Why I Love the Peruvian Amazonby William Ward
Creator of Co-owner of The Sachamama Project
People ask me why I do what I do.
Why I fly, boat, and then hike to the middle of nowhere. Why I submit myself to the rigors of physical cleansing again and again. Why I offer my flesh to the mosquitoes like some habitual rite that never gets sated. Why I follow the advice of the crazy jungle shaman for a template of living an aligned life.
I tell them that they are right.
The Peruvian Amazon Basin feels like nowhere else. Sweet Mother Mercy, life is present here. Not with cell phones, highways, fluorescent lights, ATM machines, video stores, and planes, perhaps. But life drips from the sky, it surrounds you, it oozes from the ground in this place. The beauty punctures you, it breaks through the membrane of electromagnetic resistance that we hold in our bodies from what we create in modern society. By the third day here, you wonder how you can ever go back, how you could have ever gotten away from what really matters, connection with the Mother Earth that graces us with life. And it is not 'just' in the environs of the natural world, but in the open hearts of the people, the sense of community and belonging to something greater, the ready and gracious smiles. Even right now, far removed from it, staring at the diodes of my computer monitor, a piece of my heart is out there in nowhere, thankful that a place like this is still left on this planet where life can pulse wildly. I long to be in the middle of nowhere.
They are right about the physical cleansing process, too. I mean, it is physical, and it is cleansing. I'm not sure about the 'rigors' of it, because it feels so good, so easy, so...natural. How could you be in a place this pure and not want your body in the best state possible to receive its gifts? Cleansing is one of the primary reasons for being here. To shed the innumerable toxins and the stresses that are all linked to the way we're creating life within the advances of our civilization. People leave their diseases here, their sorrows, their impurities, their regrets. Don Agustin Rivas, the shaman that we work with, says that in this place we heal the spirit. In this place we heal the spirit to go back into its god. The challenge is not here, it doesn't have anything to do with this place. The challenge awaits us on our return. Bills, jobs, traffic, all the stress that comes from belonging to our human world. When we release the stress associated with our living, incredible things happen. Our hearts open, our cells vibrate, our bodies move things, we free ourselves from disease and negativity. I have seen people with tired eyes and heavy hearts leave this place renewed, years younger, even reborn into a new way of existence. I have seen what the rigors of physical cleansing can do, and it is awesome.
They're even right about the mosquitoes. The jungle has them. And other things. Chiggers, spiders, snakes, you name it, all just waiting to nourish themselves on you. What an incredible reception the jungle hosts for its visitors! If I even get bit by a mosquito once while I'm in the jungle, though, I am grateful. It reminds me that I am a guest, in this jungle, on this earth, in this body. It reminds me where I am, and what I have to be thankful for. Funny, the more attention that people seem to give to mosquitoes, the more the mosquitoes seem attracted to the people who give them the attention. At times, we seem to have very little sense for the magical webs that weave themselves in hidden ways for this planet to support life. Can anyone say the importance the mosquitoes or the crickets hold for humanity and what would happen if they disappeared? Can anyone say the importance to humanity of all the millions of species of life that are leaving this planet for good? In the jungle, life is interwoven in unspeakably clear ways. Birth and death are everywhere, churning, feeding, cycling, becoming. Take out any part of it and it affects the whole irreversibly. I say thank you to the mosquitoes, for helping to maintain the beauty of the natural world. As for all the things out there that could be deemed unsafe, I've never felt this safe where I live in the United States, where people find all sorts of creative ways to kill each other repeatedly. Driving a car around the corner is suicidal to me compared with life in the jungle.
And then there's the matter of don Agustin Rivas. People are absolutely dead on the mark about this one. I learn from a man who lives in the middle of the jungle who is a lunatic. Crazy. Insane by the standards cherished by modern society. He cares for the earth; he cultivates healing herbs; he helps people from all over the world heal themselves naturally - some would say 'miraculously;' he talks about what a short time we have left on this planet if we don't wake up immediately; he laughs with seismic rumbling; he addresses diseases at their source and not the symptoms; he has the power to open people's eyes to the elemental spirits that reside in the plants and the trees; he works unceasingly to educate the children of his community; he is one of the healthiest 70 year old human specimens imaginable. There aren't the words to describe him here, but suffice it to say he is crazy. I look to politicians, the media, the corporations, to the materialists - all who are setting standards of life globally for much of civilization - and I see nothing in common with who this man is, how he lives, how he loves. When he sings one of his magical songs, the birds become more populous and vocal around his camp. How crazy is that? He teaches opening the heart to love no matter what others may say or do to you. How crazy is that? He lives each day with the passion of creation while holding no hope for the continued existence of human bodies on Mother Earth. How crazy is that?
People are right to ask me why I do what I do.
It is nuts.
I would take it any day over the sanity of modern living.
William takes groups of people to the Peruvian Amazon to learn from and heal themselves with master shaman don Agustin Rivas. He or his partner Jeff Curnutt may be contacted at thesachamamaproject@cox.net or through their website at www.thesachamamaproject.com. Jeff and William play music inspired by their work in Peru. You can check them out at www.yachaymusic.com
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