Landscape: Dances of Universal Peace, Musical Philosophy at Harbin

What's optimal in life vis-a-vis Harbin and how to get there? Harbin is actualized and very cool. I'd like to explore loving bliss and these 5 related love bliss letters I've written, which I'm exploring in related ways here in this blog. How to turn this into 'music' and far-reaching thought?

Create a rambling, musical philosophy?


I hear a flute in the distance from my tent at Harbin. Synchronicity can be very salutary and fascinating at Harbin.


I went to “Dances of Universal Peace” in the Harbin Temple last night. Gaya facilitated this. Many of the musicians drove from Sebastopol, in northern California, a little more than an hour away. It was both beautiful and edifying. Beautiful because people came to a very loving energy, and edifying because it confirms my thinking that this kind of dance is a 'technology' for cultivating love and peace that you can feel, - people generated 'loving' energy pretty wonderfully. I didn't recognize many of the people there last night. I had only met Gaya before, and Joe Tzu, whom I know, was there as well. Five musicians sat in the middle on the circular carpet, and very skillfully and integrally contributed to what emerged. And the people danced in a ring around them. People looked very folksy - Harbin in general is more eclectic - with many women in skirts in earthen colors, or beautiful, bright colors. So, Harbin in its complexity draws people from a variety of places around northern California and becomes a center for these energy-generations and exchanges. But it's really just a hot springs' retreat center.

During the Sufi dance last night, I wondered about Harbin's refractory qualities – people come with their own unique energies, on their own trips, and these can be refracted or redirected like light in new directions through being at Harbin. Harbin has also been around for almost 4 decades now since Ishvara bought the property, and therefore has become complex due to its history – a lot goes on here in a lot of different ways as the result of this time – and people see what they want to see in Harbin, and come for things ~ experiences and thinking ~ they know they may get. It's hard to get an overview of Harbin, although Ishvara and the longest residents have seen a lot.

I hadn't seen Sufi dances of universal peace at Harbin done before, but they probably have happened with some regularity. Why was this on the schedule last night?

Harbin is also a kind of fractal experiment. The waters can rearrange light in novel ways, and create new geometries, metaphorically.

Let's go see. ... I'm heading from my tent to the pools now, along the village path. The sky is beautifully blue again, after raining enough yesterday (Friday, September 19, 2008) to get my sleeping bags, which were out while I was in town, a little wet. This is one of the first rains of the autumn, another sign of fall. This beautiful landscape and Harbin, seen through my tent's rad skylights, make me happy to be here.