Marking the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, friends from Central Europe and beyond gathered in the Park of Study and Reflection, Pravikov in the Czech Republic, today (21st June 2014) to inaugurate the new stainless steel monolith that marks the year in which this centre for the development of a non-violent, human society was founded.
On a surprisingly cold day given that it’s mid-summer, the hosts of Pravikov Park, one of around 50 such parks scattered around the globe, gave a tour of all the elements of the park.
Texts were read at each point of the tour. Extracts and images of the day follow below. All photos by Anita Szeicz:
We welcome you with great joy and love on the inauguration of the monolith in Pravíkov Park of Study and Reflection, for which we have chosen the symbolic day of summer solstice.
The Entrance Gates to our Parks are inspired by Japanese Torii which mark the entrance to Shinto shrines. They revive that invitation to cross a threshold in order to enter into other spaces and clarify our inner askings in our hearts…
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Traditionally engraved on stone slabs, stelas give testimony to meaningful historic events that took place at the time they were erected, for example in the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Mayan cultures.
In the Parks of Study and Reflection the stelas bear plaques engraved with the names of all the people who contributed to the Park’s construction.
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The Yoni-Lingam, which inspired the form of the fountain, represents the union of the feminine and the masculine principle. In ancient India the “lingam” was a column of fire that joined the heavens and the earth, dividing them and bringing them together at the same time. The welcoming, fertile earth was “yoni.”
In Tantra the Yoni-Lingam is the maximum representation of God within us: it represents the creative energy expressed in thought and in the capacity to generate life.
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We’ve come here today mainly to celebrate the installation of another symbolic element of this Park. We would like to use this opportunity to thank all those who took part in making this important step happen.
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Architectural forms like our Monoliths have been found down through history and in all parts of the world. In other times such connectives between “heaven” and “earth” were sometimes referred to as the “axi mundi” or axis of the world.
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With this Force that we have received, let us ask that this Park and the other parks all over the world may become centers of inner peace, inspiration and a new spirituality… Let us ask that we may be able to transmit this force and inspiration to those, who need them…
Let us ask that our lives may transform deeply… that we may overcome contradictions and inner violence… that we may overcome the suffering in us and others…
And let us ask from the depth of our hearts that everything goes well…
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These extraordinary spaces created out of infinite desire to find meaning and to overcome suffering are allegories of our internal worlds.
Here we experience that which has no name but which has meaning – the contact with an unexplored depth, where the space is infinite and the time is eternal. And although brief, these moments fill us with meaning and joy.
