Folk Art and Meditation Retreat Center in Crestone Colorado Us
The Colorado boondocks of Crestone may well be the well-nigh spiritual place in America, home to more than than two dozen retreat centers and sacred landmarks. Information technology'southward a surprising spiritual mecca.
Several years agone, a friend of mine was astonished when he learned that I'd never been to Crestone, Colorado. "Y'all call yourself a spiritual travel writer and you haven't been to Crestone?" he asked.
In my defense force, Crestone isn't well-nigh equally well known as many other spiritual destinations. Only once this small boondocks in southern Colorado was on my radar, it seemed like references to it kept popping up all over.
And so when when I received an invitation from the Colorado Tourism Office to visit sites in the San Luis Valley that included Crestone—well, there was no question simply that I would become, for Crestone was calling.
Equally is true for many holy places, you have to want to get to Crestone. Subsequently a long drive beyond the high desert of the valley, we came at last to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Spanish explorers named them "Blood of Christ" afterwards the red glow that frequently lights the peaks at sunset).
At 7,500 feet in elevation and ringed on iii sides past mountains, Crestone is both beautiful and isolated, discipline to extremes of weather, wind, and temperature. It includes an astonishing array of spiritual sites: more two dozen ashrams, monasteries, temples, retreat centers, stupas, labyrinths, and other sacred landmarks. There's fifty-fifty a ziggurat, a structure modeled on the temples of ancient Babylon.
To use a homely metaphor, you tin hardly throw a stick in Crestone and not hit something spiritual.
Crestone didn't first out as a spiritual mecca. From the 1870s through the 1930s it was a mining town, and then a center for ranching. But its identity underwent a dramatic change in 1977. That'south when Maurice Strong, a Canadian businessman and Un diplomat, and his wife, Hanne Marstrand Strong, purchased a large tract of land in the Crestone area. It had been subdivided for use as a retirement community, but the Strongs changed their plans for it after a wandering mystic told them that the land had unique spiritual qualities (a message echoed later by Native American elders).
So the Strongs decided to requite free land to religious groups that agreed to establish centers there. To coordinate the program, they founded the Manitou Foundation. Through the years it received significant support from donors who included Laurance and Mary Rockefeller.
Today the Manitou Foundation works to preserve both the spirituality and the ecology of the region. The wilderness in the surrounding mountains is dwelling house to bear, elk, and mount lions, while the Baca National Wildlife Refuge in the valley protects almost 100,000 acres of wetlands and grasslands.
Crestone itself has just 150 people (the unabridged canton has 6,100). I know of no other small-scale town in the world with every bit many spiritual sites of and so many varied traditions. Centers here represent faiths that include Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Native American spiritual traditions, and a multifariousness of New Age beliefs.
A strong strain of quirkiness runs through Crestone. While people accept to get a permit to build, they don't have to follow many regulations on how things get synthetic. Equally a effect the buildings here are a glorious hodgepodge of architectural styles. Solar and other forms of alternative energy are popular, and the community has attracted many artists and healers too as spiritual seekers.
Let me put it this mode: there are a lot of people wearing tie-dye in Crestone.
Unfortunately I didn't visit Crestone under platonic conditions for contemplation. We were running behind on our bout schedule and then saw merely a sampling of sites. Our get-go stop was the Vajra Vidra Retreat Center, which was founded by the Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche. This Tibetan Buddhist master was drawn to Crestone by its proximity to the high mountains of the Sangre de Christo range, which reminded him of the mountains of his homeland. In Tibet, it's considered very auspicious to locate a monastery against the side of a mountain, because its local deities can serve as protectors for the sacred space and its practitioners.
In the center's shrine room, our group marveled at the golden Buddhas that filled the altar. Nosotros learned that in May, a group of practitioners had completed a three-year meditation retreat (yeah, that's right: 3 years). This is the gold standard of Tibetan Buddhist practice and requires an isolated spot where the practitioners will non be disturbed.
The Venerable Khenpo Lobzang Tenzin gave us a approval and then we had the take a chance to ask a few questions.
"Is there some sort of synergistic effect from having so many spiritual centers in Crestone?" I asked.
The Rinpoche nodded. "I think the spiritual energy is increased by having so many practitioners praying and meditating in this area," he said.
As we left the center, our guide, Crestone Mayor Kairina Danforth, told us that Crestone is believed to have more Rinpoches (a term for a revered teacher) than any place outside of Tibet.
"For a long time Crestone was a well-kept hole-and-corner," Danforth said. "But discussion is getting out about the spiritual treasures we have here."
Nosotros also visited the Shumei International Institute, which promotes spiritual growth through interfaith and cultural events and the practice of Natural Agriculture (like to sustainable agriculture, only with more emphasis on the spiritual aspects of raising food). Founded in Japan, Shumei has three sacred centers. Crestone is the only one exterior of Nippon.
My favorite stop was at Dharma Sangha, the Crestone Mountain Zen Center. We arrived hurried and a bit disheveled subsequently a bouncy ride across a gravel road. And here'due south how we greeted the monk who welcomed u.s.a.:
"We've got x minutes."
Tell me, is there a more ridiculous way to enter a Zen monastery?
But the monk, Zenki Christian Dillo, was gracious, saying he realized the constraints of our schedule (though I bet he privately shook his caput at just how many Buddhist precepts we were ignoring).
During our ten-minute introduction to the temple, we saturday in its meditation room, which is ringed by Japanese-style wooden platforms for sleeping. Disregarded by a carved wooden Buddha, it is a serene and welcoming identify, and when our guide said it was time to exit, I found myself wishing we could spend the residuum of the day there.
Merely those Zen masters are capable of finding a spiritual lesson in even the shortest of experiences. Here's what Zenki said to us:
"The fourth dimension we take together is what we have. Let united states make it enough."
Or he said something similar, because I didn't get information technology copied downward exactly in my hurry to become dorsum to our vehicle. All I know is that his words struck me as profound. None of united states of america think we have plenty time, wherever we are. Whether nosotros accept ten minutes in a Zen monastery or a 90-year-life on earth, it's just a blip on a cosmic screen.
Only whatever time we have, information technology can be enough. Specially if you're in Crestone.
Postscript: I concluded up going back to Crestone to do research for my book Near the Exit: Travels with the Not-So-Grim Reaper, which is nigh places that have helped me come to terms with bloodshed. Crestone has a starring role, thanks to its open up-air cremation basis. If you're curious about this remarkable spiritual destination, I invite yous to read my book.
And finally, here's a lovely video that conveys something of the spirit of this special place, this oasis where Tibetan lamas, New Age gurus, Buddhist masters, and Carmelite nuns share mutual footing.
If Yous Go: Most of the spiritual centers in the Crestone surface area are open to the public, though it'southward all-time to call ahead. In the town itself are several shops and lodging facilities. There'southward also camping at North Crestone Creek. The Colorado Tourism Role has data on other attractions in the San Luis Valley.
Lori Erickson is one of America's top travel writers specializing in spiritual journeys. She's the author of The Soul of the Family unit Tree, Near the Exit and Holy Rover. Her website Spiritual Travels features holy sites effectually the earth.
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