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Welcome to Quarry Hill's Blog!

Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, VT, founded 1946 by Barbara and Irving Fiske, is Vermont's oldest alternative community and at one time was probably also its largest. In the 60s -80s, as many as 90 people lived here.
It was and is visited each year, often in summer (but in every season, really) by visitors from all over the world.
We welcome interesting and creative people who are peaceful, bring no weapons, don't believe in hitting children or killing animals, and enjoy the beauty of Vermont and of themselves.

Most of us do not adhere to any particular dogma or religion, though many do find Eastern philosophy closest to our own thought (some of us are also members of the Quakers/Society of Friends).
We value the individual, particularly people who are energetic and have a sense of humor.
Visitors are welcome-- and prospective residents, too. There are some places for rent, others for sale. If interested, get in touch!
And, please follow the Blog and comment whenever you like!

"The symbol is the enemy of the reality, and the reality is ever one's true guide, true friend, true companion, and true self." Irving Fiske, 1908-1990

Monday, July 4, 2011

Check out "Beginner's Mind" on Facebook

It's a blog about Buddhism, and there is something very warm and open and loving about it so far. Also they have read "Tibetan YOga and Secret Wisdom" (WY Evans-Wentz)-- one of Irving's favorite books, and not nearly so widely read in those times as ANY book on Buddhism is today (I mean the early-mid-late Sixties, but he may have read it before that). He spoke often of this book, and I have his copy by my bed. I used to do a meditation each night as I went to sleep (in those days I could sleep!!) visualizing Vajra-Dakini, a fierce goddess of Wisdom (a kind of Kali of Tibet) with a necklace of skulls and so on-- visualize her and then visualize myself as her, dissolving upwards from her feet to the top of her head and the "HUM" above her...and it would dissolve away into nothingness and I would sleep. I didn't sleep much better then. But then I began to have fascinating out of body experiences during this period... and a feeling of immense power and energy. I began to get a bit worried by it because Joya was so little then. What if I could not get back into my body when I needed to because she needed me? (We were sleeping alone in a van in the Ocala National Forest at the time, though with people all around us; I would write at night as J. slept while the whipporwills called from the moonlit trees, and the shadows of the sand pines cast gently moving images on the pools of sand lit by the moon. I wrote by a (kerosene?) lamp by my bed. Hard to believe now... Radiant wisdom, joy and peace were with me. So was Joya, who is now in South Africa on her Great Mission (and I hope that she is also having fun and meeting people). It is the Fourth of July. Happy and free, may all beings be happy and free...

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