GAIA MANDALA

Earth Treasure Vase for The Ashaninka Spiritual Portal,
Kampa do Rio Amonea Indigenous Land,
state of Acre in the Brazilian Amazon

The Earth Treasure Vase for the Brazilian Amazon was dedicated in late 2019, blessed and activated in February of 2020 and buried in October 2022 deep inside the forest of the Ashaninka Spiritual Portal belonging to the Ashaninka people in the village of Apiwtxa in Acre, Brazil.

Alison Fast stewarded the vase with the help of Clare Dubious and Tree Sisters, into the hands of the Ashaninka Elders Moises and Benki Piyako. She introduces the vase, the Ashaninka tribe and Benki and Moises.

During the first weekend in June, I attended an event called ANIWA, sponsored by the Boa Foundation, held in Big Bear, CA. Benki Piyãko, (pictured below) an indigenous spiritual leader from the Ashaninka tribe, was in attendance. It has been a long-held dream to be able to pass this vase to him. The opportunity became a reality for me to present him with the vase and invite him to make his own relationship to the living prayer that has been circulating among us. The results were quite amazing. Within 24 hours, he had prayed with the vase and had a profound vision:

It was over an hour that all of that happened. And then this blue ball exploded, like a lot of lights exploded. And I saw millions of fish standing on the ocean. And when all the fish were standing, then the vision disappeared from my eyes. And then everything disappeared and I came back to normal.

So inside of that vase, there are a lot of important messages, with the connection of millions of beings from the past, and beings from the present. Like the world is looking to rebirth. And so those fishes represent the hope and the strength in each and every individual of the Earth.

Both Benki and his brother Moises Piyãko, are chiefs, ecological activists and spiritual leaders (shaman), and they are already connected to our friends at TreeSisters and the Manitou Foundation. I had followed their work for more than a decade.

The Ashaninka Tribe

Benki, an Ashoka Fellow responsible for planting more than 2 million trees, is founder of the Yorenka Tasorentsi, please link! an institute dedicated to preserving environmental traditional knowledge and indigenous culture. Moises is founder of the Ashaninka Spiritual Portal, a healing center and school that trains young shaman to preserve the sacred knowledge of the forest. The Ashaninka tribe, also known as Kampa tribe, is one of the biggest indigenous groups in South America.

The Ashaninka live on the border between Brazil and Peru, the majority on the Peruvian side, inhabiting an area of 91,200 hectares that is increasingly invaded by the logging industry. Today Ashaninka communities are becoming essential players in the protection of the Amazon. Deforestation, mining, and logging all undermine the already limited power that indigenous people have over their main resource, the forest.

the blessings. Then on the second day, when His Holiness entered the auditorium, he paused in front of our little holy vessel and gave it his personal blessing!

During his public talk, the Dalai Lama said, “We must take care of the land as it is the basis of our future. We have only one blue planet and we must think of our global humanity and take global responsibility for the global issues we face now.” He encouraged us to “develop a sense of the Oneness of humanity and a warm-heartedness towards our fellow human beings.”

“Compassion is our nature,” he observed. “Please lead a meaningful life and be a friend in your community. Train in a peaceful mind so that at the end of life you will be happy.”

Both Benki and Moises are increasing the capacity of indigenous peoples to defend their land against outside exploitation while teaching these communities improved land management techniques to benefit from their natural resources and preserve the rich and unique ecosystem.

Dedication of the Earth Treasure Vase
Of the 60+ Earth Treasure Vases now active, this vase is dedicated to a unified prayer for the healing and protection of the Amazon Forest and all of its biodiversity, to the restoration of the homelands of traditional peoples, through tree planting, conservation and the preservation of traditional knowledge that empowers those people who are leading the change in consciousness that our world needs at this time, for our humanity, for all life.

Throughout the last two years, I have had the honor to work with Clare Dubois of TreeSisters (who has been working in collaboration with Benki to plant trees) and Cynthia Jurs of Alliance for the Earth, who have held events to empower this vase and offer prayers from their communities in North America and Europe into the vase. Together we have each held a strong intention for the vase to go to Benki, Moises and the Ashaninka people for their land.

After receiving the vase and the vision shared above, at the ANIWA gathering, Benki brought the vase to a circle of approx. 40 elders in a prayer ceremony, for them to also offer their prayers and intentions. It was a beautiful culmination of this vase’s journey so far, to witness Benki, who is so dedicated to awakening consciousness to the value of all life on the planet, make an authentic connection with the vase, accept responsibility to travel and steward the vase on behalf of the Amazon, and continue to fill the vase with intentions from South America.

I am deeply grateful to be on this journey with Cynthia and Clare, and look forward to announcing the moment in which the vase will be buried—and inviting participation of the Alliance for the Earth community on this occasion.

Learn more about TreeSister’s support for the Ashaninka and the Amazon at:
https://treesisters.org/grow-forests/state-of-acre-brazil

In October 2022, the Amazon vase was quietly buried deep in the forest during the full moon by the Ashaninka spiritual leader, Moises Piyãko, and a small group in his community. We would like to circle back to this vase, and share more about its journey and about the incredible environmental and cultural activism being done in the communities where the vase is buried.

The following writing is a transcribed excerpt of what was being shared during the Full Moon call in March 2023 by Alice Fortes and Alison Fast.

Alice Fortes has been working with Indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon for fifteen years, and has learned from and is in close contact with Moises at the Ashaninka Spiritual Portal. She shares more about the conservation, preservation, and visionary cultural work being done there. Alison Fast who stewarded the Amazon vase into the hands of the Indigenous Elders shares some of her own experiences in the journey to burial.

Alison Fast:
The earth treasure vase was dedicated in late 2019. I heard about Benki and Moises, who are brothers and chiefs in the Ashaninka tribe. I had heard of them and the power of their work through the Manitou Foundation who supported them for several decades. When I got to meet Benki, one of the leaders in person, I was blown away by his vision. His consciousness went so far beyond his own village and really embraced the idea of the healing of our planet. He had such a comprehensive sense of compassion for not only his own people, but for all tribes of the Amazon, for conceiving of cultural ways and economic ways that were so revolutionary for his time. He was able to bridge worlds in a way that I haven’t witnessed before among those indigenous communities. So I was immediately drawn to the possibility of passing the vase to them when it was dedicated.

Alice became the perfect liaison for us to communicate with Moises and Benki. The vase was passed to Benki when he landed in California for an Elders gathering. From there he was able to steward it back to his brother. The destination of that vase became the Ashaninka spiritual portal, which is an actual site which Moises envisioned to help to train young shaman and others in the knowledge of the forest. I felt it was really important to honor both the tree planting and vision Benki holds for the Ashaninka. It is so important to be tending to the ecology. But I also felt that it was very important to honor the vision of his brother Moises who is saving the sacred knowledge of the forest. That is something we don’t talk about as much. But every time a leader in the Amazon is felled, the trees are felled. We lose intergenerational knowledge that stretches as far back as the trees themselves. It feels so important to have this site, that is going to be for the continuity of this knowledge, that helps us to continue to know the birdsong and to know the ways to relate, to work with the medicines of the deep forest. The Ashaninka Spiritual Portal is going to be that place. It is really appropriate that Alice is here to help us envision a little bit more of the importance of this site and how it is situated. She helps us to create a very unique bridge to Moises, who is very deep in the Amazon and who is very pure in his intention and spiritual devotion to the Earth.

Alice Fortes:
I have been very close to the Ashaninka for many years. With my master studies I got to dive deep into their knowledge and their spiritual studies. Moises recorded a video for us from the forest, but the internet is terrible, so the only way we got this video was in tiny pieces and bits. I helped translate the video that he recorded. What I´d like to do here is to read through what he told us in the video.

Good evening everyone!

I come here to talk a little about the story of our spiritual world. This work of the spiritual world within our forest, where we live. The importance of it. For us, it is very respected and highly valued. Our story says that, without a spiritual world, we cannot live; we pass, but we do not live. So for us, it is very clear that we have two different worlds: the physical world, and the spiritual world. And there are very few who are able to find the spiritual world; most live only the material life. We have this story of always keeping in our culture, as we say, another world, invisible, which is the spiritual one. And here, within a necessity, I saw that our community needed a place like the Portal – within the work that I do spiritually, I received a call. It showed me a place to work in our spiritual world here in Apiwtxa.

So this place, I’m working on it. We named it the Ashaninka Spiritual Portal, where we work with the spiritual energies of the Ashaninka spiritual world and allow this to pass on to our children and to continue within our history. We must keep it alive. So, this place was chosen, and it is a very important place for us in our lives and in all our work to give continuity to our people. It is not just a spiritual world. It is a whole school for our indigenous and non-indigenous worlds: the world that lives in the forest. Everything from animals, birds and all the energies we need to survive. And today, I feel this responsibility to pass this on to the young people and to really place this world, and this knowledge, within the ambiance we live in.

And I am delighted with this recognition and that people got to know a little about this spiritual center of Apiwtxa. That trust, right? I’m talking about the sacred vase, about this place being chosen for one of these vases, within this spiritual force, within the care we have with all of nature. This, for me, is a huge thing because our planet really needs unification, even if it is in this spiritual world, so that it may join and strengthen many energies that are being taken from the Earth, many energies that are being destroyed. And the Earth is getting weak, and the Earth, this energy of the Earth, doesn’t want to give a response. It has the strength to do so, but it’s enduring all this; it’s waiting for those who can understand who she is to be able to unify and strengthen the continuity of the lives of all beings.

We see the entire Amazon today, how it’s being destroyed; we see all the indigenous peoples, with all their wisdom, their sciences, who are there, ignored by everyone, and who are being destroyed, are being decimated. We have a lot to help, but we also need to be understood, so that this can be the unification that will give us the life and light we need on this planet. But it’s tough. I hope that this spiritual unification we’ve been working on can touch the minds; that’s my thought: that this spiritual world can touch the minds of other people who have not stopped to look, to feel what nature is, who live without understanding what living is. Because without this universe, no one lives, and it is not other people who are doing it; it is not the creator who is doing it; it is the humans who are doing it in this nature.

Thank you very much for this trust! Today we have this new government that just entered. I hope that with this thought, blessed by God, it can bring a very positive result to mother nature, which is in need. Because the other president who left was very difficult for us. It was challenging. We thought life wasn’t going to last long. But we still have hope. Our hope of living never ended because while we see a tree and some birds singing to us, we are living. Now, when this is over, then we don’t live anymore. And that strength is a hope not just for my people and me, and not just for all the other peoples who are being destroyed and slaughtered, but for all beings on this planet who need that energy, that peace, that love. So that we can unify an alliance that will give a signal to Pawa (Ashaninka deity), and to us here on Earth, for continuity. Thank you very much!

Is the Amazon the center of the world? I don’t know if it is the center of the world, but the Amazon in our world, as we see it, I don’t know if I can say what the Amazon is, but I can say that the forest, yes, she is the center of everyone’s life. Without this forest, no one will live. Yes, one can live, but they won’t have a pleasant life, a peaceful life, like the one we have here in the forest. The response I say that nature has to give is powerful; no one resists. Today it is happening there, these phenomena that have been destroying the big cities: rain that is killing people, places that are dry, on fire; everything is unbalanced. It isn’t the creator who is throwing it out of balance; those who are unbalancing it are those that He left here on this planet as responsible for taking care of it.

So, what I can say is that without this forest, nobody has water, and nobody has pure air to breathe. And if nobody has these two things, primarily, I don’t know who can live because we can’t live without them.

That was his message for all of us. I would like to share a few things with you to deepen the understanding of his words.

One is that there is indeed a dark side happening with the destruction. Moises and Benki are both artists, painters. I remember once seeing one of Moises’ paintings, it was a beautiful one, but a part of it was really dark. I said: ‘’such beautiful light in the forest, why do you have this there?’’ He said that this is happening too and that we have to see and have to know this as well. That is what is portrayed here in his speech. The other thing that I learned in my studies with him, is that they thought for a moment that life would not exist for much longer. But then at the same time, there is the tree and the birds singing for the trees. Through that they know that there is hope and that life exists. For them, the spiritual world and the physical world are parallel and interconnected. The spiritual ‘’enchanted’’ beings live in the forest.

In the beginning of times, when Pawa, their deity, created the Earth, he transformed many Ashaninka people into different animals, especially birds. For the Ashaninka, when they listen to a bird they receive messages from it. The whole spiritual knowledge, the deep knowledge they have, he says, is carried out through these enchanted beings that live in the forest. That is one of the reasons why the forest is so important and why there is hope for life, when the trees are there and the birds are singing. He knows that the spiritual force on Earth is still here. The physical world is the one that is endangered, but it is all connected. So those enchanted spiritual beings, they are in the forest, they are invisible to our eyes, but they are there and visible through ritual especially through the shamans. That is what I wanted to add to the text I just read.

The vision for the Ashaninka Spiritual Portal as Moises mentioned is something he received through Ayahuasca ceremonies. He had received many times this call that he had to start a place where this knowledge could be studied deeper and could be passed on between generations. He knew where this place would be located. One hour further up the river, passing the village of Apiwtxa. It is a bit higher, everything is very plain on the lowlands of the Amazon there. When you get to the top there you get to see a big horizon of forest.. That is a place for them to connect to the spiritual life.

For me the village and the forest is such a sanctuary, so to me it didn’t make sense to have another place. I started to understand that for the community itself, the village is their day to day life. They have their husbands, kids and all the dynamics of things. This other space is entirely dedicated to spiritual life. Moises particularly, wants to make sure that the younger generation keeps connected and gets to have this deeper understanding. Technology is arriving, they have bad signal in the forest, but they do have wifi that works sometimes a little bit. The young ones love their mobiles whenever they can, it is part of the times. And it is not necessarily bad that they are doing that. But it is important to make sure that the connection to ancestral spiritual knowledge and their roots will go on and will have a continuity. That is really what will make sure that the people themselves will have the continuity that they need and deserve. This place is really a place where they can go and deepen their studies. To go on retreat let’s say. To have exchanges of older shamans with the younger generations. This is a very sacred land that he is taking care of as a steward. There is a whole area around the center, where no one can hunt or cut trees, it is a place that is sacred. He knows that the forest spirit is strong there, he is taking care of it. He mentions in his talk here that for them Powa lived here with them in the Ashaninka world, but went to the sky let’s say. He left the Ashaninka kids here to take care of the planet. For them, our mission as humans is to be stewards of the land, is to take care of Mother Earth, is to take care of the planet. That is really the big mission of the Portal.

I haven’t seen where the vase was buried myself, but I know it is within the lands of the spiritual portal. There is a specific place in the center of the portal, where they do the Ayahuasca ceremony, which is the most sacred plant medicine to them. All the times when I did ceremonies there, Moises always sat facing East. He has built a little place for the ceremony that is an arrow shape that points towards the East. When he chants, he chants to the East. He even showed me that during a ceremony, when he chants in that direction, his voice echoes. He explained to me that he buried the vase to the direction of the East, to where the Sun comes. That is where the earth treasure vase is…

Resources

Resources
Yorenka Tasorentsi – https://yorenkatasorentsi.org/the institute founded by Benki Piyãko, dedicated to preserving environmental traditional knowledge and indigenous culture.

Manitou Foundation – www.manitou.org

Tree Sisters – www.treesisters.org