Eight of us met on July 3 in Shelburne Falls for a relaxing yet stimulating day of literary and dharma gab mostly focused on walking meditation and the tradition of walking poems. [See previous post for details].
Here are a few more pictures of the day followed by Paula Swenson’s fine poem generated after her walking meditation on the Labrynth. Next month on August 1, we will meet at the Dickinson Homestead to visit both Emily’s house and the Evergreens next door in Amherst with old friend and colleague, Chard deNiord for some robust discussion followed by lunch. Chard is a marvelous scholar of Dickinson’s life and work. Our September 5 meeting (first Saturday of every month) will return to our Guilford, VT location. A second cohort will begin to meet in Shelburne Falls the third Saturday of every month beginning on August 15.
The Labyrinth at St. Joseph’s Church
The names of the living and the
dead
Etched on stones under the
watchful eye of the steeple:
The mother of a
colleague
The families of
students, long forgotten
Clam Shell
Alliance friends from Seabrook, where they built
the
reactor anyway
The name of an
almost forgotten friend,
a Vietnam Veteran,
who
laid down on the railroad tracks
to
protest
the
movement of weapons in California
And
lost his legs
Ferlingetti
mentioned him in a poem
“Veterans with
PTSD” etched on a nearby stone
and “Om Mani
Padme Hum”
Om
mani padme hum
Paula Swenson
Later in the day, a few of us visited Khandroling in Buckland, MA to experience a demonstration of sacred dance in the tradition of Tibetan Dzogchen master, Choegyal Namkhai Norbu at the newly built “Vajra Mandala Hall” which houses a universal mandala.
[Photo by Sean Quinn, July 3, 2015]
