A Sacred Pilgrimage To The Matchu Picchu With Rabbi Shefa Gold. (Organizer: Dr. Hune Margulies, Director The MBIDE)

MARCH 10 - 19, 2008
www.RabbiShefaGold.com

Please join Rabbi Shefa Gold on a pilgrimage trip to the Matchu Picchu and the sacred lands of the Inkas in the South of Peru. The dates of the trip are March 10 - 19, 2008. Pilgrimage organized by The MBIDE, Hune Margulies, Ph.D>, Director)

RABBI ZALMAN SCHACHTER-SHALOMI: "Rabbi Shefa knows how to contact the deep patterns of soul growth. She does that in the dimensions of sound, meditation, movement, and transformation for people. Her Center for Devotional, Energy & Ecstatic Practice (C-DEEP) will serve those who are tired of doing only the beginner's work."

Join us for 10 days of pilgrimage. Our trip is a pilgrimage inwards aided by daily journeys to special sites. Our pilgrimage will take us to some of the most sacred and most magnificent natural sites in the South of Peru. We will journey to the most-magnificent Machu Picchu sanctuary, the Inca sacred valley, and hike through archeological ruins.


We will participate in guided group and individual spiritual sessions, and we will also meet and converse with local Indigenous practitioners. We will travel to enjoy incredible natural sites and visit the people who still make those mountains, rivers, and valleys their home.

We will take daily trips to special sites in the Cuzco region, learn the deeper meanings of their Indigenous archeological ruins, hike mountains and parks, participate in indigenous spiritual practices and tour the region and its incredible wonders.

Please review the application and registration forms in this site. For more information please write the tour operators: Community Development Partners For The Americas, LLC, at CDPA@cdpa-americas.org and/or call 914-439-7731. CDPA is the tour operator for Rabbi Shefa Gold's pilgrimage. CDPA's president, Hune Margulies, Ph.D., will serve as principal tour guide during the trip. You may contact Hune directly by writing to hune@MartinBuberInstitute.org

The Meaning Of Pilgrimage.. A Letter from Rabbi Shefa

PILGRIMAGE

In 1980 I hitch-hiked through Europe with a guitar, a change of clothes, a tent and a sleeping bag. I was learning the “Art of the Road.” I was learning to open my eyes. I traveled without a set itinerary, determined to open to a new adventure each day. Daily I was forced to let go of expectations and I encountered generosity in the most unexpected places. I kept making plans, only to see them dissolve in the light of startling synchronicities and unforeseen encounters. Every place of rigidity in me was forced to bend or soften.

As I stood at the tip of the Greek mainland, at the Temple of Poseidon, I heard the call of Jerusalem. I decided to make my journey into a pilgrimage. I imagined standing before the Western Wall of the ancient Temple and bringing the force of my whole life’s longing as my offering to lay before God. I imagined standing before that Wall with so much love, that all the walls between myself and God might be shattered.

In that moment of Intention, my journey was transformed. At one level I still looked like a sight-seer, entertained by history and strange customs. Yet I also knew that as a pilgrim, each step of my journey had the power to strip me bare, so that I might finally stand before God and know myself.

It was a wonderful and dangerous journey. The military had recently taken over the government in Turkey; there was a civil war going on in Syria; and then the Iran/Iraq War broke out, with Syria and Jordan taking sides against each other. I was learning about the subtle arts of survival, bargaining and bribery. I was, for the first time, stepping out of the “Western” world-view, learning new rules and unlearning so much that I had believed certain.

Meanwhile, I was keeping a meticulous journal of my inner life. I knew that each strange scene I confronted was reflecting back to me some aspect of my inner landscape that I had till that day been ignoring. I was determined to use each step of my pilgrimage as a vehicle for self-discovery. I was determined to see each person I met as a messenger who had come to teach me something essential.

I arrived at the Wall in Jerusalem in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. I was tired but more alive than I had ever been. Each outward step towards Jerusalem had also been an inward step of uncovering the complexities of my own heart. The daily Jewish prayer says, “LiYerushalayim ircha, b’rachamim tashuv.” To Jerusalem Your City, you will return with Compassion.

As I approached that ancient holy wall, I tried to keep my heart steady with compassion. The sound of rain against stone seemed like the tears of all my ancestors flooding me now… and then I heard a voice, calling me. “Hey Baby, come here and kiss me!” I could not believe it. The voice was coming from the guard-booth at the edge of the courtyard where a bored but insistent Israeli soldier was beckoning to me.

I turned to him, exasperated. I sighed and thought, “I can’t believe you’re ruining this historic moment!”

Turning back toward the Wall, I tried to compose myself and focus my intention to be wholehearted before God. The whole time I stood there praying, the soldier kept yelling through the rain, “Kiss me, Kiss me!” And I couldn’t help but laugh.

Many years later I studied the Song of Solomon whose opening line says, “Kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, for your sweet loving is better than wine.”

Finally I am able to receive the hidden message of my pilgrimage. That obnoxious Israeli guard who only knew a few words of English was my messenger, my angel, come to tell me:

God is calling you to intimacy with the Reality before you. “Kiss me,” Life says. “Open to the truth of God in this moment. Open to the fullness of pleasure and pain. Every time you turn towards the past or towards an abstract idea, I will call you back to Me through a simple yet profound engagement with Life. Your sweet loving is better than wine, better than an abstract ideal, better than getting high, better than fame, better than sex, better than knowing a lot, better than success. Kiss me, Kiss me!”

To embark on a pilgrimage is to open to the message that you have spent your whole life resisting. To embark on a pilgrimage is to be willing to leave behind the familiar comforts, habits, addictions and self-definitions, and walk straight into the Truth of who you were meant to be.

Is there place in the world that compels you, someplace where you’ve always wanted to go? For me, one of those places has been Machu Picchu. In March of 2008 we will embark on a pilgrimage. Our trip is a pilgrimage inwards aided by daily journeys to special sites. Our pilgrimage will take us to some of the most sacred and most magnificent natural sites in the South of Peru. We will journey to the most-magnificent Machu Picchu sanctuary, the Inca sacred valley, and hike through archeological ruins. We will also meet and converse with local Indigenous practitioners. We will travel to enjoy incredible natural sites and visit the people who still make those mountains, rivers, and valleys their home.

My dream is to gather a group of people who will travel together with me as pilgrims and support each other in our heart’s yearning for wholeness. Each morning we will gather to build and refine our intentions, using practices of meditation, chant and prayer. Then we will spend our days exploring the sacred sites and beautiful landscapes of southern Peru and meeting the people who live there. Each evening we will gather again to reflect, integrate our experiences and celebrate the insights we have received.

We will travel during March 10-19, 2008. This will be an awesome journey to a magnificent place. And it will be an adventure of the Spirit for those who dare to use the outer journey as an opportunity to venture inward.

Please write hune@martinbuberinstitute.org for more information or call 914-439-7731.

Rabbi Shefa's Fool Moon Letter...

October 25th 2007
The Full moon in Taurus
The 13th of Cheshvan

Fellow Pilgrims,
Some say that a pilgrimage begins the moment that you decide to go. For me this pilgrimage began when I first realized that it’s really going to happen! The dream has become a Reality! A willing, mature and open-hearted group has formed, the details of our journey are being taken care of responsibly and efficiently, and we can now focus in on the inner components of our shared journey.
Martin Buber retells a Chasidic story that you may have heard, about a certain rabbi, Rabbi Isaac son of Rabbi Yekel of Crakow. He has a series of disturbing dreams in which he is told to journey to Prague and dig up a treasure that is buried at the bridge that leads to the King’s Palace. After the first dream, he tells his wife, Goldie, and they both laugh about it. They are poor people and Prague seems like a distant place. But after the third dream, Rabbi Isaac is filled with both trembling and resignation and he packs a small bag and sets out for Prague. After a dangerous journey, he arrives at the King’s Palace only to find that the bridge is guarded day and night and he does not dare start digging. The captain of the guards asks him if he is waiting for someone or looking for something. Rabbi Isaac breaks down and tells him of the dream that brought him there. The captain of the guards laughed, “You poor fellow, listening to stupid dreams! Why if I had paid attention to dreams I would have had to get going when a dream once told me to go to Crakow and dig for treasure under the stove of a Jew! Rabbi Isaac, son of Rabbi Yekel that was his name!” And he laughed again. Rabbi Isaac turned, traveled home and dug up the treasure from under his stove.
When I heard this story, I knew that it was true. The treasure is right here under the ground on which I stand. Yet I might have to travel to Prague, to Machu Picchu, to the edges of my own soul… in order to return with enough courage and vision to dig.
I suppose that growing up with the annual practice of watching the Wizard of Oz probably left its mark on me. With Dorothy I know that “There’s no place like home.” And yet she (and I) would have to travel the dangerous road to OZ (In Hebrew this word means strength) and back, in order to know the place of my life, my center as “home.”
When I was young I began telling everyone that I was from Madagascar (the most exotic place I had ever heard of) because it just didn’t feel fair or true that I was growing up in Paramus, New Jersey. Actually I said that I was from an island off the coast of Madagascar, where strange and wonderful animals roamed, and where each breeze carried on it a new and tantalizing fragrance of spice. I knew that although I sometimes suffered with a feeling of being “in exile,” my life was a journey Home. This longing for “Home,” has its source in the experience, however fleeting, of the truth that I am home, whole, loved…. that I truly rest in God’s embrace. We can only long for what we have already tasted. Our longing is born of a faint remembrance. Some call it the memory of Eden.
As we begin our journey, we can connect with this remembrance and fan the spark of our longing till it bursts into flame. That flame becomes the fuel for our journey. When you look inside and search for that flame of longing, you may find that it is buried under layers of disappointment or cynicism.
Here is your first assignment (just my suggestion really) in preparation for Pilgrimage:
In prayer, meditation or reverie, ask the question, “What is my deepest longing?” “What do I yearn for in the depths of my heart?” You don’t have to answer. Just be with the question and let its power uncover the layers that defend your heart. Just feel the power of that yearning at your core which holds in it the memory of Eden. Notice, also, the voice of resistance that rises up in you.
When you uncover that deepest longing, imagine it as a fire that is burning at the center of your heart. (It is the Ner Tamid, the eternal flame.) As the image of that fire gets clearer, bring your focus to your breath and imagine that with each breath, you are blowing gently on that flame, feeding it with your conscious awareness. Let each breath brighten and strengthen that flame until the fire at the center of your heart becomes a radiant Light, shining out to illuminate the way forward.
Each month at the time of the full moon, I will write another letter with suggestions for practices we might do or ideas we might contemplate as we prepare for our pilgrimage.
With blessing and grateful anticipation for our journey,

Shefa

beauty in ruins..beauty of the ruins... just sharing a thought

We all know Keats's famous dictum: A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: What, however happens to the beauty once the "thing" is gone? Are the beauty and its thing one and the same? Can the beauty remain for ever even when the underlying thing has ceased to exist? one can say that a thing persists but its beauty, sadly, has ceased. To say the opposite, that the beauty persists even tough the thing has ceased, is a more difficult proposition. This of course seems not to apply to "spiritual" things like music. Music can never physically cease and its beauty is a part of it, they are one and the same, it cannot be set apart from it. However, it is also the case that you and I listen to the same melody and there might be beauty there for you
but not for me.. so it seems that the music and its beauty are not one and the same after all. There is a tale (I think of rabbi Nahman of Bratzlav?) where a person was concerned as to what actually happens to the hole once the bagel was eaten. We all remember eating a bagel, but the hole? here is just a semantic issue: we break the concept "bagel" into its components and create the illusion of differentiation..The connection of all this with our pilgrimage is that during our trip we are going to see things of immense beauty. We are also going to see ruins of things of immense beauty. Are we going to be able to see the
beauty there? our eyes have not seen the original beauty and we cannot carry it with us as a joy for ever. But when we begin to think what these ruins meant and still mean to the people of the land, we can not fail but to see their beauty. Here is a chance to dialogue with the thing and let it dialogue with us. In Zen they say "to listen with the eyes", and that's a good way to describe Buber's I-Thou. "For ever" or "impermanence", these are just words. The important thing is that we
will be there, and this "there" is all that matters.

Hune

(if you want to share some thoughts with the group, send them to me and I'll email them to everyone..)

Some Notes and Thoughts on Indigenous Spirituality (I)

Fellow Journeyers, hi..

Following rabbi Shefa's letter, I thought of sharing with you a few themes from Indigenous spirituality. Some of it has obvious resonance to our modern-day faith practices. It should help us be more ready and conversant with the cultures and traditions of the Andean Indigenous peoples of the South of Peru.

There is no religion without a given theology of liberation. The use of the term "theology", in this case, is only a device of convenience. The term Theology derives from the Latin, meaning, roughly, a discourse on God. The God we worship however, cannot be talked about, for the moment we make God into an "about" we have made him into an object, an "It" in Buber's terms. We can't talk about God, but we can talk to God. To say that, of course, requires the acceptance of a certain theology about God, and therein lies a critical logical dilemma. There is a very peculiar and interesting Indigenous theology about man's origin, purpose and ultimate liberation or redemption. The Gods of the Indigenous were, much like ours, creators, sustainers and destroyers. That's the theology, but the relationship of the Indigenous person with his God was intimate, very concrete and deeply felt in the here, now and everything.

The Indigenous of pre-Columbian Latin America had a very elaborate religious civilization. Sadly, their religion was all but obliterated by the conquering Christ of the Spaniards. Indigenous temples were destroyed and on top of their ruins, imposing churches were built. The Indigenous priestly class, as the bearers of the secrets of their religions, were especially made to suffer and in most instances, killed. Indigenous languages, names, literature, art, entire cultures, were systematically and methodically distorted by a process of forcible conversions. Priests, by pain of death or torture, were forced to publicly resign their ancestral faiths and proclaim in their stead the new religion of their conquerors. They were forced to help lead their communities away from their ancestral faiths. It is often reckoned that Spaniards, in contrast to recent-history Germans, were not as efficient in record keeping.. we just don't know for sure how many millions of Indigenous were killed during this process.

How much of all that rings familiar to a Jewish ear? temples destroyed, forced conversions, genocide.

But also rebirth. This also rings familiar.

One crucial historic difference however: the Jewish sages of old, when facing pending and real calamities, knew to move on form exclusive reliance on the temple to sustain our religious faith. The Romans believed, as was the case around their sprawling empire, that by destroying the temple, the pesky Jewish rebels would just simply go away, their stage in history closed. Jews, instead, rebuilt their temple, but in a different dimension, one that cannot be destroyed by fire. As Heschel wrote, our new temples were built in Time instead of Space, our temple is the day of Shabbat, the first of the creation to be called "holy" in the Torah. The Spaniards, like their Roman predecessors in pillage and colonialism, successfully relied on this destructive principle.

As I travel, I often converse with Indigenous sages about these tragic historic events their peoples had to endured. It is all of us who lost when they lost. I make reference to their religion having all-but disappeared once their temples were destroyed. What remains of Indigenous spirituality is still recovering from their historic "churban", the destruction of their people. But here lies one of our callings. We, as Jews, can teach and can demonstrate. Sadly, we know only to well about these things. A faith, to survive, to be reborn, and even to thrive and grow and be a light unto the nations, requires nothing but a willing heart and, also, so as not to forget the practical side of history, a good measure of community organizing.

There is still a living religious life in the Indigenous communities of Latin America. Some of it has found expression through a hybrid of syncretic faiths and beliefs, partially Christian, partially ancestral. There is a record of ancient books and beliefs and ceremonies and liturgies. The Indigenous of the Amazons, (not the Inkas, though it did reach the Inkas too), were famous for their use of a mystical plant called the "Ayahuasca". Ayahuasca is a plant the people believed the Gods had left behind on earth in order to reveal/conceal the truth of life and the universe. The jungle is the home of the plant and the entire ecological network its protector and sustainer. But only those spiritually ready and prepared would be called to boil the plant into a drink. The Shamans would drink the Ayahuasca during special ceremonies and occasions, usually when there was a need to access the wisdom of the Gods for a community purpose, never for recreational purposes. For the Indigenous, there were many Gods, and the abode of the Gods was inside the world and outside of the world. The Ayahuasca was the means of communication with the Gods of nature and beyond.

A multi-God culture has no primordial objection to absorbing and incorporating new Gods from other cultures. This sounds alien to a Jewish mind, but in the world of Indigenous faith, the God of the white-man, was, at first, a reluctantly, though somewhat welcome addition. It was only when this new God, aided by cannons, alcohol and bacterial infections, demanded to be, not the chief of all Gods, as in the Inka's divine hierarchies, but the one and only God, that the culture of the Indigenous began the process of its demise.

In subsequent letters I will tell you a bit more about the system of Gods and the role of the Shaman and his Ayahuasca in Andean religions. We are going to witness some of it during our trip. I think there is much we can bring to them and much we will receive from them.

This "them" and "us" is also something to gradually learn to overcome..

in peace and dialogue

Hune

APPLICATIONS FOR REGISTRATION TO RABBI SHEFA GOLD'S PILGRIMAGE

RABBI SHEFA GOLD'S PILGRIMAGE: March 10-19, 2008. The South of Peru, Cuzco region and the Marchu Picchu
(Tour Operations through Community Development Partners For The Americas, LLC)

APPLICATION AND REGISTRATION FORMS

DATES:
Departure: Monday, March 10, 2008 (flight details will be posteed shortly)
Return: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 (flight details will be posted shortly)

COSTS:

Option 1: $2,787.00/person- Double Occupancy (single rooms may be available on an optional basis with a price differential). Price includes international roundtrip airfare, lodging for 9 nights, 3 daily meals, all transfers and transportation to group activities, all activities lead by Rabbi Shefa Gold, all city tours, and all cultural, ecological, spiritual and touring activities.

Option 2: $2,187.00. All the same as above, except without including the round trip international air fare from New York.

To submit your application and registration materials please copy, paste and email the materials below (or print and mail) to our trip organizers: Dr. Hune Margulies at CDPA@cdpa-americas.org. Phone: 914-833-7787 / 914-439-7731.

You may also contact Rabbi Shefa Gold at shefa@rabbishefagold.com

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Please sign and return this complete application and registration forms via e-mail to CDPA@cdpa-americas.org.
2. Print this entire application, include a check with your deposit in the amount of $250.00 and return to CDPA: 203 Rockingstone Avenue. Larchmont, NY 10538.
3. Attach to this application a photocopy of the picture page of your passport and a copy of your health insurance card, back and front. Part I: Personal Information

Full Name, title:
email address:
Date of Birth: Gender :
Social Security Number:
Occupation:
Home Address:
City: State: Zip code:
Home Phone: Cell Phone:
Spouse’s email:
Emergency email:
Fax : Work Phone:
web site:
Country of Residence: Place of Birth:
Citizenship:
Passport Number: Passport Expiration:
Health Insurance Carrier:
Name of insured:
Policy Number:
Work address:
Emergency Contact Name:
Phone Number:

What is your spiritual practice? (if you have one):


Please provide us with a brief explanation as to special circumstances or concerns: (special diets, health issues, disabilities, etc.). Please describe in detail. All information is strictly confidential and it will be used solely for the purpose of arranging for special services as needed.


➢ Do you know Spanish?

➢ Need Special Diets?

➢ Taking Medications?

➢ Allergies?

➢ Other Health Issues?

➢ Disabilities?


Part II: Financial information:

Method of payment: Check, Money Order, Cash, (Partial Credit Card payments allowed). Make checks payable to: Community Development Partners For the Americas, LLC. 203 Rockingstone Avenue. Larchmont, NY 10538. 914-439-7731.

Part III: Instructions:

Total Cost: The cost of the Tour Program is $2,787.00. (or Option 2, $2,187.00 without including the international round trip air fare from New York). Price includes international roundtrip airfare, lodging for 9 nights, 3 daily meals, all transfers and transportation to group activities, all activities lead by Rabbi Shefa Gold, all city tours, and all cultural, ecological, spiritual and touring activities. Price does not include airport taxes.

Payments: A deposit in the amount of $250.00 must accompany this application. Deposits and payments must be made within schedule to insure space in the program and to avoid late penalty charges. Optional choices are not included.


Cancellations: Depending on airline, hotels, buses and other supplier’s policies. After receipt of application a voucher for your deposit will be issued and e-mailed.

Please Make all checks payable to: COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS FOR THE AMERICAS. 203 Rockingstone Avenue. Larchmont, NY 10538, USA. Tel: 914-833-7787 / 914-439-7731. Email: CDPA@cdpa-americas.org . www.culture-and-ecology.com


Waiver and Release

Release executed on the___day of __________ , 200 __ , by ________________ (the 'Traveler Releasor') , resident of__________________________________________to Rabbi Shefa Gold and CDPA (the 'Releasee').

I, the Releasor, in consideration of my participation in the Rabbi Shefa's Pilgrimage March 10-19, 2008, and run and/or operated by the Releasee, waive, release, and discharge the Releasee and CDPA , its owners, officers, directors, employees, members, agents, assigns, legal representatives and successors, and all business associates and partners involved in the presentation of the above noted activity and each of them their owners, officers and employees, and any other people officially connected with this event from all liability for or by reason of any damage, loss or injury to person and property, even injury resulting in the death of the Releasor, which has been or may be sustained in consequence of the Releasor's participation in the activity described above, and notwithstanding that such damage, loss or injury may have been caused solely or partly by the negligence of the Releasee. I am aware of the risks of participation. I understand that participation in this program is strictly voluntary and I freely choose to participate. I understand that the Releasee does not provide medical coverage for me. I verify that I will be responsible for any medical costs I incur as a result of my participation


Date:
Name of Traveler:
Signature of Traveler
Name of Traveler
Signature of Traveler