We arrived in Crestone on Wed, Nov. 2 after a short drive from Colorado Springs. Crestone, CO has become internationally known as a location for a large number of many different religious and spiritual traditions including Hindu ashrams, Zen Buddhist retreats, a Carmelite monastery, and
Tibetan Buddhist retreats.
Maurice and Hanne Strong purchased a great deal of land in the 1970s and supported spiritual projects by granting land and providing support to various spiritual groups.
I would say this is a fulfillment of destiny as the area is certainly conducive to meditation and spiritual practice. Farming would probably not fair well here –lots of rocks and high altitude.
Thrangu Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist lama, has stated that in part because Crestone is near the Continental Divide, with waters that flow in both directions, it is a particularly auspicious place. Just witnessing the sunrise and sunset on the Sangre de Cristo range can make you feel spiritual. We rented a little cabin in a neighborhood that contained several spiritual centers nearby including our morning destination. I also learned that the Maya called this the Valley of the Cranes - so the Ancient Ones were also here.
Gerald's best friend Dave Wolf flew up from Austin, TX to join us on this stop of our journey. It was really inspiring to have someone come to share this with us, and I think especially nice for Gerald. I would have been esctatic if my best friend flew out here. Dave has been here before to participate in a Hopi ceremonial dance near the Great Sand Dunes. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset walk in the valley.
The ceremony was moved from an outdoor medicine wheel on someone’s private property, to a local Buddhist center in order to accommodate more people. When we arrived at the new location for the ceremony, we were told the ceremony was delayed 1 hour due to traveler fatigue. Of course I knew this was going to happen the night before, but I still rushed to get there before 8 am… just in case. I am trying to respect the new “in harmony with time” characteristic I am cultivating. I started this timeline in July and it is working mostly. I’m an optimist. Evidently I did not respect the “listen to the inner voice” charactistic again, or I would have at least eaten breakfast. With that said, there is no way I would exchange anything of the morning for fulfillment of expectation. We parked the car along to road to Dharma Ocean Retreat Center, jumped out with our coats, and headed uphill for a brisk walk to the community building. The sunrise light over the Sangre de Cristos began to illuminate the peaks and the valley to the west. “Wow, what a beautiful place on the planet” is what I am thinking… along with, “woo hooo, once again the amount of people coming far exceeded expectations.” There are lots of cars and people walking with us. I sense a feeling of common purpose and harmony, people are here to experience this moment and contribute to the manifestation of a common goal… a new age of love and unity.
Possibly a couple of hundred people were already gathered in the room, fanning out from a central circle. We squeezed in between the back wall and the last ring of people in chairs. We sat on our coats and smiled at the people around us as more people came in and we continued to move to make room. A nice woman named Diane from Pagosa Springs was sitting to my left, so we chatted a little about our trip.
People seem to agree with my viewpoint that Jack and Haven are uniquely fortunate to be having this experience. One lady nearby even high-fived me. I do not think there is another family with kids traveling across the country to sacred sites to witness this historical event. The boys are even mimicking Hunbatz Men by frequently saying “I am very happy to see you again.” They try to mimick his accent by saying “vurry hoppy” several times after, as they giggle. I think it is great they paid enough attention to actually remember something he said.
Someone from the community gathered everyone’s attention and led us in a heart smile meditation that culminated in us radiating out our love from that single point of light to the entire planet. I felt like I was part of the sun.
As the meditation ended, the woman toned and the entire room was filled with the voices of individual tones that combined into an angelic choir. Occasionally I just listened in amazement. Then drumming and chanting continued on for while including a joint chant of Hunab K’u (the Mayan word for the One Supreme God - the All That Is, the Center ) with the intention of sending gratitude and energy to the travelers and elders that are on this journey to heal our nation. We sang several repetitive chants:
“We are one with the infinite sun, forever and ever and ever”,
“Oh Mother we are calling, your children, we send healing”
“I am one, you are one, we are one together, unify people”
“Earth my body, water my blood, wind my breath, and fire my spirit”
We continued to keep sacred space open for the arrival of Hunbatz Men and the guardians for almost 4 hours. Amazingly – even though there was admittedly an increasing expectation of their arrival – we used the No Time to create something beautiful. They were able enter into energized sacred space instead of having to spend precious energy bringing us in.
This day, Hunbatz Men spoke of the number 13 and touched on other subjects including the Mayan philosophy of correcting mistakes. It seems that this pilgrimage is also about honoring the ancestors by correcting the mistakes relating to the way this land has turned away from spirit. At each of the places we have visited, he has referred to ancient Mayas as the people who began these civilized locations including “Manhattan” (a derivative of the Mayan word for that place) which is where our country was born. Traveling across the land with the skulls is going back again to correct the mistake of turning away from cosmic education. He says the cosmic education will come from the crystal skulls, and this is necessary in order for us to continue. He said the number 13 is in our body, represented by the major joints that are involved in our movement. 3 joints each in the arms and legs equaling 12, plus the neck. He said the movement of the joints connects us to the 13 dimensions and 13 planets which each give a certain energy. The diameter of the Earth is 13 thousand kilometers. The Maya say the earth has the same measure as our body. Our spirit is formed in the sacred geometrical shape of the sphere which is “OL” in Mayan.
He opened up the discussion to questions, several of which related to the Mayan calendar and the end of time. After shortly saying that the Maya have many calendars, he took the opportunity to ask “Does the Gregorian calendar connect the people to spirit?” No! He said this is why we should return to the 13 month calendar based on the moon and in this way begin to reconnect the people to the Earth and the cosmos. He has made several references to how the feminine energy is re-emerging to balance the planet, and again referred to the moon as the energy of women, the regulator of women’s bodies and the source of wisdom in women. He also says the first part of our spirit comes from the sun, so in the morning we should venerate the sun. Someone asked what practice we could do to keep in balance with these changing times, and he answered that we should be with the sun. Send love and gratitude to the sun. I have practiced sun gazing over the last year, and certainly can say the results are amazing.
Here is a great video with Hira Ratan Manek about sun gazing.
The idea of correcting mistakes seems like a form of clearing karma to me. If you view karma as a form of cause and effect, that allows us to see the reaction of our actions, then clearing karma would be like correcting mistakes. From my experience, I know there is personal karma involved in a situation, when there is an emotional charge which feels out of my control. A couple of weeks before coming on this journey, I had the opportunity to clear karma in 3 relationships that had an unresolved emotional element. It was as if my heart was clearing wounds in order to be able to step up to being ready for unconditional love. It is necessary to clear our personal karmas before we begin to take on the collective karma and heal our planet. This is a good time to do this kind of work since timelines are in an open continuum and we can affect past, present, and future lives by doing the work in this one now. Come on people, we can do this.
On our way out of the San Juan valley on Friday, we stopped at the Great Sand Dunes National Park for an adventure sliding down the sand slopes. If you have never hiked up a mountain of sand, let me say this is an experience of 2 steps forward, one step back.. except it is more like step up, slide half way back down. I almost made it to what looked like the top of our dune, but found out there was just another slope out of sight. Kind of a metaphor for spiritual work except that this time sliding down was fun. I stopped to take in the view, feeling like a small grain of sand on our huge beautiful planet. It is awe inspiring to think about how huge these dunes are, how small they are compared to the neighboring mountains, and how small this one huge remote place is in relation to the planet. Then we could look to the stars…
Thank you , thank you , thank you. Your words and pictures are taking me along your journey just fine lolllI
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