​"revalue the human and natural resources of Amazonian traditional medicine."After a long interview process through letters and official documents, we are confirmed to partake in DIETA (click to read more). After this we are free to explore the Amazon and its mysteries, with our intuition and prior 3 years of experience guiding us, we feel confident that we will be safe and that we will find the perfect circumstances to support our learning process.  
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In related news:
We are still working on our album and are aiming to release it within this blessed month of December. 
This sharing of our hearts through music has taken on a new significance as we find ourselves growing nostalgic of even the most routine aspects of our day, with the knowledge that life will soon be looking very different. The spirit of a farewell embeds itself in the music as we record, motivating us to give our best efforts to the process. 

The song "We are One" will not be on our upcoming album, but can be listened to and downloaded for free on soundcloud. Lastly we have compiled videos of memories from our experiences from the past few years and though it is mainly a farewell to our family here in New York, we'd like to share it with everyone who has had an exchange with us in one way or the other. 

Love,
Zain and Zahra

The picture above was taken on a wintery autumn morning. I greeted a tree that I sit across from at work with sacred tobacco smoke. As I did so, the rays of the sun and rainbow colors were revealed in the smoke: A reminder of the ever present unseen layers of beauty that are revealed simply with a shift in perspective.

In this moment of grace a fresh thought came with a high degree of clarity and cohesion. 
To these moments, I pay extra attention and board the train of thought willingly.
It went something like this:

Being "Indian," or rather, Native or Indigenous is a state of consciousness.
For example Inca, Maya, Apache, Lakota, and even current isolated tribes around the world are literally occupying a stream, a current of awareness in the ocean of consciousness. Beyond birth, each individual is raised with certain norms and values which direct their lives with a particular outlook. 

Building on this insight, all the various forms of the prophecy of a Global Tribe is true because slowly the masses of a once misdirected and lost culture of "modern-Western-civilization" are slowly learning to direct their consciousness towards an all inclusive global awareness. Generation after generation we are fully realizing our Global Citizenry: 

Humans are learning the dance of contradictions, or seeming opposites. 
Soon it may be the case that our current group of generations will have a fitting title, or name that will evoke a sense of deep time and awe in the hearts of our children's children's children. For what is a name other than a label on a specific tuning of the unseen strings that vibrate our reality into being? 
Much like the string on a guitar we label with an arbitrary letter for organization's sake, throughout the ages language and labeling has been used to identify and establish identification with feelings, thoughts, states of awareness...
Labels are reference points to consciousness- a piece of art, music, a language, or even a stone can be assigned as a reminder to a particular vibration.

The idea of "Native American" for most people around the world has become a romantic "Cowboys and Indians" notion that is restricting their scope of thinking, of feeling and knowing. We are not facing galactic matters just yet, we're still figuring out basics like how to educate our children and take care of our health and this is why we are all in dire need of the wisdom of the Earth which is still very real and fresh in many tribes like the Kaxinawa Huni Kun, Yawanawa, Kampa, Sentinelese, Kokiri, and many others around the world. It is arrogant and ignorant to think of our civilization, lifestyles and culture as the only one worth noting. It is not true that Native Wisdom is a thing of the past. 

There is medicine out there.

There is wisdom out there.

And vibrations that await to be heard and felt.

Don't doubt all tribal dances, face paint and seemingly "primitive festivities" that we all too often judge as "for show" and "attention." There is significance in what we, at face value, can easily judge as nonsense. There are states of being that take experience to know.
They do not fit into intellectual schemata and wordy explanations. 

There is fear in modern people that "others" not part of the societal structures of western civilization are dangerous because we think they don't have the same conscience, the same values, and the same folkways, mores and taboos. We do not want to be misled, made fools of and sent on a wild goose chase. These fears all come from an attitude of lack. Know yourself, take pride in your global heritage, in your far-reaching awareness, in your multi-ethnic background, your versatility and yes even your possible misfortunes of growing up in dysfunctional family structures, which encoded you with the experiential knowledge of what needs to be healed in humanity's collective psyche...
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There is much we are to learn, as well as teach. No one has all the answers; we are all co-creating a new existence for humanity. There are even decedents of mutilated tribes who are rediscovering their roots and reconnecting to old customs with a new twist. We are blessed with traditions that have been passed down for generations, and most importantly we are also staying true to the guidance in the NOW.
Rituals are meant to serve us, to make us present and aligned. When we begin serving them instead we literally shut the gates on Grace coming to kiss our hearts. We dance upon the surface of rituals and they provide us with a platform to take-off of into freeform creativity with integrity and with an aim towards higher and higher vibration. 

It is about heart, not about blood.
We are all natives to this Earth.
Natives are taught by nature, the stars, the universe, the mystery...
We have been, we are and will be, living and learning into infinity. 

This poem was written on 9/5/13 at 8:47am
just after Zain drank his last dose of a tree medicine he was dieting with at El Santuario Huistin.
In dieta one eats neutral foods like potatoes, plantains, white fish and rice without any salt, oil, or seasoning in general. 
The body becomes receptive and attuned to the subtle plant medicines like Aho Sacha. 
The dieter is in meditation with the plant teacher and learns about Nature through this exchange. 
Click on an image below to expand the gallery, use arrows keys to browse:

Shamoriri...
My vision is to complete this one day as an endless loop of of clouds, snake and curandero coming out of each other. 
-Zain