Earth Sanctuary: A Nature Reserve, Meditation Parkland and Sculpture Garden

THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING A RETREAT – H.E. Dagmo Kusho Sakya

Saturday, July 8, 2006, 12:30 – 2:00 pm

Location: Tara Meditation Center Retreat House at Earth Sanctuary on Whidbey Island, 2235 Newman
Road, Langley, WA. Directions can be found at the bottom of this web page:
http://www.earthsanctuary.org/r_ratesDirections.php

Cost: $30 Public; $25 Sakya Monaster Members. All are welcome

To be covered: What is retreat? The meaning and importance of retreat. How retreat relates to one’s spiritual practice and spiritual growth and development. When, how, and why you do a retreat.

BLESSING & CONSECRATION CEREMONY OF EXPANDED COTTONWOOD STONE
CIRCLE AT EARTH SANCTUARY – H.H. Jigdal Dagchen Sakya
Saturday, July 8, 2006, 2:30 – 3:30 pm

Location: Cottonwood Stone Circle, a short walk from the Tara Meditation Center at Earth Sanctuary,
Whidbey Island. If you are coming for just the consecration ceremony directions can be found at the
bottom of this web page: http://www.earthsanctuary. org/p_directions.php. When you get to the visitor
parking lot, allow 15 minutes to walk to the Cottonwood Stone Circle.

Cost: $12 Public; $10 Sakya Monastery Members. All are welcome. Attendees of the Retreat Talk can attend for no
additional fee.

The Cottonwood Stone Circle has over 40 new standing and recumbent stones and is now the tallest stone
circle in the world. Dagchen Rinpoche will bless and consecrate the stone circle.

H.H. Dagchen Rinpoche was raised and trained to assume the position of “throne holder” of the Sakya
school, a role third in rank to H.H. the Dalai Lama. Dagchen Rinpoche is Head Lama of Sakya Monastery
of Tibetan Buddhism in Seattle. H.E. Dagmo Kusho Sakya, Dagchen Rinpoche’s wife, is an
accomplished female Tibetan Buddhist lama. The inspiring story of her life in Tibet and India is vividly
recorded in her autobiography, Princess in the Land of Snows.

The Tara Meditation Center is a joint project of Sakya Monastery (www.sakya.org) and Earth Sanctuary (www.earthsanctuary.org).

Sakya Monastery, 108 NW 83rd Street, Seattle WA 98117 Call: 206 789-2573 Email: monastery@sakya.org

This American Bullfrog is one of the biggest we have seen at Earth Sanctuary!

I came to Earth Sanctuary for five solitary days with an intention to prepare for the Wesak Full Moon. My own inner preparation as well as an actual ceremony I was in charge of at the Theosophical Society, in Seattle. Surprisingly, after the first day of solitude, walking in the woods, and meditating, it became clear that I was to focus on surrender. This is a serious challenge for me right now because my husband is dealing with a life-threatening illness and I am trying to find my way into compassion while trying to let go of thinking I can control, or fix, any of it. So I read about surrender. I prayed about it. I meditated on it. I wrote in my journal about it. Finally, I went to the labyrinth and with every step into the center I released and “gave back” whatever came to my mind that was in need of surrendering. Standing in the center, I performed the Salat, a Sufi prayer of forgiveness, supplication and gratitude. I came across this wonderful way of praying in one of the books here called “Silver Linings, The Power of Trauma to Transform Your Life,” by a local author, Mellisa Gayle West. I used the prayer that she created as I performed the Salat. “Oh god, I surrender my mind to your wisdom, my heart to your love, and my life to your healing presence.” Feeling cleansed and open I left the labyrinth.

That night I had a profound dream in which I return home to find that this large storage room in my house (which is literally to the ceiling with stuff) has been totally cleaned out. Clear and clean with not one speck of dust, dirt or stuff in it. I am amazed. Then as I look at the clean room, I start to think that there are a few important things that I would have liked to keep. I am told that everything of importance is in another room, safe. I look and there are only a few boxes. Later that night, I have another dream in which I am in a sacred ceremony. I walk into the room with a stick of incense, stand before the altar that is there and hear the words, “be fluid in your consciousness.” I am aware that I am celebrating my new found liberation, through all my surrendering and am filled with gratitude. As I am, really – for this place – for all of you that keep it going, for your vision and your integrity. When I return home I look up the phrase, “fluid in consciousness” that I have recognized as part of an opening I often use in our drumming circle. We call the four directions and these words come from the west: “Spirits of the West, Great Mystery, Powers of Autumn, of water, we send a voice in prayer. We are asking for entrance through the gates of inner knowledge. We are seeking to cross the realms. Spirits of Water, help us be fluid in consciousness, to move easily through these days. We turn to the setting sun, in the place between day and night, asking guidance for intuition. We pray for the right doors to open, for the ability to look within and make good medicine from what we find there. We pray that we can grow within this path and be of service to others. Powers of twilight, we walk in your mystery and open to your gifts.” Thank you for the gift of Earth Sanctuary.

Thank you,

Karen Johannsen

Hemlocks seem to have more diseases and problems than any other tree at Earth Sanctuary. Dwarf mistletoe, a parasitic plant, is present in older western hemlock throughout Earth Sanctuary in isolated patches. In the photo above, Dr. Dean Berg, Earth Sanctuary’s Silviculurist and Forest Engineer points out mistletoe on a Hemlock branch. Dwarf mistletoes are parasitic plants that rob a trees nutrients and water. In susceptible tree species, such as Hemlock, mistletoe can cause serious deformities, growth reduction, log quality reduction, and even cause tree mortality.

This species of mistletoe is generally confined to hemlocks, pines, certain true firs, Engelmann spruce, and larches; thus it does not pose a health hazard to other tree species, notably Douglas fir, redcedar, and red alder. It will, however, readily spread to hemlock seedlings planted nearby, and hence we are not planning on adding more hemlocks to the Earth Sanctuary forest.

Discrete mistletoe infection centers should be planted with resistant tree species (redcedar, white pine, or hardwoods, depending on pathogen species) to prevent infection of seedlings. Hemlock seedlings should not be planted within l00 feet of residual infected hemlock trees in order to prevent the spread of this parasite.

On the other hand, there are positive things that dwarf mistletoe does such as increase biodiversity, increase structural complexity (brooms), and provide habitat for specialist butterflies (Johnsons hairstreak).

More information on dwaft mistletoes can be found in this paper by David Shaw (Oregon State University) and others.

Anonymous Earth Sanctuary retreatant’s experience, shared by permission.

“We came here to let go of 50 years of pain, anger, and hurt. To reach out for forgiveness and to walk forward without continuing to carry those burdens. The ‘energy’ of this place allowed us to take that step forward and for that we’re eternally grateful.”

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Many mushrooms pop up beside our plants and trees at Earth Sanctuary. Fungi are very beneficial to plants and we are doing everything we can to encourage fungi at Earth Sanctuary. We’d love to have a volunteer who will visit Earth Sanctuary regularly, take photos of new mushrooms, and identify them so we can have a fungi inventory. I’d also like to put the photos on this blog. Email Chuck Pettis at cpettis@earthsanctuary.org if you are interested in volunteering.

If you saw Earth Sanctuary in the “Sticks and Stones” videoblog featured on RocketBoom or BoingBoing or Make Magazine, we welcome you!

Earth Sanctuary, a nature reserve, meditation parkland, and sculpture garden, is located on South Whidbey Island, 100 minutes from Seattle. A place where Nature is the top priority, Earth Sanctuary combines the latest state-of-the-art in ecological restoration, art, and spirit to create a unique place for personal renewal and spiritual connection. We have a 500-year plan (actually a 1000-year plan) to turn Earth Sanctuary into a “Garden of Eden,” a mature old-growth forest with maximium diversity of plants, birds, wildlife, and f ungi.

While you are here check out the entire Earth Sanctuary web site. Comments are welcomed!

Many thanks to my son Bre and his team of Rube Goldberg experts who created “Sticks and Stones!” They are a fountainhead of creativity and spirit.

If you are looking for a place to do a spiritual retreat, consider the Earth Sanctuary Retreat House. Call Celia Sullivan at 360-321-5465 to make reservations.

Thanks for visiting! May all beings be happy and free from suffering.

Chuck Pettis, Earth Sanctuary founder

Nate and Jesse give some advice on how to make a Rube Goldberg contraption and Jesse walks us through the entire machine at Earth Sanctuary.

Click here to get the video (MP4)

When I found out that Jesse and Nate make Rube Goldberg style contraptions, I challenged them to come up to my family’s nature preserve and make a contraption out of sticks, stones, and twine.

We gathered up on Whidbey and for a weekend messed around in the woods during the day and roasted marshmallows on the beach at night. Andru came up with the idea to use threesomes of stones to form a wandering domino effect and Jake transformed into a human sawing machine.

Make sure to check out Nate’s 3D photos of all the setups over at cre.ations.net! Check back soon to see the “making of” video with tips and tricks for making your own Rube Goldberg contraption machine!

Want to see it big? Click here for the MP4 file. Hosted over at Makezine.

Chuck, Thanks for trusting me to do the stone placement of the new stones at the Cottonwood Stone Circle. It is better than I could ever imagine. I know on some level that the design will work, but reality frequently trumps my imagination. After all the years I’ve been doing design, I still love the unexpected magic of the complete work. I love the way the physical presence of things move me and others in ways I cannot ever fully anticipate. These stones are far more than their size. It felt that they were not just standing from various vantages; they seem to leap from the ground. My heart was racing from their physical presence and from the way they seemed to bring everything in the area into sharper focus. They seemed to speak to the tree trunks in the background. The strong connection between the stones and the forest surprised me.

Forests will grow for eons with these stones as silent witness.

Thanks so much again for your trust. I believe this will be a fantastic year for Earth Sanctuary. It will be an incredible year for children. Their boundless energy will fill the site. That’s the tipping point I feel we reached yesterday. I could see it in your smile that spread across your face, a smile that comes from the happiest times of childhood, of a heart unburdened. That’s the energy that’s spreading through the Earth Sanctuary today.

Dan