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Ezine Ezine Artciles The Pachamama Alliance and The Awakening the Dreamer
Ezine Ezine Artciles The Pachamama Alliance and The Awakening the Dreamer | The Pachamama Alliance and The Awakening the Dreamer |
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The Pachamama Alliance is a non-profit organisation, based in San Francisco, that is addressing the greatest challenge of our time: to change the ‘dream’ of our modern technological-industrial culture so that it is not about consuming the Earth and its resources and peoples, and maybe consuming ourselves in the process. For the past 10 years, The Pachamama Alliance has worked with several tribes in the Amazon basin of Ecuador (particularly the Achuar, a tribe which, until about 12 years ago, had little contact with the western world), in a partnership with the goal of preserving the rainforest and their own cultures. These tribes are choosing to engage the modern industrial world on their own terms, selecting the ways that they want to change. It is widely considered one of the most successful tribal associations in South America. ‘Pachamama’ refers to ‘the Spirit of the Earth and the Universe’ in the Quechoa language of the Andes highlands of Ecuador. From the very beginning, the elders of these tribes also told the founders of The Pachamama Alliance that, if we wanted to preserve the rainforest and indigenous cultures like theirs, our most important work was back in our own part of the world - that we needed to work ‘to change the dream of the modern world.’ And by ‘dream,’ they mean our cultural beliefs (including unconscious assumptions) about what the purpose, meaning, and direction of our lives is. They recognised that our cultural Dream, based on supposedly endless economic growth and increased consumption, regardless of the consequences, is completely unsustainable. If it is not changed, that fundamental Dream will soon destroy their world - and ours as well. Even though that request to ‘change the dream of the modern world’ seems like an impossible task, Pachamama decided that the Achuar are right about how to approach the situation: the solutions to our current problems aren’t just about changing certain of our actions or conduct—rather, the change required goes much deeper, to our unconscious beliefs regarding what life is ‘about’ and what goals we are heading towards. We need to change our Dream. Motivated by that powerful request from the Achuar, Pachamama has researched, designed and begun offering a four–to–five hour transformational event called the ‘Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium.’ With the help of high-quality video interviews of leading experts and thinkers such as Desmond Tutu, Paul Hawken, Brian Swimme, and Julia Butterfly Hill, the Symposium looks at where the current Dream of the modern industrial world is taking us, and what we can do to create a new dream. The purpose of the Symposium is a large one: bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, and socially just human presence on this planet. The Symposium is organised around four key questions: ‘Where Are We?’ What are the facts about where our current cultural ‘dream’ is taking us - the facts in terms of (a) its impact on the environment, (b) its impact on social justice issues, and (c) its impact on our own emotional and spiritual well-being? The Symposium demonstrates that these three issues are actually profoundly interconnected - we can’t address any one of those areas without addressing all three. You could even think of them as ultimately one issue. ‘How Did We Get Here?’ Rather than immediately move to finding solutions or deciding on actions, the Symposium next asks, ‘If where this current dream seems to be taking us is not what we want, what are the root causes of why we keep going down this path?’ Those root causes are primarily in unconscious, unexamined assumptions about the purpose and meaning of life, such as the idea that ‘more is better.’ Once we know the root causes of the dream that we are currently living, we can more effectively change directions, both personally and culturally. ‘What is possible for the future?’ This section looks at what resources are actually available to help us create a new dream, and reveals that there is a vast cultural movement emerging around the Earth in support of this vision. This movement will become the dominant cultural vision as we learn to connect with each other and bring our vision into action, in community. ‘Where Do We Go From Here?’ In this section, the participants themselves choose what actions and responses they will take in order to be part of the new dream emerging for our culture. The Symposium also emphasises that responses by individuals acting as ‘lone rangers’ are no longer sufficient to achieve the changes that need to be made. Changes on the scale that is necessary will require our acting in community, in an interconnected way. Much of the Symposium is inspired by the world view of indigenous people, and by how we might merge the best of that ancient indigenous wisdom with the best parts of our modern scientific/technological culture, to create an entirely new vision of the world and our place in it. The Symposium is motivated by a desire to open a hopeful inquiry for the participants, without blame, anger, or forcing of agendas––letting the wisdom and commitment of the participants emerge and become engaged and connected in a new way, inspiring them to action in creating a new dream for our future. The Symposium has been very successful since it was launched in March 2005 and is growing rapidly in its audience. There are now about 1800 trained leaders of the Symposium throughout the world, and the Symposium is currently being offered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Great Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and The Philippines. It has been translated into French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic, and additional versions aimed at youth and at the business/corporate community are currently under development. Visit www.pachamama.org and www.awakeningthedreamer.org for more. ‘The [Changing the Dream] Symposium is designed to accelerate the Great Turning to a just and sustainable world. It awakens us and reconnects us with our place in the web of life. I'm very impressed with the approach and the quality of the program.’ - Joanna Macy, renowned environmental Buddhist activist and author |
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