So Brian & I have been through a whirlwind week at Tamera! There’s so much to soak in. We heard lots of talks from ppl living here on many core topics including water retention (to restore the land) . I know! It sounds so dry (mind the pun – ho ho!) but my eyes were watering (mind the pun again – I’m on fire) when we heard from this passionate guy talking bout the work he does, restoring the land through simple means, and how it starts to become fertile restored land, which then brings abundance & diversity in nature, and very importantly, level of autonomy from centralised power (which really keeps us locked in capitalism & detached from the natural abundance of nature) , provides more energy potential & probably lots of things I forget.
Brian & the lake, or “water retention landscape”
The three other topics that really inspired me was
a) their polical standpoint, which really underpins their purpose. They are interested in holistic systemic change from a culture of violence, pain, competition and war to one based on love.
2) And this leads to the next topic that really grabbed me, the love school which is about free love. Though this is not an arbitrary hippy orgy type culture. The core principle is love free from fear based on truth & trust & embedded in community. Nothing is a private problem. All people have the same problems and they use “forum” workshops to support & work out all problems in community in truth & compassion. It is about getting “in contact” with oneself, nature & others in a way that real understanding occurs on all levels: physical, emotional, community etc.
3) love & money was also truly powerful. The speaker quoted Ford, who said that if ppl really understood the money system there would be a revolution. The capitalist principle of perpetual growth is against nature, in fact the only parallel in nature is cancer. How money is created, debt is created so how does this not cause poverty?! In contrast, An economy can be the result of ecology, which is an understanding of living systems. Economy can help us to understand ecology & serve it, not the other way around, which is where we are now, putting economic profit over life! We are more financially motivated to perpetuate problems than solve them. We ask this question, what do we really desire: monetary profit or a totally different type of value?
OK so those are some big topics. BOOM! And they have global consequence for poverty, war, fulfillment. They are at the root of every problem.
What I have mostly felt is an overwhelming relief that there are ppl addressing our human & ecological needs (which are really the same) in a holistic way on every level. For me it’s the systemic level, the foundation of how we want to be, that is the most impressive. Tamera also clearly say they are a research community, they are a living example, always asking questions and doing their best (which seems an amazing job). They don’t claim to have solved all the problems but rather are in a constant research with truth to try & address the problems where they really lie rather than at the symptom level.
One of our talks based on “the place if the children”. This is a fraction of our 50 ppl strong group!
OK enough for now! But check out Tamera’s website for a wealth more of info! and there’s so much personal journey too that I haven’t even touched on but needless to say Brian & I have met some amazing kind fun ppl who are making a real difference in the world.
So Next for me at Tamera is the horse course – no really. And Brian spends a week volunteering in the kitchen! So more to come!!! 🙂
