A sunny, lazy morning in Adela's house at Tumbaco, before we go to the Centro de Desarollo Integral for an interview with a journalist meditator from Vistazo. a widely read bi-monthly magazine. This lady is very understanding of us and asks only questions relating to the practice of mindfulness and our community...In fact, she is also going to join our week-end retreat with her husband.
For lunch, we are invited to eat at Tinku, a lovely permaculture centre in this city of Quito. Marcos welcomes us and introduces the garden, the eco-construction workshops and the design of the centre which takes into account all elements like wind, rain, sunshine, shade, soil, plants, animals and humans. Chari and Elisa are ready to serve us another delicious, vegan Ecuadorian meal including memorable empanadas filled with spinach, raisins and garlic. Again we feel so much gratitude for the openness and the trust manifested towards us: Marcos says that if we want, a Quito Sangha can hold their practice sessions here at Tinku.
There isn’t yet time to discuss this offer as we need to
head to the Simon Bolivar University for our first evening of mindfulness with
the title “Liberate your mind, change your world.”
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| educators and students meet to learn about mindfulness |
About 120 people come to
attend, among them students and teachers. Among the nice moments that evening,
we’ll remember the cellular phone mirror exercise: holding your mobile in fromt of you while
it’s still turned off, smiling at your reflection, then making an angry face
and smiling again. We can say to ourself “I love you” before making a call to a
loved one. How can we change the world if we don’t have compassion for ourself?
If we want to liberate our mind, to love and be loved, we need a spiritual
dimension in all activities of our daily life. We also need to look deeply into
our consumption of the four kinds of nutriments, taking in healthy edible
foods, sense impressions, aspiration and thoughts. After a peaceful walking
meditation at dusk, it seems that the community has released worries with each
step; the faces are brightening up and the smiles blooming. We begin eating
meditation and realize that here in Ecuador, most people are still very
fortunate to gather as a family for every meal. Lastly we take questions from
the participants, one of them being asked by a representative of the Ministry
of Well-being (Ministerio del Buen-Vivir, yes, the government of Ecuador has
such a department) on the issue of increasing violence in teenage boys. The
Brothers and Sisters suggest that we respond to these young people with
understanding of the difficult circumstances that have brought them to such
behaviors, and that we do all we can to give them love and attention rather
than punishment. Also we strongly encourage the adults to teach mindfulness and
compassion to children from the youngest age and to build safe, loving
environments where the seed of violence is no longer watered.
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| senior educators singing mindfully |
