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VisionCircle
Update 10 Sept. 07. Day 2.19, KIN 100 – 9 Sun, 2 Wizard Year.
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VisionCircle |
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Update 10 Sept. 07. Day 2.19, KIN 100 – 9 Sun, 2 Wizard Year. |
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About this page |
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What is “Rainbow” and what are lessons learnt from recent gatherings? This 'VisionCircle' page contains a small selection of views and visions on these questions; it consist of two main parts, 'Rainbow Basics' and 'Lessons Learnt'. 'Rainbow Basics' is meant to summarise visions on:
Reading 'Rainbow Basics' could perhaps help you to quickly start developing a feeling on what Rainbow could be. In
'Lessons
Learnt', we lay emphasis
on documenting, analysing and feeling in the practice experience
delivered by gatherings. Practice Experience is the best Master
Teacher we could ever imagine. So, if you are interested in the fundamental reflections on the Rainbow family, keep a watchful eye at this page from time to time. The present version of this page is just a modest beginning. We will keep adding visions and heart sharings to both 'Rainbow Basics' and 'Lessons Learnt' . We would appreciate receiving your suggestions. Be so kind to mail us via: contact(at)circleletter.rainbowinfo(dot)net |
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RAP 107. GATHERING CONSCIOUSNESS |
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Please
protect this Beautiful Land. |
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RAP 701. HAPPY TRAILS |
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~
In preparation for leaving. Pack up all your trash/recyclables
and take it away. Take it far away. Do not impact the small
towns near the gathering. If you can't take it with you drop it
in the collection area. |
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The 2007 Thailand World Gathering Istanbullu Aykut's address to the Rainbow Family, January or February 2007 |
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Hello Family, At the end of
each gathering I leave with the same questions in my mind "Did
we really learn what we should from this gathering as a family?
Did we manage to share this experience so that we grow up
together and not repeat the same mistakes again?" Well, we
share the experience personally but we can (even "must"
with the immense change of gatherings after the internet)
support this learning by sharing it by writing it down. This is
the reason for this "report". So, I just left the gathering yesterday after exactly 2 moon cycles of my arrival. I really enjoyed the gathering and it was a very unique gathering in many ways. It had all the magic and it had all the challenges. The World Rainbow Gathering in Thailand was on a beach called Ao Nui near Kra Buri and 9 deg 19' 33.01" North, 98 deg 22'04.24" East. Most of the land behind the beach belonged to the uncle of Tony who stayed with us all the time. The sandy beach is public by law. A gathering on a tropical beach sounds great and is very special. The seed camp had many very nice teaching challenges about the tropical material, local tools and perhaps short winter days. We had a few contact with local animals but nothing scary (snakes and scorpions seen, stingray and jelly fish stung a couple of people). We had no major health problems but the little infections got very easily infected and many brothers and sisters paid for scratching the mosquito bites. Luckily we had great health volunteers and a well-working healing center (not CALM). We had a good working water pipe system complete with hi-lux showers which lasted all the time of the gathering. Having a gathering on the beach is funny. It is not so easy to call the focus to the circle as there is the linear beach there. All thru the gathering the beach was very active in the mornings with all sorts of workshops (yoga, taichi ..) So we ate under the hot sun which made it harder to form a circle as we were grouping under the shades. Anyway at the high time of the gathering the main circle area was too small for our numbers so we had 4-5 concentric circles but each time we managed to make it nice, and that was great to see the family so close together and not chaotic (well of course there were moments of chaos but that's where all the inspiration comes from, isn't it?). Most of the food was carried by boat and we had great fun working on human chains carrying stuff on and off the boats. We also carried a lot over the rocks. ** First thing that one can learn from making of this gathering: have enough time and determination about the place before choosing it for a site. I mean when we consented about Thailand it felt 18 months is good time to scout and scouts were at the next beach a year in advance but couldn't gather more energy for scouting more. Well, the place was fantastic but it had 2 main defects. It was too small for a big gathering and it was too close to the outside world. When it is only a 15 minutes walk to reach the next place to have a beer, it sometimes feels like a child's game to speak about rainbow ways at the site. We had a different gathering because of these, we learned to live closer to each other and we learned what the nearby Babylon can do to a gathering (I don't recommend this). ** Second thing to learn was a big big one at this gathering and we really need to learn this. It is COMMUNICATION. We thought many RB folk who spend so much time and even live in Thailand would come with their language skills and sort us out but they didn't (was it because we chose the high high season when these guys were making their yearly business, i don't know). So we had one brother who did speak Thai and only him almost all the way to the starting day. We needed translations with the land owners, with the shopping, with the villagers, with the visitors. And many times we saw there were misunderstandings. Later on some of the Thai family helped the translations and it worked a bit more smooth but it was a bit too late. We also missed more communications within the family. It feels like a recurrent nightmare to find myself say this but family, we need good welcome centres. Especially after the internet time we need it more than ever. We had a welcome centre on one neighbouring beach but on the other which was used more commonly we had a "rainbow restaurant" and later a little welcome chai kitchen. But it didn't work out. We didn't manage to pass our ways and traditions on (before this became a problem). Many people arrived to a "rainbow festival" or "rainbow party" with their alcohol and drugs. Many people got drunk at the restaurant and came to the gathering like that. We spent so much time repeating again and again "don't shit on the beach, use the shit pit" that we couldn't help them feel we're better without electricity and this new year would be nicer without explosives. **Yes two things to add on the list on next invitations "please don't bring any explosives. Please leave your electric toys (solar charged as well) and colourful picnic lights at home and use your torches (esp. head torches) with care.)" These things do the same sort of disturbance as loudspeakers when you're laying on the beach looking at the stars. We couldn't communicate within the family the good way to be respectful. We were on a mainly Muslim land and we created a really tough situation for the people who invited us there by being so attached to our nudity. The funny thing was that it was fine to a certain extend but when we say this people love to play with it like "you said early morning and yes, it's early I just woke up at 10" or "why can I swim naked and not play guitar naked?" sort of stupid and mostly abusive arguments. There is freedom and there is abuse of freedom. We are as free as we can let go of our attachement to being naked (of course only if we still want to talk of love and respect). Some local people and RB family made very good ties and relations but for the common people our beach was the nudist beach and we are the nudists, this is a big shame for my family and I hope we don't do this mistake again (where I come from we managed to be called the 'Sufis'). By the way, I believe the beach was the main reason for this because in Turkey we had none of this provocation. Ah yeah we had at least 3 people provocatively abusive of rainbow freedom and being fully disrespectfully naked they all left a little earlier than they thought, but even after they left, nudity was hard to kick out. There were many children and they seemed to be having the best time at this gathering. The best spot and the only proper hut and table of the gathering was reserved for them. Even next to the chai and fruit kitchens. We had a good working bodywork area where everyday many workshops were taking place. The gathering had many celebrations. 16th we opened the main circle, 20th started the gathering 21st was the equinox followed by Christmas, New Year and the Full Moon. I find it quite wrong to make a gathering at this high peak of tourist season on a tourist land. The number of people just hearing and coming were too big. Although I was mainly horizontal during the peak I believe there were about 700-900 people for the full moon. It's hard to say because some people never ate at the circle. I find this number too big for a world gathering. I wish we can have half size more family gatherings in the future where everyone knows everyone and stays for long, not just for a week and leave. We were visited by all sorts of local authorities many times. They always reminded us not to be naked and not to use drugs and left. Only one time one brother went to greet the big chief police officer all naked and this picture was on the local newspapers, he was asked by the police to leave but he later left on his own wish. This much is fair enough in a country where public nudity is illegal. The vision council took 16 days. 5 days of this was no vision council (village visits and other things), in the 11 days we had the council it started in the afternoon 3 or 4 and the sun sets just after 6 leaving us with just a couple of hours to reach a consensus. Those of you who like speculating about things they have no idea about; here is the fact: it was not polarity or big debate or anything political that made the council last long, it was the time we gave to it and the season. If it was august we'd have at least twice longer council days, and if we ate earlier even longer. But we had about 25 hours of daylight council. Everyday the council would happen, stick would go around twice and the sun would would set before anything could ripen. In the end I'm happy that nothing was rushed and the perfect consensus was reached. We had strange times like at any other vision council and some ego trips and some emotional moments and all that but the end was fantastic. You cannot cover the sun with mud, you have to be there before attempting to criticize the consensus. That's such a bad bad bad thing to do, it irritates me sooo much to hear the talk on this group that now I feel I have to write separately about the vision council and the consensus. But just know this: there was Chinese family here, they presented a beautiful invitation to the vision council, there were enough brothers and sisters who's been travelling in China to confirm over and over that it is actually a perfect place to make a gathering and seed the rainbow. The same people who are talking bad about China now were talking bad about Turkey last time and they didn't come and live the magic; I recommend them to look out of their windows and not just go for the biggest, coolest, the most free and all that ... But much bigger than this vision were all the other visions inspired by our being here. We did very very well by bringing the world rainbow gathering on this side of the world. The Japanese family at the gathering was very big and they had their councils and we'll soon hear of the gatherings in Japan surely. Chinese family was smaller but well supported by other family who live there and they came out with the first national gathering few days before they invited for the world gathering. The family who did the Mongolia retreat walk is going back to make the first Mongolian gathering. After the next world gathering in China there is a solar eclipse gathering in the Altai mountains, possibly on the Russian side. There is a Laos project checking out the ways to have good exchange between poor villages and RB family and there is a walk from Thailand to China over Laos. There is a caravan going south also, to Malaysia, Indonesia and to Papua, to make the first rainbow gathering in Oceania. Yet, half the people at the gathering I believe are already in the Allahabad Kumbha Mela in India. Whichever way we move, I'd easily call this "shining", we are shining and we don't know. As world rainbow gatherings go we had a single main kitchen and one main circle but the energy was hard to keep there as we had other kitchens, maybe too many for a small site. One sister once threatened the council by saying she'll bring 2 professional American “shanti senna” brothers next time. But please keep this as a joke; world gatherings have no shanti senna and no a-camp. If we need to stay away from Mexico and go to China for this, we do it. Please always remember the words of the great Sufi master Rumi: If you want what the eye can see, you are an employee. If you want the unseen world, than you are not living your truth.
Both wishes are foolish, but you'll be forgiven for forgetting that, what you are really looking for is love's confusing joy. I give thanks all the family who made this gathering happen. I also thank you for being patient enough to read this so far. Please breathe deep and think three times before replying to all the stupid points I made on this mail, maybe wait for a day. All my apologies to those I may have hurt. Loving kindness to those who feel just the opposite. Tropical love and hugs. Aykut |
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Lessons 'Bosnia' can learn from 'Thailand' (Briggi.) |
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