our finances. Hopefully the insurance will cover this. It was shocking and I had a whole range of emotions in relation to the incident. I will confess I was furious to begin with and had a strong visceral reaction, which I did not act out! It was an accident after all. Wisely we all responded as creatively as we could and with great speed got to repainting and reflooring so as not to interrupt any more than necessary our ongoing retreat activities. The fire has served to remind us of how fragile and exposed the situation here is and we have taken a number of cautionary measures as a consequence. The shrine room is now a LED light only space and I have added smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detector and a fire extinguisher. Given that the shrine room is just below our living quarters care is required.
There was a sence of urgency to get on top of the situation, as an Order weekend was coming up which I really didn’t want to cancel. Initially I felt very «down in the dumps» and «blocked». Our first reaction was to get all our precious rupas and thangkhas out of the space (in the end, they suffered very little!). By the following morning I had already ordered new flooring and new paint. Not wanting to create a drama, I kept quiet about the whole thing, but word got out and I was really impressed by the help offered to help us clean up. Various teams came through and now the space looks great, evenbetter than before thanks to the new floor and new meditation mats.
Part Two. The month of February draws to a close. Strongly marked by the aforementioned «drama», the Insurancecompany paid up quickly which was impressive. My more cynical side thought they would pay nothing! The Order weekend helped «turn the page» and the whiff of burnt shrine room gradually recedes. Apart from the renovation of the Shrine-room, our «Puja-room» as one of our yoga students calls it, buying in new meditation and yoga gear, we have taken the opportunity of our little disaster to sort out a number a niggling maintenance jobs; doors and gates that didn’t close properly, replacing an aged back door and adding some lights to create a new patio space and so on.
Spring is in the air here in these southern climes and our ever-present sparrows who habitually inhabit the nearby cypress trees are setting up their nesting spots in the nooks and crannies of the walls once again!
The gentleman farmer who takes care of our terraces, olive and almond trees and cultivates lavender and other herbs graciously ploughed over our potential organic garden yesterday. Now we have to get in there and start planting! One of the many projects we want to develop at Suryavana is localized food production. I was really impressed to hear what they have managed to do at Alfoxton Park and given that here we have 14 hectares of land available and plenty of water available, really there is no limit to possibilities.
Next up is the first of our «Introductory Meditation and Buddhism» weekend retreats which are to form a regular part of the Suryavana program from now on, continuing to develop a culture of retreat practice with Suryavana as the Centre of the Mandala. I believe Suryavana has great potential to serve the whole of the Iberian peninsula (Portugal and southern France included) as the go to retreat centre in coming years. Ireally just depends on people coming and using the place!
These retreats are organized by Suryavana for Suryavana and we want to invite Mitras both men and women in the Ordination process to help organize and run them.
Lots of love to you all
