Favorite places to cultivate

[Oolong Rabbit]

Hello all,

 

I just happened to have the camera in the car when I went out to practice at the beach the other day and snapped some pictures:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13503667@N05/...57602048814757/

 

Would love to see where others cultivate as well .

[Cameron]

I usually just sit indoors at home but have some pictures of a weekend retreat I did couple months ago in the phote section sititng outside in nature. Sitting by a flowing stream under beautiful trees with light rain(not heavy rain) is awesome.

 

Also..today in Scottsdale there was few minutes of light rain with the sun and I thought there was going to be a rainbow but there wasn't.

 

Light rain in the desert with a rainbow overhead is pretty amazing energy.

 

I am not crazy about sitting on the beach so much. I really enjoy going up to Sedona when I have time and the weather is beautiful.

 

From what little I have seen of Hawaii that would probably be pretty amazing place to cultivate.

Edited September 17, 2007 by Cameron

[Oolong Rabbit]

I usually just sit indoors at home but have some pictures of a weekend retreat I did couple months ago in the phote section sititng outside in nature. Sitting by a flowing stream under beautiful trees with light rain(not heavy rain) is awesome.

 

Also..today in Scottsdale there was few minutes of light rain with the sun and I thought there was going to be a rainbow but there wasn't.

 

Light rain in the desert with a rainbow overhead is pretty amazing energy.

 

I am not crazy about sitting on the beach so much. I really enjoy going up to Sedona when I have time and the weather is beautiful.

 

From what little I have seen of Hawaii that would probably be pretty amazing place to cultivate.

 

Hi Cam,

 

Do you have a link to the photos? To me there is just no comparison between practicing indoors and outdoors in a majestic environment. I am lucky enough to live 5 minutes from this beach which is usually quite barren. The feel of the sand on my feet and the wind blowing off the ocean. It just feels alive with energy.

[Cameron]

Just go to the gallery section and click Cam's Album.

Edited September 17, 2007 by Cameron

[Mal]

1.my old bedroom (I brought my parents house and my old room is still basically set up the same, nice feel)

2. the Garage

 

I think I like these as they are very close and easy to access I have a beautifull mountain (hill) within 10 min walk that has a view of the entire city, ocean and islands. But I've only ever made the walk once.

 

I'm not a nature person. While watching TV on the weekend I saw that the sky looked really pretty during the local football final so I went outside to check during an advertising break.

 

(yes it was a nice blue colour)

[beancurdturtle]

Usually I start between my ears - location of the vessel is irrelevant.

 

If you need you + location, then you have been marginalized.

 

Peace,

[三江源]

.

Edited April 18, 2015 by 三江源

[rain]

Your photos made my scull tingle Oolong. And Cat I agree totally, I am in love with old trees too.

My favourite, the strongest place for me is a spot up on an island by the coast. My grandparents urne is there, right under an old dry pinetree. I've known this place since I was two years old, when the pinetree was still green..I know this place so well I can go there in my mind all year even during winter.

 

But it seems I meditate best anywhere seated, while "sitting and forgetting".

[doc benway]

My favorite spot is the beach, any quiet beach, and the best time for me is sunrise. Unfortunately, I live > 3 hours away so that's a vacation treat for me!

[Oolong Rabbit]

Usually I start between my ears - location of the vessel is irrelevant.

 

If you need you + location, then you have been marginalized.

 

Peace,

 

Hi Beancurdturtle,

 

Perhaps at some point the internal and external worlds can be melded indefintely, but I haven't reached anywhere near that level of cultivation (only fleeting glimpses). Admittedly I can practice anywhere, but I just find the level of external energy much greater in such a setting than say in a garage (sorry Mal ). The feel of the damp sand molding to me feet... the smell the ocean vegetation in the air... the sound of the waves crashing.... and the fresh ocean breeze filling my lungs. This external energy somehow helps to "tune" or "center" the me, not marginalize it.

 

A musician can play his instrument anywhere. But when he plays it in an environment with the proprer accoustics, the music resonates more beautifully.

[Oolong Rabbit]

Absolutely lovely spot, Oolong. Where is that?

 

I LOVE to be in nature to practise, it is SO much better. I just was in the Alps, and really, just sitting in the mountains was an invitation into meditation.

 

I remember Ken Cohen saying that where he lives in the Colorado mountians 'just breathing is qi gong'...

 

I love mountain energy and forest energy. I'm not so in resonance with the sea.

 

I sit in my garden at home to meditate and do qi gong. I also walk in my local park amongst the trees by the river and do whole body breathing as I walk. I am in a love relationship with those old trees!

 

I met a tree on a croatian island this summer who grabbed me, and I didnt have enough time with that spirit, so I said "I will come back tomorrow morning." and lo and behold, I woke naturally, wide awake at 5am the following day ( me, the one who sleeeeeps late..) and crept out for a private tryst with this tree. I had been woken in the night by the sense of needing to journey to the roots of the tree, which I did, and got given a vision of something I was not aware of, which I checked out and found was in fact the case.

So I guess I'm saying I love to work with trees and find them immnesely rewarding.

 

I need to get some pics organized to show you.

 

Great idea for a thread!

 

Thanks Cat . It's a nature park in my hometown of Saint John, NB Canada on the Atlantic ocean. I am not much of a photographer, so the pictures don't really do it justice. Just to the right of the rocks there is a peninsula with hiking trails and some breath taking views.

 

Cool quote from Ken. It's no accident that so many of the taoist and buddhist monasteries cultivated in the mountains. The reasonnance with the sea I think is something that gets imprimted onto your psyche when you grow up near it. Just ask anyone who was born near it, and then moves away what they miss most

 

I would love to see your photos. Do you have any of the old Croatian tree?

 

P.S. Have you read Opening the Dragon's Gate? They describe an interesting technique for energy exchange with trees.

 

Your photos made my scull tingle Oolong. And Cat I agree totally, I am in love with old trees too.

My favourite, the strongest place for me is a spot up on an island by the coast. My grandparents urne is there, right under an old dry pinetree. I've known this place since I was two years old, when the pinetree was still green..I know this place so well I can go there in my mind all year even during winter.

 

But it seems I meditate best anywhere seated, while "sitting and forgetting".

 

The tingling is still there . Actually not so much a tingling anymore as an increased awareness. Would love to see your pics as well Rain. Post'em if you got'em.

 

My favorite spot is the beach, any quiet beach, and the best time for me is sunrise. Unfortunately, I live > 3 hours away so that's a vacation treat for me!

 

I have never practiced at sunrise, but it would be a great way to begin the day. I have heard that is when many Chinese traditionally prefer to practice.

[joeblast]

Nice pic oolong...I can almost smell the air

[Trunk]

...

* Zoinks! *, Good tree stories!

 

A musician can play his instrument anywhere. But when he plays it in an environment with the proprer accoustics, the music resonates more beautifully.

Another

 

One of my martial arts brothers said something along the lines of, that it was a basic blunder, to think "there is an outside and an inside, and I know where that boundary is".

 

Wendell Berry writes some great stuff (essays along the lines of nature, culture, community, economics and character) and again and again he observes how everything is complexly interdependent.

[Mal]

but I just find the level of external energy much greater in such a setting than say in a garage (sorry Mal

 

That's o.k don't feel bad for me, my garage is pretty cool. I'm not stuck in a box suffering or anything

 

Just a roof to keep the sun off, a nice breeze, lots of birds and insects and a good enough view of the mountain. Peaceful.

 

In retrospect I have walked up mountains and down beaches to practice, it's beautiful when it just happens. But if I have to plan a trip to go somewhere to practice I often find an excuse to do something else instead

 

And yes old trees are excellent to hug.

[beancurdturtle]

I just happened to have the camera in the car when I went out to practice at the beach the other day and snapped some pictures:

Stunning!

 

Wonderful colors.