Lots of Love and Healing Greetings!
Thank you for your interest in working at this year’s Buddhafield Festival in our beautiful HealingGarden.
We hope to be able to answer nearly all of your questions in the information below, but do be in touch if having read it, you still have a query. We’ll try to get back to you as soon as we’re available.
The dates for your diary are:
You need to be on site from Monday 10th to Monday 17th July to join our HealingGarden.
Firstly, to tell you what we need for you to be able to work with us;
Please be on time for these two Healing Garden community gatherings as otherwise everyone is kept boringly waiting…
We’d like to give you all the information you’re likely to need before we get to the field, so that we can all enjoy the festival.
Please read the following before contacting us with any enquiries. I know there’s loads of it, but most of your questions are answered. xx
If having read through the info, you still have a question, do feel free to ask us - healers@buddhafield.com We will get back to you as soon as we’re able - we appreciate your patience.
So....
MEDITATE upon it and ENJOY!
Please consider this before applying to join our HealingGarden, as we are very much operating from a generous heart - if people are able and choose to give more than the suggested donation, we all welcome it, but you as a therapist need to be willing to work for our suggested dana rate. Many people coming to the festival are working for "support" within Buddhist Right Livelihood organisations, so please be aware that most of the field might not be able to afford treatments in any other place - so let's give what we can and be open to receive. Some may not be able to afford the suggested dana rate, please be prepared to give what you are able to and discuss with your clients accordingly. Dana comes from a generous heart. At the end of the festival, Manth and the team will ask you for a donation, on behalf of Buddhafield. (details below)
* We ask that you bring your own work space; yurt, geodesic dome, bell or frame tent, etc and decorate with enchanting organic style and festival charm... Please bring plenty of plants to decorate our HealingGarden.
The more beautiful your structure, the more likely you are to be offered a 'top pitch', though final say is with Manth and the team - and of course the 'Health & Safety' and festival Layout crew. Preference for the best plots will go to structures such as yurts, tipis and geo-domes. We will then give preference to canvas structures and canvas tents, purely for eco-aesthetic reasons. Please note that in our mandala community, every space gives you the opportunity to create a top pitch: how appealing it is is up to you!
If you don’t have a structure but have been before, maybe now is a good time to invest in your working environment. Go on, value yourself and your work enough to consider it. Otherwise you will need to beg or borrow (but not steal) one!
Gazebos: Gazebos are not very practical structures to work in, unless everyday is blissful summer sunshine. Unfortunately, our weather has not always been heavenly, but often full of earthly elements. In past years when it got too wet and windy for anyone to want a treatment in a draughty, dripping space, the gazebo owners took themselves off to play. But then the wind got windier and Emma and Manth were left to rescue our precious friends from the flaying limbs of the multipeded gazebo beasts. If you have no other option, please make sure you bring plenty of strong rope and heavy duty pegs, as gazebos are prone to fly! And if it gets windy, you need to be around to rescue your own beasts or sadly we will be left with no option but to ban them. Gazeboists, it's up to you to take responsibility for your potential flaying limbs. Regrettably, if Gazebo's are left to the weather, we will be forced to say No More Gazebo's in the Healing Garden - you've been warned! x
So with this in mind, choose your structure accordingly. Beautiful, eco-friendly decoration may boost your chances - HealingGarden colours are Medicine Buddha Blue (the colour of Lapis Lazuli) and White (the colour containing all others and a symbol of purity). Flower tubs and baskets are wonderful. Prayer flags a plenty...
The other thing that may alter your pitch position is your arrival time, although we do spend many hours considerately mapping out our mandala prior to the event.
Arriving on Monday gives you time to arrive and enjoy setting up your space at your leisure. You then have the opportunity to get to know your neighbours, meet friends old and new and take advantage of the time for treatment swaps and many a herbal tea. This space to arrive and spend time in a supportive and natural environment is something that Buddhafield offers you, as a thank you for all your efforts. It is also an important time to come together as a community of like-minded individuals wanting to harmonise and make a difference to the well being of the people we meet and to all beings on our shared sacred earth.
Buddhafield also offers you the opportunity to join daily meditation sessions during your set up and tat-down time on site, should you wish to deepen your experience. No experience necessary - for more information, ask any of the team in the field.
We are collectively a healing mandala community...
so How would We like this to be...
* Aerial photo of the Healing Garden Mandala within the festival in 2011 *
Please consider the value of this when making your decision to join us.
In this same flavour of community spirit, please realise, it is very disruptive to those healers still working, and clients experiencing treatments, if others around them start packing up on Sunday; banging tent pegs, breaking the circle and leaving. If you have no choice but to go on Sunday, please know that we kindly ask everyone to stay until 8pm, packing up and leaving after the evening Garden Party and not to start quietly packing up until 5pm on Sunday at the earliest. We hope you will appreciate how your decisions affect our shared space and trust that you would want to honour your commitment in joining us. Ideally we ask that you stay until Monday 17th, packing at your leisure and leaving by the evening.
We have always run the open hearted HealingGarden on a dana/donation basis and we are very keen for this to continue. Since Manth and Emma took on coordinating and lightly holding our HealingGarden we offer a great donation each year. We used to offer a few hundred ££, but for the past few years we have consistently given £3,000. In 2019 we contributed £4,000. Let's see if we can be even more generous this year...
Only because of this, I am able to continually request the healers receive a complimentary ticket and vehicle pass, despite all other areas of the festival having restricted ticket allocations. For which we are grateful ~* Thank you kindly. *~ This means we can continue to have our beautiful HealingGarden generating generosity from an ever positive heart chakra. This would not happen without your continued support, generosity and wonderful good work!
A mighty Sadhu Thank You to those of you who have contributed. Let's see what we can add to the pot this year!
So, for Buddhafield to continue to be sustainable, we are suggesting that every therapist working in the HealingGarden offers a contribution of £150 - £200. Of this:-
£169 covers the cost of your ticket
£31/£62 allows your car/live-in vehicle to be carbon neutral (ie we plant trees on your behalf)
So dana of £200 would just cover your cost, if you would like to offer a donation to our charity beyond your expense, we would appreciatively welcome it : )
By joining our HealingGarden you are potentially able to earn £400-£800. Please know that we are asking to receive a suggested minimum donation of £150 from each individual therapist, for us to be sustainable, though we would ask you to consider covering your cost of £168 with the relevant vehicle rate if you value being carbon neutral (which of course you do... right?)
Buddhafield is a charity (Triratna Buddhafield, UK registered charity No. 1108826). To see how we spend your donation, visit the Buddhafield website for details of what we offer…. not to mention the ongoing kit repairs and replacements, vehicle upkeep, tech support, tea during the many meetings! supporting people with their Buddhist practice etc, etc...
(I’m still hoping one year we'll have that team trip to Tibet!)
We will have all your documents and applications in by the end of May.
We will process all the applications in June.
We hope to have invitations starting to be sent out around the last week of June/first week of July.
If there is a clear reason your application will be refused, we will let you know as soon as possible.
We usually have many more applicants than we have Invitations for. Consequently some may not be offered a place despite nothing being wrong with their application. With some it is simply the luck of the draw. Successful applicants will be sent further information and an Invitation.
Without all the required documents, you will not make it onto our Invite list.
Please know that you need an Invitation to come and join our HealingGarden.
*** Do not expect to hear from us until early July ***
We do understand the timing of things is difficult, but we are unlikely to let you know any sooner than this. If we can send the Invitations out sooner, we will. Be assured we are doing our best on your behalf. We always have more applications than spaces/invitations available.
Remember, the more dharmic, varied, positive and creatively enticing your offerings, the more likely you are to be prioritised... bringing lots of small trees and big herbs always wins our hearts.
We very much look forward to hearing from you.
Warm wishes of good health, happiness and sunshine!
the HealingGarden (admin) team xXx
LATEST NEWS
All Buddhafield events are free from recreational drugs and alcohol
We don’t wish to judge people’s views on this — and hope it won’t put you off applying. If this would be a new way of experiencing a festival for you then why not give it a try?
However, please bear in mind that if you choose to apply to work with us and are accepted, then we expect this policy to be respected.