My greatest enthusiasm today brings all of my
interests together. I have recently been trained to facilitate the "Awakening
the Dreamer, Changing the Dream" Symposium, designed to explore
the current state of our planet from a new perspective, connecting
participants with a powerful global movement to reclaim our future. Its
aim is to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually
fulfilling and socially just human presence on Planet Earth.
A
"call" came a few years ago from an intact, indigenous dream
culture, the Achuar, in the Amazon region of Ecuador and Peru. As one
aboriginal Elder expressed it: "If you are coming to help us, you are
wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound
up with ours… then let us work together." Their ancient prophesies
predicted that about now the Eagle, representing ‘societies that are
very materialistic and very human oriented’ and the Condor, ‘representing
more spiritual societies and ones that feel more integrated with their
environment’ will fly together in the same skies and help us harmonize
together. The Pachamama (Earth Mother, Mother Universe) Alliance was born.
The basis of the Symposium is a recognition of
the interrelatedness of all beings, of not sacrificing the needs of all
for the wants of a few, and of integrating environmental sustainability
with spiritual fulfillment and social justice for all. In
many parts of the world the perennial wisdom of indigenous people is just
beginning to become recognized after brutal suppression by "Western
Civilization." In the Symposium the two are working hand in hand,
with stunning video footage of our earth and the universe, and insights of
wisdom speakers of all traditions, like Thomas Berry, Bishop Tutu and
Thich Nhat Hahn. At the same time, the Symposium is helping us to see that
major changes have already come about recently in peaceful ways, and to
make us believe that it’s not too late for more such seeming miracles to
save us and our habitat.
There are already almost 70 facilitators in
Eastern Canada, and some 1,400 around the world. We intend to organize
some half-day Symposiums for representatives of congregations and
organizations, to help them decide whether they would like to sponsor it
for their own group. However, you could take a look now at an introductory
video and various background material at www.awakeningthedreamer.org,
and if you would like to begin discussing its availability, please contact
me at leslie@barberry.ca or
416-226-2869. Some Symposium dates will also be open to individual
Interfaith Unity readers.
Rev. Leslie Gabriel Mezei (