Land of Beautiful Vision

2 Unplugging from the Grid

2 Unplugging from the Grid Approaching the Coromandel Peninsula from the west, the green and jagged mountain range makes a dramatic backdrop to Thames (population approx. 7,500), the gateway town for the peninsula, after the flat farmland of the Hauraki Plains (fig. 2.1). Alongside the road at the town’s northern end stand visible remains of Thames’ historical role in gold mining, with old equipment and the entrances to mineshafts on display. Traveling northwards up the coast, the Firth of Thames is on the left. On the right, beyond one row of houses, are the same hills, clothed in regenerating native forest, commonly referred to as ‘‘bush’’ in New Zealand. An easily missed side street serves a few houses and a camping ground before leading around a corner between two steep, overlapping spurs. Beyond a ford often barred by heavy rain, the narrow gravel road winds its way up the valley, passing the gated black hole of an old mineshaft in the clay of one roadside bluff and crossing the creek by way of several more crumbling concrete fords. After a kilometer or so, the valley widens out and vivid green, craggy peaks overlook the deep valley. Most of the land is steep, clothed in a mixture of native bush and invasive imported species such as gorse, broom, and wilding pines.1 Although the impression , especially during the warmer months, is of lush and primal greenery, most of the bush is regrowth. The most distinctive plant is the native tree fern, which is often one of the first native plants to establish itself in regenerating bush. From the head of the valley, a walking track runs up to the ridge tops, through dripping forest, with gaps in the trees providing occasional glimpses of the valley and peaks. Other tracks take walkers to the occasional waterfall or clear, cool bathing pool. Halfway up the valley, off to the right, a wooden sign, gateway, and fence demarcate the entrance to the Buddhist retreat center. A curved tree branch serves as a signboard that proclaims ‘‘SUDARSHANALOKA LAND OF BEAUTIFUL VISION.’’ Entering the gate, the access road dips down to cross the creek via a ford. Sudarshanaloka is on a wedge-shaped piece of land, straddling a large, steep-sided spur. Tararu Creek and the Ohio Stream mark two of the property’s boundaries; the upper boundary, adjoining Department of Conservation land, is less distinguishable , being situated at some point high in the bush. On hot summer days, people 38 • Unplugging from the Grid FIGURE 2.1. The North Island of New Zealand showing Sudarshanaloka , the Coromandel Peninsula, Auckland, Wellington, and Thames. from the region come up the valley and swim in the waterholes, and their shouts and laughter can sometimes be heard from the hillside of Sudarshanaloka. A flight of stone steps leads from the driveway up to the community house, past a rock garden and a painted horse skull attached to the trunk of a large macrocarpa tree.2 This leads to the community house. Weathered but colorful flags printed with Buddhist symbols flutter on a nearby pole. Directly behind the house, steps cut into a clay bank lead up the hill to the community shrine room, a simple wooden structure built not long after the purchase of the land, with windows providing a view of two vertical slices of the neighboring forested hills and rocky peaks. Beyond the shrine room is a small vegetable garden in a rough corrugatediron enclosure and a large water tank to supply the house. Nearby is another large storage shed, which was used as a shrine room for two public ordinations. At the Unplugging from the Grid • 39 FIGURE 2.2. Kauri log. (Photographed by S. McAra in 2000.) end of the flat section of the spur are three small huts (cabins) for community members and a path that rejoins the winding, unsealed road that we left to visit the community house. The road zigzags its way up the steep spur of land, at times passing yellow and red-ocher banks of clay that stand out like scars on the land against the scrubby regrowth, and through the cool shade of one or two older stands of mature native trees. From the last zigzag of the road the stūpa becomes fully visible, and when viewed from the final approach it sits against the backdrop of another bush-clad ridge, with the...