One of the
precious aspects of living a Portuguese rural life, is the opportunity, away
from the noise and energy of city life, to allow for more contemplation. I’m
not sure it is simply just having more time to think. It’s more to do with being
in this stone terraced valley, in the midst of wilderness. The place itself
somehow invites contemplation. “
A Simplified Life” by Verena Schiller first introduced
me to the notion of a place being liminal.
The view
from our windows is always forest.
Green, dancing in the wind, pine tree forest. Remote or desert places,
as many hermits like Verena and others will attest, often provide a fascinating
mirror to the human condition. The power of planet earth to create, constantly,
and provide habitats for creatures to thrive and die, is a continual reminder
that we as humans, are part and parcel of the whole. Part of the natural
universe that we see with our eyes, and in some way, part of the other
dimensional realities we don't so readily see.
Many
concepts exist in the plethora of human cultures that attempt to describe or
illustrate this otherness. Spirit world. Heaven. The stream we enter through
meditation. Consciousness. The list is
long. It fascinates me to consider the
possibility that an actual physical place and the space it holds, can be a
threshold ‘between’ these worlds.
Liminality
was first introduced to the vernacular in 1909 by the anthropologist Arnold van
Gennep as a way of explaining the threshold moment that occurs in the middle of
a cultural rite of passage. And neurological psychologists use the word to depict the
metaphysical subjective state, conscious or otherwise, of being on the
threshold of, or between, two different existential planes.
As we begin
our new yoga retreat season for 2012, it will be interesting to observe how our
guests from all over the globe will once again interact with this liminal valley
at Moses. As we invite our bodies in yoga to relax a little more, the quieting
of our minds may just allow a glimpse of an altogether different perception of
the place we are in.
I am so looking forward to it.
liminal adj.
1. of or pertaining to a limen, especially a sensory threshold.
2. marginally perceptible
limen n.
a threshold, especially the point where a psychological or physiological effect begins to occur
Peace and all good things
Memphis
Ola, gorgeous Vonetta. Vonetta is the Senhoria of Vale de Moses, a retreat center in the Portuguese mountains. She read some of my posts from the past years about yoga and gardening (the season of which is upon us! Hurrah!) and emailed me about some upcoming yoga and gardening in Paradise (I mean, Portugal) retreats she has coming up. After some email correspondence, I decided I didn't want to keep her all to myself, so (without further ado, or further parenthesis), I introduce something very exciting....
