3 Things South American Protests Taught Me
Photo by Kumiko Hayashi
3 minute read
"We are not protestors; we are protectors," I heard a woman shout out in the middle of a protest. What exactly is a protest anyways? Technically it's an expression or declaration in objection to something. However, after hearing this women declare that they were protectors rather than protestors, I began to reflect more deeply on what protestors are protecting.
To be honest, the first time I took to the streets in a massive protest in South America I didn't really understand what I was protesting. A friend invited me, so I agreed to go out of curiosity. As soon as I arrived, I felt I was joining something much greater than myself. Since then I've many to many more protests. What are the three most important things I've witnessed from Latin American protests?
Community
In South America community is everything. A strong sense of community is built upon an interwoven web of relations, between the people and their environment. People in Latin America live daily life based on this foundation, and therefore can successfully organize in protests.
Last year in 2019, I participated in one of the most historic protests in Ecuador. It lasted over 11 days and halted all transportation throughout the country. The indigenous communities in particular left their villages and camped out among major roads, blocking all incoming and outgoing traffic. This statement to the government showed the strength of their communities.
Of course, after several days access to food became an issue. On the ninth day of the protest, some families came on canoes to bring fresh food to the protestors; others brought water and supplies to the people on foot. On the eleventh day, the government realized the strength of the communities was far greater than themselves and they agreed to negotiate the political agenda that was being rejected by the people in the protest.
Culture
Latin America is rich in culture. Also, there is a great number of indigenous tribes, each with their own unique set of traditions and customs. One of the most powerful components of protests in Ecuador that I've witnessed is the power of culture as a tool of resistance.
In the Andes, the Incan culture still exits. Every June the communities gather together for a seven-day celebration, Inti Raymi, where each family dances from house to house, and then community to community until they have circulated around the entire village.
While filming for, The Roots Awaken, I once attended a protest where a group of youth from the Incan town of Peguche gathered for a protest, with their traditional instruments. They danced as if they were celebrating Inti Raymi. They brought this special energy of the ancient ceremony to the other participants in the protest, who united alongside them.
Ceremony
You can see a protest as a gathering of people that are in opposition to a political action or an incident that occurred. However, in another light protests are gatherings of people who deeply share the same feeling for something. The heart is what drives people to leave their homes to march. A simple intellectual opinion might not be enough to leverage someone to stop their daily life to unite with others.
Witnessing ceremonies during protests have taught me the power of united prayer. One time at a protest I saw a group of people circled around an alter in the middle of the street. There were flowers and offerings beautifully placed on the ground. In the middle there was gourd filled with incense and a fire dancing in the air. There were many elders from different communities praying together.
People from all different backgrounds were gathered around them. There was a moment when everyone kneeled to the ground and at the climax of the ceremony. I looked around and saw many people in tears. This opened the protest, which led late into the night. I witnessed the power of ceremony as a way to connect people from one heart to another; a force much greater than we can understand with our minds or perceive with our eyes. It is felt in the collective soul.
Essentially people march on the streets because they are protecting rights that will not be compromised. A sense of one heartedness, culture, and community are the three greatest aspects of protests in South America that I've witnessed. To see more stay tuned for scenes of protests in the documentary, The Roots Awaken.
written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Why There is No Solution to the Global Crisis Without Indigenous Spirituality
Photo by Jimmy Piaguaje
2.5 minute read
Nobody is writing about this. There are tribes that forecasted the environmentally destructive nature of our economic models before the term climate change was even coined.
The world's top experts have spent the past 30 years warning us about its dangers and the need to immediately address the problem as a global community. The Paris Agreement is a landmark environmental accord that was adopted by nearly every nation in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts.
International leaders poured time and energy into this agreement, but how much of it is actually redirecting the destiny of humanity? According to Nassos Stylianou from BBC News, " We are not on track to meet climate change targets. If we add up all the promises to cut emissions made by countries that are party to the Paris climate agreement, the world would still warm by more than 3C by the end of this century."
If the "top experts" in the western world have failed to implement sustainable solutions, who do we look to now? Indigenous people have been living in their ancestral territories for thousands of years, maintaining harmony and balance with the natural world.
Indigenous spirituality is an advanced technology, that was used to reorient people in previous cycles of drastic climate change. According to Clifford Mahooty of the Zuni tribe, "We know that we were part of the universal system, and we accessed it by prayer, ritual, and ceremony. We used different techniques; for example, fasting, prayer, and meditation."
The Zuni tribe, located in the Southwest of the United States, is one of many indigenous tribes that have advanced ways of accessing higher consciousness, which has provided solutions in times of environmental crisis.
Recent research demonstrates that while the world’s indigenous peoples make up less than 5% of the total human population, they manage or hold tenure over 25% of the world’s land surface and support about 80% of the global biodiversity.
How can we possibly talk about climate change solutions without including the voice of indigenous people? As a global community, we have lost our way; and we have lost a spiritual relationship with the land. According to Jon Waterhouse, an Indigenous Peoples Scholar at the Oregon Health and Science University, "The future of our planet lies in indigenous ways of living on the Earth.”
To gain a deeper understanding of indigenous spirituality and climate change; I lived with over 15 tribes from South to North America. While filming for The Roots Awaken, I participated in many rituals and ceremonies that all led me to the same awareness; we are one and inseparable from our environment. Also, one of the biggest reasons that world leaders have failed us is because they are using too much of their mind and not enough of their heart to address the root problems of climate change.
It's essentially the golden rule; the way we treat our environment is the way we treat ourselves. Unfortunately, most of us are disconnected from the cause and effect relationship of our actions towards the earth. In our modern society, some "top experts" and environmentalists call themselves climate change activists, but rely entirely on markets for their consumption.
While living in indigenous communities in South America, over 85% of the food I consumed came directly from the land I was on. Most of the time the people that fed me planted the food themselves; maintaining a direct relationship with the environment.
Indigenous spirituality is based on a longstanding cosmo-vision that respects the law of cause and effect. The ceremonies and rituals maintain a strict web of relations between the people and the environment that keep them in balance; preventing overconsumption and destruction.
To learn more about indigenous spirituality and how it can be used to create climate change solutions follow The Roots Awaken.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Buddhism, Ayahuasca, and Oil Spills
Oneness of Life and its Environment
I was born into a family where both of my parents had established a daily Buddhist practice. For over 13 years, I have also been actively practicing Buddhism. One’s life and the environment are often viewed as being completely distinct, but from the comprehensive viewpoint of Buddhist philosophy, they are one and inseparable.
It is a common human tendency to blame our problems and sufferings on things outside ourselves—other people, circumstances beyond our control. The principle of the “oneness of life and its environment,” however, demonstrates that the causes of our joys and sorrows originate within us. As I began to base my life on this principle, I realized that the environment is a reflection of my inner state of life.
Arriving at the Largest Oil Disaster in the Amazon Rainforest
When I arrived in the Northern Amazon Rainforest, I witnessed one of the greatest human-caused environmental disasters. Most people probably don't realize this, but Ecuador's home to the largest oil spill in history. Between 1964 and 1992 the oil company Texaco, now owned by Chevron, dumped over 16 billion gallons of oil waste in Ecuador's Amazon region of Lago Agrio.
From the perspective of Buddhism, how could I personally take responsibility for this horrific catastrophe that I was witnessing before my eyes? One of the world's most vital rivers poisoned, thousands of indigenous people sick from contamination, and the most biodiverse forest on earth sinking in toxic waste. I began to reflect on the root cause.
As a Japanese American, I understood that the western world today is literary running on oil. Everything we consume somehow has been touched by oil. As a participant in the current oil run reality, a great inner resolve emerged as I decided to take responsibility to change my immediate environment. Filming the stories of those impacted by this environment for the film, The Roots Awaken, provided a solution to change poison into medicine. I felt empowered that I had the power to change my environment.
Drinking Ayahuasca with Cofan Tribe
The Cofan, are an indigenous people, that live in land that is impacted by the oil disaster. They have been environmental stewards of the ancestral territory long before oil began to spill into the pristine jungle. Soon after chanting to create hope from the disaster I saw, I was invited to an Ayahuasca ceremony with a prominent medicine man from the community.
I arrived in the community as the sun was setting. I walked through dense jungle brush before arriving to the maloka, or ceremonial house. Ayahuasca is an ancestral medicine that connects one back to the origin; the source of all life where everything that has existed, exits, and will exist collides.
After sipping the thick brew from a gourd, I sat back in my hammock and shut my eyes. After an hour I began to feel my soul slip between my ribs and rise towards the distant sky. In a profound state of grace with the cosmos I had a vision of a black snake slithering across the land; fires spreading across the jungle and heavy smoke filling the air. That was one of many things I saw throughout the night.
At dawn, the first light began to fill the ceremonial lodge, as I slowly moved my toes and fingers. I took a long slow inhale as tears began to slide down my cheeks; I am alive I told myself. Looking around at the beauty of the environment I felt a great blessing, to take yet another breath of life.
Indigenous Resistance
The Cofan have been battling the effects of the oil companies since they arrived in 1964. The longest ongoing environmental justice court case is still ongoing. To learn more and take action visit Amazon Frontlines. Many people understand the disastrous impact that large oil spills have on the environment and the people that live there. However, few people know the power of the Cofan wisdom and medicine. In addition to ayahuasca, there are thousands of medicinal plants in the jungle that can be used to heal and advance the consciousness of humanity.
Witnessing the worst environmental disaster and the greatest indigenous ancestral wisdom at the same time left me feeling that humanity must take responsibility for their actions. After drinking ayahuasca I felt the true interconnectedness between myself and all of life. Through undergoing my own inner human revolution, my Buddhist practice has allowed me to take action to change my environment. When we see that we are inseparable from the place we live, we begin to protect and care for the source of life. Stay tuned for more solutions in The Roots Awaken.
written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Inca Ceremony in the Chaos of the 21st Century
Photo by Kumiko Hayashi
3 minute read
Ceremonies are performed throughout the world; each nationality has its own unique set of rituals for specific occasions. Indigenous cultures continue to maintain their ancestral services today. Why is indigenous ceremony particularly so important in the 21st ceremony?
As our world continues to advance technologically, there has been an acceleration of chaos in society. While we may have developed our logical left brain, perhaps we have forgotten to also evolve the most important organ in the human body, the heart.
Great experts in the field of heart ceremony come from Tahuantinsuyu; the name for the Inca civilization that spread across South America in the present-day countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Conducting regular ceremony has been a part of Inca culture for thousands of years, and is one of the key reasons that their society was able to thrive.
The invasion of the Spanish in the 1500s changed Inca culture drastically; however the leaders were able to take their ceremonies underground and keep them alive. Today the sons and daughters of the great Inca ceremony leaders are awake and conducting the ceremonies that their elders have instructed them to perform in the changing of this cycle; the fifth world on planet earth.
When winter turned to spring, the great Inca ceremony Pawkar Raymi, was being prepared for as I found myself in the high Andes Mountains of Ecuador. Four major ceremonies are still practiced today in the Inca communities that remain in the Andes. These "raymis" or celebrations in the Incan language are in the summer, fall, winter, and spring equinox; in sync with the major solar transitions.
I happened to be in the community of Peguche on the spring equinox for the Pawkar Raymi celebration filming for The Roots Awaken. I arrived at a small traditional adobe house where many young people were cheerfully talking and tuning their instruments. There was a sense of heightened excitement in the air.
Soon after we gathered together and left, marching to the center square as the youth dressed in beautiful robes led the way playing their traditional instruments. Soon hundreds of people joined as we continued to walk down to a small stream near the closest mountain.
There was an Inca man dressed in all white, standing knee depth in front of a small cave where the water was coming from the ground. The musicians continued to play as the entire community gathered by the water. He held a gourd where a fire burned as incense filled the air.
Pawkar Raymi, is the celebration of water and the flourishing of life as the winter cycle turns into spring. A ceremony is held in each local community to initiate the celebration. The medicine leader performs a ritual, giving thanks to the water that allows for the harvest to grow, and the abundance of food that the earth provides to the people.
What is the key factor that allows the medicine person to invoke the power of the natural world and the community? The answer is simple but far greater to embody; the magnitude of the heart. Gratitude is the ceremony, as the leader transmits life force energy through the elements of fire, earth, water, and air to the community.
After the ritual came to a close, there was an abundance of flowers and several community members began to splash water on everyone in the crowd, initiating the new cycle. The people then walked from house to house, cheerfully tossing water upon everyone in the community. This continued into the night, as the people united sharing food and drink together in one another's homes.
Pawkar Raymi, was one of the most powerful ceremonies I witnessed, in the sense that I felt the power and the meaning of true community. The "raymis" brings together the people four times a year strengthening the ties between families and the immediate natural environment.
What can people do to transform the chaos of the 21st century? Strengthening one's local community is a great start. While getting together for movies or dinner parties is great to keep in touch with loved ones; what about inviting the next-door neighbors you've never met? Is there an activity that can be done to give back to the earth, the source of all life? A block party where small scale gardens are planted, as neighbors get to know one another, could be a great example.
The power of indigenous communities lays in the fact that they have been maintaining rituals for thousands of years that keep them in balance and harmony with each other and the natural world. Now is the time to listen to indigenous cultures and respect the ceremonies that they have kept alive through many cycles of chaos.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
5 Things Great Indigenous Musicians Have in Common
Photo by Ivan Sawyer Garcia / Voices of Amerikua
3 minute read
Music coming from traditional indigenous communities is truly divine. Why are indigenous musicians unique? Here are five great things that they have in common...
1. Ancestral Territory in Nature
Indigenous people come from a territory that their ancestors have lived upon generation after generation. Great indigenous musicians growing up with an intimate relationship to their land, often sing about the beauty of their natural environment. For a great deal of time many indigenous communities have maintained sovereignty from the western world, and have a different system of perception and expression.
While visiting the Cofan tribe in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon, I was able to witness some of the most profound music I've ever heard during a traditional yage ceremony. I asked my friend, Alex, a young Cofan musician, where the power of their music comes from. He told me that they are a part of the jungle and that there is no separation between their territory and themselves when they sing.
2. Relationship with Plant Medicine
Sacred plant medicines such as ayahuasca, rapé, and cacao have existed for thousands of years as an integrated part of indigenous cultures. These plants allow the individual to bring forth their higher self and connect with greater clarity to their environment. Each culture has its unique wisdom and practice with various plants.
The Huni Kuin people of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest (photo) have a beautiful practice with rapé; a powdered blend of medicinal herbs that are taken through the nose. Rapé is used to induce visions, to elevate energy, and to enhance the senses. While in Brazil I visited the Huni Kuin and participated in a rapé session. After sharing the medicine they began to sing and I felt them activate the force of the medicine and open a channel where life force energy was transmitted into my entire being.
3. Mentor and Disciple
Every musician began learning from a relationship. Today one may acquire skills through an online tutorial video. In indigenous communities the relation is more often between a mentor and disciple. The teacher is the inspiration and guiding force that allows the musician to learn the basics and excel in his or her own unique way. The greatest of musicians have an incredible teacher.
While filming for The Roots Awaken, I visited a young indigenous musician from the Shiwiar tribe, in the Southern Ecuadorian Amazon. With his father by his side they carried traditional bamboo flutes, as we took a short canoe ride to a special waterfall. As I felt the mist from the falls touch my cheeks, the ancient sound penetrated my soul. I asked the son how he acquired great skills. He told me it was because of the closeness of his relationship with his father that he was able to become a great traditional musician, despite the influences of western music.
4. Original Indigenous Language
In South America, there are over 450 native languages. Within each language there is a diverse way of perceiving and expressing the world. For anyone who speaks more than one language, it is easy to understand that certain emotions expressed in one set of words may be difficult to translate into another language. That is the beauty of the diversity of dialect.
While traveling throughout various regions of the Andes I came across a magnificent group of hip hop musicians, who sang in their native language, Kichwa. It was the first time I heard rhyme and rhythm in an ancient language from the Incan empire. It was undeniable that there was great power in these musicians because their lyrics were expressed in their native tongue.
5. Community
People form and maintain communities to meet desires and needs, as they share a set of common feelings and relationships. Indigenous communities are based on a great web of exchanges that connect the vital aspects of life. Many great indigenous musicians come from traditional communities; where they grow up living among their cousins, uncles, aunts, and close neighbors. Together among their relations creation of music becomes a part of daily life.
While in the indigenous community Sarayaku, I attended a traditional festival, "Fiesta de Pachamama", celebrating the abundance of mother earth. During the gathering, we walked from house to house to drink chicha and listen to traditional music underneath the thatched amazonian roofs. We must have visited over 40 houses in one day, walking through the community. I observed that the beautiful music came through the power of the collective, not the individual. Everyone singing together with the shared feeling of appreciation for the abundance that our earth provides us with was what made the music tremendous.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Pandemics and Plant Medicine: The Story of Achiote
3.5 minute read
There is so much talk around cures for pandemics with the current COVID-19, that I am reminded of the story of achiote. Achiote is a seed that comes from a shrub (Bixa orellana) that is found in tropical regions. The Tsáchila, an indigenous people living in Ecuador, have used achiote as a plant medicine to prevent disease.
Around 500 years ago the Spanish first arrived in Ecuador and soon after arrived in Tsáchila territory. Upon their landing, they brought yellow fever and smallpox, new diseases to the indigenous people. As the Tsáchila became infected and began to die in large numbers the elders of the community became very concerned.
The Tsáchila people have always been greatly respected by their surrounding neighbors, because of their remarkable doctors or traditional medicinal healers. Within the living jungle they work with thousands of medicinal plants that are used to cure a variety of illnesses.
In the Tsáchila culture, Ayahuasca is one plant medicine that is used to diagnose a patient. When a member in the community is sick they go to the medicine healers, and they prepare the liquid brew that is drunken at night to first diagnose and then heal the person from physical, mental, and spiritual indisposition.
When smallpox began to kill many of their people, the medicine healers of the community called for a special meeting. The Tsáchila medicine healers conducted an ayahuasca ceremony to go to the space where all exits. The purpose was to consult for a solution to the disease.
In sacred union with ayahuasca, the spirit of the Tsáchila was able to transcend the limitations of time and space. In the ceremony they were brought to achiote, "mu" in the Tsafiki language. Achiote is a seed that when opened produces a deep red dye. They saw that by opening the seeds they could pull out the liquid. The vision showed that rubbing the paint of the achiote on the body and particularly on the scalp would provide a preventive cure to the smallpox.
After the ceremony, the wisdom keepers instructed the people in the community to collect achiote from the jungle and then showed them how to prepare it. After beginning the use of Achiote in this way, the people stopped contracting the disease.
I traveled to Tsáchila territory when filming for The Roots Awaken. I stayed with the Calazacon family. I was welcomed by Budy and Byron Calazacon, grandchildren of Abraham Calazacon, one of the great medicine men and leaders of the Tsáchila nation, who died in 1981.
Since the Tsáchila began using Achiote on their head to prevent smallpox and yellow fever, it has since become a part of their cultural identity. Just as I arrived at the Calazacon home, they were preparing Achiote to paint their heads. We walked down a small trail a few meters from the house to a large brush filled with the seeds. After picking enough, we walked back to a traditional house with a roof thatched from large leaves.
As I watched them prepare the Achiote I began to admire their resilience. The Tsáchila live in two worlds. I met Byron in the nearest city, Santo Domingo, that was filled with buses and people hustling through the streets. He walked proudly, dressed in his traditional clothing with his hair painted thick with Achiote. There is estimated to be around 2,000 Tsáchila left today.
After spending time with the Calazacon family, I was invited to participate in an ayahuasca ceremony with another family that lived several hours farther into the jungle. I prepared a small backpack and hopped on a motorbike. I passed hundreds of banana fields, and quite startled asked why there was grand monoculture production in Tsáchila territory. I was told that with the pressure of western influence they have adapted to become agriculturists, to make enough money to be able to buy sugar, oil, and other modern commodities.
Quite saddened by the news, I was silent the rest of the motor ride as small drops of rain began to fall on my face. Finally, I arrived quite wet to the home of the family where we would drink ayahuasca.
After a long night of a magnificent union with the Tsáchila cosmo vision and the energy that flows through all life, I opened my eyes to a bright sunrise. I was filled with great hope and sadness at the same time. The cure to illness exists in the magnificence of the jungle and the wisdom of indigenous people. I also felt a heaviness in my heart that these wisdom keepers have been facing over 500 years of oppression, and are quite literally at the brink of losing it all.
People like Byron and Budy are the last generation holding on to the power of knowledge around plant medicine that their ancestors have passed on. The city of Santo Domingo is encroaching closer to their territory day by day as influences to adapt to a western way of living is bulldozing into the minds of the youth.
However I am filled with far more hope than fear, as I remember the story of achiote and the time I spent in Tsáchila territory. The wisdom is still alive today and there is hope in the youth that are connected to plant medicine. Perhaps the answer to humanity's great problems have always lied in the storehouse of wisdom in the indigenous cosmo vision.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Sweat Lodge Movements from North to South America
Photo by Miguel Rama Torres
3.5 minute read
Sweat lodge is an ancient purification ritual that is practiced across various indigenous cultures. In Central and South America it is called Temazcal, while in the north the Lakota people call it Inipi. Inipi means, "to live again" and is one of their seven sacred Lakota ceremonies. Temazcal comes from the Nahuatl language and means "house of heat."
Despite the difference in its name the essence of a sweat lodge is the same. There is a domelike structure that is made of adobe or cloth, depending on the culture. The preparation usually takes about five hours. There are volcanic stones that are heated in a large fire. Inside of the sweat lodge there is a hole in the center of the ground. Once the stones are heated the people enter the lodge. The hot stones are placed in the ground and then water is poured over them to create steam.
What makes an Inpi or sweat lodge a step beyond a day spa sauna is the element of prayer. The ritual is a way to shed anything that no longer serves you and allows you to connect with the energy of the environment and the universe.
One summer on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the Lakota currently reside, I was invited to attend an Inipi. It was a windy day on the great plains as I walked down a hill to the sweat lodge grounds. There was a giant fire where the stones were being heated. A few minuted after arriving the medicine man, who would be leading the ceremony, called out to line up as we would soon begin.
In a line, we circled around the fire and one by one arrived at the entrance where a young man was holding a shell filled with South Dakota sage. I breathed in the incense and kneeled down and began to crawl from the left around to the right-hand side of the lodge. After everyone entered the medicine man closed the flap to cover the small hole where we entered.
As I sat in complete darkness I heard the beat of a drum ring. The lead singer cried out and everyone began to follow. The medicine man began to pray as he poured water over the hot stones and steam began to fill my lungs. I opened my eyes and began to see violet lights sparkling in the darkness. The leader told us our ancestors have entered and to begin to pray out loud.
Months after this Inipi I was in South America in the country of Ecuador filming for the documentary, The Roots Awaken. I was in a town called Peguche and was speaking with some of the indigenous youth who were supporting me in the film. I asked them if they had ever participated in a temazcal. They told me they hadn't but they knew of a guy who had a lodge. Sure enough I knew of him and called him up to arrange a sweat lodge ceremony.
The next day we walked down old stone steps to the base of a small stream where the adobe lodge was. I was asked to open the ceremony and to bring the energy of the north with my prayer. I had tobacco in my hand and began to speak out loud in front of the fire. I prayed that the indigenous youth would awaken to their greatest potential and that we would unite across cultures in this time for the sake of life on earth; that here and now the eagle of the north would fly once again with the condor of the south.
Just as we entered the Inpi in the north we crawled into the lodge in the south. Once the songs began and the water was poured over the stones, I took out an eagle feather that had been gifted to me after I attended the lodge in South Dakota the summer before. I held it tight in my hands and when silence took over the darkness I cried out in Lakota, the only song that I knew well. When I finished, I could not hold back and tears began to roll down my cheeks.
The young man pouring the water told everyone that this is the time to be real and its okay to release our emotions. As we sat in darkness it made it easier for everyone to share. After about one hour of songs and prayers, we crawled out of the lodge. As I stood up I looked to the sky and small raindrops began to hit my face.
I felt renewed spiritually, physically, and mentally. After seeing the young people around me smiling and chatting with one another I was filled with great joy. We were reborn together that day.
Just as I was leaving, I heard thunder strike across the sky. I remembered when I was alone in Lakota territory in a tent and heard the same sound. Just like the drumbeat or when someone breaks out in cry before a song, there is great power in a release.
The first sweat lodge I entered changed my life forever. I acquired a lifelong practice; one of the greatest ways I've found to purify one's entire being. The power of prayer and speaking out loud surely has an effect on both one's self and the universe. The microcosm is the macrocosm and the macrocosm is the microcosm. I now know in this time of unification the eagle of the north is soaring across the cosmos with condor of the south.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Future Memories on Mayan Pyramids
Photo by Ryan Hayashi
3.5 minute read
We are living in uncertain times. As technology is advancing faster than ever before, so is the environmental devastation on our planet. The Mayan civilization has existed long before our current one, and it may provide an understanding of what humanity is facing. While a modern-day Eurocentric perspective has seen this culture as inferior to ours, that notion is far beyond inaccurate.
People all over the world continually keep track of important dates for themselves and their communities by using calendars. The Maya were highly advanced astronomers and had multiple calendar systems based on both immediate and long term cycles. In this culture, there are day keepers, who are extremely skilled in the field of mathematics and responsible for complex systems of tacking the concept of time.
Today there exits a variety of information about the Maya that differs vastly in its content and accuracy. When Europeans arrived in Central America, they found great libraries of ancient Mayan books and calendars. Unfortunately the Europeans, filled with greed and foolishness to conquer the Mayan lands, burned almost all of the material they found.
The good news is that the tremendous intelligence and practice of the Maya are alive today in the living people. Daykeepers have kept the wisdom alive through mentor disciple bonds, passing on practices through a living relationship.
I have met several Mayan Daykeepers in my movements through the US, Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize. All of them have been admirable, humble, and mysterious. It was as if they wanted to appear normal, but beyond their appearance, through their eyes I could see an entire other universe of understanding pouring from their soul.
Recently I was in Central America in the country of Belize in a 4x4 Jeep driving down a half-finished dirt road into the jungle. My destination was the Caracol pyramid, a recently uncovered ruin located south of Xunantunich on the foothills of the Maya Mountains.
After an entire day of driving, I arrived to an empty parking lot. There was one park ranger working who told me the park was going to close soon and was hesitant to let me in. After convincing him otherwise, I quickly walked through the main entrance through the tallest pyramids. My intuition led me to the back of the ruins to one particular building on the edge of the jungle.
I climbed hastily to the top of the pyramid I felt drawn to (in the photo) and immediately dropped to the ground. I took some cacao and tobacco from my medicine pouch and offered a prayer to the infinite energy that has flowed from the site from time before beginning.
Then I took out a dose of rapé, an Amazonian plant medicine used to release stuck negative energy from the mind and concentrate the body and soul. Sitting Japanese style I closed my eyes and bowed down to the entrance of the portal. As my forehead kissing the ground I entered a profound state.
There was a small space between my ribs where my spirit began to drift, traveling past the door and quickly down the center of the pyramid to an underwater entrance. A flash of the people who lived in Caracol and all that has ever existed there rapidly appeared in front of me as if I was standing in a whirlwind of memories. A digital map appeared in me, I saw where all the fresh water was located in the so-called "ruins" of these pyramids that are connected across Central America.
My entire being began to tremble and I burst out in tears. Shaking on the ground, still in Japanese position, I felt like I had awakened from a deep sleep. I slowly sat up and spoke out loud, "now is the time for The Roots Awaken." Right now is the time for the ancient memories to awake to protect the water and all life on planet earth.
That day I brought forth a future memory on the Mayan pyramid. As I walked back to my Jeep in the parking lot I was filled with great joy. I passed two giant ceiba trees, their leaves began to shake in the wind greeting me as I passed by them. There was a deep calmness and sense of peace in my soul.
Despite the uncertain times and the environmental destruction happening on our planet, there is a great deal of hope that is alive in people today. Walking around in a normal appearance, most of us wouldn't be able to tell the difference. However, if you slow down and take a moment to pause you might just see in the eyes of humans an entrance to infinity.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
Wisdom on Health from the Siekopai in the Amazon Rainforest
Photo by Jimmy Piaguaje
3 minute read
Maintaining good health is becoming more important than ever before in these current times. Many of us rely on western medicine as it has dominated the mainstream understanding on wellness. While it provides great insight into health it is only but one perspective. The diversity of our planet is tremendous, and it’s worth exploring other culture’s insight on maintaining a healthy mind, body and spirit.
There are thousands of indigenous cultures that each have their own unique collection of knowledge. An indigenous prescription is based on what grows naturally in the local geographical region. Traditionally each household would have an understand of natural remedies, and there would also be a medicine taita, shaman, or doctor that patients would go to see when ill. These specialists were often well versed in hundreds if not thousands of natural plants that could be used to cure.
While filming over the past five years in the Amazon Rainforest for the documentary, The Roots Awaken, I was able to meet many traditional indigenous doctors from various tribes. One tribe that called my particular attention was the Secoya, a name given by westerns. Their true name is Siekopai, which means “People of many colors”. In the early 1800’s there was a rubber boom in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon. The arrival of the Europeans brought great suffering to the Siekopai people as they were manipulated, enslaved, and killed. It’s estimated that before their arrival there were over 26,000 people. Today there remains only 700 inhabitants left in the Siekopai tribe.
I visited the Siekopai and stayed with a small family. When I arrived my overall health was good but I felt like I had been feeling an ongoing fatigue over the past six months. While staying in their home I mentioned to one of the traditional healers my feeling and he offered me a traditional medicine, called Mañapë, that is supposed to relieve the precise symptoms that I was feeling at the time.
We went walking a few hours into the jungle to find the plant and harvest it. We cooked it over a fire for several hours before it was ready. He told me that we would wake up at 3AM to drink the medicine known as a “vomitivo”, or drink that makes one purge. I drank the medicine in a traditional gourd below a beautiful blanket of stars in the night sky. Just as he told me would happen, I began to purge, cleansing my entire inner system. After the session was over I felt reborn physically, mentally, and spiritually. It was beyond any pill or western medicine that I had taken before.
After taking Mañapë, the Siekopai elder told me that he was going to give me Yoko. Yoko is a thick vine that grows in the Amazon Rainforest, and unique to Siekopai they have a longstanding practice of making it into a morning “coffee”. However, far superior to any Starbucks blend, Yoko gives you a much more powerful dose of energy that seems to seep into your soul. In the morning, the elder took the vine and began to shave off the outer layer of bark. Below that layer was a whiteish skin that was then placed into a gourd. The pieces of Yoko were mixed with water and then filtered. After drinking Yoko I was left in one of the best life states I’ve ever felt. He then gifted me enough of the vine to prepare on my own and drink for one month. The longstanding effect of drinking the medicine improved my overall health greatly and it seemed to have permanently changed my body chemistry in some way. I was left speechless with the great effect of drinking Yoko daily.
While there is little research on Mañapë and Yoko from the western perspective, I am confident to say that I prefer to take these Amazonian remedies over any prescription pill. While taking a pill seems to relieve symptoms at first, over time the effect seems to fade. The medicines I took in the jungle seemed to address the root cause of what I was suffering. I observed that there is an entirely different way of thinking from the Siekopai perspective in the field of health. One that is much more holistic and everlasting.
While I was privileged to have this experience, what do those do who will never go to the Amazon Rainforest and drink traditional medicines? There is great value in learning about the medicinal plants that are native to the region where you live. Respecting the indigenous people who still know where to find certain plants and how to prepare them is a true treasure.
There are over 562 unique indigenous tribes that are still living in the US. While many of them have adapted to western cultures, there definitely exists in families a storehouse of wisdom on native remedies in respect to each region.
With the current COVID-19 taking its course throughout our planet it is important to elevate one’s life state and health to strengthen the immune system. Creating a relationship and practice with native plants is one of the greatest ways to build strength in a holistic way. Now is also the time to give indigenous people the respect they deserve for their ancient knowledge that they have maintained for thousands of years.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
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Indigenous Gathering in the Time of the Fifth World
Photo by Kumiko Hayashi
2.5 minute read
Indigenous leaders from around the world have been gathering together in the past three decades to unite in the new cycle of Pachakuti. Pachakuti, a Quechua word, literarily translates into the return of time or change. It refers to both a cosmic transformation and an overturning in humanity.
The new cycle of time began around 1990 according to the Incan civilization of South America. It was prophesized that ancient cultures from North to South America would begin to physically meet as climate change began to heighten. The Mayan have also spoken about this time and refer to it as the emergence of the sixth sun. The Zuni and Hopi tribes of the Southwest US refer to it as the fifth world. They say there were four major cycles of human existence on our planet that thrived and then ended because of natural disaster, war, climate, ect. Humanity has just recently entered into the fifth cycle.
In 2014 I attended a Pachakuti gathering in Ecuador. There were representatives that traveled from tribes across the continents to meet for the first time. For four days hundreds of people camped together on the equator, at 0 longitude 0 latitude, quite literally on the middle of the world. As both a participant and a journalist I observed one of most interesting events of my life.
It was set at a place called Cochasqui, upon the land were hundreds of pyramids, most of which were still buried underground. To be honest I was unsure what to expect when I first arrived. I saw many fires lit across the grounds and people creating alters made of flowers and seeds. Everyone was dressed in their best elaborate regalia. It seemed like a strange dream or a scene out of a movie. There was a conch shell that blew when the official gathering started to call everyone to the center to begin the opening ceremony.
I underwent a great inner transformation after a long weekend of listening to wise elders and participating in rituals from their respective cultures. I had recently arrived from Southern California and was used to my daily routine in the city. Witnessing these indigenous ceremonies made me feel that there was something much greater beyond my mundane life. Somehow without written record their ancient practices were able to survive generation after generation for thousands of years.
One elder from Bolivia told me that the relationship between parent to child or in other cases between mentor and disciple is what has allowed their rich culture to survive through many years of outside invasion and influence. Growing up through a western educational system I had many teachers and quite frankly I have forgotten almost all of their names.
The current time of Pachakuti is about human connection and returning to a way of being in community. We are living in extraordinary times of technological advancement, yet we are damaging our earth, air, and water like never before. I have begun to question what western society can learn from indigenous cultures that have maintained balance and harmony with the natural world.
Humanity is undergoing a great transformation since we have entered the time of Pachakuti. Since I attended the gathering in Cochasqui I have been to many more gatherings of indigenous wisdom keepers. The elders seem to be speaking about the same topics of importance over and over again. There will simply be two paths; in the first path people who begin to deepen their relationship with the natural world, each other and their communities. In the second path people will continue to act out of foolishness, greed, and anger. Those on the first path will thrive in this time while those on the second path will feel that the world is ending. How do we begin to live in a greater existence and unify in community? The first step is listening to those who have been maintaining a greater relationship with our environment long before we came…A bit of curiosity may just lead you to a gathering of people who are seeking the same thing that you are. The time is now for The Roots Awaken.
Written by Kumiko Hayashi - kumiko@therootsawaken.com
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