EARTH TREASURE VASE FOR BC

“… breathing in and breathing out, …. feel your connection to the soils, stones, waterways, the forests, flowers, … in deep communion with the nourishing energies of Mother Earth …. Gradually expanding your focus to include all of your friends, family and community, … imagine our circle gradually growing to include all beings in all places everywhere, embracing the whole planet with our love.” — from Earth Treasure Vase Full Moon Mandala Meditation, © Alliance for the Earth

Gaia Mandala Earth Treasure Vase
Global Healing Project Comes to BC

Prayers for Earth and All Our Relations

In 1990 Cynthia Jurs, a woman from Santa Fe, NM, went on a pilgrimage to Nepal that transformed her life. A young Tibetan Buddhist lama (teacher) brought her to a cave, high in the Himalayas, where she met a 106 year-old lama. She asked the elder teacher, ‘What can we do to bring healing and protection to the Earth?’ He instructed her in the ancient Tibetan Buddhist Earth Treasure Vase (ETV) practice of filling consecrated clay vessels with prayers and offerings, and then burying them in places of need around the world. (See video at bottom for more about Cynthia’s journey and this beautiful practice.)

“I don’t know a lot about the ETV practice, but I sense the vase communicating healing and bringing people together to act for Earth.”

Gathering with fellow settlers and local Indigenous peoples, Cynthia has nurtured a global healing community called the Gaia Mandala at: https://gaiamandala.net/ So far, ETV stewards have buried over 50 vases across the seven continents.

As we cultivate the ETV practice, we realize that we too are holy vessels, nodes on this global mandala, participating in the creative restoration of all our relations on this beautiful blue-green planet we call home.

“I woke to an experience of a powerful teaching transmission from the vase and the lineage, giving me a profound taste and showing me what practice I need to do to continue to develop my inner holy vessel.”

An Earth Treasure Vase for BC

BC is unique in its relationships with First Nations and Indigenous peoples. There are 198 First Nations in BC, out of a total of 630 in all of Canada. Ninety-five per cent of BC’s land is on unceded First Nation territories, which means that First Nations people never agreed to give up nor sign away their lands to the Crown or to Canada.

Our intention is for the BC vase’s journey and planting to unfold in an honorable and respectful way for the good of all. Healing our Earth and healing our relationships can’t be separated.

“I felt immense power as she accepted our prayers and took them in to be offered to all our relations here and to the whole Gaia Mandala of healing vases all over the world. We are so blessed to have her here in BC. She is a true gift.”

We look forward to local First Nations, and Land and Water Defenders joining us in carrying the ETV for BC to receive sacred objects, prayers, and blessings in ceremonial and ritual space with respect to the protocols of the peoples who choose to join us. With the Earth Treasure Vase practice, once a vase is full, we bury it somewhere on publicly accessible, sacred land, with permission from the First Nation whose land it is. With the vase guiding us, we will eventually plant her.

The Earth Treasure Vase Global Healing Practice is dedicated to bringing healing and protection to the regions where the vases are planted. In addition, we would like to dedicate the Earth Treasure Vase for BC to:

*Healing inter-generational trauma of the Indian Residential School genocide.

*Ongoing decolonization within ourselves and in the structures and systems of our society for the benefit and dignity of all.

*Supporting Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Defenders of Land, Water and all of our animal and plant relations.

*Allying with each other with respect and for the benefit of Earth and all our relations, including continually educating ourselves.

*Adding another vital light to the Earth Treasure Vase Gaia Mandala.

Earth Treasure Vase stewards for BC:

Maggy Kaplan – mother, grandmother, and retired social worker and counsellor, with a heart’s desire to leave our Earth in better shape than it is now.

Olivia Fermi – counsellor, coach, teacher, and constellations facilitator, dedicating her life’s work to help us all realize our most healthy, loving, and optimal future possible.

We are both long time Diamond Approach students, have both benefitted from privilege as settlers in Vancouver Canada, living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Being of Jewish origin, our grandparents and great-grandparents were victims of racial oppression, cultural erasure, pogroms, and the Holocaust. We hope our experiences of healing our inter-generational trauma may be of benefit.
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We will be gathering for placing sacred objects into the vase and offering prayers and blessings, until its stewards plant it in the Earth to join the Global Healing Mandala.

Update

April 21, 2024. We are delighted to announce that the Earth Treasure Vase for BC has been buried at Whey-ah-wichen: Facing the Wind/Cates Park, N. Vancouver, BC with the blessing of a Tsleil-wauth elder. The vase is now part of the Global Healing Mandala sending healing and protection to our precious earth and all her beings.

Below video of Cynthia Jurs, Gaia Mandala Earth Treasure Vase Sangha leader and Dharmachaya with Lama Tsultrim who helped her set up the Earth Treasure Vase Healing Project. If video doesn’t play, click Replay bottom left.