i am magazine #eleven special edition 2013

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I AM MAGAZINE #ELEVEN SPECIAL EDITION 2013

www.iammagazine.com.au

##ELEVEN

OUT NOW!

EDITOR & PUBLISHER: SamanthaEdwards

I-AM Magazine Pty Ltd www.iammagazine.com.au

www.iamfreemagazine.wordpress.com

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& EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS: [email protected]

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ED’S NOTE


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Wow! What an issue Eleven turned out to be. With over 500 readers already flicking the I AM pages each issue, we are motivated and in-spired to bring you even more.

This Special Edition of I AM was created to give you - the reader - extra opportunity to dis-cover ideas on living your ultimate I AM. Put-ting the issue together was an incredibly in-tense experience for some of us involved.

With a weekend shared at a Silence Retreat to a photo shoot laced in “what-ifs” that almost did not come together. As you will see from the fashion spread, it evolved into one of the most beautiful stories we’ve shot. A story of re-birth and the veils that can unfortunately develop through the childhood of a girl. Yet, with a little courage and womanly strength they can be removed and set free for good.

Placed throughout the pages are also snapshots of local folk living their I AM. Whether it’s their business that brings them joy, or a job they perform at a local shop or cafe, we noticed their smile and asked the question. They agreed. Find their happy local smiles gracing the I AM pages that follow. I really hope you enjoy the I AM #Eleven Special Edition. We did it for you. Sam X

IN THIS ISSUE 07 THE GYPSIES ARE COMING 08 FREEDOM WRITERS 13 MORE THAN FASHION 16 REBIRTH & THE VEIL 25 MERCY HUT PROJECT 26 THE EXPECTATION OF SILENCE

PLUS LOTS OF LOCAL SMILING FACES...


LOCAL FACES


Beautiful new market in Cronulla featuring the best local designer talent.

The call for quality Australian design in the Sutherland Shire will finally be answered on Sunday 25 August 2013 when Sydney’s best-loved designers set up shop in the commercial heart of Cro-nulla at Gypsyheart Market’s launch event.

Gypsyheart’s stallholders are popular Australian designers and ar-tisans who sell women’s and children’s fashion, accessories, home-wares and soy candles. They travel together all over New South Wales, enchanting customers with their unique, beautiful and af-fordable wares. As businesses, they complement each other; as designers, they are united by the common goal of delivering locally designed and crafted goods to their adoring customers. To their fans’ delight, the launch market will proudly host Summerblossom, Erin Louise, Bliss Candles, Amber Gaye, Bambi Run, I’m A Princess and One Honney.

Gypsyheart will also host busking musicians who will donate their time and talent to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis New South Wales. Cystic Fibrosis New South Wales has a vision of people living lives unaffected by Cystic Fibrosis, and Gypsyheart is thrilled to be supporting their fantastic work improving quality of life and fund-ing research.

Gypsyheart is not just a fashion market. Gypsyheart is a commu-nity event that seeks to bring both locals and people from the greater Sydney area together for a fantastic day out in Cronulla that shows off the real Shire. Gypsyheart is excited to partner with local businesses to give market shoppers the best that the Mall has to offer. Behind the bleach blonde media myth of recent years, the real Shire has a heart of gold. It has great entertainment and great people who are brewing award-winning coffee, cooking incredible food and creating beautiful clothes, accessories, home-wares, music and art for their adoring customers. Come and see the real thing – wander with the Gypsyhearts this month. www.facebook.com/gypsyheartmarket

PRESS RELEASE


LOCAL FACES


ST GEORGE & SUTHERLAND SHIRE AMNESTY

What we’re taking action on this month:

Academic & Entity Mohammed Ali Taheri has been a Spiritual Mas-ter for 3 decades, he also now resides in a critical condition due to his confinement within the walls of the IRGC intelligence. He has been accused, detained, arrested and jailed on numerous but baseless counts without the right and possibility of consulting a lawyer. He has therefore had his right to a fair trial removed, along with any contact with his loved ones.

Right now Master Taheri is being kept in ward 2-A of IRGC intelli-gence and has been reported as “critically” ill due to an ongoing hunger strike. The hunger strike is in protest against the sabo-tages of interrogators and pressure on his family, including threats on their wellbeing.

Master Taheri has been sentenced to 5 years & 74 lashes for “insulting sanctities” by practicing alternative medicine and en-couraging wisdom through the awareness of consciousness. The concern that led the local St George & Sutherland Shire Am-nesty Group to explore this case and take urgent action, is due to the possibility of Master Tahiri being executed at any given mo-ment. He has been mentally tortured with numerous fake execu-tions and it could be only a matter of days before his actual execu-tion takes place.

We need to let President Hassan Rouhani know the world is watching.

Take action and request freedom for Mr Taheri. Send your letters to: Mr. President Hassan Rouhani, Presidential building, Pasteur Square, Tehran, Iran.

https://www.facebook.com/sutherland.shire.amnesty


www.facebook.com/sutherland.shire.amnesty

PROTECTING

HUMAN RIGHTS

WORLDWIDE

FREEDOM WRITERS Letter writing morning tea

Sunday 25th August 2013 @ 11am ENGADINE UNITING CHURCH

Your words can bring freedom. They can deliver justice. Most im-portantly, they can offer hope, and let human rights defenders know that they are not alone.

So please add your words and support on behalf of those at risk of human rights abuses. Come join Amnesty International members to write letters on behalf of Individuals at Risk. Write one or write ten! Everyone is welcome.

In the words of Eynulla Fatullayev, a former Azerbaijani prisoner of conscience, “I am extremely grateful to Amnesty Interna-tional, who have campaigned since the beginning. In my opinion you saved me.”

RSVP email [email protected] or join the event through the St George & Sutherland Shire Amnesty Facebook Page.


mailto:[email protected]



LOCAL FACES


PHOTO COURTESY SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Mochila bags may be the latest Vogue trend, but their story has been around for centuries.

Have you ever thought what story the product you hold in your about-to-purchase hand has to tell, if any? How was it created and by whom? As a great deal of the items we buy are manufactured overseas, it’s nice to know that some products were gifted with a story by their individual maker that has travelled generations. ‘Mochila’ in South America means ‘bag’. Thinking about the correct definition of the two words together ‘Mochila Bag’, does not make these colourful woven accessories appear that interesting. It’s not until you get into the history of the bag and the story within its weave that you get to truly appreciate the uniqueness of this item.

Handwoven by the Wyauu people, who have lived along the South American coast for centuries, each Mochila bag is injected with a story by the woman who holds it passionately in her lap. The bags are woven to represent stories such as ‘The path of love’ and ‘The coming of age’. One Mochila bag can take from three to four weeks to complete and is a technique that has been handed down from mother to daughter for generations. Each piece has its very own unique character and carries the signature of the individual person who gave her time to the creation of this object of art.

Recently capturing the lens of high fashion magazines like Vogue, the Mochila Bag has become a must-have on trend item which, in this instance, is assisting change in a positive way. The Wayuu are considered an endangered people as they are still being repeatedly forced to move out of their territory. The purchase of an authentic Mochila Bag directly sustains the Wayuu economy and their well-being.

The Mochila Bag is now available at South of the Border. [image supplied by South of the Border] http://www.southofthebordersydney.com/

More than FASHION


LOCAL FACES

When I was a little girl the veil lay patient

high in the sky.

For days I gazed above and imagined and dreamed

what life would be like.

PHOTOGRAPHY: HEARTCLICKS PHOTOGRAPHY .COM STYLING/DESIGN: I AM MAGAZINE MODEL: LANA JOHNSON BPS TENSGRITY GARMENTS: I AM PRELOVED COLLECTION AVAIL @ CHLOE T

GYMEA BAY ROAD, GYMEA.

When childhood departed, the veil became a cloud descending upon me.

For a while it was almost as if it were alive.

It became so thick, the me that I knew

only resided within.

Until I was born.


LOCAL FACES


GLOBAL KINDNESS

The Mercy Huts Project

You may know the name Sally McMahon from the incredibly cool & outrageously resourceful wedding site www.bridalicious.com.au offering close to every service a girl may need before getting hitched. However, Sally McMahon has also tied her name to something greater than weddings and the apparent ‘Big Day’; she is also a part of a dynamic and compassionate team striving to make change daily and long term in a community that has clearly stolen her heart.

Established in January 2012 by a small group of people sharing a mutual desire to empower people living in poverty in remote Indo-nesia, Sally and her husband Paul McMahon teamed up with Matt & Nat Thistlewaite to develop the ‘Mercy Hut Project’.

In 2010 the team were personally impacted whilst visiting commu-nities in East Indonesia, a region most severely affected by pov-erty. Holding the highest malnutrition and infant mortality rates, it is a struggling part of Indonesia in desperate need of outside sup-port. And, although Tourism is being promoted in East Indonesia, it can sadly have negative impacts on remote communities such as this.

The ‘Mercy Hut Project’ aims to promote a sustainable, community-based tourism industry through the provision of education and employment. Stage one of their goal is to develop a Surf Retreat located on Rote Island, Indonesia. The retreat will be an eco-friendly, beachfront oasis that will provide financial support & edu-cation for the families living in poverty on one of Indonesia’s most beautiful and remote islands.

How can you get involved? To find more information on the Mercy Hut Project head to www.mercyhuts.com

http://www.bridalicious.com.au

http://www.mercyhuts.com

The Experience: Remaining Silent for a

weekend under the guidance of Monks whilst exploring the teachings of Buddhism.

The Location: The Sunnataram Forest

Monastery NSW

The Willing Victims: Regular Contributor Kylie

Green & The I AM Editor.


Take 1 - THE EDITOR

Attending a silence retreat is something I have always known I would experience. Even as a teenager, I remember hearing about it and knowing that it would be a place I would like to go.

In my 20s I started to explore the teachings of Buddhism. Even back then I found their requirements quite demanding and knew I couldn’t balance such an extensive act, but I was intrigued by the calmness and peace Buddhism represented.

When regular contributor, Kylie Green, brought my attention to the Sunnataram Forest Monastery, a place she had visited many times before, I jumped at the opportunity to finally discover how valu-able the power of silence really is.

Before I start telling you about my experience I want to reflect on

the word ‘Retreat’, as the weekend I was pitched by the Monastery

had the word following ‘Silence’ in plain, simple text.

I have always been under the illusion that the word retreat meant

you were about to experience a moment of relaxation and rejuve-

nation. It possibly implied an occasion of lying around, calming the

mind and pampering the soul. I can now state from experience

that this ‘Silence Retreat’ did not live up to my expectation of that

word.

Kylie and I arrived at the Sunnataram Forest Monastery after dark.

My first impression of our weekend escape was met with a bunch

of strangers looking as nervous and awkward as I felt, and two fat

wombats weaving slowly around the wooden legs of the tables

marked for dining. >>>

EXPERIENCING LIFE


>>> They had to be the biggest

wombats I have ever seen, or as a

dedicated Sydney dweller, had not

seen in real life. Standing there

amongst a plethora of night time calls

from the birds camping in the sur-

rounding trees I was struck with the

notion that I may not want to leave . .

. I was definitely not in Kansas any-

more, and those wombats were way

too big to be Toto.

Our beds were selected in the dorm

and our mission became to stay in the

present, especially as we couldn’t see

a thing in the blacked out paddock

that was our only route back to the

main meditation room. Staying close

to my Monastery local, Kylie, I fum-

bled behind her, lifting my legs in an

exaggerated manner, focussed on not

falling on my suburbia-affected face.

Entering the meditation room, I real-

ised that my time here was about to

get even more awkward. I am, in

everyday life, a person who can wing

it. Give me a situation or duty that I

know nothing about and I will con-

vince you that I’m an old hand and

everything is under control. That was

not going to work in this situation!

Taking my place on the ground, I ap-

peared to be confused as to whether

to sit on my bottom or knees. The

bottom was my first choice until I re-

alised there was an expectation by

Buddha to receive some sort of ritual

bow from me which sent me apolo-

getically hurtling onto my knees, al-

most head first into the person in

front mid worship...shit! Then the

thoughts began. . As the chime rung for meditation – the first of many meditations over the weekend, a very long weekend – I tried to not let thought convince me I was in a lot of trouble and that I should find the nearest exit before every single person discovered the fraud I was. Internally freaking out and thinking, ‘What are you doing here Samantha Jane?’, I found the most comfortable position on the floor, legs crossed, and encouraged my mind into meditation. It took ten minutes for my left leg to

go numb. Ten measly minutes. I was

done for! The voices began again . . .

“Samantha Jane, you cannot do this!”

With my spine trying to take leave

through my upper back, and my blad-

der punishing me for the big bowl of

soup and ginger tea I scoffed down

before entering this room of personal

hell, I sat in silence close to tears,

humiliated by my lack of ability to

leave my first world. My world of

bright lights and big cities, masses of

expectation and attachment to any-

thing my eyes locked onto. I was an

ordinary person for the first time in

that room - and my ego hated it! >>


Later that night, I lay in my bunk staring at the white ceiling knowing I

would have a lecture waiting for me once REM set in. In dreamland my

hair had fallen out of the top of my head. I had a bald spot where my

crown chakra radiated and crusty sores and scabs covered the exposed

skin. Thankfully, the wake up bell chimes when it’s still dark, so the dream

didn’t have me for too long. On waking, I remembered during meditation

the night before what the monk had encouraged us to understand: when

my body was fighting for my attention, like a child demanding no knowl-

edge of anything outside of itself, he said, “You must heal the memory!”

Of course, as I lay there for a brief moment, residing in avoidance of step-

ping out into the three-degree greeting of the day, I thought, “Which

one?”

Saturday started with chanting and meditation, followed by a traditional

breakfast that thankfully supplied a settled tummy for Tai Chi. Every ac-

tivity supplied by the monastery was focused on the breath, being aware

of the breath. Bringing consciousness back to the body by keeping pres-

ence with the breath. But by noon, my internal demons had started to

really put up a fight. When asked by a friend on my return how I found

the experience, I described it as being trapped in a small room for a year

with 1000 voices all talking at once and no door for escape. It felt like I

couldn’t decide whether to punch something, scream or fall down like a

child crying. My skin became annoying and I wanted it to stop suffocating

me. Anger swelled and I came to despise the monks. I started to feel an-

ger towards their methods and their beliefs. I wanted out of there, and I

wanted it yesterday! I was exhausted.

That night, I slept like a baby. I don’t remember going to sleep, but more importantly for me, I don’t remember being asleep. I just woke up feeling like I had finally slept. Sunday was our day of return to our everyday world. I have never been

so excited to go home. So grateful for my home and the people I have in

it and around it. I missed my children more than I ever have and I

wanted them to know I was back; I wanted to join with them again. I

think sometimes we work so hard and have so many experiences available

to us that we disconnect, without realisation, from our loved ones. We

pass it off as, every one is simply busy doing their own thing, living their

own life. While we are experiencing life we forget to experience each

other. I feel it is the connection we have with people that brings the most

wholehearted experiences. It is the sensation we feel connecting with

someone we love that brings us the most profound joy and peace in life. >

The question I have been asked the most on my return is, “Will you go to the Forest Monastery again?” The answer is, No. My time at the Sunnataram Forest Monastery was the absolute right amount of time. And I feel like the monks showed me their part of the big picture. I know it was only a glimpse of the things I am still yet to learn and I am comforted in the belief that many more monks and everyday people are still waiting for me to make their acquaintance and show me their piece of the puzzle. You see, there is no ultimate enlightenment. It is not a place you finally

arrive at. It is a practise and a process that brings you deeper amounts of

joy with every step you take. You may climb a few steps and then have

to take a few steps back, but every time you repeat this process, and

practise mindfulness, the joy grows deeper and stronger regardless of

what step you get to. There is no final step waiting for you at the top of

the staircase.

The eye cannot be on the destination because the journey holds

the ultimate reward.

SAMANTHA EDWARDS


TAKE 2 - KYLIE GREEN…

Driving down a very long road to get to a very quiet place. I can’t wait for the retreat to begin. A weekend of silence, a weekend of meditation, a weekend of Dhamma teachings . . . there isn’t anything more peace-ful. This retreat is slightly differ-ent. This time my friend Samantha is coming along to experience the peace I have experienced for so many years practicing meditation and learning about Buddhism.

We arrive to find nothing has changed. The beauty of the Mon-astery is more spectacular than I remember. Peacocks gracefully roaming the grounds and two very fat wombats slowly waddle around looking to anyone for food. We settle in then attend the two-hour orientation where we are told the rules. I sit there as the rules are read out . . . so many rules. I have never realised this be-fore. Still I am at peace. I listen to the Monks chant, their voices so guttural; the chant reverberates around the room. We then sit in meditation before going in silence to the dorm to sleep.

Its 5am, the gong is struck. I jump out of bed eager to start my day of silence and peacefulness. Unfortunately it soon becomes very clear that I am nearing forty. After sixty minutes of sitting in the half lotus position, my knees are aching, my back is hurting and I am getting nothing out of this meditation. After so many years I am still incapable of ignoring the pain, which apparently I am supposed to do. Then comes the chanting which is no longer music to my ears. I need to stretch my legs. How do I do this without pointing my feet at Buddha or at the Monks? I am trapped, nowhere to move - how is everyone else coping with this? Finally I can take it no longer, sorry Buddha . . . at least I have clean socks on!

After breakfast we sit with the Monks to have our first Dhamma talk. This weekend we are concentrating on impermanence. We are all impermanent. Everything about us is impermanent. Our thoughts, our body, our life. All impermanent. I start to wonder why my nail polish is so impermanent and wouldn’t it be good to create a polish that was not so impermanent . . .

FOCUS KYLIE GREEN, FOCUS! >>>


>>>

But I am finding it very hard this time. If everything is impermanent then my ac-tions are impermanent, right? So I can go out and have fun and be naughty and it will all be OK - it will be impermanent. Is that how it works or am I completely delusional by this stage?

More meditation including a mindful walking meditation along a very serene forest track, then up a kilometre-long, very steep hill. I don’t know about you, but there is nothing mindful nor meditative about walking up a 1000 metre steep incline. The purpose of the retreat is now completely lost on me. I am no longer at peace, I am feeling annoyed and I cant wait to go to bed.

Its 5am again. The gong is being struck. I hide under the covers, nowhere near as eager to start the day. At least I am going home at 2pm. More meditation (this time done sitting in a chair), more chanting and more talks about impermanence and being mindful. I have a strong feeling of anxiety on top of everything else. A strong need for white wine, or red wine, or some cooking sherry.

It’s finally 2pm and Samantha and I have said our goodbyes and make a hasty exit back to Sydney. We can’t stop talking; we are talking for the sake of talking. We are listening to music, very loud music, and singing at the top of our lungs. I arrive home and my gorgeous grandmother tells me I look like no one owns me. Long hot shower, make-up, hair and straight down to 2230, the local bar, for some music, lots of champagne and some flirting with the gor-geous singer, Max.

The weekend was not a complete loss. Whilst sitting at the bar, champagne in hand, I have realised two very important things. Firstly, Michael Hutchence couldn’t be more right when he sang, “Every single one of us, the devil inside". I have also realised that I will never reach "enlightenment" but am very happy with this realisation . . . I can resist anything but temptation!

KYLIE GREEN


Kylie & I celebrating our Silence Retreat Survival @ 2230 Cronulla.

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i am magazine #eleven special edition 2013

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