
I spent the weekend (16-18th April 2021) on a meditation retreat held at a beautiful old homestead in Strathalbyn, about an hour’s drive from Adelaide. I’ve done several retreats over the last ten years or so, including a ten day Vipassana retreat in Battambang, Cambodia, and various 2-5 day retreats in South Australia. This one was run by Anna Markey, of Coast and City Sangha, at Glenbarr homestead. I met Anna before Covid when she and Ken Golding ran a climate change themed retreat in Victor Harbor. I liked her approach and sporadically attended her sessions in Adelaide until Covid forced a halt. Her approach is unlike others I’ve experienced, in that she does not recommend trying to avoid or ignore your thoughts during meditation — rather, she espouses recollective awareness, whereby you allow your thoughts to occur, and briefly journal them at the end of the meditation. In this way, over time, you become aware of your predominant patterns of thinking. The weekend was mostly spent in silence (apart from dharma related discussions), and without any electronic distractions. There were multiple meditations each day, mostly forty-five minutes long plus a short journaling session after each meditation.
I haven’t been writing much since the start of Covid, so this period of quiet isolation was an opportunity to get back to poetry of some kind, however basic. As part of my post meditation journaling I wrote a haiku-like (not all strictly haiku format) poem related to either the meditation or the discussion.
Glenbarr Homestead was built in 1842. It has a huge personality of its own, and is home to a range of very active wildlife. On the first evening, for instance, a bat came into the meditation hall and swooped over our heads for several minutes before being enticed outside by turning all the lights off except for an external lamp. A huge flock of correllas made regular flights over the property, and there were numerous unidentified animals to be heard running around and over the roof.
Meditation One:
what is the sound
of one bat flapping?
The Heritage Wall:
Its sounds are impervious
to our passing thoughts
Meditation Three:
The roof is alive
to the sound of footsteps
Even your own mug
can teach you a life lesson
about attachment
A meat-eater’s tee-shirt:
how can a vegan respond
in a skilful way?
Need a more Buddhist
response to the barking dog
than “Shut the Fuck Up”
Scott Morrison’s path
is less of The Middle Way
more The Muddle Way
Sounds of the Sangha
Throat clearing, yawns and snoring
test my compassion
He was too far out
all his life, not sleeping
but meditating
The discussion group
wanders off the eightfold path,
falls over a cliff
St. Leonard Cohen
let me burn the fuel
of my agitation
May I witness the
causes and conditions
of my grumpiness
Each chattering thought
is like a corella’s squawk
saying “Look at me”

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Copyright Mike Hopkins 2021
love to see you back again, Mike; the meditation retreat is attractive; read your haiku through a few times now; not all work but there’s three or four stand-out ones! really enjoyed reading this 🙂
Love the haiku. Think the last is my favourite
Enjoyed that.
Like Julie, my favourite was:
Each chattering thought
is like a corella’s squawk
saying “Look at me”
But
The discussion group
wanders off the eightfold path,
falls over a cliff
made me laugh.
Wonderful, Mike. Great photos, great words!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. Where have you posted photos? Facebook?