Friday, February 26, 2010

US State Department "LISTENING SESSIONS" for Indigenous Peoples, Tribes and Community Members

Dear Sunray Community,

I thought the following information would be of interest. I got this information from the International Indian Council http://www.treatycouncil.org/ where you can find more specifics.

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The United States of America became a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2009 and will be reviewed for the first time this year by the HRC's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process in November 2010.  Under the UPR all 192 UN member States (countries) are reviewed every 4 years to assess compliance with their obligations to respect and implement human rights for all.  The review is based on each country's national report as well as independent submissions from "civil society stakeholders" including Indigenous Peoples.

The US State Department has arranged "listening sessions" across the country, including 2 planned specifically for Indigenous Peoples and Nations, to receive input for its national report.  Indigenous Peoples, Nations and organizations are invited and encouraged to participate in any of these meetings.

The current national schedule:

1. New York City Date: Feb. 26, Location: Columbia University and proposed site visits
2. Dearborn, MI Date: March 3 (TBC) Location: (TBC)
3. El Paso, Texas Date: March 8 - 9, Location: Camino Real Hotel
4. Birmingham, Al Date: March 11 - 12, Location: Miles College
5. New Mexico Date: March 16-17, Locations: UNM Law School (16th): Window Rock, Navajo Nation (17th)
6. Chicago, Il Date: March (TBC), Location: TBC
7. San Francisco, Ca Date: March 25 - 26, Location: USF Law School (SF) and/or Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley) (TBC)

In some cases meeting sites and/or local contact organizations are still being worked out. A good person to contact for more information is Sarah Paoletti, Senior Coordinator for the US Human Rights Network UPR Project. She can be reached at: paoletti@law.upenn.edu

Whether or not you can provide input directly for the US National report through these "listening sessions", Indigenous Peoples and other "stakeholders" can also submit their own written statements to the Office of the High Commission on Human Rights presenting concerns, questions and recommendations about the activities of the US government which are impacting their human rights. UPRsubmissions@ohchr.org

In Peace,
Sandy Sheridan
Sunray NGO/UN Representative

H.H. Drikung Kabgyon Chetsang Rinpoche to come to the Sunray Peace Village and Consecrate Vajra Dakini Nunnery September 11-12, 2010

Consecration of Vajra Dakini Nunnery
September 11-12, 2010
H.H Drikung Kabgyon Chetsang Rinpoche

 
Please join us in celebrating the consecration of the first Tibetan Buddhist Nunnery in North America on Sept 11 &12, 2010.

His Holiness Drikung Kabgyon Chetsang Rinpoche, supreme head of the Drikung Kagyu Lineage, will conduct the consecration of Vajra Dakini Nunnery and the White Tara statue and temple. Attendees will be offered an empowerment of White Tara, the healing and long-life female emanation of Buddha.

 
You are welcome to help us prepare for this event by: 
  • Sponsoring H.H. Chetsang Rinpoche, his entourage and the monastic dignitaries
  • Helping on the White Tara Shrine raising weekend (date TBA)
  • Painting the retreat cabin for H.H. Chetsang Rinpoche
  • Landscaping (windfall trees) and gardening
  • During the event: driving, ushering, cooking and serving

In addition, in July, on a date to be set, the White Tara Shrine will be placed at the Peace Village. On September 9, HH Chetsang Rinpoche will visit the Peace Village. We will keep you informed.

 
To help directly with these projects, visit http://www.vajradakininunnery.org/

  
(The Vajra Dakini Nunnery is located 1/3 mile down the road from the Sunray Peace Village. Eventually, a new nunnery will be built at the Peace Village.)

 

Please share the news of these auspicious events.

Million Merit Holiday -- February 28th at the Vajra Dakini Nunnery

Please Join us in celebrating the first Million Merit Holiday of 2010.  Sunday Feb 28th commemorates the days of miracles that Buddha Sakayamuni manifested after his enlightenment and in our tradition, Marpa and Milarepa. Bring vegetarian fare to share for lunch. A very good day to make offerings to the Three Jewels as the merit is considered to be multiplied by 10,000,000!!!!



8:00 am. Smoke Offering

9:30 am. Calm Abiding and Tonglen Meditation

Pot Luck Lunch

1-4 pm. Preparing Mantras for the White Tara Statue and readings from the life of Marpa and Milarepa

6 pm. 49th Day Andy Tobey's Father Ralph Herbert Tobey

Khenmo Drolma
Abbess
Vajra Dakini Nunnery

American Federation of Teachers Video on Vermont Health Professionals' Haiti Disaster Relief



With big thanks for all of your prayers and support. It made a difference.

Mari Cordes

Monday, February 22, 2010

A Prayer for the Spirit



(Right click to open music in a new tab so you can read and listen at the same time.)

I am not your friend, I am your maker.
The light and the dark, the one true creator.
The leaf of the tree and the soil of the earth,
the wet of the water and the flame of the hearth.
Trust in me, for eternal love.
Trust in me, the one above.
The wind on the wing of the sparrow.
The blood surrounding the marrow.
A star in the sky, a moon, a sun.
A galaxy burning, a world still turning.
I am your life, I am your maker,
let us be one, let us be one.

© Elizabeth Siebel

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Deep Peace and the Healing of the World



An 8-session self-study program on treasure teachings from the seven stars. With Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, Dr. Louise Diamond, and Ministers of Sunray Meditation Society. To order this wonderful audio program, please click here.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Diane Patterson's "Grandmother's Tour" -- part two

To read this post on the Sunray Peace Village blog, click here.

Community sustainability report -- next meeting March 11th

On Thursday, February 18, the second monthly meeting was held to discuss community sustainability. Present were Robert Rex, Kelly LeCain, Madeleine Piat-Landholt and Rev. Tori Hovde.


Please read the notes here from the first meeting. The decision was made to move the monthly meeting to the second Thursday of the month. Next meeting then will be MARCH 11 at 7:30 PM, in the Temple of the Adawees.

Madeleine talked about the possibility of attending the next meeting of Seed Savers. Rev. Tori made lists of first aid supplies needed for each family, as well as a list of herbal first aid items (created by our friend Annie McCleary).

It is time to energize the teams! Find a way to join in! Each group,which is described in the first meeting (see this link) has a focalizer with contact info.

•THE PLANT TEAM. Focalized by Madeleine. Contact her: redbear@gmavt.net
•THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY TEAM. Focalized by Robert : robert_rex@gmavt.net
•THE SURVIVAL RESOURCES AND EDUCATION TEAM. Jim Vyhnak: vyhnak@sover.net
•THE ALTERNATE SCENARIOS TEAM. Dechen Rheault: reiedinst@gmavt.net
•INFORMATION SHARING TEAM. Rev. Louise Diamond: diamond@louisediamond.com
•MEDICINE/HEALING TEAM. Rev. Tori: vhovde@gmavt.net

Please take responsibility NOW to contact a focalizer(s) to let them know that you want to join. The focalizers will inform each person about their team meeting and the whole community will meet on the second Thursday of the month with a practice at 7:30 and meeting at 8 PM.

NEXT MEETING MARCH 11!

ALL ARE WELCOME. SHARE THIS WITH FRIENDS AND COMMUNITY!

Wadogh!

Peace,
Rev. Tori

Monday, February 8, 2010

Tibetan/Cherokee New Year weekend, Sat-Sun Feb 13-14

Click on image to enlarge.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Bittersweet goodbyes -- a parting report from Haiti

Some of you may not know me; I'm an RN (on the left) who lives in Lincoln and works at Fletcher Allen. I wanted to share a little about the experience I and my colleagues have had assisting with disaster relief for the Haitian people. We have teams lined up to continue the effort through March. Please consider supporting the continuation of the wonderful work our Vermont team has been doing by donating to the Vermont Haiti Project (please designate as for Vermont Haiti Relief - union).  Thanks in advance.......

I’m writing to you on my last night in Jimani; feebly attempting to discover a metaphor that would describe any part of this slice of time in this spot on our planet.  It’s an impossible task; I can only share what in the telling seems like brief episodes of a two dimensional mini- series compared to actuality.  And I’m feeling very sad.

I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been down here. I believe it’s been between 2 and 3 weeks. Down here = on a hot dusty piece of real estate owned by folks from Tennessee who set up a hospital, clinic and orphanage called “Good Samaritan” or “Buen Samaritano” in Spanish, in the border town of Jimani, Dominican Republic.  We can see Haiti from our “home”.  After the earthquake, Haitians began crossing the border into Jimani any way they could, looking for emergent medical assistance.  At first it was completely disorganized, however they could get a ride, and some of them walked. Eventually earthquake victims were sent here by helicopter and ambulance as well.

Buen Samaritano was inactive at the time of the earthquake. The systems and supplies sprang up almost immediately, and were ever-evolving as more patients and volunteers arrived.  As I write, we have 2 highly functioning, though primitive, operating rooms with PACU, 2 pharmacies, digital xray at the orphanage and fluoroscopy at the main building; we’ve been staffed with ortho and trauma providers, nurses, EMTs and paramedics; infectious disease, ob-gyn, plastics, physical therapy, psychology, and more.

As soon as we arrived, our prayers were answered: we were able to do what we came here to do - work really hard (and, serendipitously, fall in love with these amazing people).  Initially, we worked 7 twelve hour shifts in a row (both day and night crews did – I would not recommend it, but it mostly worked).

The heat and the sweat were incidental.  The aching feet eventually became so as well.  The 12 hour day shifts passed very quickly for the staff because there was so much to be done. For the patients I think the days must have been endless, like a nightmarish Groundhog Day.  The nights dragged on for some as well, who couldn’t stop thinking about how their family members died, how they tried to get their children and parents and siblings out of the rubble, but couldn’t. 

At the beginning, the Vermont team was caring for 40-55 patients in the post-surgical ward A (other Vermonters were in PACU or ICU), sometimes with only 2 RNs or EMTs or med students, and if we were fortunate, 3 or 4.  We begin every shift rounding on every patient, managing pain, doing assessments, and taking notes for that day’s plan of care.  Rounds typically took up to 3 hours when the census was high, because patients always had immediate needs.  Family members would also come get us when their loved ones needed something.  After rounds, we would start doing dressing changes on the major abrasions, avulsions, amputations, and pin care on the external fixation devices. We had no xray for at least 10 days: external fixation was performed by landmark and physical assessment.  When we finally got the digital xray, every patient had films taken, and many had fixation adjustments or revisions.  Some had undiscovered fractures.  And then we planned for and assisted with mobility, bowel management, and chronic medical problems.  And get up and do it again - Amen.

The family members with each patient are as heroic as the patients.  We could not have done our work without them. We were able to leave supplies of medications, even opiate analgesics, with instructions at the bedside – because the patients and the families were incredibly responsible.  The families bathed the patients, and assisted with toileting.

Three weeks ago, most patients were afraid to move.  Many were afraid to be taken to the operating room because they might find a part of their body missing when they awoke.  Yesterday and today, I witnessed two sights (among many the past few weeks) that were a holy balm for the accumulated ache moving through my heart for all of this suffering.

The first – I was with a patient on the front porch of the orphanage when I heard someone call my name. I looked up to see, waving at me, twenty something year old Wilfred with his new above the knee amputation, beautiful twenty something year old Chantel with her new complete arm amputation, and feisty twenty something year old Emmanuel with her new below the knee amputation all walking together outside of their cardboard/bedsheet ‘shantytown’.  I hadn’t seen them out of  their cots together since I’d been there.  They’d overcome their fear of mobilizing, and were so excited to be walking about together, like they were all going out on the town. Indescribable joy.

The second – I visited a similar disaster relief clinic in Haiti today called Love a Child, about an hours drive away (depending on the traffic).  We have gradually been discharging patients from Buen Samaritano to Love a Child (previously a well established orphanage). Amos Hare and I rode on a school bus there today with more of our discharged patients there, including 14 year old Lorentia, and her mother Saintenise. Saintenise also has a 3 month old baby who she hasn’t seen since the earthquake; both Lorentia and her mother have left fractured femurs with external fixators and were sent to Buen Samaritano while the father and the baby had to stay in Haiti.  Today – Saintenise and her baby were reunited – as was the whole family. Indescribable joy.

For most of them, the future beyond physical rehabilitation in Love a Child or any other clinic is a colossal unknown. And still, they gave us such grand affection and love, and grew to trust us immensely.  This alone was a magnificent gift and honor, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.  Though I’m using first person narrative, it is not my story - it is theirs.  I will probably never see these people again.  I remind myself that this great beauty in this great tragedy is a collection of moments that continue to pass all of us by, and that grasping to the feelings or to our new friends will only diminish the power of the love and insight that has passed between us.

Mari Cordes

Here is some music from emergency room patients.   Click to download.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Peacekeeper training in Munchen, Deutschland


Peacekeeper Training  

Weekends, 20 to 21 Feb. 2010, 10 to 11
April 2010, Sat 10:00 am to Sun 16:00
Life Garden - Growth Area 80336 Munich, Mathildenstr.12

(Translated by Google toolbar.)

Sunray Peace Project Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, Spiritual director

The highlighted action is guided by three principles:


Implement the will perceive the mystery as it is the intention of its own goals for the benefit of all the courage to try and do that which we need to do.

The Peacekeeper Training is based on the teachings of Ywahoo line of the Cherokee and the Drikung Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.


Ven. Dhyani Ywahoo, Whose vision of the Peacekeeper-back training, is in 27th generation of priestly guardian of the knowledge of their people. In Bristol, Vermont, she maintains a peace village, where in summer the teachings of the Cherokee and the Tibetans are taught and practiced. There is also the first Drikung Kagyu nunnery in the U.S.. For further interest: http://www.sunray.org/

It is managed by Angelika Peacekeeper Training Salberg. She is a teacher in the traditional Ywahoo. She is assisted by Dr. Hanna Mührl she is the healer SUNRAY School of Healing Arts. Both are prepared for 20 years by the Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo And trained for this task.

The time is calling us to bring peace into our own lives, and emissions into the family, community, contribute to the world consciousness enhanced dimension in the awareness of the connected-satisfaction of all, we walk in the Peacekeeper training in learning practice, practice apply and everyday, our mind and body cleanse, clarify, strengthen and align. Thus the development of our potential is encouraged and provoked the memory of the original, radiant wisdom.


We are born of Mother Earth, Father Sky inspired by it. Spirals sent us out, we climb to the stars, sun and moon balance, are supported by the qualities of the directions, become one with the universe ...

... return back to our daily lives, take care to implement in practice, the guardians of peace-keeping in action and attitude.

Peacekeeper training means a process of physical and mental training in a group based on the centuries-old teachings of the Cherokee and Tibetan.


Meditations, visualizations,

Physical exercises, singing, dancing, rhythm, ritual craft ...

... intended to clarify the mind and body for a clear and conscious life activity within the human community and creation.

Connectedness is experienced, explored and shared Actively.

We activate our inner wisdom-heitspotential. A network is created, established in our relationship between heaven and earth.

On the basis of willingness, compassion and active work force, we Ensure peace and harmony in ourselves, in the hearts of the people and the earth.

Price: 200, - euros, plus room rental and materials.


Registration (until 13.2.10) Sunray Peace Project, Dr. Hanna Mührl Klenzestr. 59 a

80469 Munich

089/2606099 Email: mailto:hanna.muehrl@gmx.de

I hereby register for the Peacekeeper training at 20 to 21 February 2010 and 10-to 11.4.2010.

Shortly before the start of the first weekend, there is a newsletter by email!