This is our room for large gatherings (up to 25 people), including classes, small concerts, the start of the Reiki Circle, and our Sunday “Family Gatherings.”

We have the area’s largest Reiki Circle, as mentioned earlier.

Our Sunday Family Gatherings are designed to honor each person as a spiritual being, and to connect everyone to the universal truth that all religions point to while also celebrating humanity’s diversity by honoring and drawing upon all the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. Readings and presentations have come and will continue to be taken from various traditions - thus far, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and modern metaphysics. Everyone is encouraged to participate - for example, we pass a talking stick and when the stick comes to you you’re permitted to speak about whatever you wish.

This room has a diverse array of items representing the world’s traditions.

Over the window on the west side is a thangka, a Tibetan painting of Avalokiteshvara, whom we discussed in the Buddhist Sanctuary. The statue in the corner is Kwan Yin, who we also discussed. Kwan Yin is known around the world for manifesting her presence by changing statues of herself. This is a statue has been changing colors over a period of years.

On the other side of thangka is a Hindu painting of Krishna with women. They basically symbolize devotion of humanity to God.

On the northern wall are three sacred Navajo paintings. Many people are familiar with Navajo sand paintings. Those that are sold commercially differ from those the Navajo create for their spiritual and healing purposes. Those sand paintings are created on the ground and are used as their altars or healing spaces - there’s considerable energy in the imagery. When they do a sand painting for those purposes, they would fill a room - they can be 10-12 feet across. When they make the sand paintings that are sold, they make them in miniature and they change the designs by removing or changing elements so as to protect the confidentiality of the sacred designs and not convey their energy. And the Navajo don’t allow permanent representations of their sacred designs but for a time they did. At least one family was allowed to make these paintings. They’re called memory paintings because they allowed the sand painters to memorize some of the designs by painting them, and that’s what our paintings are. The elders then later declared that these paintings should no longer be made. I don’t know whether the elders ever intended to allow them to be sold, but in any event some were sold off the reservation and we were fortunate enough to have three of them end up here. The cloth they’re painted on is pink because it was buried under ground.

On the other side of the room we have a representation of Buffalo Calf Woman, very sacred to all of the Plains Indian traditions.

At the other end of the room we have our library. This is a library that we allow people at this point just to use here. When we get to our new building, God willing, we intend to have a lending library that people who are members will be able to borrow books from. Many of these books have been donated to us. We actually have 300 books at my home that we just don’t have room for. The most recent significant donated addition was a set of the Zohar, a 23-volume set of one of the most important texts in the Kabbalah, the Judaic mystical tradition.

We’ve received many wonderful gifts - for example, most of the items in the Shamanic Journeying room were donated. This is a community center. This is a center that many people have contributed to creating by donating things to us, by donating money and also by participating in the creation of the sacredness by connecting with spirit here.