lama foundation 2

i am in love with the lama foundation and all the wonderful people i spent the past week and a half with.  there was a wonderful mix of people from all over the country of many different ages, the youngest being 4 months old and the oldest being 71.  each person with an open heart,  wanting to connect on a spiritual level with themselves and with others.  the space is made sacred by so many opening hearts.  i went up the mountain to allow my heart to open more and to help get the land and buildings prepared for the summer retreat programs.

the days started in silent meditation in the prayer room, a half an hour of meditation in a beautiful room together with others, in silence, is a powerful experience.  we would then moved either into the dome or we would meet at the spring for ''practice and tuning''.  practice is another form of meditation, led in this case mostly by sebastian, the watch.  he led us in a few different styles of meditation, different breath meditations, buddhist letting go meditations, every two days a new form.  then we moved into ''heart tuning'' which is a time for each person to say how they are feeling in the moment.  the invitation to really say how one feels is honored so that we know where everyone is emotionally at the beginning of each day.  then we went on to ''practical tunings'' which is when each person says what ''seva'' (selfless service) they will be doing during that day and if they need help with their tasks or if there are other jobs that need attending to.  it is a wonderful way to start the day in community, sharing ones emotional state so that others can be sensitive to them and sharing what everyone is up to during the day.

there were a lot of fun jobs to be done. i helped deep clean the kitchen, organize and clean the pantry, clean sacred spaces and set up alters, pruned some trees, clean the teacher's house, lots of dish washing, help cook, weed the lavender patch and many other little helpful things throughout the 10 days i was there.

i was there as a ''community camper'' to help prepare the grounds and buildings for opening day, which was on sunday, and beautify for the summer retreat program.  it was really an honor to live in the community and help bless and prepare the place for the many guests who will make their way up the beautiful green mountain this summer.  the first retreats already started with the ''community camp'' and  the group of students from the university of new mexico who came up to lama for the first stop on a ''sacred sites'' course trip.  they were a wonderful group!! i loved connecting with this younger generation of open hearted souls who are consciously searching to find themselves and are opening to being spiritual beings. it was beautiful to watch them!!

lama cental

aah the view

michele's house

aaron's house

phoebe's house

jai deep cleaning the kitchen

basira deep cleaning the kitchen

the sun temple

bear hermitage outside

bear hermitage inside

the dome

brunch on the portal

sebastian, meg, pema, mercer

me and jai

me and evelyn

african water goddess alter

practice and tuning at the spring

water of life

practice and tuning in the dome

flying in the wind

the UNM'ers

joe and sebastian

jacky bakes a cake

devin and mercer

100+ for lunch

the gong bath 

the gongs

a quite moment in the kitchen

spontaneous beauty

listening with love

the blue path

makbara bell tree

my path home

pruning the yellow trees

prayer room doorway

the prayer room

one of many views

moon over lama central 

love, harmony, beauty

i will most definitely return to lama, to explore more my own spirituality and to explore more of living in community.  lama is a place where one is safe to just BE and to DO and to experience the inner and outer worlds.  it is beautiful!!

zuni pueblo

our friends shalie and charles gasper grew up on the zuni indian reservation and their parents, elkus and mary angeline still live there.  kienda and i went out to visit them and see what life on the reservation is like.  zuni is located about 150 miles west of albuquerque, new mexico in a beautiful valley surrounded by amazing mesas.  the zuni river used to flow through this valley but years of drought has since dried it up.

arriving

zuni-land

the village

the village

old mission

bread ovens

zuni sun god

into the plaza

the sacred dance place

old mission

 our tour guide gloria

zuni is a very large reservation/pueblo and is roughly 450,000 acres of land and a population of over 11,000.  one of the main things that the zuni tribe is know for is their beautiful silver, turquoise and coral jewelry. there are a few stores along the main street to wonder at the beauty of the jewelry.  other crafts that they are known for are pottery and animal stone fetishes.

family made

we were warmly welcomed by the gaspers.

elkis and mary

zuni sacred mesa

sunset over the village

zuni kachina god

the sacred mesa

leaving

the feeling that i had being on the pueblo was one of sadness and destitution.  the history of how these people have been treated over hundreds of years is just horrible.  they have their land where they can live together and try to keep their traditions alive but it is hard in this day and age of television and media and massive sugar intake.  the most people we saw were over weight and did not look happy.  alcohol and drugs are a major problem on the reservation and there are not a lot of options or opportunities for the people here.  the zuni people do hold their traditions high and practice many dances and spiritual ceremonies most being closed to the public.  the zuni language is spoken widely on the reservation and there is a bi-lingual school to make sure that the language does not die out, which is wonderful because it is a beautiful language.

i wish that the white man's greed and wars had not ruined such a rich and deep culture.  my prayer for native tribes all over the planet is that despite the pain the white man has inflicted on them throughout history, that they persevere to hold their traditions important and not allow them to disappear  in the stupidity of the white man's consumerism and commercialism.  

so be it!!