July 2018 Peace Pledge Pilgrimage

Beloved Family,

PirShabdaNLpic1

Just returned from an ambitious and deep Peace Pledge Pilgrimage to Greenland and Assisi, followed by our annual weeklong Ruhaniat Summer School in Northern Germany!

The Peace Pledge Pilgrimage family is a group of spiritual, religious, scientific, education and business leaders that all embrace the Universality of Human Ideals. We want to be an example to the world that beings of different religions, beliefs and approaches to life can treat all beings with Loving Kindness and Compassion. We invite all beings to become Heart Stewards.

Going to Greenland also had the strong message that as the polar Ice Cap is melting it is time that all human beings become Earth Stewards.

On June 19 our Pilgrimage took me from San Francisco to Copenhagen, where I met up with our group of pilgrims. To my delight, my Tibetan guru the 12th Tai Situ Rinpoche, along with his 97 year old tutor Gegenla, his Secretary of State Lama Tenam, Lama Paljor and one other attendant all were along! Also on the pilgrimage to Greenland was our very own Vakil Forest Shomer.

CaptureTHM 2A We were hosted by Eskimo Elder Angaangaq Angarkkorsuaq who said: “It is the human heart which needs to melt. This is a priority if we are to stop the melting of our mother ice.”

One June 21 afternoon nearly 40 pilgrims arrived at camp, VERY rustic. No running water, no electricity, no phone service, no buildings. We slept in low tents with thermarest pads and sleeping bags, had a dome tent for our kitchen and another for eating. We sat in circle outside, with the Big Ice in view, the temperature from below freezing to a high of about 45 degrees!

On out first night we walked to the Big Ice. We were told that in the last 25 years a kilometer of depth had melted. Another stunning way to understand how dramatically the Big Ice is melting is that every 24 hours we would be able to offer every human being on our planet 100 liters of pure water, 750 billion liters a day all flowing into the salty ocean.

Bearing witness to the devastation of the melting polar icecap inspires us to send a message far and wide that all human beings need to become Earth Stewards.

The Big Ice

Since we were above the Arctic Circle and Summer Solstice, there was NO night! We shared ceremony, made music, offered ourselves up to the millions of mosquitos, and filmed in the hope of making a good documentary.

On our last afternoon we honored Murshid Sam with the Kalama Dance, joining our family world wide for the 50th anniversary of the Dances of Universal Peace.

Big Ice Calving

Tai Situ Rinpoche shared inspiring guidance with the Big Ice in the background.

Tai Situ Rinpoche Offering Guidance in Greenland Part 1

Tai Situ Rinpoche Offering Guidance in Greenland Part 2

CaptureTHM 2B

After four days in Greenland we flew back to Copenhagen, spent the night and then on to Assisi, the home of St Francis, the exemplar of Loving Kindness and Compassion, hosted but the Bishop of Assisi and staying right by the Basilica.

We had three days of conferences with a public Pilgrimage day and evening event.

With holy messages from the many spiritual leaders we also heard from educators, water scientists, earth activists and business leaders.

We had a deep ceremony of mixing the water from the Big Ice and water from the mouth of the Ganges!

During the conference water scientists talked about plans of harvesting a small portion of the melting Big Ice pure water melting before it turns to salt water in the ocean.

The business leaders taught us about the “Circle Economy” which mimics nature which knows no waste, and how they are working with companies worldwide to make sure there is no waste in any of their production cycles.

Basilica of St Francis

CaptureTHM 3A

From the educators we heard from Kids Rights International Children’s Peace Prize Award winner, 17 year old Syrian refugee Mohammed El Jounde, who is building and manifesting schools for Syrian refugee camps.

Mohammed El Jounde and Fakhira Najib

And most impressive was educator Fakhira Najib from Pakistan. Her family own radio stations. She runs a program called Broadclass-Listen to Learn.

Broadclass

Broadclass Peace Pledge

She designed a very sturdy battery operated radio that is gifted to the most rural classrooms all over Pakistan and she provides the first hour of content every day, much along the Sufi lines of Loving Kindness and Compassion. She is reaching more than 200,000 girls and boys every day. She shared a video where the children learned the Peace Pledge in both English and Urdu.

Having been SO busy with the Pilgrimage, teaching all morning and evening with the afternoons off at the Summer School seemed like a vacation! We had a beautiful camp in the German countryside with almost all the senior teachers from Europe under the guidance of Murshid Saadi

Sending all Love and Blessings,

Shabda