Profile information
Host rating
65 %
Feedback
-
Email verified
Details
Description
About Phil:
I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in Phoenix Arizona in a family of visual artists. My parents studied fine arts and graphic design and met at Columbia University in New York in the 1940s. They moved to Phoenix in the mid-50s and developed a home-based studio and commercial art business as graphic designers—long before such modes of livelihood were common. I developed an abiding love of the visual arts and the creative from an early age. I met many artistic and unconventional people involved in the local art scene in Arizona through my parent’s network of friends and colleagues over the years. I was pretty much continuously in drawing, sculpting, ceramics, and painting classes of all sorts from an early age.
I have been a student of Buddhism, and of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, since 1977. I have a deep respect for Trungpa Rinpoche’s understanding of our lives as Westerners, of his appreciation of the dharma, and his mastery of the visual arts among other things. Rinpoche taught continuously in the 17 years he was in North America before his death in 1987. I attended many of his seminars, and the series referred to as Dharma Art, later Visual Dharma, in the late 1970s and early 80s, which I feel were groundbreaking. More of those, and other teachings may be explored for those interested in doing a little internet research. There are many of his published teachings available in print.
For over thirty years I taught a wide variety of courses in the Dharma, in the lineage of Trungpa Rinpoche. I have led meditation programs in the US, Canada, Europe and at the Shambhala International Seminary at Shambhala Mountain Center. I served as a core faculty member of the Ngedon School of Higher Learning, as well as its Administrative Director, and as adjunct faculty in the Religious Studies Department of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. I worked for over 10 years as a Buddhist chaplain in the state and federal prison systems, counseling and providing Dharma teaching and meditation instruction to Buddhist inmates.
I completed the traditional Tibetan three-year meditation retreat at Sopa Choling, Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia in 2003. There I had the opportunity to practice meditation intensively and to study and practice the art of torma making in some depth. I established a torma business, at the encouragement of some dharma friends, in 2003 upon completing the retreat.
In this, the latter part of my life, I continue to be impressed, perplexed, and inspired by the life example of my teacher, the Mahasiddha Trungpa Rinpoche—decades after his death. In communicating his deep understanding of the Buddhadharma to Western students like me his actions and communications were brilliant, outrageous, selfless, unsettling. It’s what we needed. Some people who have come later critiquing the man’s behavior condemn him, asking, “Why was he like that? What was with him?” Good question. It is my hope that many of us who knew Rinpoche may find ways to express his, and our, brilliance. For the benefit of all.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Workawayers here will not only get the experience of living on the western side of the Front Range in beautiful Boulder, CO, where 14,000 ft mountain climbs and pristine wildness is within a couple hour drive--but they will also be able to enjoy all that living in Boulder has to offer.
At Phil's place workwayers will get to spend their time working and learning in a little tranquil but burgeoning Shangra-la nook, away from the busyness of the surrounding cities. They will have the opportunity for creatively collaborating with Phil and others who will be co-creating the garden space. They will learn how to design and maintain small scale agricultural operations. They will get to learn about gravity fed, soil moisture regulated irrigation systems. They will have the opportunity to learn specifically about growing Goji Berry and Artemisia and if they have interest they can potentially learn more about the medicinal properties and preparations of both.
Help
Phil has a piece of land just shy of an acre that he has been garden-scaping since he bought the property in 2016. When he moved there, the previous owners had only planted several fruit trees, but most of the yard was empty of any real horticultural vision. Since then he set out with a long term vision of turning the land into a residential food forest. In 2018 Phil began to work with an herbalist, growing several species of Goji Berry, Artemisia and several other medicinal Chinese herbs. He has also been working with a friend who has an irrigation company in Boulder, who has been suppling the expanding gardens with innovative, efficient and exquisitely designed water systems.
Phil would love to have Workawayers help him continue to inspire, build out and tend to the organically evolving garden space that is now producing lots of food and herbs. And is becoming too much work
To give you general list of specific tasks/projects to help with:
Finishing a chicken coop
Caring for the chickens
Trellises for the Goji trees
Expanding irrigation network to new beds
Weeding
Harvesting
Creating value added goods
Potential for small community/neighborhood CSA development
Small engine repair
Tool repair and maintenance
Lawn Mowing
Pruning
Seed starting
Planting
Watering
Mulching
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Accommodation
small bedroom, two twin beds
What else ...
Hiking
Music
Food
Creeks
Climbing
Camping
Denver
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
How many Workawayers can stay?
One
Hours expected
Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week
