Spirituality

If you’ve been in Crestone for a while chances are you have visited Little Shepherd in the Hills Episcopal church. It’s just north of Crestone Town Hall on Alder Street. The old log cabin at the back of the property is the chapel where worship services are conducted twice a month. The well-used fellowship hall is on the north and the beautiful community garden is on the south side of the churchyard. Volunteers help Ginny Ducale with the community garden, which grows more productive each summer. Much of the produce goes to the Crestone Food Bank. Volunteers usually prepare a...

In the August Crestone Eagle we reported that the initial ritual asking the permission of the dieties of the land to build a stupa honoring Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche had taken place. We can now report the next steps taken beginning October 7, the first day of the 9th lunar month. The task of leveling the site began.  From the picture two things are clear:  the site for the stupa is small and the amount of earth to be moved is large.  Ben Brack used his small orange Kubota, a perfect size for this delicate task.  Monitoring the process of leveling,...

In 2006, Dr Jim Oschman, a research pioneer of Energy Medicine, gave a  presentation in Crestone, at Shumei Institute, in which he introduced Dr Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory, which identifies a Social Engagement System in the human-mammalian autonomic nervous system. Jim shared a slide show from a conference he participated in, which he called the Copenhagen Interpretation on Autism. This was my first introduction to The Social Engagement System. www.StephenPorges.com Fortunately for me, I became a protegé of Stanley Rosenberg, a 26-year research associate of Porges and author of Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagal Nerve. He passed...

It only took Lama B. Alan Wallace two days to decide that he wanted to purchase the Nada Carmelite Hermitage after a visit last spring. As founder of the Center for Contemplative Research (CCR), Lama Alan had been looking to establish a new retreat center that would accommodate dedicated contemplatives committed to long-term retreat (months to years). With 110 acres of quiet, mountainous landscape, and eleven move-in ready retreat cabins, a chapel, and a community building, the property perfectly matched Lama Alan’s vision. CCR completed the property purchase by July 2020, and the center was given the name granted...

A curious person reads, observes, talks with people and ponders. A curious filmmaker does all these things in the process of making films. That’s how filmmaker Sean Owen is attempting to satisfy his curiosity about a subject that began piquing his interest a few years ago: the community of spiritual centers in the Crestone/Baca. The 69-year-old Durango resident is currently about halfway through filming a documentary with the working title, The Flame. The feature-length film is aimed at addressing some of his questions about the religious and spiritual groups based here—how each group keeps the flame of its own tradition...