Sunday, June 25, 2006

South American reflections

Hello warriors!
My husband Miguel and I just went to Peru for vacation - and I wanted to share a few things with you.
Through a maya that happened to us (too long to write here) we ended up staying with some wonderful Sahaja yoginis in Peru for longer than we expected. The extra time we spent there corresponded with their presidential election which was VERY dramatic - one of the candidates claimed he wanted "Indian" rights. It is a popular movement in South America these days - Bolivia's current president is an Indian and won claiming his fight for "Indian rights" as well... he is socialising everything, so we'll see if it really benefits the Indians or not.
In Peru, the Indian candidate lost - but only by a few percentage points. The point, though, is the huge movement happening there - Indians are demanding more and more of what was stolen from them. It was a remarkable and eye-opening trip... I really think we should keep our eyes (i.e. attention) on South America. We might learn something from them.
The poverty and living situations for the South American Indians is horrendous (as bad or worse than in North America) but they somehow have managed to keep their language (Ron in Pine Ridge was telling us of the terrible impact of losing the Lakota language) - and now they are uniting in a way never before seen in South American history. Most of their religion is gone - smashed by the Catholic Church - but their soft, deep spirit remains...
Miguel and I meditated in the Andies Mountains (the Ida Nadhi of the world) and listened to the beautiful pan flutes that the Indians play... truely they are divine beings...Let us keep them in our attention.
Love,
Alia (Sharmila)

(first posted to e-w yahoogroup, June 19, 2006)

Friday, June 16, 2006

Indigenous Britons

Dear Warriors,
Ever since Liallyn bought up the issue of bringing Sahaja to the indigenous peoples of the world, Bernard has been curious to find out who, what and where the indigenous British are?

Well it has been interesting, but the bottom line is history is a highly ambiguous subject and you soon realise that unless you were there you will never really know. So whats new, we should all be in the present anyway?

A program on the TV last night about the Barbarians by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame), showed that through excavation in France, the 'Celts' (a term not used apparently in Britain until the 17th centuary) or North Western Europeans were far more civilised than Roman history has had us believing all these years, since the Romans wrote it all down and the Celts as we shall call them did not. We had gold, handsome clothing in comparison to the rather drab Roman clothing, roads which meant trade, and most surprisingly, rich powerful women! Boadicea was not unique. It was not just Mr.Paul in Rome who kept women in the background, their way of life has meant women in Europe have taken a back seat for centuries.

What Bernard also discovered previously was that some genealogical research has showed that we in the south of England are indigenous to these islands. Up until then we always assumed that the 'Celts' had been ethnically cleansed from lowland Britain by the invading hoards (Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Normans, etc).

So we are still here, only our culture has been swept away! This may explain that by going deep within ourselves, we find an empathy with our brothers and sisters who are comparatively newcomers to the imposition of an alien culture.

Much love to you all, Bernard.

(first posted to e-w yahoo group, May 27, 2006)