Abundant fruits

The rich harvest of life at DCL continues. The juice that we pressed was delicious. 70 litres was easily consumed. Some fed Phillip's sourdough culture, with which he made marvellous bread, easily as good as that which is delivered. Mushrooms are popping up everywhere - Marcus counted 85 parasol mushrooms in the horse-field next door. On her first mushrooming foray, Brooks found a highly sought after cepe (porcini) after about two minutes. She dried that and a bunch of other boletes to take back to the States. Our chestnut tree produced big fat juicy chestnuts, which are such a hassle to prepare that we are giving them away.

Sutrayana Seminary, our last big programme of the year came to a triumphant close. After that most of our summer volunteers left: we hope that they have harvested joy and confidence in their time here. To celebrate their presence, we had a dance party in the dining room, which was livened up by some killer moves on the dance floor.

Finally our new sewage system came online. M. Brun and his team made the final connection and our daily thousands of litres of wastewater (including everything!) began to seep through our reedbed system instead of the old septic tank and soakaway. To celebrate we joined them for a glass of eau de vie - a good investment as M. Brun also runs the local apple press.

We recruited the staff and those still here from Seminary to plant up the reedbed and canal system with reeds, yellow iris and purple loosestrife.

Environmental sewage system!

Gravel is leveled out on top of the coarser layer beneath

Construction has begun on a reed-bed system to replace our aging septic tank. Shown is the large tank which will comprise the first of the two-phases of purification. Raw sewage will flow into this and filter through graded beds of gravel. Reeds will use the nutrients to grow. Excess water will flow out into a more naturalistic system of channels, planted with various types of vegetation, including the Robinia pseudoacacia which already grows there.

Reed bed with chateau behind

This large project takes our commitment to the environment forward in a big leap. Not only will we no longer need to have a septic tank regularly emptied by big truck; we will create a wildlife haven and we will be able to harvest and make use of the organic material that is fertilised by our waste.

Some of the shades of tomatoes

We are very keen to minimise our impact on the environment. We already took a big leap last year, with a commitment to buy only organic food. We have also, for many years already harvested vegetables from the garden each year, to supplement those that we buy. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, mostly from our polytunnel. We continue to harvest squash, chard, lettuce, greens, courgette and have kale and cabbage for the winter. Unfortunately our current Gardener will soon be leaving, so if you are a passionate and skilled organic gardener, and would like to spend the next few years helping to take our vision forward, please get in touch.

All these apples came from just one tree!

Our staff campground is also an orchard, containing trees planted by us, and others that were here long before we arrived. Ralph and I spent some time harvesting one tree: I climbed and shook the branches and he picked up the fallen fruit. We took about 160 kilos from just one tree (see picture) and we will take it to a local cidrier to press for juice. If some accidentally turned to cider, we would have to deal with that...

Wildlife and wild life

I was contemplating writing an article about wildlife this morning, when John appeared and said "do you want to see a viper?" The facilities team had captured this small venomous snake in the Fire Puja Barn, which we are currently "taking down" amidst the Takedown of all the tents and summer facilities. The viper, or adder as we call them in the UK, was only about 20 cm long, dark grey, with a head bigger than the rest of the body, which is apparently distinctive, and pink markings on its neck. A couple of weeks ago a participant in a programme was actually bitten by a viper, although not on our land, I believe. She required hospitalisation. This is the first time it has happened here, as far as I know.

This year I have seen many creatures in the very biodiverse corner of the world that we live in. I have caught the occasional blue flash of a kingfisher on the river before, but I recently saw two flying close by, which was a breath-taking moment. The blue is intense, like that of a hummingbird or bluebird, and seems too exotic for France, somehow. On other river swimming visits (the Vienne is, we understand clean enough to swim in) I have seen swimming snakes, water voles, and even a beautiful crayfish, which was like a small lobster. The particular bend of the river on which we are situated is listed as a site of high biodiversity.

Once, walking along the old road running behind the office, my attention was caught by a flash of green. On looking closer, I was amazed to see what appeared to be a tree frog, complete with adhesive disks on its feet. This was another experience of "isn't that something from the tropics?" but wikipedia proved otherwise. I have never seen it again, but I took some nice pictures at the time. Perhaps the most exotic and rare creature that I have seen is the elusive genet. This lean cat-like creature is supposedly solitary and nocturnal, but I observed a pair of them walking around in daylight in Lageas, a nearby almost-deserted village.

Even without taking into account the larger creatures, the insect life here is startling enough. Almost every day I see bugs I've never observed before. I spent an evening chatting with a friend while the huge stag beetles blundered through the air around us, sounding like miniature helicopters. The larvae of these remarkable creatures spend some years chewing their way through decaying tree stumps before metamorphosing into these large beetles with huge "antlers". The adult form is not known to eat anything at all, and dies soon after either breeding, in the case of the male, or laying eggs in a treestump, in the case of the female. The hummingbird hawk-moth is another pretty extraordinary creature, it is neither hummingbird nor hawk, but a moth that strongly resembles a hummingbird. The hawk part of the name comes from the swift flight and hovering behaviour of this family of insects.

Lazy end of summer days

The second last day of August and summer at DCL is over. The program season ended early this year with the Scorpion Seal Assembly 2 and the Vajra Garchen. Suddenly the days are crisper and nights are downright cold. End of summer tomatoes from the garden. SO many tomatoes.

Now, fall takedown is in full swing. Since the departure of the last program participants, DCL has taken on a quiet, almost cottage-vacation like atmosphere. Many summer volunteers have already left, and the result is that the remaining staff are treated to many home-baked treats; fresh zucchini bread French toast for breakfast, and home-made peach ice cream and cookies with lunch. This weekend the remaining staff and DCL neighbors enjoyed a western-style brunch at Michael LeBlanc’s house, followed by tango lessons in the evening. A violent early morning thunderstorm cut out the phone and internet for five days, giving the office staff a pleasant break from work and intensifying the sensation that DCL exists in a bubble on an island in the middle of a vast ocean. DCL staff and neighbors enjoying brunch at Michael LeBlanc's.

Post-tango BBQ feast.
The summer, all of those people who came to DCL, all of the volunteers I grew to love, the dream-like nature of it all is both sharp and haunting. Waking up to cool breezes in my tent each morning with a sense of “did that really happen?”. It was a great summer.

Picture which didn't make it into the last post: adorable children raising the flags at family camp.

Rites of Passage

It has become our tradition here to have a cluster of programmes simultaneously at this time of year. Specifically, that is Family Camp, which is pretty much as it sounds, where families come to live and practice together; Kyudo, which is Zen archery, with its strong forms and beautiful costumes, and Sun Camp, where the older children come and experience an independent camp, and hopefully, their own minds. In recent years we have also hosted a programme for young people from teens to early thirties, who train together in contemplative disciplines while helping to provide childrens' activities.

The Rites of Passage children arrive

The culmination of Family Camp is the Rites of Passage ceremony, which is for children of around 8-10 years old. This is an age of transition from young childhood to a more responsible, independent time. In many cultures this transition is marked with a ritual, and in Shambhala we follow this tradition. The children of this age participate in their own stream of activities, which this year included Aikido, Ikebana, and Kyudo. They make their own bow and fire the first shot. Finally they do the Rites of Passage Ceremony, which includes giving up a toy or item of clothing which is representative of their childhood, taking a vow to be kind, and receiving various ceremonial gifts.

Sensei presents a Ya to Ruby

This year we again had the honour of Kanjuro Shibata Sensei XX's presence, and he gave a beautiful Ya, or arrow, to each of the Rites of Passage graduates. Then sacred clowns representing the four elements performed a wonderful dance around the children, before showering them with sweets and nuts.

Sacred clowns

Trailer trash

Here in the countryside, we pride ourselves on the ability to celebrate. Any occasion will do: a wedding, a funeral, a new lawnmower, a cow coughing, what have you. To celebrate moving into my new home, a twenty-five-footer, we had a good  old-fashioned shindig. Promised activities included gurning, tractor-pulls, mud-wrestling and other enlightened activities. In the end, we settled for beer-drinking and welly-wanging, which go together very well.

I had my hair cut special

tragically we lost the baby - anyone seen it?

Dathun meets Encampment

July 15 2010
Heat. Sweat. Aimless people in red or green or blue. Khaki. Meditation. Marching. Hearing that marching is meditation. Mexican feast. THUNDER. Drums and chanting. Not sleeping. Not caring. Caring too much. Dathun. Flowery dathun people. Loud kasung. Humid tents. Encouraging moon. Lightening lullabye.



It seems difficult to remember a time before Dathun. Sitting, patiently or not so patiently, in Shrine Hall Ah, right in the center of DCL, they provide a constant reminder of space. Their presence has a profound effect on the atmosphere. In contrast to the exuberant, sharp nowness of Warriors Assembly, Dathun bring a subtle openness, without promise or compromise. Sometimes, sitting on the rose porch sipping coffee and nursing my internal dialogue, I feel jealous of them. I want to join them. Other times I am glad to be able to go down to the river and lie in the shade when it gets too hot.

As part of the Kado (the “way of flowers”) portion of the Dathun, Marcia Shibata gave a talk open to the DCL community about art in everyday life, with an exquisite demonstration of flower arranging.

Simultaneous with Dathun we hosted the two-week Maitri Space Awareness program, in which participants explore the energy of different emotions through work with meditation and specific colors and postures. Participants could be spotted wandering around the DCL grounds wearing a different color each day.

After the Maitri program, the Dorje Kasung arrived for the first ever Magyel Pomra Encampment at DCL. Situated in the field on the other side of the “lake” (it’s a pond, really), Encampment is a two-week intensive training program for Kasung, in which participants live simply with the elements and train with military forms. From the 6:30 am wakeup music to the shouts of calisthenics and drill commands, encampment makes itself heard all through DCL.


A glorious meeting of the silence of Dathun and the loudness of Encampment occurred on Tuesday night. Early in the evening Dominic Watson-Wall, the DCL Rusung, gave a talk to the dathunees and DCL staff about Kasungship. The talk was well received, and sparked many questions and discussions. Later, under the cover of darkness, the Dathun and DCL staff banded together to raid the Encampment. Walking slowly and silently in meditation mudra, carry roses to symbolize our peaceful intentions, we processed onto the parade ground and presented our flowers as a symbolic offering to the symbolic Sakyong. We were well received by the Kasung, who presented us with an offering of drink and drill practice in return. Parade grounds lit only by the stars and moon, this was a first taste of Kasungship for many of the raiders. After drill we stood in formation for a long time, silently appreciating the sharpness of our senses and the experience of being together. Even for those who have no interest in being Kasung, the heart of encampment practice was transmitted.

Level 2 of the Way of Shambhala was offered this past week for the staff. Taught by Tessa Racine, it was an excellent continuation of the success of Level 1. Says summer volunteer Sarita McNeil , “Level 2 kicked my ass”.

This is the height of the summer season at DCL. There is a sense of forward motion and delight, with always three or four programs happening simultaneously. Some days are unbearable humid—there is nothing to be done but sit and sweat. But dramatic thunderstorms clear the air, bringing coolness and rain.