Ooty Lakes, India: Hi Sivakami, SoulFlashan [soulflash] Poets & Readers, Transcendent poetry? "Water ~ Into Warmth" ~ a poem ...

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Hi Sivakami, and SoulFlashan Poets and Readers, 

I found a {banana} slug on my smart phone (Android) in my sporran (pouch) in front of my kilt at the end of Scottish Country Dancing in Berkeley today and, with a bit of free time, wanted to email again. Not sure how it got there, however. (The banana slug is the UC Santa Cruz mascot I think, where you studied in the 1970s, Sivakami, if I recall correctly, for a year or a quarter; I don't know any of the poetic UCSC banana slug school cheers, however). I'm inspired by the influences of the 1960s and 1970s, here in California, however, as I sense you may partly be, Sivakami, and I hope I can bring a kind of “banana slug” approach to improving my poetry - to moving towards transcendence (poetically) even in its writing. 

So thank you for your helpful comments and thoughts, Sivakami, about my poem “Monsieur Nikhil Bannerjee, master raga player, moved me along the way” in “[soulflash] Digest Number 3255”! I greatly appreciate your and other Soulflash friends’ thoughts and comments, and perhaps I will also be able to come into fruitful, generative conversation with all of your poems. I’ve been in this SoulFlash email group since at least 2008 I was surprised to see recently, but haven’t read every [soulflash]  email, to say the least. 

One question I have is how best to edit parts of a poem that some might find prosaic, for example, to transform it into one which is highly poetic, and even transcendent, in these regards - either as principles or focuses? So how would I make the previous poem I shared further poetic - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2017/01/brya-ebenus-jamaican-rain-tree-making.html - and in a way which might inform further revisiting, reconsideration and rewriting of my other poems, I ask myself? This is a kind of intellectualizing poetic question, I suppose, and relates to my querying approach to thinking, but I suspect I will also learn further poetic ways of thinking about writing and editing poetry in SoulFlash’s conversations by and with poets. 

I'll share another poem soon in a different thread. 

Thank you and warm regards, 

Scott

*

Hi M and A, 

Thank you, M! What are some of your current new understandings of poetry? For example, one question I have is how best to edit a poem that some might find prosaic to one which is poetic, and even somewhat transcendent in these regards? How would I make this poem further poetic - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2017/01/brya-ebenus-jamaican-rain-tree-making.html? This is a writer's intellectual poetic question, I suppose. What do you think?

...

L, 

Scott

*

Water ~ Into Warmth

Even

Brown leaves are on the ground,

And Harbin is quiet-cold in mid-November,

Yet still the pools draw, releasing

Us home in waters' beauties ...

Into the warm water ...

Kissing us,

These waters

Ease, cleanse & free, -

And we open this eve,

Bathing in the warmth,

And, oh, come home ...

In Morning

Receptive rhythms are all around -

Folks coming out from morning yoga, and ...

This temple,

Near which I awake,

Is a rose,

- a cobb & straw bale splendor -

And up there,

In the pool area,

Is watery wonder

- a warm, blue easy-world -

Flowing forth from earth ...

Into the warmth, and out, at ...

Harbin, in which I butterfly awake,

In my car-cocoon,

- MMmmm, the cool, autumn night -

Now, with rising sun,

Is hot, in the morn ...

So many women are beautiful here ...

One walks by, near the temple,

With her clothes on -

We are all naked in the pools,

Where her nudity sings to me -

And, whiling, most genders find

Clothing-optional ease

Here, at home, in Harbin ...

Into the warmth, and out, at Harbin, where ...

Young women ease,

Take off their clothes,

And find freedom, here,

To soak ...

Oh, the countercultural '60s,

From whence this comes,

And by which

New communal forms

Do emerge -

Thanks to social change ...

And we find

Open, nude intimacy,

Here, more free

At Harbin

Than in the

Norms of modernities ...

What, ahead, will change bring? ...

Writing, writing beautiful Harbin,

A place, a valley,

A vision, a song,

A reality ...

Yet loving bliss doesn't yet

Abound for me, or we,

Or us, or here -

Like wondrous, bow strokes

Over Yo-Yo Ma's

Bach-light, cello strings,

Creating sonorities

- yea the music -

Of our neurophysiologies,

Flowing together ...

Fourhands' Guitar, yes,

Any time, with time,

In time, ~ now & together ...

Into the warmth, and out, at Harbin, where ...

Improvisational, countercultural

{raga?} virtuosity, ~

With Bonobo life,

Finds home in

Harbin's warm waters,

On which golden

Fig leaves fall

In the autumn.

--
Scott MacLeod

http://scottmacleod.com/

World University and School
http://worlduniversityandschool.org/

*

See, too: 

Water ~ Into Warmth

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/11/water_11.html

*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Lake,_Ooty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche_Lake,_Ooty

Famous Lakes in Ooty
http://www.indiafamousfor.com/famous-lakes-in-ooty.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ooty

...

Cumulus clouds: Getting the word out about free university, Harbin ethnographic book, Visiting Harbin with Quaker Friends, Reaching out to young Friends in California, the US and around the world for planned free CC online university, Harmonic Convergence

Saturday

Hi Scott,

   Where are you and what are you up to?   Sure do miss you at Harbin.   All the best,  Barbara Christwitz

*

Hi Barbara!

Nice to get your email, and how are you and Bill?

Began publishing my Harbin book - http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html - on Valentine's Day, and am hoping to get a paper copy into my mother's hands by her birthday in Penna on April 2, and also create a new Academic Press at WUAS planned in all 7,097 languages in the process ... http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html ... a twofer in a sense ... 

Hoping to check in to Harbin again in the autumn for camping and soaking ... 

Just had WUaS monthly business this morning (seeking high school student applicants this autumn for free, MIT, CC online bachelor's degrees - taking around 36 courses). 

Am heading to Meeting in SF in the morning - with daylight savings' time!

What are you up to? 

All the best, 

Scott

*

Sunday

Dear Scott,

   Nice to connect.  I'm now on M & O for Quarter and wondered if you are still interested in getting the word out about free university.   Have you given presentations and if so,  how does a presentation look?    Shall we talk?   Barbara

*

Hi Barbara,

Thanks very much for your email, and great. I'm attaching my 

"Truth and Transformation: 

Growing the Religious Society of Friends

in many languages, and

with planned Ph.D.s & professional degrees" 

FAHE presentation - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/06/clouds-friends-association-for-higher.html - (see, too: http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/11/atolla-jellyfish-quaker-wuas-schools-in.html and http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/06/celestial-eye-goldfish-trip-to-portland.html) from June 2015 which I shared in Newberg, Oregon, at George Fox University, about Friendly-informed World University and School - a free university. If I were presenting this at Quarterly Meeting, for example, I'd develop it further in consultation with you. 

I'll call you in the next few days to talk further and perhaps after you've had a chance to look through this slide presentation, and possibly even with you editing it as you brainstorm this. It might be great to take such a presentation on the Quaker way and to make presentations at Yearly and Quarterly Meetings and Friendly gatherings around the world. You'll also find a video I made with Sherri M

WUaS F/friendly/Quaker Outreach for Friends General Conference, FAQs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTzo7MFhJqk

of SFFM as outreach a few years ago here on the WUaS main page - http://worlduniversityandschool.org.  

Although WUaS was invited again to give a presentation at FAHE in Woodbrooke Quaker Center in England this year in June, unfortunately WUaS won't be able to reach out to Young Friends in the British Isles due to lack of money, and WUaS is seeking its first applicants this autumn, to matriculate online in autumn 2017, as if applying to Haverford, Swarthmore, Guilford or Earlham colleges, or to MIT or Stanford, first in English. 

Greetings to Ed. 

Friendly cheers, Scott

* 

I just now skimmed through your power point which looks quite organized and inviting.   I want you to present an  interest group at College Park Quarterly Meeting at Ben Lomond Quaker Center, and hope that others agree with me.   Would you be available 13th, 14th, 15th if others would agree to your interest group?   That would be the first step to see about your availability.   Thanks,  Barbara

* 

Hi Barbara,

Yes, sounds good and I've noted the May 13,14,15 dates in my calendar, and also don't think I have anything else scheduled then otherwise. (But I may have to seek some financial support from SFFM for CPQM itself).  Looking forward to facilitating an interest group if this works out. 

Friendly regards, Scott

*

Great, Rose, and NTF planners, 

Glad to hear a Young Friends' NTF workshop was accepted recently at FGC, and re potential NTF out reach for free online CC (CC MIT OCW and CCYale OYC) university at Friendly-informed CC WUaS. 

Greetings from the WUaS hive meeting space at AFSC / San Francisco Friends Meeting. 

Friendly regards, 

Scott

https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch

*

Monday

Hi David, Rolene, John and Charles,

Nice to share Meeting with you yesterday, Rolene.

Very glad Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Charles Nelson, aka Eon, dean of Cyberspace, who may have been to Harbin in the 60s/70s just tweeted "harmonic convergence." Check out @_eon_'s Tweet: https://twitter.com/_eon_/status/709020394590756865 which I retweeted re the "harmonic convergence" photo in my upcoming book - Check out @scottmacleod's Tweet: https://twitter.com/scottmacleod/status/709419854437048320 .

Feels like way is further opening to press the publish button for my Harbin book in CS and perhaps re Ish, Harbin's founder.

Glad too Barbara Christwitz, in Lake County, whom I also know partly thanks to Harbin as well as Friends, and who's on M&O in the Quarter (College Park) just got back to me about helping to get the word out about free university re WUaS ... so very glad to read this.

In my Harbin book I write about how Barbara, Ed, her husband and I held Quaker Meeting in the Harbin Temple as it was being built in 2005.

Will call her back from the WUaS hive meeting space at SFFM/AFSC shortly.

Friendly regards,
Scott

*

...

Naked Harbin ~ New Website for 'Naked Harbin' Book ~ Promoting My Upcoming Ethnography ~ http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html ~

Naked Harbin ~ New Website for 'Naked Harbin' Book ~ Promoting My Upcoming Ethnography ~

http://www.scottmacleod.com/ActualVirtualHarbinBook.html ~

~

Blue-spotted ray: Clothing-optionalness, an English Garden and appeal, esp. vis-a-vis Harbin.org, and my actual / virtual Harbin ethnography, here ... http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com ... for 3+ draft chapters plus much more

http://www.rossum.com/philip10/1/52_600.jpg

Clothing-optionalness, an English Garden and appeal ...

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/world/europe/clothing-optional-days-add-to-english-gardens-appeal.xml ...


especially vis-a-vis Harbin Hot Springs in northern California ...

http://harbin.org ...


and my actual / virtual Harbin ethnography, here ...

http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com ...

for 3+ draft chapters plus much more ...






~~~

Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries, Thailand: Harbin Hot Springs' Temple, Building Green Houses and Dwellings at WUaS

New "Building Green Houses and Dwellings" wiki subject at WUaS -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Building_Green_Houses_and_Dwellings -

check out the INCREDIBLE creations of Sun Ray here,

who built the Harbin temple,

introduced by his daughter Kumara :)



*

Here are Sun Ray Kelley, the Builder's, WONDROUS creations -

Extreme Cribs - MTV Shows - Full Episodes

http://www.mtv.com/videos/extreme-cribs-ep-8/1670563/playlist.jhtml -

who made the Harbin Hot Springs' Temple -

many are in cobb & bale ...


have added to World Univ & Sch's new "Building Green Houses and Dwellings"' wiki, subject -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Building_Green_Houses_and_Dwellings -

also at WUaS's Subjects - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects

in the Skills' section :)











(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/10/thungyai-huai-kha-khaeng-wildlife.html - October 14, 2011)

Sphagnum Moss: The Harbin Temple – cobb and bale, or straw bale – wonderful roof … Pools are just up the hill

Harbin ethnography:


... As a Watsu School, and a place for workshops, the relatively small Dome complex is intimate and relaxed, facilitating the further creative development and teaching of Watsu (water shiatsu).

The cobb and bale Harbin Temple, or straw bale and mud hippie heyima, with a wonderful roof of spiraling, curved beams, lovely ocher, cosmic floor, and swervy walls, both outside and inside was built around 2005 in Mainside. There are often dances, musical happenings, and kirtan here, as well as three Harbin yoga classes a day. The pools are just up the hill, through the garden, and past Stonefront Lodge and the Gazebo. The Temple was built as a group effort, and Sunray facilitated much of the construction. The peak of the roof has a cupola, with a copper spire rising up to a crown of a golden orb with spikes on it, like a sun. There are two main entrances to it, and two rest rooms, near its front entrance. These rest rooms are particularly lovely in their own right, with curving walls, lovely views out the window, and great, funky design. The temple has a number of musical instruments in it, including a harmonium, and many pillows for sitting on, but no chairs. It has a number of wooden chests and cupboards that hold yoga props, and which can be sat on. About one quarter to one third of the temple is windowed from waist-level up, while the other two thirds has salmon-colored, swirvy walls, with occasional windows. Much of the temple has deep outside eaves, yet the temple is still open and light; the round skylight at the top allows in some of this light. The whole temple has great presence, feels like a native American sacred or ritual space, except that, as unique a structure as it is, it is made to code, and very modern in its ancient-lines and conceiving. It's central to Harbin's Mainside, just below the garden, and is one of the first structures you seeing when arriving at Harbin. In many ways, it's a hippy gem of vernacular architecture, which was well thought out, conceived of, designed, and constructed, partly by folks getting nude and throwing mud at the cobb structure a few times in 2005 (I was present at one such time). It's a masterpiece in a sense, and fascinating as a further artistic, symbolic and architectural expression of Harbin as place, and counterculture.

The Art Flowing-Walkway with Garden-area between Stonefront Lodge and the guest buildings called Azalea and Walnut, is another waterway-like, and curvy, example of Harbin architecture and design. ...


















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2011/03/sphagnum-moss-harbin-temple-cobb-and.html - March 16, 2011)

Wild Turkeys: The Harbin Temple builder, was in pools with friend, looking quite alive and happy to be there, Harbin's Temple is Amazing

I saw a lot of turkeys at Harbin today.


*

And Sunray, the Harbin Temple builder, was in pools with friend, looking quite alive and happy to be with her there in the water.

I don't think he visits Harbin very much these days.

He's a kind of old hippy, and looks somewhat wild.


*

The straw bale Harbin Temple is a masterpiece of ocher and swirls, beautiful handcrafted salmon colored mud walls full of water motion in relief, and an amazing roof.




*

In the Harbin Library, I found The Intentional Communities Directory, where Harbin is listed.
















(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2010/03/wild-turkeys-harbin-temple-builder-was.html - March 3, 2010)

Most Distant Space Objects: Turning Flips through the Air at the Harbin Dance, "Throw Down Your Heart," Why not sing with friends ... over the phone?

I visited Harbin yesterday and today ...



Here's an ongoing, occasional record, as ethnographic insight, into what happens at Harbin.



The weather in early December is so nice in California. We may have had only around 7 days of rain so far this fall. And the temperature is generally mild.

I went first to the pools. Alligator day had just ended. It's a regular draining and cleaning of the pools, which perhaps sometimes makes unexpecting guests feel like alligators. People in the remaining 2 feet of water or so, at its lowest, may also look like alligators, compared with when the water is high; people often look beautiful, nude, in the warm pool. People can soak in the heart-shaped pool on Alligator day, though, which is just a little cooler than the body temperature water of the warm pool. Alligator day can also be 'festive' - people chat with each other in the warm pool as the water is filling up, and the warm pool is a little less meditatively quiet than usual. I've occasionally seen large numbers of rubber duckies in the pools, as well as lots of kids in the warm pool, when the water is low, whereas kids aren't allowed in the warm pool when the water is high.

At the Tuesday night dance in the conference center, the music was great and very danceable. The space is harmonious, beautiful in a modern way with a lot of wood, and really well designed - especially for Harbin workshops and dances. I found myself turning flips through the air onto a large pile of pillows during the dance. The dances are mostly hippie boogies.

I'm amazed that Harbin in a way has institutionalized "the party," that they have created an adult playground, where kids, hippies and Bohemians of all kinds come to play. This thinking comes directly from counterculture and the 1960s. Harbin is very cool in 2009.

I wonder, too, how Harbin is performative in an anthropological sense. And while these are my ethnographic observations above, Harbin attracts a significant number of people these days, even in mid week in the winter; so variety and subjectivity of experience is diverse, and, as a whole, represents Harbin's 'culture,' - a pretty cool fabric of life. Writing or representing Harbin ethnographically might be complemented richly with an ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy approach, where many Harbin folks might represent it over years.


At 9, I went to see "Béla Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart," in the Harbin theater. In so doing I missed the Full Moon Ceremony in the warm pool. "Throw Down Your Heart" is an inspiring musical collaboration between a very fine banjo player (Béla Fleck), interested in African music, and musicians in a number of African villages in east Africa. The very inspirational Tanzanian musician Aniyo (sp?) seemed to have been personally transformed by music-making, in a very happy way. At one point after making music with Béla, Aniyo says "We are together," which is what music can do, and did for them in this film.

[THROW DOWN YOUR HEART, directed by Sascha Paladino, follows American banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck on his journey to Africa to explore the little known African roots of the banjo and record an album. Béla’s boundary-breaking musical adventure takes him to Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, and provides a glimpse of the beauty and complexity of Africa].

After waking, I went back to the pool area in the morning. In the pool area, I began re-reading Ish's book "Oneness in Living." It's Ishvara's (Harbin's founder in 1972) remarkable record of Harbin language and thinking, and the 1960s and 70s, the New Age, and much else. I'll return to it again soon. After soaking in the pools, I ate lunch by myself outside in the now-dormant garden, sitting on the ground near an apple tree, not far from Harbin's beautiful temple (built in 2005).

Harbin creates a harmony, and kinds of togetherness, that are very far-reaching, and which emerge significantly from life around the pools. Harbin reminds me of so much, but a little, here, of the Beatle's song "Come Together." I get 'there' {to 'coming together'} at Harbin. You can too.



**

Time to read Alan Watts closely. He wrote about some of the themes I explore in this blog, I'm realizing, during the 1960s.


***

Why not sing with friends ... over the phone, for example? Why isn't this a common practice?


****


This is far out:

Most distant objects seeable with the naked eye:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2008/brightest_grb.html












(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/12/most-distant-space-objects-turning.html - December 2, 2009)

Twister: Wild, Beautiful Love Poetry, 'Fabric of Life,' Opening to Loving Bliss

"Mama Mia" ~ Wild, beautiful, love poetry spoken by heart in the Harbin Temple yesterday evening by Dreaming-Bear {from his book "Wild Love: ~Kissed into Consciousness~" [http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Love-~Kissed-into-Consciousness~/dp/0595426131]}. Dreaming Bear is clear, and his poetry is opening. His oral recitation of his poetry is dreamy, even trippy. :) And the Harbin 'experience' is in this poetry, intimately so. His poetry is therapeutic, loving, visionary and more, ~ all in one.

people.tribe.net/dreaming-bear


*

Harbin's 'fabric of life' opens fascinating possibilities, ... and is mind-expanding in unusual ways ...


**

The Harbin waters come from about 4 miles underground. Is this Harbin Hot Springs as 'place,' in an ethnographic sense?


***

Opening to Harbin and finding loving bliss together can be ... What's the language which sings? ....


Harbin pools ... now

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.

Ocher Rose: Harbin Temple, Architecture, Masterpiece

The Harbin temple is so beautiful. It has 3 copper cones on top, with a brass sun orb at its point. The roof looks alive with many angles, has shingles of 2 colors of brown, a cupola with cone skylight on top, beneath the brass spires. The roof looks like a beautiful, old, straw hat, and from the inside the Temple's roof could be the work of a very fine shipbuilder, with arced beams. The cob finish work around the bathrooms in swirly, and much more richly so than art nouveau, and has a lot of beautiful stone inlays. Everybody put the cob (mud) on the bales (of hay) together, naked, in the spring of 2005 (I was around).

Inside, the floor has texture, but is also smooth, and redden, like red earth, and heated from below. The temple is like a Native American sacred space. It's modern and is comfortable, too. It's made for Harbin, so hippies are comfortable here. There's a harmonium and cushions for circles, gatherings, and Kirtan (chanting), and a sound system for dances, and nice, wooden furniture that holds yoga props. The inside roof sweeps up, all in wood.

The building is situated very beautifully toward the beginning of the Harbin Mainside area, adjacent to the Harbin garden. It expresses Harbin and yet is uniquely beautiful, and compared with the other Harbin buildings. Sun Ray designed it. The building has a harmonizing effect for me.

It's a mini-masterpiece.