It happens. Occasionally. Very occasionally. The cold wind of death brushes across the back of the neck. Not only of the individual but of the collective. In this case, the collective refers to the participants in our annual 10 day French Dharma Yatra (teachings and pilgrimage) held in late July.
Wedged between a river and stream, the collective had camped on a long slither of a field, perhaps the size of two or three football pitches, in the remaining hours of a summer’s day on Friday, August 2. With 142 of us, adults and children on our 13th annual Yatra, we had pitched our tents outside the village of Savignac les Eglises in the Aquitaine area of the beautiful region of the Dordogne in south west France.
As elsewhere, the Mayor of the village had kindly made available to us our temporary site without making any charge. We threw up our 2 second, 3 second tents and larger tents beneath the lingering tall poplar trees that grace the bank of the river and the stream. It had been a hot day, not desperately hot, but hot enough at 30 degrees or more for many to apply the sun screen lotion, pursue the shade of trees and apply headwear.
As the evening drifted towards the darkness, around 130 of the Yatra pilgrims, young and old, gathered together under the temporary erection of the meditation hall with its poles and large tarpaulins slung across the top for the concert of the closing evening – music, theatre, stories, juggling, singing and eccentricity. Outside of the growing clouds, there was no sign of the looming danger.
Then fast darkening clouds, began to form with a slow, subtle but unmistakable drop in temperature. We felt a pressure, cold and intimate, had begun to build. Walter, one of the seniors of the site crew, had checked the weather forecast for the area. Meteorologists has issued a warning of an approaching storm in the region. We had two previous warnings early in the Yatra but the storms, often concentrated into relatively small areas, had virtually passed us by. Not on this night though.
By around 21.30, the organisers of the evening programme advised entertainers and entertained to abandon the concert just as the first few heavy drops of rain began to fall from the now heavy sky. Jonathan, a site crew manager, kept his mindful eye on the situation and attended to various concerns. The Yatra had experienced torrential storms in previous years; one year dangerous strikes of fork lightening set fire to trees a matter of a few hundred metres away from our campsite. Nothing prepared participants for the Savignac storm as nearly all of us took refuge in our meagre tents from the downpour or huddled in the assembled kitchen also constructed of tarpaulin and poles.
Thunder and lightning followed each other from moment to moment of fast alternating light and dark as rain turned to hailstones, initially small pellets of ice and within minutes becoming the size of golf balls. As they grew in size so did the speed of their fall. The forces of nature with the collision of heat, air, wind, rain gave rise to these lumps of ice – a danger to people, creatures and crops as well as striking fear for those unused to being outdoors in a remote place in the intensity of such forces that nature can unleash.
We found ourselves in the epi-centre of the storm. The wind gathered a momentum up to 100 kilometres an hour only broken by the long line of tall, upright poplar trees standing on the edge of the river and the stream. The pressure reached fever pitch. Within 15 minutes of the 130 adults and kids leaving the meditation hall, three full length poplar trees crashed down on the meditation hall burying the canopy. The earth shook with intensity. It could have meant a massive loss of life and unbearable injuries for survivors.
Benoit, Akira and others hurried across scrambling over the fallen trees. “Is there anybody under there? Is there anybody under there?” To our immense relief, nobody replied. All had gone to their tents. While several took refuge in the kitchen tent, another tall poplar toppled over when it snapped at less than waist height falling parallel to the kitchen. The trunk of another tree fell right across the tent of Virgine, a seasoned Yatra participant and one of our interpreters, who had stayed in the kitchen. Hail stones and huge branches fell on tents, the vast majority of tents withstood the storm while a few suffered damage or floods. Two people in their tents had small head bruises from falling branches. Tom Riddle and others had pitched their tents perilously close to the meditation hall. If other poplar trees had fallen, they could have crashed down on a whole line of tents. If, if, if ….
The storm abated.
The quiet had come. With torches flashing from all areas of the site, we all gathered together in the middle of the field in the darkness interrupted with flashes of now distant lightning. We stood silent for three minutes to ground ourselves, to breathe together, to acknowledge our vulnerability as human creatures in the eye of the storm and to give support to each other.
A resident of the small village of Savignac les Eglises (a population of less than 1000 people), kindly came to invite us all to spend the night in village hall. A police officer drove over to our site and made it very clear that everybody should go to the village hall as other storms could be on their way. Around 11 pm with mats and sleeping bags, plus tired children in arms, a long procession made its way to the hall, ten minutes’ walk away. One participant told us her friend one was missing. As the rain fell again, six of us at midnight drove back to the camping site to locate his tent. He had gone back to sleep when the quiet came. He came back with us. 142 adults and children settled down for the night in the hall after listening to a little gentle guitar music and small groups quietly sharing their experiences as others slept.
We had a powerful reminder that only a matter of metres and minutes separated an adventurous night from a terrible, terrible tragedy. At dawn, a small group returned to the campsite to check the damage and set up the kitchen. The kitchen cookers still worked. The bags of porridge oats had not split. Porridge for breakfast. The announcement of porridge for breakfast brought a cheer from all in the hall.
In the village hall, we spoke about our experiences, our human vulnerabilities, the power of the collective to give support to each other, the sense of the Dharma family, great and small, the relief and a small taste of solidarity with refugees, those fleeing from earthquakes, floods and storms. We made mention of birds, animals and fish in such circumstances.
Upon arriving home in Totnes, UK, I looked online for the advice of experts in terms of lightning.
Weather experts said:
- Seek shelter inside a large building or a car
- Get out of wide, open spaces and exposed hilltops
- If you have nowhere to shelter, make yourself as small a target as possible by crouching down with your feet together, hands on knees and head tucked in
- Do not shelter beneath tall or isolated trees
- If you are on water, get to the shore and off wide, open beaches as quickly as possible
- Studies have shown that proximity to water is a common factor in lightning strikes
Life is vulnerable. Nature is unpredictable. There is a very small element of risk spending 10 days on a Yatra. We will continue our daily checks on weather forecasts. Experts tell us there is a risk camping near trees and there is also risk of being in open spaces. We will check in future the availability of the nearest village hall in case the rage of nature descends in our location on another yatra.
The Sangha continues to walk. Life goes on…Let us be free amidst the wonder and the unpredictable storms in this vast field of existence.
By the way, do join our French Yatra
in the southern region of France from July 23 to August 2, 2014.
It will be an eh eh adventure. Maximum numbers: 125 adults, including teachers and organisers/site team, and places for 25 who are under 16 year of age.
www.dharmayatra.org
MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE MINDFULLY
MAY ALL BEINGS LIVE IN PEACE
MAY ALL BEINGS SUPPORT EACH OTHER