Ocher Rose Yellow Beauty: "What's new in your world," Harbin Language, Harbin as 'Happening'

In the rich fabric of life which emerged starting in the 1960s ~ 'counterculture' ~ "What's new in your world?" was one alternative expression of "Hi, how are you?" While I haven't heard this recently, until a friend greeted me this way this morning in the Harbin dressing room, it seems a little 'old-fashioned' these days, even in its asking about newness about your experience in your life.

But I'm curious to articulate 'lexicons' of Harbin language since around 1972, with lexicons of hippie language.

Here are a few hippie lexicons I found in a brief search on the web:

http://www.4starbiz.com/missdeal/lingo.html

http://www.mc.cc.md.us/Departments/hpolscrv/lingo.html


*

Harbin Hot Springs ~ anthropology ~ identity ~ language {Saussure: > semiology of parole?} ~ culture {counterculture - 'oneness'} ~ something new {cultural innovation ~ experimentation} ~ ethnography ~ virtual ethnography ~ is one trajectory I'm continuing to explore vis-a-vis Harbin.


**

Hippie hot pool retreat centers in every state in the U.S. (at least two in each state, to start?), and in every country around the world, in a loose network and in very beautiful locations, clothing-optional with the camping and youth hostel-like kitchen possibilities, an hour or two away from urban areas? Yes ... How could Harbin facilitate this? How could the internet help facilitate this? Ishvara would like to expand.


***

The 'happening' aspect of hippies, where gatherings just spontaneously emerged, at Harbin, for example, and which can almost 'magically' lead to encounters that can be transformative, ~ politically, socially, creatively, therapeutically, spiritually, opening-wise, etc., is less 'happening' these days. {Although the web and social networking sites make possible the formation of groups immediately, in a way that probably draws on the 1960s and 1970s, and politically-mindedly, too}. But gatherings like these were fleeting 'back in the day,' both at Harbin and especially during the 1960s and in the early 1970s. Now Harbin has workshops ~ harbin.org/workshops.htm, which are also gatherings, but slightly more planned. The Harbin pools, however, are still fluid, and create unique, ongoing gathering, twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year.

But Harbin is also 'happening,' as a gathering, in an ongoing way. It has taken form (as a 'hippie' organization) and lasted, and become an one-of-a-kind hippie commune. It's also kind of a hippie 'church' {two, actually ~ Heart Consciousness Church, and New Age Church of Being}, although you wouldn't know it while there {Harbin is pretty alternative vis-a-vis any familiar kinds of 'religion'}, in my experience. Yet, those things which go on in churches - community, intimacy, meaning-generation, marriages and funerals, beliefs - all occur at Harbin, in Harbin's own unique way, and influenced by counterculture.


****

In recent days at Harbin, over the past month, I went with Heartsong to see her place, and help her set up her computer. Heartsong and I have talked a lot recently. She's fascinating in the variety of things she knows - ecology, science, math, physics, science fiction, New Age, meditation traditions, and how she uses her knowledge as malleable codes to facilitate understanding ~ she speaks a lot of 'metaphorical' languages, and understands much ~ and to bond as friends. She befriends and connects, and has a fascinating mind ...


I also saw the films, the Reduced Shakespeare Cos.' "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)," "Mama Mia," and "The Visitor," and went to dances with great music played by DJ Firefly, as well as spent a lot of time in the pools. (Harbin shows about 2 films every day and 4 on the weekend, in addition to a Satsang {translated as something like 'talks about truth'} film on the weekends), in a nice, warm theater with cushions. The flow of life makes sense at Harbin, ~ influenced a lot by going in and out of the pools, and life in this valley. Harbin is.