Cow Dung and It’s Many Wonderful Properties September 27, 2007

So I just saw this stunning movie on Peter Proctor, present day pioneer of Biodynamic Farming Methods and the work he tirelessly performs worldwide but presently with a focus on Mama India. The movie is called How to Save the World:One Man, One Cow, One Planet and is highly recommended. I’d heard of Biodynamic Farming prior to seeing the film but never realized what an integration of metaphysics and spirituality it involved. The most phenomenal aspect of this method of restoration of the earth’s depleted soils is that it is based upon the use of the sacred cow dung, believed to have curative and spiritual powers throughout India and other parts of the planet. With cow dung, a compost is created that when worked into soil in a particular ritualistic way, creates certain energies that serve in healing the soil undergoing the process. It’s interesting to observe New Zealand farmer, Peter Proctor teaching the people of India a process for healing their highly denatured soil that appeals to their cultural practice of revering and respecting the power of the cow. And biodynamic farming isn’t the only practice that purports powerful healing coming from the dung of the cow. Google Videos aren’t embedding but you can check the trailer out on there.For More Info on this.

I initially got turned on to the power of cow dung by some people in Atlanta Georgia that were heavily involved in the practice of Agnihotra. Agnihotra is a Vedic yajna and involves the burning of cow dung and ghee butter in an inverted copper pyramid at dusk and dawn precisely, while chanting Vedic mantras. Properly performed, this ritual according to the Vedic tradition, brings about enormous healing and purification of the environment. The Agnihotra is a powerful yajna that in my experience brings about a deep sense of peace. This 5 minute process feels like coming out of an hour of meditation. It’s a grounding practices and assists in uncovering the real Self, hidden underneath all of the mental chatter. The fact that the dung of the cow is such an important part of this process is really significant given the way this culture brutalizes and tortures these sacred creatures. Yet the manure of this animal can bring about so much good upon the planet. Interesting…

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Hawaiian Paradise Eco Community Living September 23, 2007

Peace to all of you from the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii. Bienvinidos, Welcome!!! With this blog we want to focus on issues surrounding sustainability and the building of alternative and ecologically based communities. This is a space to build on ways to increase our passion and knowledge for living more naturally and harmoniously with our beautiful mother Earth. New eco-friendly inventions, methods of organic gardening, alternative building techniques, biodynamic farming, eco village formation in the US and abroad, wwoofing and other interesting topics in sustainability will be dealt with here…

Over the last few years, I’ve been gaining increased interest in ways to live closer to nature and outside of the mainstream urbanized mindset. I find myself dipping in and out of cities, floating between bricks and mortar to occasional respites in pristine locales across the globe. The dream is simple though: Find a way to live in communities that are based on loving, living and healing the planet while still benefiting from all her abundance.

On Kauai my 2 year old and I got the chance to experience staying on different farms and living off grid. We stayed on land with transient hippy types interested in living communally in gorgeous natural environments. We lived on 5 acres of pristine, lush land with almost every tropical fruit tree you could imagine, sacred plant vines, veggie gardens and plenty of space to set up camp. The property was encircled by an astonishing, thick keiki bamboo forest with a cool, fresh water creek perfect for summer after noon dips. It was while living in this community that we became first exposed to what it means to live in an eco-village type of setting.

Everyone lived in their own tents, natural built structures or even under tarps in throughout the land and within the bamboo forest. Unlike a lot of work exchange situations you find on the Hawaiian islands and abroad, we lived without rigid rules for our stay there. Everyone just kind of did what they did to maintain the gardens,trees and the common spaces. There were no laid out ‘hours’ of work that had to be fulfilled. And because of this everyone did what they were inspired to do to insure that the land continued to flourish, without following the route of a lot of eco communities and becoming cultish.We were all able to maintain our autonomy while still coming together harmoniously with other like minds in service of the land of the beautiful Island of Kauai, Mama Earth, and ourselves. It was a model for community living that worked. Though it was just a small slice in time in which we lived this way, before the owner came back from the mainland and cleared the place, it still gave me inspiration for the future of living in community.