The Four Worlds International Institute

Wopida: A Global Ceremony of Gratitude and a Vision of the Future

Wopida: A Global Ceremony of Gratitude and Thanksgiving and a Vision for the future.

It is time for our Human Family to act as a unified force of nature, to live life as a prayer of gratitude and service for all Life on our Mother Earth and our future generations. It is time for a Global Wopida.

The Dakota people have a special Thanksgiving Ceremony . It is called Wopida, or Wopila in the Lakota dialect.

Wopida is a sacred sharing of gratitude, a connecting with all beings and our Great Spirit, through giving thanks. It is is an expression of wisdom, strength, and compassion.

Our Indigenous relatives and other members of the Human Family have survived centuries of genocide yet we still carry this sacred teaching that helps us navigate turbulent times. This is the core teaching of Wopida:

This spiritual understanding of Wopida requires each of us to live with honor, compassion, love, respect and harmony with all life. This spiritual understanding recognizes that the Hurt of One is the Hurt of All and the Honor of One is the Honor of All and that we are intimately related as an integral part of all Life. We are all relatives!"

In April of this year a small group of the Oceti Sakowin “Chante tin’sa kinanzi Po”, started a peaceful and prayerful resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Slowly people of all faiths and cultural backgrounds flocked to stand in support with these Native American relatives to protect their land and water. These Water Protectors have a message for the world to protect the sacred, Mni Wiconi, “Water is Life”.

This is why Chief Phil Lane, Ihanktowan Dakota, has called for a Global Wopida Ceremony, in support of Standing Rock, to occur 10 December, which is United Nations Human Rights Day.

The webcasts from both previous events had over 40,000 people listening and almost 300,000 have listened to the recording online. United Religions Initiative Director, Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr., Jon Ramer of the Charter for Compassion, Hawaiian Teacher, Pua Case, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, and others will be offering words of wisdom and gratitude in the presentation on Saturday December 10, 2016.

Wopida is the understanding that we are blessed regardless of life’s circumstances.

"When we strive to make our lives, every thought, word and action, a living Wopida, we are given a great spiritual gift. For whenever our soul and the inmost chambers of our heart are filled with thanksgiving and gratitude it also naturally becomes filled with compassion, love, understanding, forgiveness, joy, happiness and oneness. When our lives are centered in this State of Consciousness, there is no room left for the experience of fear, hate, prejudice, revenge, jealousy, loneliness and disunity. There is no room for anything that separates ourselves and our oneness with our Beloved Creator, our Human Family and all Life, seen and unseen!

This heartfelt understanding of the infinite unifying and healing power of Wopida, is to give thanks and gratitude at all times and in all places. This is the State of Consciousness that we always need to be, whatever unfolds at Standing Rock and beyond." – Ate, Dekshi, Lala, and Brother Phil

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