OPY’I, NOSSA VERDADEIRA ESCOLA
Living knowledge and practice
Cristine Takuá
25 de novembro de 2024
Photo: Cristine Takuá
For a few months now, we've been building a house of prayer in the middle of the forest for studies and concentration retreats. The whole process is being carried out with materials taken from the forest: wood, vines to tie it together, straw to cover it and clay to make the walls. A living, natural house, made with the ancient knowledge of traditional Guarani architecture. As well as technique, there is a sensitive wisdom that follows the guidance of time. There is the right time to harvest the wood, the straw and the vines.
In today's world, listening to and observing the weather is no longer the first step to practising knowledge, because everything is bought and sold all the time. Everything contains agrochemicals and insecticides, and everything ends up being disconnected from this deep sense of knowing how to wait for the time.
For this reason, carrying out this construction is a practice of the Living School, in which young people and even children take part, helping to clay the walls. In this way, we ensure and make it possible for this knowledge to live on in our memories.
Photos: Carlos Papá
Opy'i is the house of prayers, the house of healings, the house of awakenings and the place where people learn. There is a large classroom in each territory. We dance, rest, meditate and transform ourselves within this sacred house. It's a place of shelter and counselling.
Each people names this sacred space in their own way, and all have a very intimate and true relationship with this classroom. The idea of a school is always a square place with desks, chairs and blackboards. In the house of prayer, the essential thing is the fire, the great teacher who assists the spiritual work and warms up the long nights of study.
Knowing how to get in and out of this classroom is a lesson that is taught from the time we are babies. There is an ethic that guides our relationships within Opy'i, and everyone – children, young people, men and women – has their own role and orientation in the learning process.
Photo: Carlos Papá
Fotos: Cristine Takuá
Unlike hospitals
And health centres
The Opy'i or prayer house
Is not only a healing space
But also an educational centre
The true school
There we talk about dreams, we heal
and we also learn good and beautiful
Ways of practising the Good Living
Teko Porã.
How good it is to sing, to dance
To play Takuapu, Maracá
To feel this special place!
To be around loved ones
Who often, even in
Silence
Transmit more messages than if they were talking
But unfortunately, today, many only seek it out
When ailments of the body or soul affect them
But it shouldn't be that way!
Our medicines don't come packaged in plastic like those in pharmacies,
Elas florescem em meio às cachoeiras, igarapés, montanhas sagradas…
Healing men and women
Spiritual leaders
Are just watching
The spread of evangelicals invading
The sacred Tekoa
The increasing influence
Of the use of antibiotics and painkillers
The encouragement of hospital births
It's time to wake up!
To value the traditional knowledge and practices that bring joy to our souls.
We urgently need to
Honour the traditions of healing
And spirituality of ancient cultures
And thus calm
The spirits of the forest
Who are angry
Tired of so much contradiction
From us so-called thinking beings!
May this reflection fly far and wide
As the smoke that comes out of our pipes rises and may it touch
The hearts of sensitive beings!
All respect to the medicines that come from the forest!
All respect to the praying men and women
Who have balanced life here on Earth
For so many centuries!
Aguyjevete!
Photo: Cristine Takuá
Photo: Carlos Papá
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The construction of the Opy'i in the territory of Rio Silveiras Village has the support of Goethe-Institut.
At the beginning of December, a residency led by Cristine Takuá and Carlos Papá will take place, bringing together indigenous leaders from different territories around the construction of the prayer house in Rio Silveiras Village. As well as building together, there will be a plant laboratory and the participation in the activities of the Guarani Living School.
Joining forces and desires, Selvagem and the Goethe-Institut are collaborating on the realisation and documentation of the residency at Escola Viva Guarani as part of the Cosmopercepções da Floresta [Cosmoperceptions of the Forest] project.