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~ February & March Newsletter
(Para ir a la versión castellano desplázate al Rincón Latino situado al final de la página.)
(Photo by Jaya.)
In this newsletter
~ News
~ Theme for Exploration
~ Walking in the Hills
~ Arunachala Light
~ Interesting Links
~ Photos
~ Upcoming Events
~ Rincón Latino
~ News
3 day-long retreats online with Jaya-- 17, 18, and/or 19 of February.
Streaming retreat day-longs with Jaya
For 1, 2, or 3 days, stream into the connection with yourself and aliveness from the flow of your daily life.
Meditation and teachings with some of Jaya's all time favorite spiritual texts. There will also be the chance for one-to-ones with Jaya via Skype at the end of the day.
Full commitment to the daily schedule is essential: we will start at 10am and will end at 4pm (Spanish time, GMT+1). If you want to connect from other time zones, you will not be alone if getting up early or staying up late!
Register by 15 February.
Please note the contact email (posted with a typo previously--sorry!)
shahar(@)opendharma.org
The cost for the retreat is 15 euros per day per person, for a total of 45 euros for all three days. We do not want cost to stop anyone from joining, so please let us know if the price is an obstacle.
This payment will help Open Dharma cover the significant past and future costs of creating Open Dharma Stream, an area on the website where we will offer all kinds of digital teachings formats, including this retreat. A small proportion of the money paid will also go as a thankyou gift towards the organizing. As usual, Jaya offers the teachings on the basis of generosity.
Interviews
Jaya will offer one-to-one meetings via Skype or phone during February & March through opendharma.appointy.com.
The 10-15 minute interviews are offered on a completely donation basis, and 25-30 minute interviews are offered on a donation basis with a suggested sliding scale of 25-50 Euros. But we intend not to turn anyone away because of financial lack. If you have questions or would like to arrange another time not available through the appointy site, please contact Jessica at interviews(@)opendharma.org
Gemma offers personal interviews though Skype on donation basis. If you wish to have an interview please contact Gemma at gemmaji(@)gmail.com
Radio Dharma
You can listen to Jaya's radio dharma talks any time after the live broadcasts o n 12 February at noon (Spain time, GMT +1) and 17 March at noon (Spain time, GMT +1). Jaya loves when someone is there listening live, but many people listen, often more than once, to the talks later on. We are happy to announce that from March onwards, we will discontinue using blogtalkradio, using instead our own website to broadcast the monthly radio talks.
There are over 30 talks by Jaya already available on the free internet radio site blogtalkradio.com Please go to blogtalkradio.com and search for "Jaya Ashmore" to join. If audio quality is not good, try downloading rather than direct stream.
One Month Meditation in March
Jaya will be one among many teachers offering recordings of guided meditations for the online #OneMonthMeditation, where the organizers, Conscious2.com want to do 3 things:
~To support 100,000 people to commit to a month of daily practice.
~To highlight the many meditation and other Dharma resources on the web.
~ To raise money for charities connected to contemplative and compassionate action in the world.
For more information, please check out this link.
Taking Care in Dharmaloca
There is space for one caretaker at Dharmaloca, our eco-hermitage in Catalonia, Spain, from June onwards. We usually ask for a commitment of 3 to 6 months. The caretaker lives, works, and apprentices at Dharmaloca--helping with the permaculture garden and facilities, welcoming guests, keeping an eye on the horses, and other essential work depending on your abilities and the needs of the time and place. There is time for your own practice, and much solitude in winter and the middle of summer.
For more information: dharmalocaretreat(@)opendharma.org
Retreat in Croatia!
Thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of Verena and Michael, Gemma will be offering a retreat in the wild and beautiful heart of Croatia next September. (See Upcoming Events for more information.) Welcome!
Posters, Please
If you feel a genuine call to help us posting our retreats in your neighborhood or via your contacts, please email us at manager(@)opendharma.org and we can send you some PDF posters or cards. Thanks!
Self-Retreat
You are welcome for self-retreats at Dharmaloca!
This year arrival and departure day only Thursdays afternoon from 14th May through 15th October.
Please notice that you have to have joined at least one retreat with Jaya or Gemma previously, and that during summer personal guidance may not be possible continuously.
For more information: dharmalocaretreat(@)opendharma.org
~ Theme for Exploration
~ Unwrapping Openness
Walking a round shady block with my son Gyan when he was three, I answered his history questions under steady oak trees, full of birds.
At breakfast, my historian stepmother had read us a strange N.Y. Times article about a slave woman who had rescued her "owner" from Civil War prison in a laundry basket, the day before his execution. My geneology fanatic father had also announced that our bloodline, like many others, includes American Indian, African, European, and other lines.
So my son had questions. "Owner?" "Indian?" "Civil War?" And: "What color am I?"
Jessica Kerwin Jenkins recently told me that the word truth comes from the Welsh drud for trees, welcoming and lasting and wild as they pour water and oxygen into the sky.
As deep as they are high.
As I listened to Gyan's questions, I kept realizing I could breathe and back up tall and deep into myself like a tree, and just say it as I feel it. Not as I read it in schoolbooks or movies. Not leaving out anybody, just leaving out the denial.
When Gyan heard (not for the first time, by the way) that Europeans had kidnapped and enslaved Africans and tricked and murdered American Indians, his 3-year-old response was, of course: "All the Europeans should be killed."
"I understand what you mean," I said. 3-year-old logic is easy to fall into. In the face of wrongs done, we so easily fall into helplessness. In our inner and outer worlds we would like to wipe out the hurt by killing the hurters. As if hurting would honor the hurt.
A green breeze rippled above us, through branches over a hundred years tall. I continued: "And then you and I would not be here." He was quiet a while. I don't know what a 3-year-old mind does with things that are not black and white.
But eventually we came to talk of how mixed up we all are--and not just our intertwined bloodlines! How each of us can feel pain and fear and not know what to do in that vulnerability. How people of any color can be kind or cruel. To ourselves and others. How we can respond to what happens with violence or creativity. How we can live from a place of 3-year-old helplessness or from somewhere else less certain and more alive.
How there are rules and ideas and patterns that need to change so we can respond better. Inside and out.
How telling the story as it is can help us awaken to what ideas and rules go against life.
So we respond more freely.
When asked about race, Gautam Buddha once said that you can look at the foot of an elephant and see it is different from the foot of a horse, but, he asked, has anyone seen humans with different kind of feet?
What happens if we remember racists have feet just like non-racists?
Is that disloyal to the pain?
Or is it opening ourselves to grow down and up, against the grain of hatred? To stay deeply true to our common feet is perhaps to stay true to a force that heals. Can we stay true to the human dignity that is not shaken by what others do to us?
What about inside us? What happens if we take away the denial and the extra story from our simple pain and personal history? What we have done and said. What others have done and said.
I have so often noticed that some of our worst pain is our own twist on top of how bad we feel.
Wrapped in shame and blame, guilt and fear, right and wrong--our pain is out of reach yet always acting through us. And we are out of touch with our true nature, deep and light.
We find ourselves repeating the same situations or mistakes.
We may even feel as if possessed by, or addicted to, what does not work--through anger, escape, worry, pressure, shut-down, small mind, lack. Something in us--a pull in the psyche--can so easily get fascinated by pain and power games.
When we unwrap the hurt and our true dignity with care and steadiness, with the quiet aliveness of a tree, we never know what may happen.
And that is already a good start. We may stop repeating history, personal and otherwise.
We may start to notice that some of our hurt is extra, that some of the hurt is done to us by us. That even being right hurts, because being right means leaving our un-buy-able dignity, our un-own-able openness. And without that extra story, we find life and have energy to respond more directly and truly to whatever happens.
We may come to a vulnerability that stands tall and together like a forest. We can back up into ourselves and reconcile our story with a timeless, wild truth that includes pain and openness.
In our common feet, we find joy and dignity rising like sap. And we find no reason to forsake that true humanness for any slavery to being right or wronged or wrong.
Even when our wider culture seems possessed, or addicted.
I am not saying this freedom is guaranteed. But I am saying that the openness at our center is here in us. And I am saying that this openness allows unexpected wisdom to rise from out of nowhere, not right nor wrong. Unwrap it! Please. And in good company when you can, so we discover ourselves growing together like a forest, a home of truth, Gandhiji's satyagraha.
This unwrapping, this coming undone, is one of the hardest things for a human being to grow into. It asks for all our energy, all our love of life.
Stay true to the dignity.
Stay true to the openness.
And we may just find that a human being stands and speaks and acts, and is, an outpouring of aliveness.
by Jaya
(Photo by Jaya.)
Walking in the Hills
Andy shares his experience of walking in the hills in Nepal....
Walking in Nepal was a big experience for me, but in little cumulative ways. The simplicity of walking, day after day, footstep after footstep, kind of relaxed the brain in unexpected ways. I was aware that I had to watch each footstep, something about “consciousness” guiding the next step and a slip or a tumble on the path coming as a result of the mind wandering off somewhere. Then some small reminder, a twist of the knee, an awkward landing of the foot, would wake me up to the fact that some sort of attention was necessary, to ensure that each footstep was planted in response to the shape of the rocks underfoot.
Looking up at these gigantic mountains and walking through gorges where the neck cricked back to see the heights, and below, the river rumbling and roaring, the sheer scale of the mountains was at first incomprehensible and daunting. Where it was possible to see one village at eye level and then another one 1000 m or so above, with smoke gently rising from the roofs of the stone houses, but then to look up again and see the snowy peaks a further 2000m rising sharply was a magical sight.
But it was something about time that shifted, just placing one footstep after another be it on a gentle slope or a steep path, the consistency of movement, hours passed without really noticing and villages and landscapes changed as we meandered up and down the valleys.
One particular experience stands out; Walking above 3000 m, amongst the grandparents, 8000 m or so high, some incomprehensible joy. The possibility and even liberty to continue walking on and on amongst these giants, as if to infinity, and relax back but yet to move forward, as if something was brightening my life.
It was some weird combinations of factors that came together. Of the heart at rest, having received so much beauty; The mani walls, with endless inscriptions of peace; Small yet significant gestures, laughter and good company; The air, and the mind clear, filtered through days of walking and the juxtaposition of something at rest, renewing, reliving.
Yet somehow through activity, at times very physical, I found deep relaxation. To the point I remember waking up one morning in a village, having slept so well I thought I was ill. On my return I found it at times very difficult to respond to questions that I would normally have a response for. Mind had fallen somewhere. Strange things happen when you’re in the hills.
by Andy
(Photos by Andy.)
~ Arunachala Light
Prize-winning photographer Dev Gogol, thanks to an encouraging friend, has edited down over twenty years of work into eight powerful images of Arunachala, Tiruvannamalai's holy mountain, currently being shown in Tiru at the Dreaming Tree restaurant until March. A good friend to Open Dharma, Dev is considering the production of a second book, following his well received "Arunachala Mountain of Light" (2007) and has also released for sale two portfolios of images, including his current favorite, seen here, "Arunachala Sunset." "Anyone wishing to glimpse the glimpses of my ongoing engagement with imagery," he writes, "are welcome to check out my Instagram feed: @d3v90901" To reach Dev, please email devgogol(@)gmail.com
(Photo: "Arunachala Sunset," by Dev.)
~Interesting Links
~ Krishna shares news of Sri Ramakant Maharaj, a disciple of and successor to Nisargadatta Maharaj, who is offering spiritual teachings and satsang in Nasik, Maharashtra, India. Some of his teachings on non-dualism (Advaita) can be found through this link, and more can be learned about through a website posted by aspirants.
~Jessica sends this link telling a simple story about how a simple gesture of generosity helped one young man overcome fears and change his world.
(Photo: Dharmaloca garden, by Jaya.)
Photos
Here, an album of Jaya's recent photos taken in India. Enjoy!
(Photos by Jaya.)
~ Upcoming Retreat Dates & Details
17, 18, and 19 February, 2015.
Wherever you are, 3 day-long online retreat.
10 am - 4 pm (Spanish time, GMT+1)
Join for 1 or more days.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
shahar@opendharma.org
7 - 14 March, 2015.
Deep rest retreat in Karjalohja, Finland.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For more information check:
opendharmafinland.wordpress.com
5 - 12 and 12 - 19 April, 2015.
Two 7-day deep rest and meditation retreats in the foothills of the Himalayas, North India.
click here for information about the place and how to get there
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
manager(@)opendharma.org
1 - 9 May, 2015
Earth-Sky-Heart, 9-day silent retreat at Dharmaloca, Catalonia, Spain.
Awakening through nature, meditation, and horses.
click here for information about the place and how to get there
Teachings will be in English and Spanish if needed.
Facilitator: Gemma Polo.
For information and registration, write to:
dharmalocaretreat(@)opendharma.org
www.dharmaloca.org
20 May, 2015.
Dharma evening in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Offered completely on a donation basis.
Teachings will be in English with translation to Hebrew where needed.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
tovana(@)tovana.org.il
www.tovana.org.il
21 - 23 May, 2015.
Silent deep rest meditation weekend at Ein-Dor near Mount Tabor, Israel.
Offered completely on a donation basis.
Teachings will be in English with translation to Hebrew where needed.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
Sandya will assist with the teachings.
For information and registration, write to:
tovana(@)tovana.org.il
www.tovana.org.il
24 - 30 May, 2015.
Silent deep rest meditation week-long retreat at Ein-Dor near Mount Tabor , Israel.
Offered completely on a donation basis.
Teachings will be in English with translation to Hebrew where needed.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
Odelia will assist with the teachings.
For information and registration, write to:
tovana(@)tovana.org.il
www.tovana.org.il
8 - 13 June, 2015.
Deep rest and meditation retreat at Le Moulin, France.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
mail(@)moulindechaves.org
www.moulindechaves.org
24-28 June, 2015.
Diving into meditation retreat in Eastbourne, UK.
Deep rest, silence and genuine inquiry.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Gemma Polo.
For information and registration, write to:
info(@)retreattogayles.co.uk
www.retreattogayles.co.uk
11 - 18 July, 2015.
Deep rest and meditation retreat near Ter Apel, Holland.
Silence, nature, personal guidance, connected movement and meditative singing.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Gemma Polo.
For information and registration, write to:
opendharmaholland(@)hotmail.com
30 July - 2 August and 2 - 9 August, 2015
Silent deep rest meditation retreats at the Stone House, North Carolina, USA.
A weekend, a weeklong, or some people stay for the whole 10 days.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
opendharma.nc(@)gmail.com
14 - 21 August, 2015
Silent deep rest meditation retreat in Quebec, Canada.
Offered completely on a donation basis.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
quebec(@)opendharma.org
4 - 9 September, 2015
True connection and meditation retreat in the Velebit Nature Park of Croatia.
Silence, nature, personal guidance, connected movement and meditative singing.
Teachings will be in English with transtalion to Croatian if needed.
Facilitator: Gemma Polo.
For information and registration, write to:
croatia(@)opendharma.org
www.lindenretreat.com
21 - 28 September, 2015
Silent deep rest meditation retreat at Sharpham in Totnes, Devon, UK.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
totnes(@)opendharma.org
16 - 18 October, 2015.
Meditation with horses retreat at Dharmaloca, Catalonia, Spain.
Letting the horses whisper our true nature.
click here for information about the place and how to get there
Teachings will be in English and Spanish if needed.
Facilitator: Gemma Polo.
For information and registration, write to:
gemmaji(@)gmail.com
www.awakeningwithhorses.org
24 October - 3 November, 2015.
Retreats and dharma talks in Australia.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Jaya Ashmore.
For information and registration, write to:
ozopendharma(@)gmail.com
November, 2015.
Meditation retreat in Germany.
Meditation through silence, deep rest, yoga, genuine inquiry and heart connection.
Teachings will be in English.
Facilitator: Gemma Polo.
For information and registration, write to:
germanyretreat(@)gmail.com
For more information about retreats organized by our sister organizations visit www.SanghaCalendar.org
~ Welcome to Everyone
We would love to share your inspiration in an upcoming newsletter. Photos! Poems! Drawings! Musings! Reflections on a recent--or not so recent--retreat! (You can even tell us that you'd like to contribute anonymously.) Please feel free to send any contributions to: newsletter (at) opencentre.es
Rincón Latino
En esta newsletter
~ Noticias
~ Reflexión por Gemma
~ Defender la algería, por Hedy
~ Próximos eventos
~Noticias
Si te apetece ayudarnos a pasar la información de nuestros eventos, por favor mándanos un email a opendharma(@)gmail.com y te mandaremos algunos posters en PDF para que los puedas reenviar a tus contactos o colgar en tu barrio. Gracias!
Entrevistas Personales
Gemma ofrece entrevistas personales a través de donaciones vía Skype o teléfono. Si deseas concretar día y hora manda un email a gemmaji(@)gmail.com
Cuidador de Dharmaloca
Hay una plaza libre para hacer de cuidador o cuidadora de Dharmaloca empezando en junio, lo ideal sería comprometerse un mínimo de 3 meses. Se trata del privilegio de hacer una experiencia de conocerse a uno mismo en contacto con la naturaleza y haciendo unas horas de trabajo de manutención del eco-eremitorio a cambio de la estancia y la comida. Para más información: dharmalocaretreat(@)opendharma.org
~Reflexión por Gemma
 Una vida real
Sentada en una habitación de Lucknow, ciudad del norte de la India dónde viví durante unos 6 años, escribo en la cama y con gorra y manta cubriéndome los pies. ¡Sí, en India también hace frío! Y uno lo nota más porqué nada está pensado para esquivarlo.
Paso los días en esta cuidad, de parque en parque con mi hija Gayatri, compartiendo con la “familia” india, llevando flores y dulces a mi mini templo favorito dónde Hanuman, el dios mono que representa la fuerza que nace de la devoción verdadera, bendice a todos los que se inclinan humildemente, aceptando el abrazo del misterio, entregándose, pidiendo…
Y así, entre el ir y venir de cada día hago también una parada para sentarme con amigos a escuchar los susurros de Ajay, mi amigo del alma que usa textos ancianos y llenos de sabiduría para que hagan de plataforma desde dónde saltar al vacío, entender esta aventura humana, o aceptar que sea lo que sea será más ancho que la capacidad de la mente.
Estos días Ajay traduce las palabras del místico Kabir de Varanasi, y en ellas encontramos de nuevo la invitación a escoger la mirada interior antes que el deseo de poseer e ir hacia fuera. Kabir nos recuerda que todo padece, que todo envejece y que tarde o temprano se va a deshacer, y que por esto vale la pena mirar hacia dentro, donde se esconde una fuente que nunca se seca, que siempre emana, eternamente…
Y después nos recuerda que en realidad esta fuente no está separada de las cosas que deseamos ni de nada de lo que vivimos. Como dice Ramana Maharishi, el santo que se silenció n una cueva de la montaña sagrada Arunachala, “nada existe separado del Ser” es decir, que no es que sea la fuente o Dios por un lado y las cosas por otro lado, sino que esta percepción de las cosas como entes separados que a menudo tenemos simplemente no es real, es un invento de nuestra mente que sólo nos trae sufrimiento.
Así pues, el problema no son las cosas ni si miramos hacia dentro o hacia fuera, sino nuestra visión separada de la realidad y la obsesión que tenemos en perseguir las cosas que deseamos como algo desconectado de la fuente. Y la identificación de nosotros mismos con nuestro cuerpo, nuestros actos, nuestros pensamientos…
La mirada hacia dentro de la que habla Kabir es el ejercicio básico para empezar a considerar otra manera de ver más real, más allá de nuestras etiquetas, ya que puede que a través de esta mirada interior caigamos en la experiencia de ser la fuente misma. Una vez la unión es rebelada, esta mirada se puede extender a todo lo que vemos y tocamos, y vivir así una vida real, fluyendo en la acción y en la quietud.
por Gemma
(Photo por Jaya.)
Defender la alegría
Este mes Hedy se pone en defensa de la alegría...
Nuestra alegría es un tesoro que merece ser cuidado. Y tal como nos dice Benedetti, ¡defendido también!
"Defender la alegría como una trinchera
defenderla del escándalo y la rutina
de la miseria y los miserables
... de las ausencias transitorias
y las definitives
defender la alegría como un principio
defenderla del pasmo y las pesadillas
de los neutrales y de los neutrones
de las dulces infamias
y los graves diagnósticos
defender la alegría como una bandera
defenderla del rayo y la melancolía
de los ingenuos y de los canallas
de la retórica y los paros cardiacos
de las endemias y las academias
defender la alegría como un destino
defenderla del fuego y de los bomberos
de los suicidas y los homicidas
de las vacaciones y del agobio
de la obligación de estar alegres
defender la alegría como una certeza
defenderla del óxido y la roña
de la famosa pátina del tiempo
del relente y del oportunismo
de los proxenetas de la risa
defender la alegría como un derecho
defenderla de dios y del invierno
de las mayúsculas y de la muerte
de los apellidos y las lástimas
del azar
y también de la alegría
Excepto el amor intenso, excepto el amor,
no tengo otro trabajo;
Salvo el amor tierno, salvo el amor tierno,
no siembro otra semilla."
—Defensa de la alegría de Benedetti.
por Hedy
Próximos Eventos
(Aquí listamos solo los que se harán en castellano y/o catalán)
Bienvenidos a todos!
Nos encantaría compartir tu inspiración en las próximas newsletters. Puedes mandar fotos, poesías, dibujos, reflexiones, comprensiones que vinieron durante o después de un retiro… (lo puedes hacer incluso de una forma anónima y en castellano o catalán). Por favor, manda tus inspiraciones a od.newsletter.latino (@) gmail.com.
Recuerda que si quieres recibir nuestros próximos eventos y posibles actividades de última hora vía email, puedes unirte al grupo informativo enviándonos un correo electrónico en blanco a la dirección: opendharmalatino-subscribe @ yahoogroups.com.
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