A Meeting of the Hearts: the Dalai Lama and the Thirteen Grandmothers

Saturday, 12 December 2009 11:21

A Meeting of the Hearts: the Dalai Lama and the Thirteen Grandmothers ^Featured

Written by Alison Rose Levy

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When future generations tell the tale they will recall a time when humanity, our future, and the earth itself were at stake--due to human folly. "But then--" as in a fairy tale, or a folk legend, "a hero came forth to save us.." our great-grandchildren will tell their children.

But the hero wasn't a knight in shining armor, nor all-seeing officers at an omnipotent military command central--no, the hero, or heroes, who came from every corner of the earth, speaking eight languages and representing thirteen different traditions--were thirteen grandmothers, indigenous healers, called forth by dreams and prophecy to join together in common--and uncommon prayer for the earth and its people.

This counsel of thirteen elder wise women have circled the globe, meeting with the Dalai Lama, leading healing ceremonies and prayer circles in India, Nepal, the Amazon, Alaska, Mexico, and Nicaragua; and at a recent Bioneers Conference in California. This week they came to New York City for a weekend of events. On Friday night, the film, For the Next Seven Generations in which filmmaker Carole Hart documents their extraordinary work, made its New York debut at the Urban Zen Center, the welcoming downtown gathering place, founded by Donna Karan. Over the following days, the Jivamukti Yoga Center will host a number of the grandmothers in two evenings of prayers and healing.

In welcoming the grandmothers and introducing the film, Donna Karan revealed that, "To be able to celebrate this film and be with the Grandmothers is a dream come true for me. Urban Zen nurtures the wisdom of the past (in wisdom and indigenous traditions), the present (in health and wellbeing), and the future (through empowering our children). The Grandmothers remind us to celebrate the spirit of Mother Earth."

"We're in a time of many alarming events and life crises that involve the basic elements of life: water, earth, sun (fire), and earth--the foundations of life are our concern," Mona Polacca, a Hopi and Havasupai healer and counselor from Arizona told me.

"We're being a voice for the voiceless," said Agnes Baker Pilgrim, a Rouge River Indian elder from Oregon. "Mother Earth is calling us back. We're covering her face with concrete. We're polluting her waters with garbage. Enough is enough. When the trees and water are gone, how can the world banks manufacture money?"

We all have one enemy: greed, they agreed.

"We pray for peace for all people," Said Julieta Casimiro, a Mazatec elder from Oaxaca, Mexico. "We pray for ourselves, for others, for all families--for all of those who are sick, poor, or in jail."

Clara Shinobu Iura, who runs a healing center in the heart of the Amazon where she uses herbs to heal, points the way to peace. To create it, we first must create it within ourselves, she says.

"It's very important for us to hear our own soul so that we can learn how to forgive ourselves. From there, we can learn how to ask for forgiveness and also to forgive. The cure is inside. If you have peace inside yourself, then you are healthy. You have to open the door to your own heart."

"Our time in this planet is so short. It's important for us to clean ourselves."

"Together, the grandmothers have almost nine hundred years of experience," said Flordemayo a Mayan healer from Nicaragua, "We are thirteen voices strong to remind humanity that we must unite to move into this new millennium. We're in the process of birthing a new way of being, a new way for all of us to be gentle with each other. We should connect our hearts and become one."

In their meeting in Dharamsala with the Dalai Lama, portrayed in the film, the Dalai Lama warmly greeted the Grandmothers and affirmed their goal, "The mother is the first real teacher of compassion. In creating a compassionate society, the mother is crucial. You are sharing the wisdom of that experience," he told the Grandmothers.

And then His Holiness smiled and said, "If were not a monk, I would be a Grandfather."

CONNECT

For the Next Seven Generations | www.forthenext7generations.com

For health and psychology insight, The Health Outlook | www.health-journalist.com