Peter's Vipassana Sit

Peter is a long term volunteer at panya, who just sat his first 10-day Goenka Vipassana meditation. Here is what he had to say about it:

Ten days of Vipassana

By thai2gether

Vipassana Blog

This is an oxymoron because a blog is meant to be now and this is at least a week old. You can have no pens or paper let alone cell phones (that was really pleasant) computers, or wallet. I’m surprised I was allowed my watch!! Anyway, here goes:

Shhhh – it’s 5;15 AM on Day 8. We have been sitting, i.e. meditating, since about 4:25 and I seem to be done with it. I’m taking a peek around me, luckily I’m at the back of the class (nothing to do with stupidity, but then it’s all Thai to me). They put the ‘older’ students i.e. those that have done this before, in the front, I think so that as we beginners start to shift, fidget and whimper in pain we don’t disturb them. Back to Dhamma Central– shhhh. I say we – there are about 30 of us, split evenly between men and women, mostly Thais, 2 Italians, 1Israeli, 1 Austrian, 1 Irish Canadian, 1 BrUs (Britain U.S.) That’s the guys. 1 Philippine, 1 Israeli, 2 U.S., that’s the girls. Actually, all this is unknown tome right now so forget it. We are in the Dhamma Hall, a building about 8 meters wide by 20 meters. The floor is tile and there is a pattern down the center dividing the men and the women. We sit facing a dais that’s raised about ½ meter. Our teachers, two women, sit on this dais. They always wear a sarong from waist to feet and a white shirt and shawl on top. We are all meant to be in place, settled and meditating for about ten minutes before they enter very quietly by their own doors. It’s dark outside and the lighting in here is low so as I raise my eyes things slowly come into focus. There are some people hunched over, head low, others sitting ramrod upright, head erect (that’s the position I choose – it’s so cool looking). Everybody has their legs crossed in some fashion except yours truly of course - my butt hurts, my knees hurt and even my ankles hurt. If this wasn’t such a non-sectarian practice I wouldn’t be loving Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed or whoever right now. I’ve got my arms wrapped around my knees hugging them to my body, you’ll see why in a minute.

Ok, so the other thing about the Dhamma Hall, and in fact, while we’re at it (shhhh – I can tell we’re getting loud and us students can only talk to the teachers) these buildings only have screens, lots of them – if it’s 40 degrees F out it’s 40 degrees F in and that’s what it’s felt like every (expletive of your choice here but mine starts with ph) morning.

So we are all dressed & bundled up. Of course the smart ones (that’s the Thais in this case) all have woolen or fleece hats. Luckily for us in our bedding supplies we have been given a blanket, it’s green tartan, I think the McDonald clan, you know how the Scots really penetrated Asia in the 1300’s when they clambered over Hadrian’s wall. (the women got red tartan, McDougal ?) ( Day one, I was the first to bring it to the Dhamma Hall. Day 2 everybody had theirs on.) So as my vision improves I begin to see that all the men are wrapped in their green tartan blankets and about ¾ of the women are dressed in their red tartans blankets and the remainder are in white blankets. It looks like the gathering of the clans from a few hundred years ago

Ok now half close your eyes or how ever you like to imagine and picture the Dhamma Hall with the two teachers in white, the students red and green, sitting cross legged in the gathering light, not a sound.

. What a beautiful sight.

I smile, ok lets try again. I close my eyes, cross my legs, nothing hurts any more, my mind focuses and then it’s 6:30.

A Bit of Blah Blah Blah

So, what and why? Back when we were hippies, ok so I know not all of you were hippies, but during that period of our young lives we were questioning and searching for something beyond our material values. I eventually quit that and got a job, learnt how to be almost respectable and generally forgot (not completely) about reasons for existence. This 3 months in Thailand living with a bunch of young people who are eagerly searching and finding has rekindled my search. That and Thai people’s acceptance of karma and the way they live and function. The Austrian guy said it pretty well. When he tried driving here he got so mad – “Out of my way” “Move over” “You stupid so-and-so”. He couldn’t understand why the Thais weren’t more aggressive or had more accidents. (They do have accidents but it tends to be alcohol related.) They are so much calmer or more forgiving than we are. So, (going out on a limb here) I think their culture, education and religion all play a part in this. They have grown up with the “ the Buddha, the enlightened one” and his path (Dhamma) toward enlightenment and it’s in every aspect of their lives – the temples, homes and at work. When a Thai asks for 2 weeks off to go to Vipassana he’s applauded – try that at Safeway or GE. Now I know we have Jesus but I don’t see that integration in the west throughout society as I do here.

Where am I going with this? Oh yes, I guess that’s the Why. Or my Why, everybody has their own.

The What. 9 days of noble silence – that’s no talking, no eye contact, no noise. 9 days of 12 hours per day of meditation either alone or with others in the Dhamma Hall. 9 days of being able to question our teachers at specific times of the day. 10 days of breakfast at 6:30, lunch at 11 am and tea ( a cup of something and a biscuit or small snack) at 5 pm. 5 days of meditation with determination, that’s 3 — 1hour sessions per day where you do not move or open your eyes. One day, the tenth, after 10 am you are allowed to speak, kind of like a re-entry. Laughter, tears and joy exchanging experience and emails.

So how did I do. So predictable. Agony, bliss, agony, bliss. Goenka, the teacher by DVD & CD predicted every rise and fall. His evening 1 hour lectures / discussions talked exactly about how I was feeling so good (“it’s not going to last”) .How I wanted to leave (“it’s not going to last”), how the pain in my knees and legs was unbearable (“it’s not going to last”) That’s how I did. At the ninth day I sat for 1 ½ hours without moving and then got up and walked over for tea. My mind stayed focused for about 70% of the time.

So it was hard – yes incredibly so, both mentally and physically – but then I had a secret weapon – I had bought my return ticket already so I just had to stay there!!!

Love to all, be happy, Peter

April 3-17Permaculture Design Course in Taiwan

Permaculture Design Course

April 3-17 Permaculture Design Course in Taiwan

This full 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate is intended for people from all climatic zones who are interested in getting deeper understanding of Permaculture principles and a broad overview of the topics therein.

Whether you work for an NGO doing aid work, have a piece of land that you have wanted to start to develop, or simply an interest in global environment issues,this course is for you.

With Christian Shearer, founder of Panya Project in Northern Thailand, and the people of Panya Project, Chiang Mai, the full 72-hour Permaculture Design course will be held at the site of Yaman Garden in the Yang-Ming Mountain, Taipei, Taiwan. This course will be covered over a two week period, mixing hands-on with plenty of in classroom studies. All students are required to be present for the full two weeks if they wish to receive the certificate.

We would like to continue our policy of offering positive course at a lower price, in hopes that this course may be attended by folks who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to afford to come.We are also going to offer free participation for people working with organic farms. We are looking forward to expanding our knowledge and depth of permaculture.

Costs: The two week certified PDC course:
Regular course price: NT：18,000 (about ＄550 usd)
Students & Farmers special price : free ( 2for students, 2 for farmers, 2 for NGO workers )
If you work for organic farms or you are students, and believe that permaculture could help your organization or yourselves achieve the goals, please contact us about the free participation.
These prices includes all meals and a place to stay for the duration of the course.

Contact Yaman – mailto:yamanagarden@gmail.comm
blog:http://yamana-garden.blogspot.com/
Mobile : +886-910225705

This full 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate is intended for people from all climatic zones who are interested in getting deeper understanding of Permaculture principles and a broad overview of the topics therein.

Whether you work for an NGO doing aid work, have a piece of land that you have wanted to start to develop, or simply an interest in global environment issues,this course is for you.

With Christian Shearer, founder of Panya Project in Northern Thailand, and the people of Panya Project, Chiang Mai, the full 72-hour Permaculture Design course will be held at the site of Yaman Garden in the Yang-Ming Mountain, Taipei, Taiwan. This course will be covered over a two week period, mixing hands-on with plenty of in classroom studies. All students are required to be present for the full two weeks if they wish to receive the certificate.

We would like to continue our policy of offering positive course at a lower price, in hopes that this course may be attended by folks who ordinarily wouldn’t be able to afford to come.We are also going to offer free participation for people working with organic farms. We are looking forward to expanding our knowledge and depth of permaculture.

Costs: The two week certified PDC course:
Regular course price: NT：18,000 (about ＄550 usd)
Students & Farmers special price : free ( 2for students, 2 for farmers, 2 for NGO workers )
If you work for organic farms or you are students, and believe that permaculture could help your organization or yourselves achieve the goals, please contact us about the free participation.
These prices includes all meals and a place to stay for the duration of the course.

Contact Yaman – mailto:yamanagarden@gmail.comm
blog:http://yamana-garden.blogspot.com/
Mobile : +886-910225705

Parkie's Take on it!!!

Here's Parkie's update to the world!

Hello!

What a splendid day. The sun is shining, the birds are gibbering, the American Nazi Party no longer rules the world, and we've got 30 gallons of wine brewing in the garage. Aaaahh. It's been quite a while since I've sent anything at all, and it's actually taken me over a week to finish writing this and getting the pictures together, mainly because I don't have a camera. I've been living at Panya now for a little over three months, and life is as peachy as ever. We've just finished hosting a 2 week Permaculture course, for 26 students from all over the place, including Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Malaysia, America, Canada, Brazil and the UK. The place was fairly hectic at times, but good fun, and it's been interesting having so many people here from all different backgrounds, as everyone seems to have something to teach. One guy from Taiwan did a few evening sessions, teaching people how to make tofu, rice wine, and Taiwanese pancakes. Another lady from the States played guitar and sang in the most amazing Joni Mitchell style voice, which was a wonderful accompaniment to lying in a hammock.

The last night of the course was a talent show where anyone could get up and do whatever they liked. People read poems, played guitar, and the guys from Taiwan got everyone to help make a cake, Taiwanese style. I beatboxed for a guy named Greg, who had written a geniusly constructed Permaculture rap. The high point for me must have been the line "Silly monocroppin' fool, taste my multifunctional tool!" My act consisted of a simple trick, which involved hammering a large nail into my nose with a beer bottle. Simple. Then I pulled out a plate full of nails I'd prepared earlier for everyone to try, and amazingly after only about 4 minutes of trying, about 7 people were up at the front with nails in their faces. And no blood. Great fun!

Two days ago I had to do my 3 month visa run to the border of Burma. My original plan was to catch buses all the way there, but I ended up riding my bike all the way there and back. That's a full 12 hours and 500km in one day. My backside has only just recovered.

I've found myself learning a lot here, even when I haven't expected to be. I thought that the other day when I watched a guy chopping up a cabbage, and realised that I would now be a pretty talented cabbage chopper. So with that in mind I thought I'd share some of the knowledge I've learned over the last few months, and I'll start by extolling the virtues of the mighty mighty banana.

The banana plant (not a tree) is the world's largest herb, and can grow to become absolutely massive. Apparently, each plant will send out a specific amount of leaves - possibly 46 - and then fruit. The banana flower which comes first, extends downwards and sheds it's petals one by one to reveal bunches of flowers, which will grow to each become one hand of bananas. At some point, presumably when the plant either gets tired or runs out of nutrients, the flower then stops shedding leaves and continues to grow downwards, and at this point you can come along and cut the flower, which can then be eaten in a stir fry or a soup. The plant will only fruit once in it's lifetime, so after that we generally cut down the entire tree, by which time new "sucker" trees will already be growing up around the base of the mother plant. Once felled, you can then eat parts of the centre of the trunk, and use the rest to mulch other trees nearby. Fantastic. Not only that, but you can make plates and wonderful hats out of the leaves, make wine from the fruit, and on top of all that you never even need to water them. What a guy!

Incidentally we have recently aquired almost our own banana plantation, just down the road from us, which was a real treat. We noticed the owner was chopping down a whole load of his banana plants, leaving large clumps of them, to expose some baby mango trees that had been growing in between. We asked his what he'd be doing with all the old plants, and he said we could just take them as he had no use for them. Then, as it seemed like he wasn't too concerned about the bananas, we asked him what he was doing with them and he said we could just take as many as we wanted any time we liked. Apparently at the time he planted his banana plants, everyone else planted some as well, making bananas almost unsellable. So we now have free access to a banana plantation which stretches across about 13 acres of hillside. So in a few weeks we'll be making banana bread, banana jam, banana wine, banana toothpaste, banana banana banana banana.... Lovely!


We've also had some marvelous lessons in wine making. It is very easy to make your own wine. Incredibly easy in fact, and I only wish I'd known it years ago, when our Friday nights would be spent lingering about outside the off-licence, trying to convince someone with a beard to buy us three litres of gnat's-widdle cider with the measly amount of change we'd managed to cobble together between us. We should have set up our own wineries, and hidden them discretely in the wardrobe or something. In the last three months at Panya, we've made around 400 litres of home-brewed wine, which has been the driving force behind many a night of intellectually invigorating conversation, and some jiggling.

Just to show how easy it is, here's:

Parkie's step-by-step family guide to making 20 litres of ginger wine:

Get a kilo of ginger, cut it up and boil the be'jesus out of it with a few litres of water in a big pot for about 2 hours.

Add 5 kilos of sugar and stir it till it's dissolved.

Stick it in a big container, and put cold water in to make it up to 20 litres. Leave it to sit till the next morning.

Get some wine yeast from your local brewing shop and chuck it in, shake it about a bit and leave it somewhere warm.

Don't screw the lid on tight, the air needs to escape.

Then let it sit for about one month.

Go to the local shop and buy some large bags of cheesy poofs, Bombay mix and pretzels, and a selection of flavoursome dips. Then find your best 70's disco CD and your shiniest shirt, and invite some friends over for a jolly old knees-up! All hail the GGW.

Now two different people have told me about this, and I really want it to be true. When a mosquito lands on you, it is apparently possible to trap it's pokey little mouth in your skin, either by tensing your muscle, or by stretching the surrounding patch of skin, making it unable to fly away. Once trapped, the mosquito supposedly lacks the muscular dexterity to stop itself from sucking, and then has no choice but to continue to suck until it explodes. What fun! I'm still undecided as to whether this constitutes cruelty or not. In Thailand even the monks kill mosquitoes. Unfortunately I'm still yet to test this wonderful story, leaving it still ranked alongside such other apocryphal chuckles as Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, or the one about Jesus. I'd love it to be true though, and if it is I'll let you know. Right, that's enough education for one day, to much knowledge fries the brain as they say, or is that ectoplasm? I've stuck loads of pictures on to this e-mail, so apologies if it's rather large but pictures tell a much better story than I ever could. There's some nice shots of our new chicken house being built, some juggling and one of Leah with a cat on her head. Also a few people have been building blogs about their time at Panya, so here are a couple of them that are well worth checking out: www.panyaproject.blogspot.com www.panyaproject.org The next couple of days are just going to spent chilling our boots, drinking milkshakes and doing a few odd jobs, before we have 3 different groups of high school kids coming to stay, over the next two weeks. Then I'm contemplating taking a holiday to the South to catch some rays, before the next Permaculture course at the end of April. So until then, all I need to do is learn how to make fire and speak French. Take care everybody, sweet dreams and big love
Parkie x (((((( /_ _) ( . . ) ( / ) ---oOOo----------oOOo---

Thailand panya PDC課程分享通知

各位PC農友大家好

樸門的精神.
照顧地球,照顧人類,分享多餘.
也相信多數同好都在生活中實踐自己的理念.
去年底的PDC課程也已結束一段時日.相信參加的農友同好一定收穫
良多願意與無法參加的朋友分享喜悅.
本人因時間無法配合只好參加泰國的PDC課程.有幸於日前上課完畢.
深覺對permaculture有更深體會.對鄰近國家推動PC的現況也有更多
新的資訊心得願與同好交流.

本次的課程是由PC傳奇人物JEFF的高徒ETHAN與CHRISTIAN兩位
共同主持.ETHAN有多年教授PDC課程與實物經驗.CHRISTIAN更是泰國
PANYA PROJECT的負責人.兩位搭配深入淺.出加上實務經驗豐富吸引歐美
中南美洲及新加坡(3人)馬來西亞(3人)各國共計31位同好的參與
.多數人是有農場或是將要投入農業生產
或是想建立ECOVILLIGE的人.大家經驗交流收穫不少
最特別的是還有參加過Permaculture Fainalce work shop
課程的同學(去年10月美國舉辦)再次參加並分享PC商業化
的經驗…
回想4年多來許多同好的熱情參與.投入.無非是希望這些理念
對這片土地良善的互動能深化.
欣見Permaculture專業課程終於在家鄉落實.
也高興有更多人熱情的投入.

希望藉由此次課程的經驗分享做為樸門團隊的再出發.
新年新期望.希望各位對樸門仍有熱情的同好在新的一年重新出發.

亞曼將於元月31日(六 )上午10點.
於天母古道登山口旁”天母古道花園餐廳”
(可搭捷運淡水線劍潭站出轉銘傳大學校門口搭220公車
終站下往天母古道入口走2到3分鐘)
舉辦PDC心得分享.免費茶點共應.歡迎同好及已參加過PDC
課程的同好.以及想了解與支持Permaculture的朋友參與.

長久以來本持日久見人心的信念.抱持推動樸門精神與
實踐理論.推動Permaculture的目標也努力結合團隊力量
與建立實際範例成功經驗的復製.深感首要問題在於相關書籍
太少.因此也與同好至力進行相關書籍翻譯的工作.
本次亦感謝團隊成員王新雨(主譯)與老k(校對)兄熱情幫助翻譯發表
“Earth users Guide to Permaculture” 分享.
另感謝邱老師及其學生插圖的編列.

本次泰國PDC課程也獲得Christian老師首肯同意四月三日
到十八日來台舉辦PDC課程.相關內容亦將於元月31日下午
1點30分於同一地點說明與討論課程內容.歡迎有興趣參與PDC課程的同好
無論是義工.翻譯.或是換工者我們都希望你的加入.
期始樸門團隊更堅強.本次說明會亦將解開許多PDC的疑惑.

場地受限請事先報名.

聯絡人:亞曼 0910225705

Compost Day 04: The 2nd turn

Our compost heated up incredibly fast -- a perfect mix of ingredients and tropical weather brought the temperature to 155ºF in two days. We turned it, and two days later...

Look at the steam! Greg (who's developing sustainable agriculture curricula for a Burmese NGO) and Jonathan (a wandering forest gardener & seeker of truth) begin to turn the pile.
Checking the temperature of the compost: a perfect 160ºF!
Else (an intrepid australian & earthling rights activist) expertly shapes the steaming pile.

More to come as the freshly-aerated compost heats up again!!!


.

Day 0: COMPOST BEGINS - building the pile

Are you ready for the 18-day hot compost?
This is a human recipe for humus.
Pure, unadulterated soil creation in less than 3 weeks.

Christian charismatically explains the compost process.

Materials: forest leaves in the foreground, fresh greens in the back.
Taiga, Tucker, and Martha begin layering the pile.

Ethan and Chris layer onto the pile -- which is watered lightly as we go.

The layered pile! A diversity of finely chopped leaves, grasses, vines, cow manure, rice bran, kitchen scraps, and a secret nitrogen-rich compost-starter. The microbial party gets started!!!

Stay tuned for more. We'll turn the pile when it gets to 160ºF.

DOFU PARTY

Yaman & Tucker lead the 2009 Panya Project Permaculture Design Course in an evening session of tofu making from fresh soybeans.