The Goldenrod Spring 2009
In one sense, we have never left the divine Source, never lost our divine identity. – Paul Brunton
CURRENT CLASSES
Monday
Astronoesis (7:30-9:30 pm, Library) The class is studying Astronoesis, pp. 46-75, “The One: Symbolization,” Anthony’s overview of the metaphysical chart/astrological mandala. We are also now exploring Kabbalah and the sephirothic tree and its relation to Anthony’s metaphysics. All are welcome, including occasional attendees. Contact June at ifnisworld@yahoo.com.
Monday School (meets once a month) This is an easy-going but structured class intended for children. Activities include sitting silently, yoga, songs, stories, snack, crafts, and outdoor play. Contact Madhurima at 546-2094, if your family would like to attend,
Tuesday
Gentle Svaroopa Yoga (5:30 to 7:00 pm, Main Building) These Svaroopa style Yoga classes are devoted to developing that inner knowing, through poses that open and release your spine. Wear warm, loose-fitting, comfortable clothing. Contact Caroline at 351-1962.
Buddhism (7:30-9:30 pm, Library) This class is studying Hubert Benoit’s The Supreme Doctrine: Psychological Studies in Zen Thought. Recently the class has also been reading material by Rudolph Steiner. All are welcome. Contact Andrew at vectorart@aol.com or Lou at desarno@htva.net.
Emerging Teachers of the One (7:30 pm, Main Building) We’re reading from I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj, going over videos of Nondual teachers from conscious.tv and a TV show Never Not Here (most recently A. H. Almaas and Rupert Spira) and listening to tapes of Adyashanti (The End of Your World), Gangaji (Who am I), etc. Contact Mark at mark.scorelle@gmail.com.
Wednesday
Plotinus’ Enneads (7:45-10 pm, Library) After about 45 minutes of meditation, we read and discuss sections from the Enneads. Currently we are reading “The Knowing Hypostasis and the Transcendent” (V.3) All are welcome. Contact Herbert at 277-5685.
Thursday
Meditation with Raphael and Discussions on
the Quest (4:15-6:45 pm, Library) We start with a reading as a seed for meditation, and then discuss our own journeys on the path. All are welcome. Contact Avery at 546-7300 or aps5@cornell.edu.
PB Class (7:30 pm, Library or Main Building)
We have been studying Paul Brunton’s paras and transcripts of Anthony’s commentaries on them. Contact Martha or Sam at 582-6777.
Sunday
Egyptian Goddesses (meets twice a month) We are beginning a study of the Egyptian Goddessess using two books as a framework: The Myth of the Goddess by A. Baring and J. Cashford, and The Passion of Isis and Osiris by J. Huston. Contact Barbara at 387-6303.
“Oh my mother Nut,
Stretch your wings over me.
Let me become like the imperishable stars,
Like the indefatigable stars.”
Katha Upanishad (evening, Tim and Karen Smith’s home) This class is working on the Katha Upanishad, which deals with death and what survives death. We also touch upon the beautiful verses of The Bhagavad Gita. Our starting time alternates every other week, and the gathering includes meditation sessions, plus a dish-to-pass supper every other week. To confirm starting time contact Kira at kiralallas@yahoo.com
TO FATHOM THE UNFATHOMABLE: Inquiry into Reality and Appearance
Join us for two Saturday Seminars led by Avery Solomon. All are welcome to share inquiry, inspiration and meditation with friends of spiritual philosophy. Readings provided.
May 2: INFINITY AND THE IMAGINATION
Imaginative meditations shift our view of space, time and causality. Mathematical metaphors open our imagination to the infinite. Poetic writings from ancient and modern sages point to the paradoxes of reality.
May 30: EMANATION AND OMNIPRESENCE
How the Ideas come to Valois. “You are becoming Wisdom.” --Anthony Damiani
Saturday 10 am - 5 pm with 8 am meditation and 9 am breakfast. On Saturday evening join us for dinner, chanting, music and video. Sunday morning after seminar 9:30 -11. Suggested donation for non-members is $20 and includes breakfast and lunch. For information or to register, please contact Avery aps5@cornell.edu or 607-546-7300.
“I do not negate the world. I see it as appearing
in consciousness, which is the totality of the
known in the immensity of the unknown.”
-- Nisargatta I Am That
–
COMMUNITY EVENTS
SPRING CLEAN UP
A workday is planned for May 16 starting about 9 am. There are many things to do both indoors and out. Come join us as we spruce the place up.
IN HONOR OF ELLA MAY
We will have a community picnic at the Center on the 4th of July to remember Ella May and to celebrate (belatedly) her birthday.
FIREMAN’S FAIR
Hector Fireman's Fair is July 23-25. Come have fun and raise money for our local fire department. Volunteer to fry fries and more at the WG booth.
“CREATING BUDDHAS”
Come see a free screening of “Creating Buddhas: The Making and Meaning of Fabric Thangkas,” a new film by Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost. It will be shown at 7:30 on June 6.
“Creating Buddhas” is an hour long documentary about a western woman who creates Buddhas out of silk. Fabric thangka is a silk embroidered and appliquéd art form in Tibetan Buddhism and is so rare that in some places it is only seen once a year. Trained in Dharamsala for nine years, Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo is one of the few female makers in world. She became a master of a male tradition and we see fabric thangka through feminine eyes. For more information or to view the trailer visit: www.creatingbuddhas.com
NONDUALISM
Bart Marshall, a nondualist teacher in the Richard Rose lineage, will be at Wisdom’s Goldenrod June 12-14. For more information contact Mark at mark.scorelle@gmail.com.
MEDITATION RETREAT EVENT
Sunim, a Korean Buddhist master, will arrive at the center acompanied by another monk and the archer Hyoung Wan Kim. Sunim will be on retreat June 8-19 but will participate in daily evening meditation in the Main Building from 5:30-6:30 pm starting June 9 and will make himself available if anyone wants to have a private interview with him.
SCHEDULE FOR THE WORKSHOP:
Friday, June 19
7 - 9 pm: Meditation (40 minute sitting meditation,
followed by 20 minute stretching, 1 hour Q & A)
Saturday, June 20
9 - 11 am: Meditation (as above)
11 am – 2 pm: Lunch break
2 - 4 pm: Archery demonstration and practice
4 - 7 pm: Dinner break
7 - 9 pm: Meditation (as above)
Sunday, June 21
9 - 11 am: Meditation (as above)
2 - 4 pm: Archery practice (for those interested)
For more information, or if you would like to help organize this event, please contact Andrew at vectorart@aol.com.
SATSANG MEDITATION RETREAT
with Korean Grand Master Jin Yeo, July 15-19
The Grand Master is not well-known to the public, since she hasn’t accepted any newspaper or television interviews. She has a Meditation Center in the mountains near Seoul where Hae-Tal and other meditation classes are offered to a wide variety of people including students and CEO’s.
Hae-Tal has to do with noticing the states of mind that cause problems in your life, looking into them thoroughly, then throwing them away, one by one. This way of meditating will be explored in depth during the meditation retreat.
Open to the public, the retreat will consist of lectures, question and answer sessions, and meditation periods. Meditation may include drawing, music, water, nature, mantra, and bowing. Participants keep a private notebook and complete a “mind diary.” The Grand Master usually meets individually with each participant, often giving personal meditation assignments.
A student says, “Since participating in the course, mentalism has changed from being an idea read about in books to something I experience and work with in my day-to-day life. My experience has motivated me to maintain an ongoing daily meditation practice. Also, I’ve been able to let go of a lot of fears and negative thinking.”
The meditation retreat will start Wednesday evening at 7 pm. The daily schedule beging with breakfast at 7 am, and lecture at 8:30. Participants bring their own sleeping bags and sleep in the Main Building. All meals will be provided during the retreat. Usually participants take turns helping with meal preparation and cleanup. The food will be simple vegetarian meals, including some Korean dishes. The participation fee is $400 per person for this retreat, the same amount as in Korea. Full participation is considered very important in order to fully understand Satsang meditation. Sleeping at the meditation place and eating together is also strongly recommended. (If you can’t attend all five days, then Friday evening through Sunday is also possible.)
For more information or to register contact Karen K. Smith, kks3@lightlink.com, 607-592-1462 or Songeun Lee (who will translate during the retreat) sl446@cornell.edu, 607-342-4168.
The Grand Master will offer a second retreat at Cornell July 22-26.
MEDITATION DAYS
Special meditation days were held on the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. We gathered to meditate at 3, 4 and 5 pm. The Summer Solstice meditations will be on Sunday June 21.
THE QUESTION OF FREE WILL
Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhist scholar, will give a public talk at the Center on Thursday July 9 from 7 - 9 pm. The topic is “The Question of Free Will: A Buddhist Perspective.”
On the evening of July 10 in Ithaca (exact location and time to be announced), Alan will give the first lecture in the Victor Mansfield Memorial Speaker Series sponsored by Namgyal Monastery. He’ll be offering a weekend workshop at Namgyal on July 11-12.
Please contact Elaine Mansfield at elaine@lightlink.com for the Center event and Namgyal Monastery at office@namgyal.org for the other events.
THE METAPHYSICAL CHART
There will be an Astronoesis Summer Studies Intensive over Labor Day weekend. “The Metaphysical Chart: Astrology’s Transcendental Ground.”
This workshop will run FRIDAY evening, September 4, through SUNDAY evening, September 6 with an add-on to be announced on Monday morning, September 7.
If you have questions or are considering attending, please contact June Fritchman ifnisworld@yahoo.com or Greg Kramer grkramer@twcny.rr.com (phone 607-387-5536 for either, leave message on answering machine).
DREAMWORK
Robert Bosnak, eminent Dreamworker, will be at the Center September 11-13. Contact Harriet Eisman hcl26@logical.net. More information will follow as the time gets closer.
VISITING
To find out about visiting or staying at Wisdom’s Goldenrod, please contact us at 607-546-7777 or wisdomsgoldenrod@gmail.com.
The idea of meditation is to teach your mind to
be very calm, very quiet and go into itself.
–Anthony Damiani
Calendar of Upcoming Events – Details inside:
May 2 Infinity and the Imagination, Avery Solomon
May 16 Spring workday
May 30 Emanation and Omnipresence, Avery Solomon
June 6 Thangka film, Isa Leidenfrost
June 9-18 Daily meditation with Sunim
June 12-14 Nondualist Bart Marshall
June 19 -21 Meditation workshop, Sunim
June 21 Solstice meditation
July 4 Community picnic in honor of Ella May
July 9 The Question of Free Will, Alan Wallace
July 15-19 Meditation Retreat, Grand Master Jin Yeo
July 23-25 Fireman’s Fair
September 4-6/7 Astronoesis Summer Studies:
Metaphysical Chart
September 11-13 Dreamworker Robert Bosnak
Wisdom’s Goldenrod
Center for Philosophic Studies
5801 Route 414
Hector, NY 14841
www.wisdomsgoldenrod.org
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