The Novasutras term agaya represents concepts found in numerous indigenous cultures. It includes our recognition of and response to the transcendent, creative, loving and sacred beauty of the living Earth. Agaya is strongly resonant with the Diné word “hózho.”
Giving thanks can be a celebration of agaya and ubuntu, whether through personal practices like gratitude journaling, or community-building through the Native American tradition of the “Thanksgiving Address.” What are you grateful for? How do you celebrate ubuntu and agaya?
We can decolonize Thanksgiving and Black Friday to celebrate gratitude in agaya and ubuntu, and stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples. What are you grateful for? How can you decolonize your celebration?
The climate crisis and global biodiversity loss require us to reconnect with the sacred, living Earth and with one another in more powerful ways. We may grow to understand the ways that life on Earth seeks to become allied with us, and find ways to act in better partnership. We can unite with that awesome power that gives us life to protect and restore its vitality in joyful co-creation.
Thanksgiving can become a celebration of agaya and ubuntu, through the Native American tradition of the “Thanksgiving Address.” What are you grateful for? How do you celebrate ubuntu and agaya?
It can be instructive and healing to include some acknowledgement of the land and the people who lived there as part of our gatherings. We can learn important things about appropriate ways to act with integrity in our local ecosystems from the indigenous peoples of the land. Who are the indigenous people where you live? What do you know about their history, and how they may be engaged in protecting their land and culture now?
An opportunity to review our Octal Meditation and discussion from the December 2019 Solstice. We talked about gratitude, loss, growth, friendship, community, restoration, regeneration and resilience, with a particular emphasis on the record-breaking heatwaves and fires in Australia.
Thanksgiving can become a celebration of agaya and ubuntu, through the Native American tradition of the “Thanksgiving Address.” What are you grateful for? How does this bring us together to abide in ubuntu and agaya?
