Image courtesy of The Holy Isle Project

Already quite remote and removed, I took one step further and went to The Holy Isle, a wee island off the big island of Arran off the west coast of Scotland for a weekend meditation and qi gong retreat. Led by Sue Weston, the retreat itself was a good reminder to slow down and breathe more, and climbing up and over Mullach Mor on a sunny day was a nice afternoon adventure, but an island life is both fascinating and bizarre.

Set up as a volunteer-led project that runs everything from administration to housekeeping to the extensive organic garden and the building and maintenance of electricity and plumbing on a small wild island, The Holy Isle Project and the entire island is owned and directed by Lama Yeshe, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master in the Kagyu tradition. Offering both long term and short term retreats, I can see the long term retreat as something more meaningful, but the short term stays feel like spiritual tourism, which I guess is a booming industry.

The visiting interventions into a certain way and rhythm of life was minutely apparent, though the attempts to level out duties like cleaning could not overcome perspectives like a fashionable fascination with kombu and unsolicited advice to the volunteer chefs to open up a bakery in the future. In turn, I personally found the interactions between guests and staff to be a bit off from both sides, but then we are living in completely different worlds.

The history of the island is quite interesting though, especially if you wonder how Eriskay ponies, lighthouses, and monasteries have all managed to exist with each other.