February 2005
Newsletter
Yesterday, walking on the mountain, Rocky discovered the carcass of a mountain reedbuck, the head still in tact, but otherwise just the skeleton remaining - picked clean! Nearby we found the shed skin of a puff adder and further on a scattering of wild gladiolus were flowering in the veld. The excellent rains in December and January have brought abundance to the bushveld, the grasses are standing tall and are heavy with seed. We have seen brown hyena spoor and droppings during the summer and often hear jackals calling in the early evening…While nature has continued with her cycles, we have been engaged in a cycle of intensive building activity. The new Meditation Hall was completed and we had a big crowd of around 80 people come out to Emoyeni for the opening ceremony on the 24 October. A moving dedication ceremony was conducted by two Buddhist monks, Geshe Phende from the Lam Rim Buddhist Centre in Johannesburg and Aloka Bhikkhu from the Burmese Monastery in Pietermaritzburg. The opening of the Meditation Hall is an important milestone for Emoyeni, and has provided a much needed focal space for our practice. It has also given us the opportunity to name it after the much loved meditation teacher, Godwin Samararatne, who inspired so many of us during his visits to South Africa in the 1980's and 90's.
Building work has continued. We have nearly completed the Activity Hall. Just ceilings, floors, electrics and a few other odds and ends, and we'll be set to use the new facility for talks, art work, tai chi, yoga, chi kung & other workshops. This will free up the lounge area in the main house to become the Centre's dining room - though on a beautiful day some of us might still choose to sit on the stoep or under the trees to eat. We've begun landscaping around the Meditation Hall and in front of the main house, and planted some pecan nut, citrus and avocado trees in the new orchard area.
There is still plenty to do, but also lots to enjoy as we create and inhabit these new spaces.
The resident community at Emoyeni has seen some changes of late. After a stay of 10 months, Griselda returned to Johannesburg at the beginning of January. We wish her well in the big city. Paul Edwards, who spent the last ten years in England, joined the community late in January, as did Helga Halvorson, from Johannesburg, who will be doing a work/study retreat at Emoyeni for the next three months. We are very much enjoying their energy and contribution to the running of Emoyeni.
Emoyeni has recently received the generous donation of a high-speed laser printer for use at the Retreat Centre. A big thank you to MKDP for this gift.
Another project that we are undertaking, together with Beate and John Walsh, is to produce a book of teachings given by Godwin Samararatne, the meditation teacher from Sri Lanka after whom we have named our meditation hall. We will be using material from talks he gave in South Africa and abroad, and it is our wish that the book be available for free distribution. If you would like to support this project either financially or by helping to transcribe some of the talks, please contact Mervyn at Emoyeni.
Mervyn