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Artful Awareness Nature Hike

When
12 May 2012
9:00 AM
Location
Nelson County
Spaces left
5

Registration

Artful Awareness Nature Hike

Registration is closed

Saturday May 12, 2012

Gather at 9:00 AM, Nelson County.

We start at 9:15.

There is a long tradition of being mindful out in nature, and a strong connection between mindful awareness and creativity. Put these together and you have a springtime silent hike with breaks for sitting meditation and time to write or draw, prompted by what moves you or using, if you like, the hike leader’s suggestions for ways to pay attention and create several pieces of writing (drafts) or sketches.

The hike will take place on a private property about 45 minutes drive from Charlottesville in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. At the start of the hike the ridge that includes Humpback Rocks will be before you. The Rockfish River will be visible to one side. Directions will be provided to registrants.

We will walk in silence around the wilderness areas of the property, and take breaks for writing, drawing, silent meditation, and one longer lunch break/closing circle, for a total of 4 to 4 ½ hrs. Actual Hiking time is about 2 ¼ hr, and sitting/writing/sharing the rest of the time. Three sections of the route are steep but very brief (5 min or less). The rest of the path is “moderate,” and involves some walking that is not on an established trail.

Bring: Water, sunscreen, snacks and lunch, a small pad for writing or drawing, and pen, colored or regular pencils, charcoals, tools of your choosing. Participants have found it fun to both write and draw, no matter their background, and colored pencils have proved a good tool. Also bring a 3-foot length of string, ribbon, anything flexible.

Wear layers of clothing. If it could be windy or rainy, a light rain jacket can help – and provide something to sit on. Or bring a garbage bag or something else to sit on the ground, as in some places there are poky nut husks, or it could be damp. Rest stops will be outdoors. A small quantity of folded TP for the ladies can be helpful if you don’t like using leaves, and a bag to pack it out.

Hike Leader: Amelia Williams has a PhD in English Lit from UVa, and has been walking outside with pen and notebook since she was small. She has hiked in many US National Parks and wants to get to all 58 someday. She has begun to get her poems published here and there. She has been practicing insight meditation and mindfulness since 2003.
Carpooling from Charlottesville would be ideal. Plan to arrive no later than 9 AM. It is usually a 45 min drive. Amelia will e-mail a full set of directions to registrants. A phone number will be provided for hikers to check in should rain be in the forecast. We would probably walk in light drizzle, but a heavy rain will prompt a rain-date.

Artful Awareness
A few quotations to consider:

I’m often tempted to say Mindfulness is Poetry and Poetry is Mindfulness. Still, that’s not quite true. Mindfulnessundefinedthat quality of acute attention to the Now, to precisely and specifically to what one is seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, thinking, feeling right Now,--is at once a technique, a purpose and a result of Poetry. It is contained within but not the main stress of types of poems such as narrative, dramatic and epic. It is, however, the main stress of lyric and meditative poetry, our century’s hugely dominant types.

Poetry is a way of revealing the strangeness in the ordinary and the ordinary in the strange. For this, Mindfulness or acute attention is necessary.

From Dick Allen’s “Knock on the Sky and Listen to the Sound: On Zen Buddhism & Poetry” in Rattle Winter 2011 Tribute to Buddhist Poets

Tips for observing the moment in mindfulness meditation:

Meditating is watching and waiting patiently with awareness and understanding. Meditation is not trying to experience something you have read about or heard about.
When meditating, both the body and mind should be comfortable.
You are not trying to make things turn out the way you want them to happen. You are trying to know what is happening as it is.
You have to accept and watch both good and bad experiences. You want only good experiences? You don’t want even the tiniest unpleasant experience? Is this reasonable? Is this the way of the dhamma?
Don’t feel disturbed by the thinking mind. You are not practicing to prevent thinking, but rather to recognize and acknowledge thinking whenever it arises.
The object of attention is not really important: the observing mind that is working to be aware is of real importance. If the observing is done with the right attitude, any object is the right object.
Just pay attention to the present moment. Don’t get lost in thoughts about the past. Don’t get carried away by thoughts about the future.

From “Don’t Look Down on the Defilements: They Will Laugh at You,” by Ashin Tejaniya in Tricycle Summer 2008.