digitaldeities

new DOMAINS DIAGRAM

click on diagram to see it larger

helpful CV guidlines + Digital Mantras Book

Today I got an email form my CV contact... she says this:
you need to integrate what Parsons needs from you with what Samuel will
need in order for the project to be useful for the school.  It seemed that
having a list of what he would need as part of the end project would let
you be clear and then give you the space to play with what you do about
the process of it.

Samuel put together this list, noting that he reserves the right to add
bits later.

Mandala project
- list the 10 to 30 most traditional Hindu mandalas
- find books and literary references that discuss them (ie put together a
detailed bibliography, ideally with comments about every book, ie saying
exactly what's offered in the book)
- find the mathematical method to construct the mandalas: ie proportion
ratios, etc.
- possibly draw the mandalas, one way or another. SVG format (inkscape)

Guess it can be easier + more simple than sometimes I make it.
It helps to hear/have a list from him.  It is very doable. 

It is the foundation knowledge that I can build upon for my own art/ new media projects.

Zach Lieberman recommended this book.. I ordered a used copy on thursday.. it is on its way.. looks apropos.

        
Digital Mantras: The Language of Abstract and Virtual Worlds by Steven R. Holtzman

From Library Journal
Holtzman, who holds a doctorate in computer science, provides a highly stimulating discussion of the integration of music, art, and language with recent trends in computer technology. He traces the evolution of formal abstract structures as they exist in the music of Schoenberg and Boulez, the art of Kandinsky, and the language grammars of Chomsky. Since computers have the capability to manipulate structures, the author contends that we have reached new frontiers of unexplored artistic creativity; he foresees new worlds of creative expression-that is, "virtual worlds." This text wisely addresses the issues of dissonance in electronic music and human emotion and understanding in the creative process. Holtzman's journey into "virtual reality," sprinkled with a touch of Indian mysticism, is a totally intelligible, enjoyable venture. Recommended.  Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago

other readers at amazon say this:
If you are a musician, artist, linquists, or work with computers and you have ever wondered why you think the way you think, definitely read this book. It will open your eyes and broaden your horizons immensely. Caution: if you are looking for "how to" information, technical details, or references to the latest/greatest equipment, it's not what this book is about.

This beautifully written book offers interesting sections into the history of algorithmic thinking in the arts, and builds a concept of the computer use in art thereon, embedded in a context of indian mythology. It is the best book combining music and visual arts in this respect that I have read so far and its concepts will certainly and hopefully be quite influential on the producers of new media work.

monday list

list 5 -10 community of practice forums (magazines, websites, galleries, blogs, conferences) that you can contribute to over the course of the semester:

SPIRIT

www.clairvision.org - a school of meditation - rather than trying to offer a little knowledge to a lot of people, the school's focus is to give meditation training at a high level.

Rubin Museum of Art: Art of the Himalayas - dedicated to the art of the Himalayas and surrounding regions

Tibet House U.S. a non-profit organization devoted to the preservation of Tibetan culture.

ART

eyebeam.org

ARS Electronica Ars Electronica - an interface of art, technology and society.

rhizome.org - Rhizome - An online resource for people who are interested in new media art, the intersection of new technologies and contemporary art.

New Museum :: NewMuseum.org exhibits new work by American and international artists, with an emphasis on innovation in a variety of media.

BENTLEY PROJECTS bentley projects Phoenix, AZ unique downtown gallery specializing in contemporary art.

The Sun Magazine | Personal. Political. Provocative. Ad-free. The Sun is an independent, ad-free monthly magazine that for more than thirty years has used words and photographs to invoke splendor and heart

Seed : Science is Culture We create and distribute original Science is Culture content that communicates science's fast-changing place in our culture to an international audience.

SCIENCE

American Museum of Natural History - one of the world's preeminent institutions for scientific research and education

CAS: California Academy of  Sciences Home a four-story rainforest,  an aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum all under one living roof!

Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)  - www.asci.org a network for artists who either use or are inspired by science and technology

www.nature.com -Nature - the world's best science and medicine ... international weekly journal of science.

sacred geometry brief

This is the brief I just wrote about my new direction.

Carrie Mae Kreyche
Sacred Geometry // the essence of perfection in visual form
Colleen Macklin & Chris Prentice
September 21, 2008

I am now returning to the subject of sacred geometry that has been historically drawn into mandalas and yantras symbols from the Hindu and Vedic traditions of India.  Re-igniting a social interest and helping bring a re-newed curiosity of the role and importance of sacred geometry is now my current thesis goal.  The rich history and tradition of creating symbols and visualizations has and is continuing to occur all the time.  To fully understand how the mathematics work and where the structure of perfection lies, is my first task.
    Switching gears in the middle of the first month feels a bit unnerving, mostly because I had begun to build momentum and enthusiasm for the Nectar Project ideas, interviews and protoypes.  These next few weeks will take a little time to re-orient myself and find new points of interest that are exciting in this project.  I feel honored because the main teacher from my meditation school, Samuel Sagan, has given me the opportunity to collaborate with him on this project idea.  The Clairvision School of Meditation (www.clairvision.org) will use the research, materials and images that I create through out this year.  One goal would be to find the top 10/20 mandalas and yantras used in the Hindu tradition and really reflect on the source of these images, some of which are thousands of years old.  Why where these images created and why are they so special?  What makes them perfect and why are they said to be sacred and hold the names of gods, deities and primordial powers?  What opportunities are offered through reflecting upon them in meditation.
    The CV (Clairvision School) has a virtual platform for a segment of its students around the world, which we call the Virtual School.  The VS will be my main user group along with doing general surveys with the public and other people along the way.  There are currently around 350 - 400 VS members and many people make postings daily.  It is a forum where people ask questions, gather support, listen to lectures and read material that support individual course work students are pursuing through the school.  There is also internal messaging where members can write to each other and discuss a range of topics such as world trends, technology advances, scientific discoveries, silly youtube video favorites and transformational quotes.   In the coming weeks, an email will be sent out to gather feedback on some of this projects explorations.
    This week was mostly about gathering secondary research so enough is known to ask informed questions about this new topic.  I feel it is necessary to lay a new foundation for this project so it is strong enough to succeed.   The first website I found this week by googling ‘mathematics of the Sri Yantra’ was http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~mikel/sriyantra (which I posted about a few days ago.)  This website says this about mathematics and the ‘higher imagination’ that was available to ancient cultures in Eygpt, India, Greece and elsewhere. 

The mathematical interest in the sriyantra lies in the construction of
the central nine triangles, which is a more difficult problem than
might first appear. A line here may have three, four, five or six
intersections with other lines. The problem is to construct a
sriyantra in which all the intersections are correct and the
vertices's of the largest triangles fall on the circumference of the
enclosing circle. We shall not go into the details of how the Indians
may have achieved accurate constructions of increasingly complex
versions of the sriyantra, including spherical ones with spherical
triangles. Bolton and Macleod (1977) offer a simple overview of the
subject; Kulaichev (1984) goes into the 'higher' mathematics implicit in constructing different types of sriyantra.

There is, however, a curious fact about all the correctly constructed
sriyantras, whether enclosed in circles or in squares. In all such
cases the base angle of the largest triangles is about 51°. The
monument that comes to mind when this angle is mentioned is the Great
Pyramid at Gizeh in Egypt, built around 2600 bc. It is without doubt
the most massive building ever to have been erected, having at least
twice the volume and thirty times the mass of the Empire State
Building in New York, and built from individual stones weighing up to
70 tonnes each. The slope of the face to the base (or the angle of
inclination) of the Great Pyramid is 51°50'35.
...
Many of the accurate constructions of sriyantras in India are very
old. Some are even more complicated than the one shown. There are
those that consist of spherical triangles for which the constructor,
to achlieve perfect intersections and vertices falling on the
circumference of the circle enclosing the triangles, would require
knowledge of 'higher mathematics whidh the medieval and ancient Indian
mathematicians did not possess' (Kulaichev, 1984, p. 292). Kulaidhev
goes on to suggest that the achievement of such geometrical constructs
in Indian mathematics may indicate 'the existence of unknown cultural
and historical altenatives to mathematical knowledge, e.g. the highly
developed tradition of special imagination'.

    From the bibliography on this website, I went to Bobst NYU library and check out these three books: The Crest of the Peacock by George Joseph, The Art of Tantra by Philip Rawson, and Tantra Art its Philosophy & Physics by Ajit Mookerjee.  This direction is going to stretch the higher parts of my brain in a new and challenging way.  To revisit mathematical concepts is to see the order of the universe in a whole new way!  The language and vocabulary of mathematics is new and something that I will have to study diligently to be able to grasp and speak about it for my next round of presentations. 
    I researched the history of Pi a little bit after reading this quote above and reading some of this first book The Crest of the Peacock.  An expert who I will interview in the coming week or two will be a Eugene Lange Assistant Professor of Natural Sciences and Mathematics named Jennifer Wilson who has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University.   The website profile says this about her:
I am interested in a broad range of mathematics with a particular focus on the visual tools and metaphors used to convey mathematical meaning, and on applications of mathematics to political and economic systems.  As a teacher, my goal is to provide opportunities for students both to learn new mathematical ideas and to develop an understanding of what it means to do mathematics.  My classes span many areas, from mathematical modeling in the physical and social sciences to introductions to the abstract fields of analysis, geometry and algebra.
Courses Taught:
    * Quantitative Reasoning
    * Statistics
    * Ethno-mathematics
    * Mathematics and Images
    * Infinity
    * Elections, Choices and Decisions
http://www.newschool.edu/bachelorsprogram/faculty.aspx?id=1702
Office Location:
Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts
65 West 11th Street, Room 061
New York, NY  10011
Phone Number/Extension:
212-229-5100 x2242
Email:  WilsonJ@newschool.edu

Research Interests:
Social Choice Theory; Visual Representation of Mathematics.
Current Courses:
Ethnomathematics
Math Models in Nature
Statistics with SPSS

Math Models in Nature
This course combines aspects of quantitative reasoning and mathematical modeling. Quantitative reasoning is the ability to make sense of the numbers that surround us: to find patterns, to estimate, and to create mathematical models that help us make informed decisions. In this course students focus particularly on the role of difference equations to describe complex natural phenomena. Using computers as computational and graphical aids they develop the basic algebraic, computational, graphical, and statistical skills necessary to understand these models, and learn why difference equations are the primary tools in the emerging theories of chaos and complexity.

Ethnomathematics
Ethnomathematics is a new field that bridges the gap between mathematics and anthropology. It explores the role of mathematics in diverse cultures, seeking to widen our view of what mathematics is, its history, and how it is practiced. In this class we will compare differing concepts of time, space, and relationships, as well as examine traditions of religious practice, building and design, and game-playing. Many of these activities can be understood through the mathematical field of group theory, a surprisingly simple but rich area of study linking such diverse ideas as symmetry patterns, matriarchal lines and cyclic concepts of time.

    This semester I am also interning at PIIM – Parsons Institute for Informational Mapping.  I am working on a project to re-organize a database of Taxonomy for Informative Representation.  This intern will go hand in hand with the work of my new thesis direction about mandalas.  This is a quote from the overview paper William Bevington, The Founder of PIIM, wrote regarding his research:

When creating knowledge tools, be they single documents or
significant engineering undertakings, our ultimate aim is to build a
framework of “informative context” concerning the available data.
Despite the overwhelming percentage of scientific processing to
achieve this, the final transference of insight occurs at the aesthetic
level. If an effective visual context can be constructed, the user can
build patterns of knowledge and make predictions. From these
informative patterns, inferences concerning information that one
does not have become possible. This permits “knowledge surfacing,”
whereby useful intelligence becomes apparent through an effective
visual interface — and this is what we mean by information map-
ping.

new opportunity // new direction

On Monday evening I had a quick skype chat with Samuel Sagan (my main teacher from Clairvision Meditation School - Clairvision.org) and he asked me if I
would like to do my thesis project as a giving for the school and
research the top 10-20 Hindu yantras.. to find the perfect
mathematical proportions of them.. to reflect on the source of this
sacred geometry and then to recreate them.  He said it would be good
for my process and helpful for the school as many people could use
them.  WOW.

You are the first person I am sharing about it with... as I am a
little stunned.. with gratitude and excitement.  My aspirations were
answered.  He asked me to think about it and get back to him.. as this
is a serious commitment and he does not have much spare to time to
only go halfway with such a project.  I can feel how much supermind is
involved to deeply understand, calculate and create (digital) images..
and it is so much more than that!  A BIG step away from the etheric
pleasures of the nectar, birds and bees.

I will do it, of course.  I just now have to re-arrange things inside
and organize my school projects around my research and explorations.
This was what I was hoping for at the beginning of the summer before I
went to lynnskill... remember our vision space about mandalas...  well
now I have the opportunity to dive deep deep deep with my favorite
teacher alive :o)
 

I already found this site .. I googled mathematics of the sri yantra
.. holy smokes :o)

http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~mikel/sriyantra/
The mathematical interest in the sriyantra lies in the construction of
the central nine triangles, which is a more difficult problem than
might first appear. A line here may have three, four, five or six
intersections with other lines. The problem is to construct a
sriyantra in which all the intersections are correct and the
vertices's of the largest triangles fall on the circumference of the
enclosing circle. We shall not go into the details of how the Indians
may have achieved accurate constructions of increasingly complex
versions of the sriyantra, including spherical ones with spherical
triangles. Bolton and Macleod (1977) offer a simple overview of the
subject; Kulaichev (1984) goes into the 'higher' mathematics implicit
in constructing different types of sriyantra.

There is, however, a curious fact about all the correctly constructed
sriyantras, whether enclosed in circles or in squares. In all such
cases the base angle of the largest triangles is about 51°. The
monument that comes to mind when this angle is mentioned is the Great
Pyramid at Gizeh in Egypt, built around 2600 bc. It is without doubt
the most massive building ever to have been erected, having at least
twice the volume and thirty times the mass of the Empire State
Building in New York, and built from individual stones weighing up to
70 tonnes each. The slope of the face to the base (or the angle of
inclination) of the Great Pyramid is 51°50'35.
...
Many of the accurate constructions of sriyantras in India are very
old. Some are even more complicated than the one shown. There are
those that consist of spherical triangles for which the constructor,
to achlieve perfect intersections and vertices falling on the
circumference of the circle enclosing the triangles, would require
knowledge of 'higher mathematics whidh the medieval and ancient Indian
mathematicians did not possess' (Kulaichev, 1984, p. 292). Kulaidhev
goes on to suggest that the achievement of such geometrical constructs
in Indian mathematics may indicate 'the existence of unknown cultural
and historical altenatives to mathematical knowledge, e.g. the highly
developed tradition of special imagination'.

and this site too.........................................................

http://www.sriyantraresearch.com/

Bibliography               

       

Papers:

      

      

• Gérard           Huet. Sri Yantra Geometry. Theoretical Computer Science 281 (2002)           pp. 609--628
            How model the Sri Yantra using a set of equations.
           
• C.S. Rao           - SriYantra: A study of spherical and plane forms (1998)
            Comprehensive study of the Sri Yantra and it's           many variations (flat, pyramidal, and spherical)
           
• Alexey           Kulaichev - Sriyantra: The ancient instrument to control the psycho physiological           state of man (1987)
            Study of the effects on the mind when staring at the Sri Yantra
         
• Alexey           Kulaichev - Sriyantra and its mathematical properties (1984)
            Good paper on the geometry of the           Sri Yantra.
• Alexey           Kulaichev - Addition
            Various methods for drawing the Sri Yantra.
           
• Patrick           Flanagan - How to draw a Sri Yantra
            A very precise method to draw the           Sri Yantra.
• Bill           Witherspoon - Art as Technology
            Great paper on the observed effects of the Sri Yantra on the environment,           animals, and people.
• Marcus           Schmieke - The most powerful Vastu tools to balance spatial energies.
            Yantras as a means of correction           to balance the spatial energy in a house.

      

       

Books:

      

      

• Madhu Khanna - Yantra: The           tantric symbol of cosmic unity.
            Nice pictures of old Sri Yantras, some of them can be found in the picture           galleries.
• Philip Rawson - The Art of Tantra.
            Nice pictures of old Sri Yantras, some of them can be found in the picture           galleries.
• Dan A. Davidson - Shape Power
            A treatise on how form converts Universal           aether into electromagnetic and gravitic forces.
• Howard Beckman- Mantras, Yantras           & Fabulous Gems
• T.A. Gopinatha Rao - Elements of           Hindu Iconography. Vol. I - part II, second edition 1971.
            Picture and drawings of a Sri Yantra from the Sringeri Temple.
• Dr. P.H. Pott - Yoga and Yantra
            The Hague, Nijhoff, 1966. Translated           from the origninal published in 1946.
• György Doczi - The Power of           Limits
            Proportional harmonies in nature, art,           and architecture. Excellent book on the Golden ratio.
• Patrick Flanagan - Pyramid Power: The Millenium Science
• Peter Pearce  - Structure in Nature Is a Strategy for Design
            This fully-illustrated investigation of the polygon as the basic building block of nature proposes that when it is adapted to environmental structure this form will result in configurations that are naturally space and energy efficient.

 

the original AVATAR

After I made the last post from the CV website, I kept reading and I thought this was a cool definition and worthy of a post.

Avatar

---

In Sanskrit, the word avatara literally means 'descent'. Avatar is the modern pronunciation of the same word.

In Sanskrit literature, an avatar is the incarnation of a god in a human body – a god's descent into the world of mortals. Thus Krishna and Rama were avatars of Vishnu. In 20th-century India, people such as Mother or Satya Sai Baba have been regarded as avatars: Mother, an avatar of the Universal Mother, Satya Sai Baba an avatar of Shiva.

Interestingly, the word avatar has found a new career in the jargon of virtual reality, where it stands for a virtual body used to move through a virtual world (such as a virtual-reality representation of a town, for instance). This use of the word is perfectly in keeping with its Sanskrit origin: your avatar is a 'descent' of yourself into the virtual world. And if your avatar is destroyed, who cares? You will use another one next time.

In this happy linguistic encounter, the IT use of the term is perfectly consistent with the original Sanskrit meaning.

---

clarity

I am currently attending a 9 day Clairvision meditation course here at Lynnskill in Bovina, NY with 45 other students from around the world.  Today is day 6 and it is really full-on - many hours of meditation on the atom and ISIS (8:30 am - 10 pm with 1.5 hours for meals).  There has not been much time to post here .. lots of involution.   I am gaining valuable clarity that supports and inspires everything about my life. 

Involution

---

A 'turning inside' of consciousness.

Consciousness letting go of the senses and internalising itself, turning towards its source and cognising itself.

Moving inwards into more and more subtle realms of consciousness.

Main points and mechanisms

• The opposite of involution is exvolution.
• Just as a glove can be turned inside out, so consciousness is turned outside in through involution. However, it would be more accurate to say that consciousness is turned inside out through exvolution, and that involution brings it back to its original state.
• Hence the key direction: consciousness knows itself through involution.
• The atom effect is one particular type involution, where the experience is that of being drawn inside into a point, and yet emerging into vaster and vaster spaces of consciousness.
• In emanation, the movement is opposite to that of involution.

Origin of the term

One of the most essential terms that came out of the Clairvision mapping.

---

ISIS

---

Inner Space Interactive Sourcing. One of the principal interactive technique of the Clairvision work, ISIS is used for a whole range of applications from regression and past-life therapy to various processes of self-exploration, mapping consciousness, subtle bodybuilding and inner alchemy.

Main points and mechanisms

• First developed in the early 1980's by Samuel Sagan, the ISIS technique has now been taught to hundreds of students at the Clairvision School and is used by practitioners in various countries around the world.
• The Inner Space of ISIS is the same as the purple space experienced during the third eye meditation.

---

Atom

---

A point in which consciousness can internalise itself, thereby accessing higher realms.

The Clairvision use of 'atom' is consistent with its Greek etymology: a-tomos, 'un-cuttable', something that cannot be divided, the finest possible particle. Experientially, an atom is infinitely subtle, without width or height.

Main mechanisms

• In the Clairvision work term 'the atom' (without other qualification) usually refers to the atom in the middle of the tunnel of the third eye, in the centre of the head.
• There is also an atom in the heart (that is, in the heart centre) and in other centres of energy.
• The atoms are located at the very centre of the body, and are part of the thunderwand.
• The atoms are fields of involution.

Origin of the term

Indian masters of kriya and kundalini-yoga.

---

these are definitions from:

A Language to Map Consciousness

by Samuel Sagan, M.D.

Clairvision_® School

www.clairvision.org         info@clairvision.org

OLDTIME syncronicities

Last Thursday evening Samuel Sagan gave a short talk about destiny and people told their stories about syncronicities and events that have unfolded to direct individuals on a certain (or uncertain) path.

I have a simple story to share here about a recent line-up of events that I feel affirms my being here at Lynnskill this summer.

Before I was born, my mother and 4 friends bought 100 acres of land in West Virgina. They built a log cabin and decided to live a rather communal/alternative life style, having a group marriage and calling themselves the Spooner Family. One of the men, Warren, still lives on the land in WV today. He has a big heart, cries easily, plays the banjo, has an abundant garden each year and makes batches of home-brew beer with silly names like God's Love.  He has always loved and supported me in my life.

My mother and I left the commune when I was 15 months old. In the summer of 2001, I return to WV to re-connect to my roots and my biological father, David who lives near-by. I stayed with Warren for a few weeks that summer, on the land were I was conceived and born. We keep in touch via email these last few years.

In April, he sent me an email and told me he would be spending some time up-state New York this summer. I asked where he was going ... he said Bovina Center! I said - HEY, ME TOO! He said his sister lives right next to a meditation center. Warren's sister lives right next to Lynnskill! It is the closest house to the North of Lynnskill, less than 1 mile away. See map below.

This afternoon I went up to his sister's place and said hello to Warren and got a big hug! They have a very dominating rooster named Ricky, which has a reputation around Lynnskill for chasing people if they walk by their home on Scutt Mountain Road.

The United States is a big place and to have a friend, from before I was born, living right next to Lynnskill feels special to me. It helps me feel I am exactly where I am meant to be this summer.

 

 

Heaven on Main Street + Bovina Center Angel

Yesterday I went to Heaven.  A super cute coffee shop that is only open Sat/Sun from 9-2 in Bovina Center, NY.  Two young, well visioned NYC folks decided this is Heaven and opened up a weekend place for locals and visitors to gather and congregate.  This is tiny tiny town has no stop light and 1 general store with 1 gas pump!  It is surrounded my rolling green farm land and picturesque red barns.  Clairvision Meditation School, where I am currently living, is located about 2 miles from Bovina Center and consequently Heaven.

I then stopped at the general store on by way back home and rifled through a stack of cards.  I saw this one and I could not resist making the $2 purchase.  It is a home-made pen and ink drawing with a button glued to the front.  I found it to be exactly what I need to not intimidate me on this prototyping and creative process I am in this week.   This little angel card sits beside me while I work here at my desk.

Lynnskill - 1

I decided to spend most of my summer at Lynnskill in the Catskills of New York - June 20 thru Aug 28.  If you google it you will see that it is a piece of property about 3 1/2 hours north of NYC and owned by Clairvision, a school of meditation.  It is also currently for sale.  I could go on and on and describe what type of meditation it is but you can go the Clairvision website and see it all there if you are interested ... clairvision.org

I arrived here June 20 and I will leave around the last week of August to return to NYC to complete my 2nd and final year of grad school at Parsons.  This blog here is dedicated to my thesis process and project.  Luckily I have been passionate about the same things for many years and so it is not difficult to find a focus, but narrowing it down to a specific project has not happened yet.   

One of the things that sparks my enthusiasm is art made to honor the sacred things in the world.  This is highly subjective and very open to interpretation.  I have found great comfort and resonance with circle and mandalas.. among many other things.  I love rich deep colors and luxurious textures and symmetry and cleanliness -in a visual and energetic way.  I like modern things and technology that answers provoking questions.  Where is humanity headed and what will happen in the near future ... nanotechnology, biotechnology and artificial intelligence?

Years ago, I worked at Pier 1 and they said that each person that walked through the door was one of 4 styles - classical, country, eclectic and modern.  I am not sure how I feel about all of humanity being boxed into only 4 categorizes - but I choose the title of a mix between modern and eclectic.  But since I am spending the summer in a place that cares most about inner landscapes and puts very little importance on externals, I am trying to find my focus that feels right.  A thesis project that aligns my values, interests and aesthetics. 

I have gone through a few different phases in my shortish creative career ... the 8 years I have been calling myself an artist.  I am attempting to document them here in this blog - circles, wings, agaves, and wearables/ dresses and a love of monkeys and meditation.

one month of meditation in Nepal

I am currently living (for the summer) at Clairvision Meditation School in Upstate NY ..near the tiny town of Bovina Center.  I have been looking online at a Meditation Center in Nepal.  If I do travel abroad with a Fulbright Grant in 2009/2010 then I already have a running list of ideas I can participate in and places to visit. 

KOPAN MONASTERY, KATHMANDU, NEPAL

               

Kopan Monastery
                  P.O. Box 817
                  Kathmandu, Nepal

               

Phone: 977 - 1 - 4821 268
                  Fax: 977 - 1 - 4820 267
                  Email: kopan@mail.com.np

 www.kopan-monastery.com

The monastery and the nunnery are under the spiritual guidance of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and the care of the abbot, Khen Rinpoche Geshe Lhundrup Rigsel. And it is the wellspring of the FPMT, a network of some 140 centers and activities world-wide, themselves expressions of the Buddha activity of Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

From the very beginning, Kopan was conceived by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche as a place of study and meditation for both the Himalayan sangha and for their many foreign students. In preserving this tradition to this day, Kopan has become a unique place, a meeting place between East and West, between religious and worldly life.

             

I found out about this Monastery in Nepal from this website: www.satchitanand.co.za/kopan_monastary.htm 

The writer says this about his retreat experience at Kopan:
Kopan is a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery in       Nepal. It is large and impressive, with about 200 resident monks, who       graciously share their monastery with the many Western students who come       here to study Tibetan Buddhism.

The Tibetan landscape is harsh and barren, so Tibetan       culture and religion make up for this. Temples are incredibly ornate, with       ceilings and walls hand painted with rich and detailed deities and images       depicting different aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. Large Thanka (sacred art)       paintings hang from the ceiling, and enormous gold Buddha statues gaze       serenely down upon you, making you feel small and humble, yet uplifted by       their purity, beauty and serenity.

Even with the demanding schedule, lack       of privacy, lack of food and lack of sleep, when it ended, you didn’t want       it to end! The lamas are light, radiant, joyful beings. They have purified       themselves of the gross negative afflictions, and their energy is spacious       and free. It is a blessing to be in the company of such beings as their       energy uplifts and inspires you.