JANUARY 10 - 19, 2009
http://se.c.topica.com/maamxGYabMfMpbszAXoeaeQBeU/
Guaria de Osa calls you to an adventure of self-discovery, wellness
and exploration of rainforest plant medicine traditions with
time-honored Maestros from the Ecuadorian Amazon, an intrepid
Ethnobotanist, an ardent Fire-Keeper, alongside mindful participants
— gathering in the heart of the Osa Peninsula also known as “The
Little Amazon by the Ocean” endorsed by National Geographic as “the
most biological intense place on Earth!”

* * * *

Full program for this Council Gathering is posted at:
www.guariadeosa.com or www.rainforestocean.com
Click on Calendar of Events and scroll down to
January 10 - 19.

The Secoya Maestros are extending their stay at Guaria a week
longer. Let Dahlia E. Miller know if you wish to do the same:
puravida@guariadeosa.com

* * * *
Sleep easy ... we do not sell, rent, trade, loan, or give your name
or e-mail address to no one.
http://se.c.topica.com/maamxGYabMfMpbszAXoeaeQBeU/


Intention of the Council Gathering
http://se.c.topica.com/maamxGYabMfMpbszAXoeaeQBeU/
• To experientially learn from ancient rainforest plant medicine
traditions stemming from time-tested, traditional healing and
well-ness practices of Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon.

• To welcome an alchemic transformation, healing, and re-integration
of body, mind, heart and spirit.

• To receive insight and guidance from these ancient and profound
worldviews and thus strengthen one's essence and improve one's
health.

• To enjoy and be nurtured by the pristine Pacific Ocean and mighty
rainforest ecosystems on the Osa Peninsula and her natural wonders.

• A fund-raiser
* To continue facilitating the transmission of the Secoya People’s
core knowledge of medicinal plants by providing protection and
support to the community elders and their families as the Gardeners
of the Rainforest.

* To provide materials for fiber glass canoes for the Secoya school
children who travel on the river from home to school. This project
began two years ago .. with the intention of not cutting ancient
trees for their canoes.

* To reprint the first ethnobotanical bilingual education booklet on
the use of their medicinal plants written by Jonathon S.
Miller-Weisberger for the Secoya children.

* To provide health and wellness among the community elders – for
example dental and vision checkups and other necessities when they
arise … choosing alternative medicine practices when applicable.

The above projects raised with funds from this Council Gathering
will be coordinated by Rodrigo Yelpi who has been living among the
Secoyas for the past 15 years. Rodrigo will escort the Maestros from
the Ecuadorian Amazon to Guaria de Osa for the Council Gathering.

Ethnobotanist, Jonathon S. Miller-Weisberger, director of The
Council for Cultural & Biological Diversity (aka Grupo Osanimi) has
dedicated efforts since 1994 to cultural heritage rekindling
processes that includes participatory ethnobotanical and
ethnographical field documentation and publication of this material
in bilingual education booklets for local schools. It has also
included the preservation of medicinal plant knowledge via workshops
and educational council gatherings as well as the protection of the
plants themselves in ethnobotanical gardens, in situ.

Our work has always been in collaboration and support of traditional
healers and their healing methods. Among indigenous peoples
communities our approach is holistic and direct in nature aimed at
finding creative ways to bridging the gap among the generations in
order to collaborate in the efforts of safeguarding the rainforest
and the knowledge pertinent for continued sustainable living,
healing and well being.

http://se.c.topica.com/maamxGYabMfMpbszAXoeaeQBeU/


Themes to Explore
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• Experience the prehistoric origins of Plant Medicine Traditions
from the Ecuadorian Amazon as taught and lived by the Secoya elders.

• Welcome the past, present and future importance of Indigenous
Plant Medicines and its healers and gardeners.

• Appreciate the connection and relationship of plant medicines with
the ancient traditions of Tao.

• Connect the magnitude of these two Indigenous Spiritual Sciences
and aspects that nourish renewal and wellness in our personal life,
our community life, and the life of our environment, locally and
globally.

• Expand one’s guts and grace.

http://se.c.topica.com/maamxGYabMfMpbszAXoeaeQBeU/

"Into the Magic of Pachamama"
New Moon and June Solstice: June 17-30, 2008

Awesome, once-in-a-lifetime spiritual tours to Machu Picchu, Peru,
with famous shaman MALLKU. Join us as we witness the solstice in
ceremony on June 21 at Machu Picchu, the new moon on June 22, and
the amazing Inti Raymi ceremony on June 24.

See our detailed itinerary and REGISTER NOW on our online secure
server. Check our discount deadlines:
http://www.spiritualityproducts.com/email/link.php?M=4718&N=94&L=15&F=T

We will tour the Inkan sites at in the Sacred Valley, Lake
Titikaka, and the Crystal City--Machu Picchu. We will participate
in sacred ceremonies and meditative journeys at ancient temples,
power spots, and spiritual vortexes, with MALLKU--the #1 foremost
expert on Andean sacred archeology, internationally renowned
shaman, author, spiritual leader, visionary photographer, and
archeo-astronomer.

Recognized by spiritual leaders worldwide for his expertise in
determining the authentic use of ancient Inkan sites, he follows a
completely natural path of the wisdom tradition at the Andes.
Mallku has been an artist and an advocate of the Andean Culture
since his youth. With incredible dedication, since the age of 9,
he meditated repeatedly at the sacred sites of the Andes, where he
uncovered astronomical alignments previously hidden from view.

Mallku is the man who singlehandedly uncovered the astronomical
observatories used by the ancients and the shadows cast at the
sacred sites during the solstices and equinoxes. As the ultimate
authority, the explanations in Mallku's books are used by the
other Peruvian tour guides to explain the sacred sites.

Space is limited, so REGISTER NOW on our online secure server
before the next discount deadline expires:

Go to
http://www.spiritualityproducts.com/email/link.php?M=4718&N=94&L=15&F=T
Or email perutour@aol.com
Or phone 503-471-1608

Reason is learned from the ever changing world, but true knowledge comes from the essence of life.

Knowledge and heart quality must be developed together. ... Without a developed love quality, man is incapable of having that knowledge. There are fine lights and shades in one's life that cannot be perceived and fully understood without having touched the deeper side of life, which is the devotional side. The person who has never in his life been wholly grateful cannot know what it is. He who has not experienced humility in life does not know its beauty. The one who has not known gentleness or modesty cannot appreciate its beauty or recognize it. ... The heart must be open too. A very intellectual man went to Jami and asked him to take him as his pupil and give him initiation. Jami looked at him and said, 'Have you ever loved anybody?' This man said, 'No, I have not loved.' Then Jami said, 'Go and love first, then come to me and I will show you the way.'
Wisdom is that which is learned from within, and intellect is that which is acquired from without. The source of wisdom is above, the source of intellect is below. And therefore it is not the same method, it is not the same process one adopts in order to attain wisdom as that which one adopts in order to acquire intellect.

Sufi writings -

There is a saying of Jalaluddin Rumi, 'Fire, water, air, and earth are God's servants, and whenever He wishes them to work for Him, they are ready to obey his command.' If the elements are the obedient servants of God, cannot man be a greater and better instrument?
In point of fact God Himself is the messenger. In the aspect of God He is God, but, in the form of the messenger, He is the messenger. The tide of the sea surges, and when the sea has that motion it is called tide, but in reality the tide is the sea itself.
It is not solid wood that can become a flute, but the empty reed. It is the perfection of that passiveness in the heart of the messenger which gives scope for the message from above; for the messenger is the reed, the instrument. The difference between his life and the life of the average man is that the latter is full of self. It is the blessed soul whose heart is empty of self, who is filled with the light of God.

"Ekam Sath Viprah Bahudha Vadanti" - Truth is one, but the wise refer to it by many names.
- The Vedas

"The universe looks less and less like a great machine and more and more
like a great thought."

- physicist James Jeans

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In spite of whatever wisdom we may have; we can make a mistake if we have no control over our words. And we can easily find examples of this truth; those who talk much have less power than those who talk little. For a talkative person may not be able to express an idea in a thousand words which those who are masters of silence express in one word. ... What gives power over words? What gives the power that can be attained by silence? The answer is: it is will power which gives the control over words; it is silence which gives one the power of silence. It is restlessness when a person speaks too much. The more words are used to express an idea, the less powerful they become. It is a great pity that man so often thinks of saving pennies and never thinks of sparing words. It is like saving pebbles and throwing away pearls. An Indian poet says, 'Pearl-shell, what gives you your precious contents? Silence; for years my lips were closed.'
The mystic sees another significance of the mouth than for it to be a receptacle of food and drink. Through the mouth words of wisdom are expressed, sacred words repeated. Therefore the mouth is likened to a shell from which pearl-like words become manifest. As by the opening of the mouth words are expressed so by the closing of the mouth the word is drawn within, which becomes a living word compared with all other words, which are lost after once they are spoken.

-SANGITA SHAGAL

Traveling/teaching in the USA just now i am quite aware of the difference in the overall vibration and the hope/expectations of the populus at large. I found the excerpts below to be most demonstrative as to what this energy feels like just now.
As Sam Smith has written: "Obama is not a catalyst of change, but rather
its beneficiary."
Here are two essays that capture some of the essence of other important
themes in Obama's victory:

"Obama is the first postmodern president": http://tinyurl.com/68yyb8

"Very smart people are thinking and talking in serious conversations from
which narrow ideologues have been rigorously excluded":
http://tinyurl.com/68dsrh
Now I want to mention two big caveats about this monumental shift in
the collective destiny of America.
First, Obama and his team have a lot of work to do. That's why I endorse
many of the points listed on these two websites:
http://tinyurl.com/6qb3vm
The first 100 days: What Obama can do to address the cratering
economy, broken healthcare system, two wars, poverty and inequality,
and the stained US reputation in the world.
and here:
http://fixthisbarack.com
Fix This, Barack
Second we Americans have a lot of work to do. The resuscitation of our
country will have to be accomplished primarily by we-the-people, and as
much on the local level as in the federal realm.
This won't just be a matter of political organization. It will also require us
to be continually at work on ourselves, purging the parts of us that
resonate in harmony with the dying world and feeding the parts of
ourselves that are capable of creating a paradise-on-earth.

- November 12/13 full moon

Stephanie Austin from the MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER says this: SUPER MOONS function like laser beams, focalizing the constant stream of electromagnetic particles into more coherent channels of energy. They increase gravitational pulls, generate more extreme tides and weather, and also strong emotional reactions. This full moon symbolizes a mass initiation of cosmic consciousness. a spiritual gateway to higher dimensional realities. Possibly dissolving our existing concepts in order for us to experience a far greater reality that transcends death and the physical world.

According to the Mayan Calendar, November 12, 2008 begins a fortunate,
creative period of time known as the Sixth Day.- a period of time where
there is cosmic support to choose love over fear and come out of deeply
ingrained beliefs of scarcity and lack.
The 6th day is a respite and invitation, a period of creativity and bliss, a
time where consciousness merges with technology, where the forms and
structures that we now birth into being can hold more consciousness.
The 11:11 is a portal or insertion point for the Greater Reality to enter
the present moment.
The Doorway of the 11:11 is often seen as a bridge between duality and
Oneness.

"The best political, social, and spiritual work we can do is to withdraw the
projection of our shadow onto others."
- Carl Jung

The mind of an average person may be pictured as an unruly horse that jumps and kicks and throws anyone that tries to ride it. Masters of the world are those who have mastered themselves, and mastery lies in the control of the mind. If the mind became your obedient servant, the whole world is at your service.

~~~ "Githa Series II, Amaliyyat 1, Psychology ", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

He who does not direct his own mind lacks mastery. ... If there is any self of which one can say, 'This is man', it is the mind. The three Sanskrit words Mana, Manu, Manusha show that man is his mind, is the product of his mind, and is also the controller of the activity of mind. If he does not control his mind, he is not a master but a slave. It lies with his own mind whether he shall be master, or whether he shall be slave. He is slave when he neglects to be master; he is master if he cares to be master.
Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still it. He who has come to this has created his heaven within himself; he has no need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for he has produced it within his own mind now.

There are many different opinions how the condition of the world should be bettered: some think by religious reform, some think by educational reform, and some think by social reform. Every reform made with the idea of doing some good is worthwhile, but the reform most needed today is spiritual reform. Today the hour has come when narrowness should be abandoned, in order to arise above those differences and distinctions which divide human beings. ... The way to spirituality is the expansion and the widening of the heart. In order to accommodate the divine Truth the heart must be expanded. With the expansion of the heart the divine bliss is poured out.

~~~ "Religious Gatheka 11, The Truth and the Way ", by Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

The eyes of the man who neglects his duty to his fellow men, absorbed in life's intoxication, will certainly become dazzled and his mind exhausted before the presence of God. It does not mean that any soul will be deprived of the divine vision, it only means that the soul who has not learned to open his eyes wide enough will have his eyes closed before the vision of God. All virtues come from a wide outlook on life, all understanding comes from the keen observation of life. Nobility of soul, therefore, is signified in the broad attitude that man takes in life.

ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That is how the light gets in ...

- leonard cohen " ANTHEM" from the Future 2002

From Mitch Battros - Earth Changes Media

Al Gore and the global warming army is not going to like this. In fact, dozens of
climate scientists who originally signed off on the IPCC [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001BVe1w4tOftrTrfuxhfeZ-lDFypmzIo1VlgTABtFB_sn6LjjBgZRu3mzCc2g1TGs4bzz92l0huktozQ1Jkfz_e-T1mLGcjWwPgOCSW-bLqbk=],
are dropping off in groves. This is what happens when people are "lied" into a cause.
Every bit in the same manner as 9-11 equals terrorism equals Iraq equals terrorist
equals weapons of mass destruction. All a lie -- and now the current President of
the United States sets to leave in disgrace.

It's all about cycles -- Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then
came the winter and summer of 2007-2008. Unusually large amounts of winter snow
were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.
"In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound,"
said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. "On the Juneau Icefield,
there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July.
At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation,
did not become snow free until early August.
Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau
Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar
on a lot of other glaciers too.

FULL ARTICLE:
http://earthchangesmedia.com/secure/3247.326/article-9162523262.php [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001BVe1w4tOftrn64qVd4cvEvgJ-o2vXIu2u_vlrVCi9YQ6czRWpdBqwKcljOWHLM2Z9TpLbumCpB3Jb8g3SU8tQTu5oXTydOS41eyS_cRp4RN4aVniqYwoEgxxgkUPMNKlkUtCk2ohloqoIL-ERO2tekbF_MrHWV3FrUc9ENCq26opY7TLQy5Hyg==]

__________________

For those wanting to develop spiritually, they should know that the quality of the
food eaten helps determine their spiritual awareness.

The Bhagavad Gita classifies food as being of three types.
Fresh foods of a high vibration are called sattwic foods. These foods are best
for the spiritual seeker. These are foods like most fruits and vegetables, milk,
yogurt, ghee, many seeds and nuts, some spices. Eating sattwic foods in moderate
amounts makes the mind calm and serene.
Foods that make us feel active and passionate are called rajasic foods. Many people
who are involved in dynamic activity -- business people, police, military, etc.
resort to rajasic foods to give them the energy to get through the day. Rajasic
foods include heavily spiced foods, meats, and liquors. Onions and garlic are
good for health, but they are also rajasic - they create a lot of activity in the
mind and body.
Foods that make the mind and body feel dull are called tamasic foods. Food that
is old and stale (leftovers) take on a tamasic quality. Even food that is of a
rajasic or sattwic quality takes on tamasic qualities when eaten in excess. The
person who eats and becomes a "couch potato" is probably consuming tamasic food
- food that makes them just want to sit and do nothing.
It is good to remember that to progress on the spiritual path, it is best to only
consume sattwic foods. Since almost all food contain psychic impurities of one
kind or another, it is essential to offer it to God before consuming it, in order
to purify it.
To experience refined spiritual states, the body needs to produce the subtle chemicals
of soma and ojas. The Vedas emphasize the consumption/digestion of a little ghee
(clarified butter) each day to help produce these chemcials.
Jai Sai Ram.

=====================================================

' FOCUSSING YOUR LIFE SOLELY ON MAKING A BUCK SHOWS A CERTAIN POVERTY OF AMBITION. IT ASKS TOO LITTLE OF YOURSELF. BECAUSE IT IS ONLY WHEN YOU HITCH YOUR WAGON TO SOMETHING LARGER THAN YOURSELF THAT YOU REALIZE YOUR TRUE POTENTIAL."

-barrack obama

We have a new prayer request: We recently received news that Ram Dass took a
fall and broke his right hip. He had surgery over the weekend, and is still
in the hospital but expected to go home soon. He is recovering well and is
in good spirits. We’re asked not to call or e-mail, but of course prayers
are always appreciated. So many of us were guided to the spiritual path by
him, and have continued to be touched by his depth of understanding and
compassion over the years. Please send him love and healing light, and keep
him in your prayers. He lives on Maui Hawaii and is supported by a huge sangha.

ALOHA NUI LOA

SA OP UR, part of a series of aspects that will not complete until july 2010. So things could be a bit more turbulent than what meets the eye or what is communicated to the public at first. The polarities of Saturns stern restriction and the Rahuian ( UR ) rebellion for freedom, are at a tug of war and there is bound to be some chaos and the unexpected effecting all of our thinking and choreography. It will be difficult to-take anything lightly!

Say your prayers and keep things simple.
GOD HELP AMERICA! GOD HELP US ALL!
Jain Hanuman!

I would like to direct your attention to my latest piece of writing
published in the online journal Matrifocus which comes out quarterly at the
Goddess (cross-quarter) holy-days. This one is from a book I am currently
working on about the Dakinis. The essay is called "Deconstructing Yeshe
Tsogyal: Tibet's Amazing "Mother of Knowledge."

http://www.matrifocus.com/SAM08/noble.htm

It is a patient pursuit to bring water from the depth of the ground; one has to deal with much mud in digging before one reaches the water of life.

Love is life, and life is symbolized by water. When one wants to bring water up out of the ground one has to dig for it, and the first thing which one finds is mud. And if one is disappointed by that, one has fooled oneself, for beneath the earth is water; it can be found but one must have patience to dig for it, to dig deep enough to find the water.

1) Change My World Official Music Video

Change My World Official Music Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7R1N3Yr9-M

*****************************************************
2) Generation WE : The Movement Begins...

Generation WE : The Movement Begins...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vknHKTy1MLY

DARK AGE AHEAD,

by social anthropologist JANE JACOBS,
Random House Canada Publisher