In our outreach to centers we’re grateful for our deepening connection with Nazare Uniluz in Brazil and Sacha Runa Shamanic Community in Bolivia. Friends from both communities will be joining us for the Virtual Gathering 3-6 May as together we serve the personal and global transformation that the world calls forth. We invite you to join us in conversation with anthropologist Wade Davis as we explore the roles our centers play within the global north and south. As we collectively expand our awareness around the injustice in the world and the ways we can engage and educate around inner and outer action, we’ve also invited mindfulness teacher Rhonda Magee and environmentalist Bill McKibben.
Each of these three speakers brings an invaluable perspective on the work of holistic centers worldwide. While we always have much to learn from speaking to fellow center directors and managers, we hope these half-hour presentations will give us a wide perspective on the highest priorities the planet faces: the climate crisis, systemic racism, and how to deal with it consciously, and the profound lack of spiritual meaning in so much of the contemporary world that leads us further into materialism and crisis.
All our centers have a valuable role to play in awaking our societies to these larger questions and paths and practices to healing and transformation. Our intent is that each of these new presentations by outstanding speakers will be followed by small and larger group discussions between us all. We anticipate these three presenters will give us plenty of both intellectual and spiritual stimulus, along with the deep insights gained from each center living through the year of pandemic. HCN has always been international in scope and in advance of the Gathering we introduce you to Nazare Uniluz and Sincha Runa as we seek to strengthen the network and recognise our interconnection.
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Nazaré Uniluz in Brazil is a space for continuous learning that offers meditative experiences, courses and practices, promoting self-knowledge and awakening awareness through selfless service and group coexistence. Learning takes place by stimulating group coexistence, rediscovering spiritual values in daily life, connecting with nature and volunteering.
Located in the municipality of Nazaré Paulista and surrounded by the Atlantic forest, the campus inspires us to realize that we are part of a single web of life. Being in Nazaré Uniluz means participating in an interactive and creative network of people who support each other and follow a rhythmic pace of activities, in multiple forms of learning: studies on different topics and meditation practice, group and shared leadership and spirituality.
In 1982, a group of 12 people, inspired by Trigueirinho, a Brazilian filmmaker and researcher of perennial philosophies, began a retreat of six months. They started the construction of the Light Center, with the aim of creating a space for study and meditation practices and mindfulness, to expand human consciousness. On a visit to the Findhorn community in the north of Scotland, Trigueirinho met Sara Marriott an American writer who had been living there for 12 years.
At the end of 1984 and at the age of 79 Sara left Findhorn to live in Nazaré. The Center of light then began to blend the discipline and more monastic tone of Trigueirinho with the lightness and loving care that Sara shared from her Findhorn experience, through the sacred circle dances, angelic meditations, morning circles and group leadership. The ‘Spiritual Community’ aspect of the work began to develop.
The practice of silence is a way of cultivating a meditative attitude that facilitates the free expression of the Soul. Nazaré Uniluz is a non-profit institution, it is not associated with religious or philosophical organizations and, for more than three decades, it has nourished and nurtured each individual who visits and seeks a true and loving way of relating to self, other people and with the whole of life. The Institution guides its activities and decisions based on the practice of 12 universal principles.
Read more about the community and programs on offer here.
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Sacha Runa is an organization in Bolivia dedicated to help people reconnect with the vital forces of the Universe, their own truth and the Supreme Source. They help to purify and transform so as to liberate the obstacles that chain us to the state of suffering and illusion. Learning to reconnect with source, draw healing, nourishment and inspiration and allow Spirit to guide our lives and to share and serve others with Divine Love and Light.
Sacha Runa is a name in Quecha which means, “We the people descended from ancestors in ancient times, who know how to live in harmony with the land and are connected with our ancestral truth, but courageously engaged with the forces of the present in order to co-create our future in meaningful ways.” The people of the Amazon that carry this name (quichas from the Napo, in Ecuador) seek to overcome the dissolution of their traditional life by the forces of modernisation by a careful combination of ancestral and acquired knowledge; they brave the future with a vision of utmost survival and cultural integrity.
Inspired by their example, Sacha Runa seeks to train Warriors of the New Earth, a generation of heart-centered people devoted to overcoming their egos, connecting to source, and sharing Love, Light and Beauty. They do not subscribe to any particular religion, but have received, applied and honoured every spiritual tradition and teaching placed on their path, applying the spiritual transmissions received with integrity and earnestness, studying the spiritual knowledge that was shared with them, and sharing the spiritual practices learned.
Ceremonies are performed using the healing properties of the great medicinal plant called ‘Ayahuasca’, used by Amazon tribes thousands of years ago as medicine. Some natives call her ‘The Mother of medicinal plants’ for it’s great powers to heal and cleanse the body, the mind and even our spiritual world. ‘Wachuma’ is a name in Quecha for the Trichocereus Bridgesii Cacti, considered “The Father of medicinal plants’. Their nature is both distinct and complimentary.
Sacha Runa Shamanic Community shares the magic, mystery, sacredness and healing through apprenticeships offered on an ongoing basis at their two retreat centers. Depending on your visit this might end with the Solstic December 18-21, their annual Condor and Eagle Sun-Moon Dance, their most important rite of the year. These internships offer two or three ceremonies a week, an intensive shamanic diet/retreat to learn from the different master plants. To make it as accessible and sustainable as possible the requested contribution is $1500/month. Allkamari Retreat Center is just a few miles from La Paz, overlooking the Valley of Souls and the stunning presence of Mt. Illimani. Wizard Mountain Retreat Center, Rurrenabaque, is in the Amazon where the valley stream meets the river Beni. The Healing Center carries the name of the mountain range that oversees it – Wizard Mountain.
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To find out more contact Miquel Kavlin, Founder, Sacha Runa Shamanic Healing Community
whatsapp: + 591 6893 1063
info@sacharuna.com
sacharuna.com
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