Eleusis Daily
It was good join the small community at Eleusis again, Peter and I last visited in 2002.
We both felt welcomed and after a nourishing lunch which included home made bread, humous and mushroom pate made by Adam the postulant and 'tenzo'.
Afterwards David gave us a guided tour of the land. The Eleusisian theme for the land offers a sense of magic, mystery and unknowingness with the latter seeming a good synergy with Buddhist practice.
Areas have been given names, Peter said this brought to mind the old Celtic tradition of giving fields a name. I felt the names nurtured a sense of connection to each area as we walked through, with each area having it's own identity in relation to cultivation, peace and love of nature. There is Demeter which means earth mother and David interpreted this as Dharma-mother, Artemis consisting of a 'wild area'. Eirene and Hera. Often hidden until you came up close were Buddhas with sitting areas and a beautiful Quan-Yin sat beneath a splendid oak tree.
One of my favourite parts was Aphrodite's field which is open and light with a circle of May blossom edging the field. Within the field there is a beautiful May in full blossom and surrounded by a circle of stones set a few feet apart from each other and loosely built, one on top of the other, like mini stupas. We were very fortunate to visit when Aphrodite's field was in all it's splendid blossom.
Later we joined in with the working meditation weeding and clearing the front area of the main house. The weather was sunny and warm and we worked until almost supper time. Jnanamati who was helping Adam in the kitchen cooked us a vegetable curry with some homemade courgette chutney. It was good to see Jnanamati again and to hear about the various projects he has been involved with.
On Sunday we enjoyed breakfast outside, it was a lovely sunny morning. We had a good discussion and David shared his thoughts from his recent studies of Dogen and also of Tao-Ching, a 5th century monk, and we all shared thoughts on aspects of ethics and boundaries, which can be experienced very differently in Buddhist practice as opposed to other institutions.
Later Annette, who is a Tibetan Buddhist neighbour from Oasis, joined us all for the morning service and David's Dharma talk. As it was the anniversary of the loss of his mother 12 years ago, David's talk focused on a woven fan his mother had bought in 1952. He explained how hiding the face with the fan was as if hiding the self while the Buddha speaks. I had often wondered why in my own tradition of Soto Zen the monk was holding the Septer in front of the face.
Afterwards we had tea, cake and questions with David. Some of the questions raised the issues of a balance between practice and study, mirror reflections between teacher and student and how mutual the relationship can be.
We were grateful to be able to visit and share the experience with the community at Eleusis and know that all being well we will visit again.
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