For the past five years the members of Diamond Way Perth have participated in a Spring retreat for a long weekend of sharing, meditating and enjoying each others company away from the usual distractions of our everyday lives. We usually choose a beach-side venue. For the past few years we have hired two houses at Yanchep, a small beach resort an hour drive north of Perth. This has worked well using one house for meditation and the other for eating and socializing. The costs of accommodation and meals were shared between the participants.
This year we decided on something a little different. Ruedi & Vivienne Etter live on a 2 hectare property a half hour from the city in a semi-rural area. This is their home amidst thousands of roses. They own and run the Swiss Rose Garden Nursery from their property. The Etters generously offered to host the retreat over a long weekend starting on Thursday night through until Sunday afternoon. It was possible to sleep in one of the 4 bedrooms available or to bring your own tent or caravan. All who attended found a comfortable place to sleep.
The meditation room in the house accommodated 10 to 12 people quite easily and a large open plan living room could be used for prostrations. As this area was also the living room we had to be considerate with its use. The Centre decided that the cost to attend the retreat would be $50 and that we would donate the money to the More EC fundraising.
The retreat started Thursday night with Viv & Ruedi, Shannon, Marcello, Kevin and his children Isabella and Tim, Lynn and her son Drew. The kids were happy to watch DVDs on the computer and the adults began the retreat with Diamond Mind meditation. It was a small but cosy start.
Friday saw the arrival of Toni & Dave Tenni with son Bodhi and their fold-out caravan was easily set up. Lynn erected her new tent on the lawn and we also put up a fly-proof gazebo on the lawn for those wishing to meditate or do prostrations outside. Marly also arrived for the weekend and Franz came for the day.
We had sessions arranged as follows:
7.30-8.30am prostrations and own practice
10am-12noon own practice
Lunch
2.30-5.00pm own practice
7.00 pm 16th Karmapa meditation together
On Friday night we showed the More EC campaign video and had a discussion about the Europe Centre and ways we could help. On Saturday night we invited old and new friends to come for a BBQ and to revisit the history of Diamond Way in Perth. Twenty-two members and friends came for the evening. Stewart Jarvis gave an interesting presentation on the history of the Diamond Way Centre in Perth. Stewart and his former wife Shona were instrumental in inviting Lama Ole to Perth in 1995 and in setting up the Centre from the beginning. Other members brought along photos and articles from the early days to share. It was a very pleasant evening with a few funny highlights, in particular, Leo the dog destroying his cushion which filled the living room with white fluff and was announced by young Luca “… as something terrible is happening!!!” whilst we were meditating on the 16th Karmapa.
Graham’s double-decker bus marked the occasion and was a pretty amazing sight parked in the nursery car park.
