invitation to cerro quemado

this is the invitation i just translated for the event we're putting together may 31st in san luis potosi. more information and background on the project at our website, which i'm currently trying to edit.

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Action Cerro Quemado (Real de Catorce)
31st of May, 2007
Full moon

Following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, we invite all participants to offer this action in Silence and with respect for the Earth.

A SILENT WALK IN THE PRACTICE OF AHIMSA


Contents:

I. Invitation
II. Lines of Action
III. Program of Action
IV. Logistics

I. INVITATION

Dear Friends of OraWorldMandala,

On October 2nd of 2006, in the Sabarmati Ashram, Mahatma Gandhi's center of operations for many years, we opened the Archive of the Earth: the union of earth from India and Mexico symbolically marking the cultural alliance between two ancient civilizations on opposite sides of the globe, which have united in the common cause of Ahimsa. It is Ahimsa, Mahatma Gandhi's message of love for all life through active non-violence, which threads through the fabric of our actions, experiments, and lives. (see http://www.oraworldmandala.org)

The Archive of the Earth is a large earthen vessel, traditionally used in India to store grains or water. Now this Archive is open to receive earth from all over the world, offered by people and institutions who share a vision of a peaceful planet and are ready to explore their own evolution as a means of achieving this larger Peace.

On the other side of the world from India's Sabarmati Ashram, we find the Cerro Quemado in Real de Catorce, the sacred mountain of the native Wisharrika, better known as the Huicholes. On the 10th and 11th of June, 2006, we ceremonially collected and offered earth to the Archive, sealing the alliance between India and Mexico. (see the fourth action, http://www.oraworldmandala.org)

OraWorldMandala has committed to return to the Huicholes for five years -- each year finds us alongside the Huicholes' elder shamans, collecting the earth of the Cerro Quemado for the Archive, building together the road to Ahimsa.

Continuing with this commitment, the 2nd offering of earth will take place under the full moon on the 31st of May, 2007. Once again, we will walk in silent pilgrimage from Real de Catorce to the sacred Cerro Quemado, guided by the Huicholes. The installation of the Eye of Truth, a work of art created with colorful threads and bamboo by the participants in the form of a Tsikuli (a sacred tool of the Huicholes) will close the ceremony.

The intention of this second offering of the earth is to promote Ahimsa as the point of convergence among different belief systems, and to benefit the well being of all.

OraWorldMandala invites you once again to join this action and offering on the 31st of May and 1st of June, 2007, Cerro Quemado (Real del Catorce).


II. LINES OF ACTION

Cerro Quemado, an important center of Huiricuta Natural and Cultural Reserve, is located in the mountains of Sierra de Catorce. The Huiricuta Reserve is the first protected area in Mexico created specifically to conserve spaces sacred to humans in addition to its biodiversity. The Chihuahua Desert, of which Huiricuta is a part, is one of the three most biologically rich semideserts on the planet. The reserve includes the traditional route of the native Wisharika, in the state of San Luis Potosi, culminating at Cerro Quemado.

The respect shown to this Sacred Ground by the native Wisharika is a microcosm of what we would like to express on a planetary level. The current action proposes a Silent walk in the practice of Ahimsa. Indeed, it is Ahimsa, Mahatma Gandhi's message of love for all life through active non-violence, which threads through the fabric of our actions, experiments, and lives.

"When one comes to think of it one cannot help feeling
that nearly half the misery of the world would
disappear if we, fretting mortals, knew the virtue of
silence. Before modern civilization came upon us, at
least six to eight hours of silence out of twenty-four
were vouchsafed to us. Modern civilization has taught
us to convert night into day and golden silence into
brazen din and noise. What a great thing it would be
if we in our busy lives could retire into ourselves
each day for at least a couple of hours and prepare
our minds to listen in to the Voice of the Great
Silence. The Divine Radio is always singing if we
could only make ourselves ready to listen to It, but
it's impossible to listen without silence."
M.K. GANDHI - Harijan, 24/9/1938, p.267 (from "Notes")

III. PROGRAM OF ACTION

Guided by Wisharika elders.

To maintain the intention of promoting Ahimsa as the goal of this convergence of different beliefs, and for the wellbeing of all, we humbly ask all participants to respect Silence and Unity during the entire action.

Thursday 31st of May 2007

15.30 hrs. Meeting in Plaza Hidalgo to share the schedule and discuss logistics..

17.00 hrs. The Silent pilgrimage beings to Cerro Quemado (the Wisharika open the sacred doors)

19.00 hrs. Fire ritual in the middle of sacred circle (in Silence)

Dusk Prayer in silence, the setting of the sun in Mexico bringing forward the dawn in India. Each person, following his or her tradition, belief, or simple perception, maintains their focus in Silence.

20.00 hrs. Sharing of food in Silence

21.00 hrs. Circle around the fire, listen and dance to the traditional music of the Wisharika

23.00 hrs. Official preparation of the Marakame's song (chant of the elder shaman). The natives prepare the offerings. Observe in silence.

24.00 hrs. The Marakame's Song. At this moment, in silence, we unite in the sincere attempt to understand the significance of our action: the offering of earth from Cerro Quemado to the Archive of the Earth located in the ashram of a man called Mahatma Gandhi. (see I. Invitation).

Listen to the song, asleep or awake, around the Fire in Silence.

The answer arrives in its own perfect time.

Dawn Sun Salutation and candle offering (and acknowledging as well the birthday of the Buddha), maintaining silence.

Earth offerings. In a circle around the Fire, each person takes a small amount of earth to offer to the Archive of the Earth at the Sabarmati Ashram. In the wake of the Marakame's Song, we unite our lands in conscience of the Mandala's future.

Next, we install the Eye of Truth, a work of art created from bamboo and threads of various colors, in the form of a Tsikuli, sacred tool of the Huicholes. Continue in silence.

Safai: Before returning to the town of Real de Catorce, we peform Safai to leave the Cerro Quemado clean. Mahatma Gandhi lived his entire life yoked to this discipline (Safai means cleaning in Hindi). This last stage, also, in silence.

After our descent we will meet in the watchman's house. The silence ends to allow a constructive dialogue and to share OraWorldMandala's plan for actions in 2007-2008.

All actions will be recorded for an experiment in consciousness research by PEARlab/I.C.R.L
(Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research/International Consciousness Research Laboratories).

from the notebooks of the mahatma

"When one comes to think of it one cannot help feeling
that nearly half the misery of the world would
disappear if we, fretting mortals, knew the virtue of
silence. Before modern civilization came upon us, at
least six to eight hours of silence out of twenty-four
were vouchsafed to us. Modern civilization has taught
us to convert night into day and golden silence into
brazen din and noise. What a great thing it would be
if we in our busy lives could retire into ourselves
each day for at least a couple of hours and prepare
our minds to listen in to the Voice of the Great
Silence. The Divine Radio is always singing if we
could only make ourselves ready to liste to It, but
it's impossible to listen without silence."

M.K. GANDHI - Harijian, 24/9/1938, P. 267 (From "Notes")

What can Ali do for them?

I'm at a meeting with the OraWorldMandala staff and it's something of a party with vino tinto and fake pig skin chips and of course I brought some mangos and the star for me is this gentleman Ali. He's past the youth but no less earnest and Muslim though wasn't born that way. I couldn't tell though from the shape of his face and fire in his eyes I could swear he was born hard square loving arab muslim and all of it.

And the whole time we're trying to talk out ideas about non-violence and reconciliation, put them into practice with the May 31st event and the October 2nd event Ali is relentless about action.

Karen Armstrong makes a strong point (in _Islam_) that Islam and Judaism are "othropractical" religions, as opposed to Christianity being an "orthodoxical" religion. Whereas the latter places importance on speech and belief (ie accepting the lord into your heart) the formers actually want you to do certain things -- if you don't practice Ramadan and tithe and all that, you're not really a Muslim. Is her point anyways and Ali shows that pretty well, with no tolerance for ank-style silent meditation nights and getting together and sharing energy. The brother is big and in motion and wants to do something.

He's been getting to know the Hindu community here in DF, which I think mainly consists of the Hare Krishna folk, and is frustrated at being invited to participate in their events (which already is awesome, considering the last fifity and few hundred years of Hindu/Muslim nonsense) instead of to help present them. He doesn't want to see their temple, he wants to help them build one.

What can Ali do for them? He's been reading some Gandhi, always dangerous, and getting into this idea of Ahimsa is Love and Love is Submission (Islam, in Arabic) and that means I am devoted to You and really, at every moment, what can Ali do for you.

Neither of us are supposed to be drinking but it's a postmodern world and after the deep red has faded to dregs of Chilean Merlot it's even harder not to interrupt someone with your latest greatest important idea that supercedes the eternal doctrine of listening. Which is maybe why they recommended against the Merlot in the first place. But eventually we sort it out, inspired by the Jayeshbhai part of the Self.

We're going to map out a mandalic route through Mexico city and try a morning/day/night walk hitting a holy house of all the major religions, once we can get figure out where they are.

What can Ali do for them?

But first we're going to start with Safai. Gandhi's pet activity and nourished in us all by everystar from our mothers to sacred plant experiences to Gandhi's very ashram. And all this talk of the here and now got me excited enough to demand we set a date and time that very minute to gather together -- at least the two of us, the foundation must be built -- and get to together and clean one of these nasty parks or something.

So it's going to be 11h00 on Sunday May 6th which has nothing to do with Maximillian and they don't celebrate that here anyhow. We're going to meet at the lotus feet of Gandhi, at his statue across from the Museum of Anthropology in the Bosque de Chapultepec, Mexico City, United States of Mexico. We'll each bring a broom and the converted Sufi and imported Indian will clean Gandhi's piece of Mexican parkland and look forward to new beginnings, today and every today here ever after.

thursday in mexico sunday in america

Mother's Day Proclamation of 1870
Mother's Peace Day

The first person to fight for an official Mother's Day celebration in the United States was Julia Ward Howe. You may be more familiar with her name as the writer who wrote the words to the Civil War song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic:

Howe was born in New York City on May 27, 1819. Her family was well respected and wealthy. She was a published poet and abolitionist. She and her husband, Samuel Gridley Howe, co-published the anti-slavery newspaper The Commonwealth. She was active in the peace movement and the women's suffrage movement. In 1870 she penned the Mother's Day Proclamation. In 1872 the Mothers' Peace Day Observance on the second Sunday in June was held and the meetings continued for several years. Her idea was widely accepted, but she was never able to get the day recognized as an official holiday. The Mothers' Peace Day was the beginning of the Mothers' Day holiday in the United States now celebrated in May.

The modern commercialized celebration of gifts, flowers and candy bears little resemblance to Howe's original idea. Here is the Proclamation that explains, in her own powerful words, the goals of the original Mother's Day in the United States...

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

some details on the laptop affair

just so everybody knows what to do and whom with:

i flew alaska airlines from san francisco through los angeles to mexico city and i checked my very old but cute laptop under the plane.

i have done this to various other countries with no negative results.

as soon as i picked up my bag in mexico i knew something was wrong and immediately opened it to find the laptop gone but the nice indian ba pooja had given me to be intact (that is, still falling apart). i filed a report before going out to say good morning to jesica and have since called once and of course there is nothing to be followed upon.

another interesting twist was there was a note from some company contracted by the US Transportation Security Agency saying they had searched my bag (in SF). so maybe they took it.

or maybe it had written enough books and thesis of various humans and willed itself to some sort of elysian field of skinny shiny mobile computation.
so dont check your expensive stamp collection or anything on a plane to mexico especially if you're inuit: jessica and erik shake their heads between mangoid offerings and note how five friends in the last year have been similarly "equalized" as it were in the grand game of possession and detachment.

pilgrims be ware.

IN OTHER NEWS

everything has of course been happening at once and i have very little inclination for internet cafes but here i am working on the Ora World Mandala and jesica between planning her wedding and giving gringo tours is translating the O Bigode into mexican slang and today I'm meeting with peasants and teachers and eventually the famous non-existent Other Side trying to learn more about the uprisings in Oaxaca and Vera Cruz and it's increasingly clear to me -- every day more, and it's never going to stop methinks -- how land reform has always been and will continue to be the focal point of what we need to make this a world fit for humans and plants alike.

so that's what I'm going to do.

love ankur and with contact information dont forget.

magic mexiphone through june 7th: +52 (1) 55 24 39 03 70
ground line: +52 55 50 25 34 12