Fairfield 14: Poetry, a Reunion, and More

In the latter half of March 2017 I journeyed out to Fairfield, Iowa, with Belle and Alboart.

Belle on the left.

The pigs help keep me grounded after several hours of group meditation in the Golden Dome each day, on the campus of Maharishi University of Management (MUM). They approve of the plentiful vegetarian food, and remind me to partake often.

The place I had stayed last November was already booked when I enquired, so I stayed at the Men's Peace Palace for the first time.

Men's on the left, Women's on the right.

The ground floor has several meeting rooms and the upper floor has seven-ish guest rooms for rent. Mine looked out onto the back. The public spaces were adopting a new, less pastel color scheme. At first, colors were being tested.

Later on the new palette was taking hold.

Early in my visit I attended a poetry reading by Bill Graeser, Rustin Larson, and Glenn Watt. The event consisted of two rounds wherein each poet recited from their work for ten minutes.

Here's the setting in the MUM library.

Rustin Larson.

Glenn Watt, an avid birder.

But Bill's my main poet.

Thanks, guys!

Early in the visit I had a chat with Dr. Birx, the TM-Sidhi administrator. Any certified TM teacher can check your TM meditation, but only a handful of TM-Sidhi administrators exist. He wanted to follow up during my next visit, and I'm sure we'll have more to talk about.

I also reconnected with Tom Hall. Tom and Jill Murphy (later Hall) were the TM teachers in Knoxville, Tennessee when I was attending UT; Tom interviewed me and Jill was my TM instructor, and Jill taught the SCI (Science of Creative Intelligence) course when it first came out. Although I had bumped into Tom once or twice at MUM in the last couple of years -- he splits his time between Atlanta and Fairfield -- and learned that Jill had passed away, we hadn't had a chance to catch up.

Tom invited me to have dinner at his new condo in North Campus Village.

He was lucky, because there's a waiting list for these units, but a friend of Tom's who had made a deposit on one later decided not to purchase, and the developer was willing to transfer the sale to Tom.

He whipped up a Thai-style dinner while the NCAA basketball final was on the TV, and four of us, including his son Orion and a friend of Orion, sat down to eat and to chat. It gave Tom and me a chance to sketch in what had happened to us over the last thirty years or so. Afterward Orion took a photo.

Tom on the right.

I took two "day spa" treatments at the Raj. Before when I've booked at the Raj it's been for several days of the full panchakarma regimen, which includes pulse diagnosis and consultations with the director of the Ayurveda program, special meals, and extended daily treatments. I didn't feel ready to jump into all that again, and the "day spa" allowed me to simply book treatments, albeit from a restricted set, not from the whole panoply that the director might prescribe. I had two shirodara, oil on the forehead, very soothing. I fell asleep during the second one.

During the two weeks I toured the campus, its landmarks, and immediate environs, as well as shopped for a couple of friends back in Columbus.

The bridge over nothing was now complete: there were caps on the "interior" posts, which had been bare wood back in November.

A closeup.

The nearby bridge that actually spans Crow Creek now has wooden safety wings instead of yellow tape.

The removal of dead wood and replanting of the area along the creek made progress over the winter.

Looking towards the Dome.

By the end of my visit the banks of the creek had been completely cleared of deadwood. Future plans include appropriate species such as willow.

This view combines the Argiro Student Center and the miniature Vedic Observatory.

Closer to downtown an old house -- check out the stone foundation -- had been demolished (click on the image to enlarge). Who knows what I'll see on this lot next visit?

Several of Irene Murphy's paintings are on display at Everybody's Cafe, where I met her for lunch.

She likes flowers.

One afternoon I took a long walk along the reservoirs on the Jefferson County Loop Trail, not far from campus. Halfway on a flock of huge birds flew by, high enough to be in controlled airspace, first heading north and then northeast. The light was such that the maximum zoom photo was almost black and white to begin with, and I completed the job with the GIMP.

Does anyone recognize the silhouette?

This striking sunset framed the Men's Dome (the Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome).

At the Women's Dome (Bagambhrini Golden Dome) some drainage work (pipe replacement, apparently) was going on.

On a misty evening I experimented with photos. Here's the Men's Dome, viewed from the north. Note that the padlocked basement entrance is nonetheless well illuminated.

A look at the Women's Dome from the parking lot. It's backlit by the spotlights for the Invincibility Tower.

Then after two very restorative weeks it was time to head home again.

Fairfield 13: Sprucing Things Up

In November 2016 I embarked on yet another two-week visit to Fairfield, Iowa, and the campus of Maharishi University of Management (MUM), where I participated in extended group meditation sessions. It was also a chance to catch up with several friends.

My usual place to rent a room wasn't available, so I did some online searching and found a great alternative. Here are two panoramas which together take in the whole room. Note the separate sink/toilet nook and shower; the shower is entered from the room itself. It works!

Lots of light.

If you need more space, the adjacent living room and kitchen can be rented at additional cost. I just needed a place with the basics. 

The view from that front bay window.

My traveling companions, Pork Chop and George, loved the scene.

Looking back from the street. It was a delightfully quiet place to stay.

For several days I saw this praying mantis hanging around the gate in the fence.

It was a mild November, and getting up early to head to the Men's Dome, the Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome, I admired many sunrises.

At first I thought I faced an indirect route to reach the Men's Dome, but my host let me know that there were communal paths through the intervening neighborhood. (This playback has been accelerated by 2.8 times.)



Seven months had flown by since my March visit, and a lot had been going on, the results easily spotted.

Just in front of the Argiro Student Union a miniature Vedic Observatory had been constructed. These come in all sizes, from tabletop to 1½ acres in Vedic City.

Here's a view of the center structure. The innermost ring denotes the visible planets, plus the rising and descending nodes of the moon. (The moon's orbit around the earth is somewhat tilted with regard to the earth's orbit around the sun -- otherwise there would be a total eclipse of the sun every month!)

The second ring lists the signs, such as Capricorn, etc., and the third demarcates the 27 or 28 nakshatras, or lunar mansions, one for each day in the lunar month. Lunar mansions appear in many systems of astrology, although I'd never heard of them until recently and they do not seem to be emphasized.

The campus road leading to Argiro from the north now has so much pedestrian traffic that it's been blocked off to vehicles.

Within walking distance of my room the expansion of North Campus Village continued. There's a waiting list for the townhomes being built here.

What about goings-on downtown? Well, the sushi joint Shokai now occupies the corner that had been Mohan's.

Mohan Delights was in the process of moving into a south-facing storefront on the square. They will have a west-facing entrance from the alley.

There's now a donut shop in the renovated but closed movie theater, where the lobby and concessions had been.

Repair and facelifting appeared to be the order of the day.

All around the square, and adjacent to it.

Back on campus, the bridge over nothing in particular, which had been in such bad shape that it was blocked off in my last visit, was undergoing renovation. I had to check it each day to see what the elves had done next.

New posts and railing, but no finials, and the little seats at either end have no top.

 Now we have a top to sit on.

 Finials going up.

These globes date from the original bridge.

It is good to be able to see the bridge at night.

The nearby bridge over Crow Creek has warning tape along the flanks of the entrance. Dead brush and trees are being removed, and until new plantings are made, yellow tape mitigates the risk of someone stumbling over the edge.

Saplings of several species had already been installed around the Women's (Bagambhrini) Golden Dome.

The stairway from the north parking area to Argiro was also bustling.

Storm water flowing down the steep hillside was undercutting the poured-concrete stairs. Plastic barrier sheets were put in place and well-anchored with stones.

The interior of the student union held some surprises and revelations. This is a view of the lobby.

This student-initiative poster in the lobby surprised me. Twenty years ago, even fifteen years ago, MUM administration was rather strait-laced, but now the University is moving into the same era as its students. (Click on the image to enlarge.)

Some things, however, will never change. This is an example from the food services feedback board.

There was one more surprise.

I'll wrap up this report with some odds and ends.

An electric car charging station next to the Sustainable Living Center.

A campus electrical map showing the two points to disconnect the Men's Dome solar panels from the grid.

A pig in the garden. Yay!

Moon and clouds, taken from the entrance to the Men's Dome.

There, I got through the entire post without talking about a particular election that occurred while I was in Fairfield. (I voted by absentee ballot.)