There is a place where children can go to learn. There is no school, no classroom, and yet they learn because they already know who they are, what their purpose is. Their school is the natural state of mind, and that place of learning is also in the heart.
There is a place where the young ones come of age, at that tender time, exploring. They fall asleep by the fire, sleeping upright, cornmeal in hand, resting while learning to tend the bright and dancing flames, dreaming their future and what is good for all generations. Their dreams arise from within the source of all that is, their prayers are expressed through the heart, with few words.
There is a place where the Elders speak their wisdom, the precious Elders carrying their ways and their teachings, painstakingly, for many generations. They share generously, and are supported in return by the breath and by the kind actions of the people. They show community how to stand in a circle, a circle around the heart.
There is a place where those who feel the need to come to balance once again, to be in right relationship with self, with family, with community, may return again to the waters of forgiveness. Cleansing, wiping away the tears, and making joy again in their beings, their actions benefit all.
Actually, the Peace Village is in many places around our planet at this time. In the Green Mountains of Vermont, in Indiana, in the forests of Poland, on the volcanic mountains of Hawai’i.
In the tradition of the Cherokee people, the Peace Village was a mother village, energizing the sacred ceremonial cycle, a powerful magnet to bring benefit to community. To send gentle waves of compassion to those who cry, even to those who are unseen. Thus, it also was a place for those who had broken clan law to seek refuge, to go through ceremony, to make right. Living in these Peace Villages would be precious ministers, guiding the people again to right relationship. At the conclusion of a person’s time at the Peace Village, he or she might be given a new name, and returned to their home community as a new person. All grievances were forgiven, and that person would be accepted once again as whole and new. In the 1800’s, even white men who were outside of white man’s law were welcome at the Peace Village.
About 40 years ago, it was seen by the Elders of the Ywahoo lineage of the Cherokee people that it was time to bring the sacred practices of making right relationship out into the world. Many were called, a few were tested, and the Elders found this to be good medicine. About 30 years ago, the Sunray Peace Village was founded by Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo, her family, and a few dedicated students, in the sacred mother valley of Lincoln, Vermont. The valley is shaped a bit like a bowl, and so prayers resonate out from that place in a specific way, as prescribed by the ancestors. Each year, many return to this sacred fire to give and receive blessing, to practice together, and to hear the words of the indigenous Elders who gather there.
Also, other Peace Villages have since been founded by other Cherokee Elders: by Grandfather Warren Ramey, in Indiana, and by Grandfather Silver Fox Mette and his wife Danuta in Poland. Founded on the same ancient principles of right relationship, these small villages now grow and flourish. The special medicine of the Kohana Peace Village in Poland seems to be the medicine of the wise family. Together they live, pray, eat, and share, and many beings benefit from their time together. They create around them a powerful family force that can be felt strongly upon first meeting them. They shape and fashion within themselves and within others, that powerful human being who understands his or her family medicine, knows a strength beyond what we perceive to be our small-circle limitations. So even though the members of the Peace Village families have perhaps not been born from the same bloodlines, the sacred bonds of that strong medicine are cultivated, in order to benefit all. In order to bring Peace to our planet.
In Hawai’i, there is a very strong tradition of the Place of Refuge, or the pu’uhonua. Again, the law was very similar. When a member of the community had broken a societal precept, or kapu, they could escape death by running, swimming, or sometimes crawling to the pu’uhonua. Within the walls of this Place of Refuge were also priests, or kahuna, who would assist individuals in the process of ho’oponopono, or making right. An individual might spend a short time at the pu’uhonua, or in some cases the rest of their lives, depending upon the transgression. So while the culture is different, and each culture shares its special gift, the precepts of the Peace Village seem to be generally the same.
Part of a modern entrance chant for one of the Hawaiian pu’uhonua has the following description:
He leo malie, He leo heahea,
E ha’alele na ha’awi kaumaha…
…He wahi pu’uhonu, o keia wahi la’a
He wahi a’o, o keia wahi la’a
He wahi ho’ola, o keia wahi la’a
A calm voice, a voice calling,
“Release the pain and sorrow that you carry!”
…A Place of Refuge, a sacred place,
A place of learning, a sacred place,
A place to increase life, a sacred place.
And so it is that the Peace Villages around the globe at this time, united by a common thread, call us again to softness of the heart, where much can be understood. And for all this talking today, actually, not much can be spoken!
All are welcome, all may come to sip from the sweet nectars, all may share in the Direct Experience of that sacred place.
**********************************************
Hi! My name is Eliza, I’ve been active with the Sunray Peace Village in Lincoln, Vermont, for about ten years now. I’ve had so much fun and experienced so much joy with my Sunray family in this short amount of time we call life! Now I live across the globe, in Hawai’i, where I dance hula and practice lomilomi. I am also an interpreter for the Deaf. If you come to the Sunray Peace Village for our Elders’ Gathering at the end of July (it happens every year), I may see you there! I’m looking forward to it.
Peace,
Eliza ☺
http://sunraypeacevillage.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html#links
No comments:
Post a Comment