Archive for the 'Events' Category
Boom Festival
If you want to get a hit of what the Boom phenomenon is all about check out their website www.boomfestival.org. The main reason I found myself at the Boom festival was because of being invited to give a presentation at the Eco Centre, for which Cynthia and I got free tickets. However, I was more than a little curious about this countercultural explosion called Boom, and sure enough this was a “gathering of the tribes” that truly blew my mind!
It wasn’t the relentless, mechanistic thud of the 22 hour a day trance beats that did it though (give me Jimi Hendrix anyday!), it was the unbridled creativity and beauty of so many of the places, spaces and people that graced the undulating hills along the lake, each with its own ambience and village vibe.
All around were amazing low impact structures made of straw bale, cob, and bamboo. Geodesic domes, tipis, and awnings of all shapes and sizes emblazoned with wild, colourful designs cast their exuberance against bright blue skies. In amongst these were delightful permaculture gardens replete with corn stalks, pumpkins and cabbages, herb spirals, ponds, sculptures and chill-out spaces that all blended to create a magical atmosphere of intimacy and harmony.
.
Folks of all ages and nationalities gathered in animated groups in various locales for a smorgasbord of workshops…chanting, meditation, kundalini yoga, white tantra, aura reading, fire walking etc. There was a theatre staging dramatic expression of all kinds around the clock. In a large psychedelic tent called the Liminal Village there was a packed schedule of lectures on subjects ranging from Applied Psychonautics to Biodiversity to Experiential Astrology to Global Peace Strategies…and also the Paradigms Film Festival which featured some intriguing movies I wish I had had time to catch. Inbetween their meanderings between dancefloor, workshop, movie and beach, throngs of happy Boomers chomped and supped upon delicious fresh food, juices and chai that were available in abundance everywhere.
Others slept off the previous nights partying in clumps in the shady gardens or studiously rolled their next joint. While the festival was clearly awash in a sea of drugs, the effect in this otherworldly Boom set and setting seemed to be one of opening people up into greater connectivity and shared consciousness.
While I wasn’t drawn to joining the throng amongst the mind numbing electronic thud of the various dance floors, I was intrigued by an “original” trance dance ritual, which a friend had enthused about, that was to be propelled by real instruments over in a quiet locale called the Healing Area. A group of about 30 of us gathered in a circular sawdust dance space surrounded by drummers and percussionists of very description. After some deep breathing exercises and a brief spell of silence in which we focused our attention on the intent behind our dance, we blindfolded ourselves with bandannas. This was the key element of the ritual, taking away our dominant sense to facilitate an inner journey during the dance.
For two timeless hours I and we all danced wildly to the most incredible surging percussion music I have ever heard! I was soon swept into a state of ecstatic abandon as my body danced itself spontaneously within a vast still space of overarching nothingness. The music shifted into many different rhythms and modes so that it never became one monotonous beat. Amazingly, although we were all close together on the dance floor, we did not collide. Sometimes there would be the touch of a hand or an arm, or a light brush as we gently came together, but never a harsh bump or an elbow. While all immersed in our own solitary dance in darkness, there was also a mysterious synergy that must have moved through the group as a whole. At the end we all lay belly down in shamanistic fashion, I felt profoundly relaxed and one with the great Mother!
I have no idea whether it was directly related to the dancing but at some point during the next afternoon as Cynthia and I sat by the glittering lake next to our tent, I was overwhelmed by a state of ineffable peace, emptiness and bliss. The meditation was so powerful my mind could barely function and also I couldn’t really get emotionally in touch with any desire whatsoever to give my talk! I wasn’t quite sure whether I could pull it off, but as the time came closer and we set off to walk around the lake to the Eco Centre, I was just interested to see what would happen.
We arrived early enough to see the presentation before mine by an enthusiastic Spanish woman on “Spiritual Activism”. As it turned out it was the perfect lead in to my presentation on “Evolutionary Spirituality”. With trance music streaming through the open door of the straw bale dome like building, and numerous people milling around, some of whom were intently rolling joints, I thought getting anybody’s attention was going to be a challenge! Luckily I had the idea to begin by showing a 15 minute DVD called “the Awakening Universe”. This captivating film that powerfully brings the threads of cosmology, ecology and spirituality together in a vast evolutionary context, soon had everybody riveted. As soon as it ended I jumped upon a straw bale and began speaking (or rather almost shouting to be heard above the trance) about the sequence of Big Bangs from Energy, to Matter, to Life, to Mind, that were part of our emergence as consciousness becoming conscious of itself. My passion flowed, and I have little memory of what I spoke about for the next hour. I don’t know how we did it but we even fell into a 5 minute spell of deep meditation together despite the cacophony of sounds that surrounded us.
At some point it spontaneously morphed into dialogue as some people could no longer contain their excitement and a thrilling collective inquiry was in full swing by the time I had to end. So about 7 of us decamped to another area of the dome and continued to share our deepest experience of what it meant to be alive in these tipping point times.
By the time Cynthia and I emerged from this whirlwind of crackling consciousness; to our amazement many hours had passed it was gone 1am. What struck me most as we munched on a delicious falafel beneath the blazing August full moon was that the thing that these few people appreciated the most was the opportunity, the opening, to speak about the questions, experiences and longings closest to their heart with others that really wanted to listen. Here we are, I reflected, in the midst of one of the hippest harmonic convergences on the planet, and yet how rare it was for people to discover a context together in which they could deeply explore the profound experience they may already be having, and in so doing merge in a living field of unity beyond the habitual modes of relationship and drug induced highs.
So as I left Boom, mind blown in wonder, it felt good to have given something and I also felt grateful for now much I had learned from being here for a few days amidst the wild elegance and artistry of the gardens and buildings. And also it was inspiring to feel the care of everybody and the organizers in making it such a showcase for coming together in a harmonious and ecologically sound way. For sure Life was surging forth in all manner of new creative directions here and I hope to be a part of it again next time.
Pete
Awakened Life Group Fridays 7.30pm – Meditation & the Emergence of a Collective Awakened Consciousness
All kinds of things have been written and said about meditation. But TRUE meditation is so utterly simple. By true meditation I mean when it is practiced with the sincere intention to awaken to our true nature, not just for stress relief, for visualization, or to get something for ourselves. And what does the intention to awaken mean? It means we want to GIVE ourselves to the Mystery of Life.
The way we give ourselves in meditation is by doing absolutely NOTHING because we already ARE that Mystery. And that is the challenge! If we are willing to let everything be exactly as it is, regardless of the movement of mind, emotion, and everything we think we are, over and over and over again, a door begins to open, and we begin to uncoil and merge into the ocean of vast, original, infinite Being…
When that infinite Being is the consciousness in which we then come together it is like the light of the new dawn breaking into this world. It is a Consciousness from which a new world and a new humanity can be created, free from the taint of ego. All that is required is a willingness to awaken to our life as an expression of the One Life that animates all and everything.
So if you are interested in joining us for meditation and exploring this potential please come along to the Roundhouse at 7.30pm Fridays.
Love Pete
1 commentAwakened Life Group: Weekly Meditation & Conscious Conversation
Anyone who is sincerely interested in spiritual awakening and the evolution of consciousness is welcome to attend.
We will meet at 7.30pm on Fridays at the Roundhouse at Quinta Cabeca do Mato. We will finish around 10.15pm.
Please arrive in silence and sit down. When everyone has arrived we will meditate together with a little guidance for about 45mins. After the meditation there will be a short break also in silence. Then we will gather back in a circle and engage in a specific form of conversation as a spiritual practice/exploration.
By meditating together in a circle we generate a powerful field of unified consciousness and intimacy with each other. This is not dependant on knowing each other personally beforehand. We fall into the universal dimension of pure being in which we are all one. This connection provides a new foundation for communication. We endeavour to leave our habitual thinking/reacting personality behind and only speak from this depth and wholeness. It means we are willing to open our hearts and share our deepest experience. If we are really interested and listen and respond to each other from this place, amazing, magical and beautiful things can happen as we go beyond our habitual frames of reference.
This group is not about trying to solve any problems or about healing our traumas. It is about going on a journey together in which we transcend our personal concerns and history.
For the gathering to genuinely come alive we have to be willing to take a big risk together…
The risk is to let go of the personality, let go of the familiar, let go of everything you think you know about who you are, how you operate, about what you need to feel safe or participate in a group, about what groups are and how groups work. Let us abandon it all for this brief window in time and dare to come together in real vulnerability and transparency. I’m going to ask you to join me in the unknown. And what is the unknown? I guess we will all find out when we meet there!
My purpose in initiating this group is to provide a time and a place in which people can experience the True Self, the Oneness that we all are, that ordinarily remains hidden beneath the veils of our rigid ideas, identities, fears and desires. That Self is already originally Free. That Self is the wellspring of Love. It is the part of you that is already only interested in the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. It is interested only in Awakening and Evolution. All that is required to experience and express this True Self is to be completely true to the deepest, highest part of your experience…and to ignore everything else! I look forward to welcoming all who are interested in living an awakened human life.
Love Pete
Please call 966333187 if you have any questions
.
2 comments
Reflections on the Green Gathering/Encontro Verde
A BIG THANK YOU to Karyn, Steve, Becca and all the other good folks who contributed to making the wonderful Green Gathering happen! I don’t know quite what I expected but these four days over Easter were deeply inspiring and heartwarming beyond my expectations.
While there were creative workshops and presentations of all kinds from soap making, chi gung to permaculture to planetary healing, for me it was primarily the intent and openness of all the people present that made it such a positive event.
A mixture of about 200 Portuguese and resident foreigners of all ages gathering together in a palpable spirit of love and passion for change.
While Cynthia was giving Reintegration massage to some fortunate folks, my time was spent mostly hanging out talking with people, helping out in the café and, on Good Friday morning, giving my ‘workshop’ on the Evolution of Consciousness. Only 3 people turned up initially, but then after I began a guided meditation, one by one people were tiptoeing into the dome and sitting down. Soon we were all in a deep meditation together and when I opened my eyes I was surprised and happy to find that we were about 20 people in the circle. It was clear to us all, as the unifying pulse of meditation filled the dome, that what we were was something far greater than our individual minds and personalities. I said we didn’t have to name it but let’s call it Consciousness…
The meditation had lasted for 45mins (much longer than my planned 20 minutes!) and I was running out of time. So next I launched into a presentation on the evolution of the manifest dimension of this mysterious no-thing called Consciousness…that so far ends up being us!! I held up a drawing I had made that illustrated the leaps from No-thing to the Big Bang to Light & Energy to Matter to Life to Mind to Ego to Spirit. The Ego represented our experience of individuality and separation; our current evolutionary threshold. The realization of Spirit pointed to an awakened individuality in conscious connection with the entire creative process of cosmic evolution. Shedding our identification with our ego-sense in a fundamental way is like cracking a cosmic egg! Our ego doesn’t disappear but the floodgates of our heart open to embrace Life as an interconnected whole…
I shared my own experience of how living in conscious awareness of such a vast context meant ‘my’ life is brimming with tremendous wonder and purpose. And, in that, the experience is one of being infused and propelled forward by Life itself.
As I spoke about this many people, especially the young Portuguese, lit up with an unmistakable spark of recognition. I was very struck to see that this perspective framed the crisis that humanity faces in a way that was new and compelling to them. When I said that the deeper systemic change that was now needed had to come from a within, and that adopting alternative, sustainable lifestyles, while important, was not enough, everybody was right there agreeing that this was the most important thing.
It felt like we were all just getting started and beginning to lift off together but then I had to end as our foray into timelessness had meant that I had gone way over time! I said I was inspired to continue the exploration with a regular group or to keep in touch by email. While some people scribbled down their contact info a young girl from Lisbon came up to me with pure passion blazing from her being and said; “There will be a much bigger bang when we go beyond the ego together.” Now that was amazing!
It was a pleasure spending time with the young Portuguese people over these few days. There is an openness and innocence about them that is refreshing. Definitely different from the generally more cynical and jaded self-consciously ‘cool’ youth of Northern Europe and America. Maybe it is because the consumer culture of materialism and narcissism is less entrenched here, and there is still an awareness of connection with the earth and community, I don’t know. Still it gave me hope that Portugal won’t have to dive as deep into the same fragmented madness as we have. The young folks from ECO-GAIA and InfoNature were a great bunch of activists to be around!
One of the most interesting things that happened was a spontaneous gathering in the dining tent on the subject of community. As there were a number of people either already beginning communal projects of some kind or planning them, one such group called Terramoja who are planning a community based on Permaculture principles. initiated the meeting. Kudos to Emma, Chris & Yass for making it happen! With rapid-fire translations between Portuguese and English, much passion and experience was shared regarding both the practical and interpersonal challenges of embarking on the journey of community. It was moving to feel so many people feeling the longing to come together to forge a new future. And it was disarming also to hear a number of people be so transparent about the challenges they faced both individually and collectively. I shared my experience of beginning the Awakened Life Project and our emerging vision. I also shared some of my experience of the inspiring potentials and potential pitfalls of communal life. Having been a member of a very focused community for 14 years I realized I had plenty of experience to share!
I didn’t actually get to as many of the workshops as planned, as I was busy connecting with so many new friends from both the local area and further away. There was no speaker system announcing the events so we would lose track of time in meandering and passionate conversation. However I did make it to workshops on solar and hydro energy (thanks Robert Kuchta), Tibetan Singing Bowls (Amazing! Thanks Toivo) and Family Constellations (thanks Angelika), which proved to be a profound and deeply moving voyage of communion and healing.
It was fantastic to meet so many great people and in the process I felt that our Project began to have more context and meaning. Many expressed interest in what we are doing and I felt the sense of us being part of a wider movement here in Central Portugal moving in the direction of greater consciousness, creativity and sustainability. So to Jutta & Carlos, Isabel, Cibele, Rui, Nuno & Helen, Emma & River, Emma & Yass, Chris, Joanna, Paula, Michael, Jacquie, Viren, Lourdes, Dominique, Elisabet and others, thanks to you all and I look forward to being in touch and seeing you again sometime.
Love Pete
PS Here are some more photos…
Yoga on the grass
Feltmaking
Origami workshop, I think!
Shop in a dome…
Shower block
Roundhouse back view
Roundhouse inside
Solar cooker
Low impact bathroom facilities
Building a wiki
Camping amongst the trees
Making mud bricks
Steve coolly masterminding the event from behind shades with the delightful Angelika
UM GRANDE OBRIGADO A Karin, Steve, Becca e a todos que contribuíram para a realização do maravilhoso Encontro Verde! Não sei bem o que esperava, mas estes dias de Páscoa foram profundamente inspiradores. Aqueceram-me o coração, para além de qualquer expectativa.
Mais do que os criativos workshops e apresentações sobre temas tão diversos como confecção de sabão natural, permacultura ou cura do planeta, foi, acima de tudo, a abertura de todos os presentes que tornou o evento tão positivo. Uma mescla de portugueses e estrangeiros residentes em Portugal, num total de cerca de 200 pessoas de todas as idades, reuniram-se num espírito palpável de amor e paixão pela mudança.
Despendi a maior parte do tempo a conversar, a ajudar no café e, na boa manhã de sexta-feira, a dar o meu workshop sobre Evolução da Consciência.
Inicialmente, apenas três pessoas apareceram. Porém, uma vez iniciada a meditação guiada, as pessoas começaram a entrar no dome em bicos de pé, sentando-se, uma a uma. Mergulhámos rapidamente numa meditação conjunta profunda e, quando abri os olhos, fiquei surpreendido e feliz por perceber que éramos cerca de 20 no círculo. Todos percebemos, de forma clara, que o dome fora preenchido pelo pulso unificador da meditação percepcionámos algo muito superior às nossas mentes individuais e personalidades. Expliquei que não havia necessidade de atribuir um nome… Chamar-lhe-íamos apenas Consciência…
A meditação durou 45 minutos – muito mais do que os 20 minutos planeados! – e o tempo fugia. Iniciei, então, a apresentação da evolução da dimensão desta misteriosa «Não-Coisa» chamada meditação… até agora, acabamos por ser nós!!
Este meu desenho ilustra os saltos da «Não Coisa» para o Big Bang, para a Luz & Energia, para Matéria, para a Vida, para a Mente, para o Ego, para o Espírito. O Ego representaria a nossa experiência da individualidade e separação; A realização do Espírito apontava para uma individualidade desperta em conexão consciente com todo o processo criativo da evolução cósmica.
Shedding our identification with our ego-sense in a fundamental way is like cracking a cosmic egg!
Projectar a nossa identificação com o nosso ego é, fundamentalmente, como estalar um ovo cósmico.
O nosso ego não desaparece, mas os portões do nosso coração abrem-se para abraçar a Vida como um todo interligado…
Partilhei a experiência de que viver consciente de um contexto tão vasto como a «minha» vida enche-se de uma admiração e propósitos tremendos. É a própria vida que me impele e inspira a seguir em frente.
Falei sobre este assunto com muitas pessoas, especialmente jovens portugueses, e senti imediatamente uma faísca inconfundível.
Quando referi que a mudança sistémica profunda necessária teria de chegar do interior, pois adoptar estilos de vida sustentáveis, apesar de importante, não é suficiente, todos concordaram. Senti que estávamos apenas a começar uma descolagem conjunta… Depois percebi que já ultrapassáramos o tempo disponível para o nosso workshop!
Expliquei como me sentia inspirado a continuar esta descoberta com um grupo regular ou através de email. Enquanto algumas pessoas escreviam os seus contactos, uma jovem de Lisboa dirigiu-se a mim e com pura paixão a irradiar do seu ser, disse: “Haverá um bang ainda maior quando formos capazes de ir todos juntos para além do ego”. Foi incrível!
The Evolution of Consciousness, Reintegration Massage & The Green Gathering
Our good friends Steve & Karyn are hosting an event at their quinta over Easter called the Green Gathering. With demonstrations and presentations on themes such as solar power, chi gung, permaculture, herbal healing, manifesting abundance, and meditation, along with music and delicious vegetarian food, it promises to be a very positive and eclectic happening.
Besides helping out in the cafe and keeping the music flowing in the evening jamming session in the roundhouse above (me that is!) Cynthia will be offering Reintegration massage and I will be doing a presentation on “The Evolution of Consciousness” on Good Friday at 11am in a dome somewhere.
I will be delving into what it means to awaken to our own lives as being part and parcel of a vast cosmic evolutionary unfolding. Embracing a context that fully embraces the tipping point times in which we are living, we can discover a purpose and release a passion for Life that can have a profound transformative impact on ourselves and our relationships with others, and of course our beloved Mother Earth.
Maybe see you there…
Pete
No comments
