Blog | August 27, 2010
It’s Rainmaking Time!™ is about calling in solutions, bringing people together and getting great things done. The show is meant to highlight the exciting realms of exploration, discovery, inquiry, new & ancient knowledge, and adventure.
Susan Eirich, one of the founders of the Earthfire Institute, introduces us to the rich and sacred trust between humans and animals. She and her partner are profoundly committed to and passionate about maintaining the 40-acre wildlife sanctuary and retreat center, which facilitates interactions between animals and humans.
The importance of this relationship is often overlooked in city life and modern culture. Insights and personal experiences with animals are invaluable. They have a transformative effect on our way of being, seeing, living, and understanding. Susan Eirich shares her mission with us and communicates the joy of living amongst the wonderful beings at the sanctuary.
Click here to listen to the interview
Blog, Wellness & Spirtuality | August 20, 2010
We had the tremendous honor and experience of having venerated Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche offer a special teaching at Earthfire last month, on one of his two days in the area during a worldwide teaching tour. The teaching was on the Six Realms and human-animal relationships from the Buddhist perspective. He came to us through Dr. David Shlim of Jackson, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher in his own right. Dr. Shlim brought his most revered teacher and friend to Earthfire because of Earthfire’s teaching that each animal is a precious life and an individual being with inherent personality and worth.
In Buddhist teaching, once one is enlightened one lives in the moment without preconceptions – thus each time you meet a being, of any life form, you meet it with new eyes rather than through a lens of hearsay. What we each see is based on a great deal of our own conditioning. The Rinpoche noted that “we tend to think that what we don’t see does not exist – but this doesn’t follow – lack of perception is not a proof of non–existence”. And that applies to animals as individual beings with a soul.
Chokyi Nyima emphasized how with trust, love, and respect, we can turn this earth into heaven. He talked about how we need to think more broadly – that a shortage of trees for example does not just hurt humans – it hurts birds and animals and insects — it hurts every living thing. That we are interdependent also makes it important that we respect and care for all conscious beings — and Buddhists consider all animals conscious. He noted that we make laws to protect big and rare animals because we esteem them for being big or rare – but that it legal to kill others for fun. “That is not right. Not fair. We need to be fair. We need to help as much as we can and live as naturally as we can.”
He commented that we should not be breeding animals for pets, for human pleasure. If we do, however, we should put ourselves in their place and feel what they feel – their needs for protection, comfort, medicine. He was very moved and touched by the love and care shown between the humans and animals here at Earthfire; that they were “treated as family even though they were not actually our brothers, sisters, mothers or fathers”.
He noted that animals and humans are intelligent beings and that we can teach each other. According to Buddha, we all, humans and animals, have a basic good and loving nature and we are all capable of becoming enlightened beings in the Buddhist sense. And that with trust, love and respect, we would not hurt one another.
As the Rinpoche was talking about how we should be more attuned to nature, he looked out the door of the yurt and pointed towards the Tetons. At that same instant, Bluebell walked into his view. He cried out joyfully – “Look – a bison!” It was as if she had manifested herself for him. As if she wanted to be included and give her input into this honoring of the natural world.
Animal Story, Blog, Buffalo | August 18, 2010
When we look for Bluebell the buffalo in the pasture, we know exactly where to find her. Out of 20 acres of freedom and grass, she is lying right up against the fencing that separates her from Ramble the grizzly bear, perhaps 12 feet away. It makes you think . . .
Buffalo are intensely social creatures with all that that implies. They are oriented and responsive to one another; they crave one another’s company and are continually together in a herd. When we say an animal is social, I wonder if we feel what that fully means. Chickens are social – ours are often found lying close to one another, or taking dust baths practically on top of one another. Apes are social, wolves and dogs are social, humans are social. We need one another. We are all made to be with one another and lapse into depression when we are alone. It is a biologically-based thing, hard-wired into our nature and theirs. It is something we have in common. The sensations a lone social animal has are very probably the same sensations we have, being animals too. An ache, a hunger, and feelings of not knowing exactly what to do with ourselves.
There is quite a variety of ways we adapt to loneliness and deal with it and so it is with buffalo.
We had the pleasure and honor of taking care of two baby buffalo that grew into fine young girls, Bluebell and Rosebud. Rosebud bonded intensely to Josie the Buffalo Goat who helped feed her excellent goat’s milk as she grew. They were always together as a unit. When Josie suddenly died, Rosebud went into a depression. She developed pneumonia and nothing we did could save her. Bluebell was herself, brokenhearted, trying to groom the still form of Rosebud; to lift her, to bring her back to life. For a long time she mourned and we worried that we might lose her too. But something interesting happened. Somehow the tragedy softened her; opened her to other possibilities. She began to look to people. She who was dominant and even mildly threatening became softer and softer. Last time I wrote about Bluebell I recounted how she would always be at the base of the yurt when we have meetings. That trend has unmistakably deepened. During a program last June she stood for half an hour while 6 women systematically groomed and plucked her winter’s fur until she was smooth and shining. She remembers that and now comes to greet all humans who visit, and allows herself (actually kind of asks) to be touched, admired, groomed. Bluebell is nine – yet she learned, and adapted and changed. She has matured with a wider acceptance of other beings. It is not just buffalo that are worthy of her attention and interaction; not just buffalo who can give.
Going back to Bluebell and Ramble the grizzly . . . twelve thousand years ago megafauna such as the giant short-faced bear, giant sloth, mammoths and other huge animals roamed the continent. More than 50 species were driven to extinction during what is called the “Pleistocene Overkill,” a combination of human hunting and climate change. There are only a few species left from that great extinction – and two of them are the grizzly bear and the bison. If one thinks about more subtle connections between living beings, as one does if one has the time or inclination or exposure, you can’t help thinking – do they recognize one another in some way? Do they share a deep loneliness? A sense of being the last of their kind from another time, remnants of a once vast community, hunted still to a miniscule number?
There is help on the horizon for Bluebell. A visitor deeply moved by her has made a commitment to help us find a baby buffalo for her when they are born in the spring (thank you Joan!) Or maybe two. Bluebell will have her herd again.
Earthfire Stories, Retreats and Workshops | August 18, 2010
Penelope Smith hosts an inter-species telepathic communication retreat with the rescued wild animals of Earthfire Institute. Watch this video short to learn more about telepathic communications with the wild ones.
Blog | August 5, 2010
We had a wonderful burst and gift of young energy recently, just before a unique event. Revered Tibetan Buddhist 
teacher Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche made a visit to Earthfire to give a special teaching on the Tibetan Buddhist idea of the right relations between humans and animals. Two groups of 15 year old volunteers from the Jewish Community Center Ranch Camps out of Denver Colorado lent their energy, intention, will and creative ideas to landscaping the area around the yurt. They worked hard in the hot sun with no complaint, adding their own personal touches. One of them lined the pathway to the yurt with cairns, instinctively feeling that they would “lead the way” to the sacred ceremony. He didn’t know that the cairns looked like chortens – Buddhist sacred piles of rocks found on the trails throughout Tibet and Nepal. One of the volunteers commented while hanging a large thangka ( beautiful intricate paintings Tibetans use to aid meditation), “this is sacred like the Torah, so be careful.” The whole experience was wonderful and uplifting for all of us. It added its own special flavor to the profoundity and joy of the program the 
following day. More to follow from the actual visit.
At the end of the day they were treated to visits to the animals. Some comments: “…for the first time you helped me realize that each wild animals has their own personalities.” “We had an amazing experience at Earthfire. Your philosophy on animals and that you believe that animals are more than just wild and aggressive made me open my eyes to the fact that all animals want compassion and to be given a chance. To know that the two of you started this amazing ranch from scratch is inspiring and gives me and hopefully others, encouragement to follow our dreams.”
Earthfire’s Mission in Action by Pat Hager
