Beshara Magazine
Pachamama Alliance Symposium:
"Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream"
Report by Nick Yiangou
Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Woodacre, California, November 17, 2007.
The Achuar indigenous people of the Amazon jungle in Ecuador have a long-standing prophecy regarding the eagle and the condor, the eagle symbolizing the material north, and the condor the spiritual south. According to this prophecy, the eagle would dominate during the 500-year cycle that started with the arrival of Columbus in the 15th Century, but that after this period the eagle and the condor would fly together. The old and the new, the material and the spiritual, would soar together in union.
The leaders of the Achuar have reached out to the people of the north, declaring that one of the most powerful actions that can be taken is to “change the dream of the north”, not only to prevent destruction to their rainforests by logging and oil drilling, which are but only symptoms of a much larger problem, but to address a much more fundamental imbalance in our relationship to the planet itself. Through their dreams, the Achuar received messages that life itself is in peril, and their call to the north has resulted in the establishment of the Pachamama Alliance, an association dedicated not only to preserving their indigenous way of life, but to promoting a new worldview and educating as many people as possible in this emerging perspective. “Pachamama” translates as “sacred earth” or “sacred presence” in the Achuar language. The purpose of the Pachamama Alliance is captured in their mission statement:
“Bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our time.”
The symposium began with an introduction by Jack Kornfield, one of the co-founders of Spirit Rock, who related the aims of the Alliance to the Buddhist principles of compassion and awakening. When the Buddha was asked what he was – i.e. was he a man, a god, etc. he simply replied “I am awake”. The process of awakening, of opening the heart, is not an easy one – not only does it release the 10,000 joys, but also the 10,000 sorrows. Following the way of compassion, the opening of the heart allows for the creation of a sacred space, through which the rebirth of the earth can take place.
The morning session covered the plethora of dire warnings that we are now only too familiar with. The statistics covering the staggering destruction of resources and species, inevitable climate change, social, racial and political injustice, and overpopulation of the planet were deftly presented to convey the maximum sense of urgency and irreparable loss. Even though one was conscious that the faciliatators were manufacturing a despair from this mass of bad news, there could be no doubting that it reproduced in the audience the exact symptom that is by now so common to each one of us – in the face of the magnitude of the problem, what can I do?
The next phase of the conference addressed this appeal, looking at the issues in terms of three main areas of focus – the environment, social justice and spiritual fulfillment, and examples of current activism by individuals such as Thomas Berry, Van Jones and Paul Hawken were presented to show what is possible. Exercises designed to expose our assumptions of how we view our world, and of our ability or inability to effect change, were taken in small groups and discussed amongst the audience. We were asked to relate these assumptions in a triangular matrix determined by the three defining issues of ecology, social justice and spirituality. Reviewing our assumptions in the light of the information and data as presented by the symposium facilitators, and seeing the examples of real individuals effecting change, was a powerful method of highlighting how intention can indeed be translated into action, even in the most mundane situations. What was stressed, in equal measure, was that to enact real change it takes a spiritual practice.
The Pachamama Alliance does not prescribe a specific spiritual orientation or set of actions, but seeks to articulate what its founders and volunteers describe as the emerging dream of our time. A new consciousness has come into being, something so palpable and demonstrable that dozens of examples were given, drawing from the political, scientific, economic, social and political spheres. Among examples given were the collapse of apartheid, legislation to limit carbon emissions in California, banning of plastic grocery bags, women’s suffrage, the United Nations, civil rights, etc. A huge diversity of worldwide movements, catalogued on websites such as Wiser Earth, over a million now by some accounts, is seen as nature’s response to what is going on. Among its defining characteristics are that it is decentralized, and that no-one person or entity is in charge. Its message is that all things are interconnected in a real way, and that we are one world, unified. It is a true grassroots movement, driven by the needs of the time. This new cosmology is a radical paradigm shift, one that demands that individuals find their unique response to it.
The symposia are now taking place all over the world, and the movement has clearly touched a nerve among all manner of people in many countries. For those who wish to confront and understand the emerging paradigm of the modern world, and what their place is in it, the symposium provides a fascinating context to examine the forces at work in the changing of the world, from a unified and holistic perspective that respects and preserves the ‘sacred presence’ necessary for a real transformation.
The Pachamama Alliance: www.awakeningthedreamer.org