Rila Mountain – The Spiritual Summer School

Bright and conscious beings, guardians of these secret places please accept us as your guest and god bless you

”Greetings to bright minds, perfect souls, noble hearts, to all who think, who know, and who know us in the world of the real and the immutable.” This message is written on a board as you set your first footsteps onto the campsite. 

The reason Joanna and me are here at this place, the summer spiritual school of Beinsa Douno AKA Peter Deunov. 

‘’My teaching is based on three main principles. Divine love, divine wisdom and divine truth. Form these three principles it follows that there Is a need for peace and mutual understanding between people, brotherhood and mutual assistance for the common good. My teaching exlucdes all violence and demands. 

The beginning of spirit is love, the zenith of spirit is wisdom, the end of all things is the truth that brings freedom’’

The spiritual summer school

So what exactly is this spiritual summer school, why do people gather here at this place and what did we do there? Let me explain: 

 In 1929 was the first time the Peter Deunov took his students to the sacred Rila valley. Here he established a summer camp near the second of the seven lakes. The spiritual summer school of Rila starts of august the 1st and end on august 22nd or 23rd. Each day begins by welcoming the source on the prayer peak, followed by a prayer service at the same location. After that, there is time for breakfast, prepared by a group of volunteers. The breakfast differed from begin limet, to bread, to cheese, to dried or fresh fruits. The one thing that was alway there was warm water and honey. After breakfast most of the people start moving to the designated place for the paneurythmia, which starts at ten. After paneurythmia there is some spare time until the vegetarian lunch which is ready at 13:00h. Thereafter, there were usually lectures and concerts and we closed of our days at the evening prayer at 20:00h.  

Paneurythmia 

On the 19th of august large number of people gathered for the morning ritual of dancing paneurithmia because of the divine new year. The five line thick circle housed more than a thousand people all coming here to share in this sacred practice. 

The day after the big celebration we decided to skip paneuritmia. At least the dancing part. When most of the people were still preparing themselves in the camp, we left for the paneuritmia place. However this was not our destination, we climbed a bit further until the viewpoint of the seventh lake. Here we had an amazing view of the seven lake circus and of course the paneuritmia place. The truth is, I could spend a thousand words on describing this experience, the energy we felt, the beauty of the flowing choreography, the delay between the music and the movements, and I still would not come close to the reality of it. So I guess you just have to go and see for yourselves. Luckily I made some photos that can give you a small impression. 

Being in the Rila mountains for ten days among the purifying lakes, fresh air, and breathtaking mountains was truly spirit altering. The calmness that comes over you in this place is nothing but divine. You can feel the energy flowing, you can feel the life around you and inside of you. The peace and quite of your mind give space for your soul to flourish and your spirit to dance. How grateful I am for this place, the people I have met, the things I have learned and the side of myself that I got to know there. Thank you Rila, I will be back! 

Written by Camil 

Bright and conscious beings, guardians of these secret places, thank you for your hospitality and god bless you