Maui, Hawaii
This Winter Solstice we brought our 26th Earth Treasure Vase to Maui as an offering for the restoration of balance and harmony among all beings. Our global mandala is now being activated by planting the remaining five vases (out of the thirty we started with) in sacred places that are like key acupuncture points for the planet. Maui is such a place.
Many of us have sacrificed our own needs for the sake of the work that calls. We recognize that we, too, are part of the interconnected web of life, and thus, out of balance! The need to restore balance personally, as well as collectively, is something that is true everywhere for just about everyone. It is a requirement of walking the path of global awakening to live in balance with the Earth, with each other, and with ourselves.
Image courtesy Buddhapath
With the Earth Treasure Vase for Hawaii, our intention was to make this need conscious and spoken, knowing that it must be so for our collective healing to be complete. We offered ourselves to this vase with the intention of restoring balance between our inner and outer lives as individuals, between the masculine and feminine in right relationship, and between our collective body and the body of Earth, herself. We know that what we do and who we are together affects the whole. We are each a part of a global mandala.
Bringing an Earth Treasure Vase to Maui continued a process we have engaged to connect the powerful sites on the meridians of the Earth we have recently visited, including Egypt and South Africa. According to some researchers, Maui is one of four key energy centers on the planet, along with Egypt, South Africa and New Zealand.
The Burial
Our 26th Earth Treasure Vase was safely buried on the slopes of Haleakala in Maui on the winter solstice, December 21st. What joy!
A beautiful ceremony the night of the 20th was organized by our dear friend Joana Johnston with members of the local community. Their prayers and blessings were strong and deep and everyone was very moved by the practice, which Joana will continue to facilitate on future full moons. Open Way Sangha member Burke Denman flew in that night and made his way through the pouring rain to find us. Rain fell in droves and punctuated our prayers like the lions’ roar in Timbavati.
We woke early on the solstice and began our preparations. My husband Hugh and I had our own personal offerings to make into the vase and poured our hearts and all our love into this one! Burke then joined us to make his own final offerings and poured waters from the Santa Fe watershed into the pot along with his tears. This vase received waters from all over the world: the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, the Nile, Ganges, Niger and Amazon rivers, and so many tears and blessed rain from here in the middle of the ocean.
After singing a song of new beginnings, we added the last offering — sea salt from the local lava beds, which is a traditional Native Hawaiian offering for cleansing and purification. The vase was corked, sealed with beeswax, tied with silks and cords, and all sealed again with golden sealing wax.
The vase was buried in the most beautiful container imaginable, given by a kind and generous friend of the ETV Project. We placed the vase in a kata in its box, then wrapped the beautiful container in Ti leaves in the Hawaiian way, draped a lei of tuber roses around it and tied it with another white kata as our precious gift to this land.
The rains cleared, the wind calmed, the fog lifted and the warm sun came out! We drove to a site on the slopes of Haleakala, allowing ourselves to be guided in great humility and respect to a good location. We felt confident in the place we were shown and after more prayers began to dig at 2:22 pm. The Earth opened easily — we mostly dug deep with our hands — and covered our offering of collective love and heartfelt intentions on behalf of all beings with rich dirt and duff, leaving no trace. The job was done!
As we drove off, a rainbow appeared and then another and another…Maui is truly the land of rainbows where you can literally reach out and touch them. Such an auspicious blessing!
Image courtesy Prayer Rock Foundation
Later, we returned to the summit of the volcano to mediate over the actual time of the solstice. The sun had set, but from up above the clouds we witnessed a red band of light that lingered on the horizon as the stars began to light up the sky above. We sat on the volcanic rock and invoked the global ETV mandala in our hearts, making this new connection between Maui, Egypt, South Africa, and beyond. I felt a strong sense of energy going down to the molten core of the Earth and Hugh felt a lifting off to the stars in deepest outer space — and all around this beautiful blue green planet we call home.
May our entry into a new story be blessed with auspiciousness and miracles and may we each give our gifts in a sustainable way filled with openhearted loving kindness and much bodhicitta!
A special thank you to Wendy Grace for her generosity in support of this ETV; Joana Johnston for hosting us so graciously and stepping forward to learn the practice; Carl Rozycki for contributing his spectacular film footage of Maui for our new story; and to the Prayer Rock Foundation for its spiritual support of the Maui ETV.
And many thanks to all of you for being in this wide circle of love with us, with each other and with the whole Earth.
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