FIGUEIRA Spiritual Center — an Agni Way of Living

By Brenda R. Cutrell, Ph.D.

Background:
Figueira is the name of a Spiritual Center in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, where a group of people is living according to certain inner sacred rules. These have a remarkable resemblance to the Agni themes and virtues as depicted by Helena Roerich in the Agni Yoga Teachings, also called the Path of Ethical Living, which were written between 1924 and 1937. The themes and virtues can be found if one carefully studies the inspired books, such as Leaves of Morya’s Garden, Infinity, Agni Yoga, Hierarchy, Aum, Fiery World, etc. Agni Yoga is one of the three pearls in Sancta Sophia Seminary’s lotus symbol.

I found out about Figueira through the books of José Trigueirinho Netto, one of the founders of this Center. Trigueirinho has written 76 books between 1987 and 2008. His talks have produced 1,400 CDs, some of which have been translated into English. Before founding Figueira he held Seminars in various cities of Brazil, and in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The spiritual center of Figueira was founded in approximately 1987 through the donation of the use of a property to Trigueirinho, and the first meeting there was held on December 2, 1987. From this kernel all that is described in the following pages was developed.

Figueira offers the opportunity for various activities, enterprises, and services to visitors in the several properties and buildings that it manages, with absolutely no charge of any kind. The whole system functions through donations. When one is given permission to visit, it is requested that no photos be taken because one is to experience and remember Figueira in one’s heart rather than through one’s eyes and intellect.

I will describe my experience of first visiting Figueira, occurring in 2000, in resonance with the Agni themes and virtues.

Striving & Fearlessness:
Figueira is, at first impression, not easy to reach. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, (where we were staying that time) I sent a fax to announce my desire to visit, together with an acceptable reference or recommendation. Within 24 hours I was contacted by phone by one of their representatives in Buenos Aires. Her name was Angelita de Rodriguez.

Appropriately enough, she had an organic food store and restaurant not too far from where I was staying. We arranged to meet at her restaurant, where she was pleased to invite me to a lunch and discuss various and sundry things such as what Figueira was about, and what I was about. My husband John tagged along.

Other work that Angelita did was participate in and coordinate local groups that served by giving free lessons in cooking with natural foods, helping schools, terminally ill and old people, sorting, cleaning, and distributing used, donated clothing, helping in hospitals, and striving to establish a home for children with AIDS. They also had weekly prayer and mantras or chanting.

Figueira has contact people in Chile, Uruguay, Spain, Canada, Unites States, and other countries I’m not aware of, as well as in various cities of Brazil and Argentina. Once one decides to visit the spiritual center, the procedure is to fax them with approximate visiting dates and your phone number. You are given a contact person’s phone number, with whom you have “an interview,” so that all may judge if this visit is what you really want or think it is. Also, it is a “filling in” of what you should expect and what is expected of you when the visit takes place.

I have seen a neat little booklet with general information about Figueira, such as how room and board works, descriptions of group activities, schedules, courses, and talks given by Trigueirinho and a few others, clothes and supplies one should take, and how to get to Figueira from various starting points in Brazil.

My husband and I left for Brazil on the morning of the 13th of August. We arrived in Sao Paulo knowing no Portuguese. However, Spanish does very well if one listens hard and others are willing to speak slowly and patiently. We had to make our way across this very large city (one of the largest in the world) to a big bus station. It took a while to find the right city transport to take us there. Then we had to make ourselves understood as to where we were going, and what seats we wanted (seats in Portuguese are nothing like the Spanish name for them).

The trip to the State of Minas Gerais is basically all uphill, in a north/north easterly direction from Sao Paulo (on the main highway between Sao Paulo and Bello Horizonte). The landscape is rugged hills, very similar to the Appalachians, though perhaps on a bit grander scale. There is occasional road construction, which complicates traffic patterns. The reader must understand that these are not the impressive interstate system of the United States, although they strive to make them adequate for the traffic. The trip took a little over five hours with a stop every two hours for the comfort of the travelers, as well as taking on or leaving off people. Since then I have experienced this trip taking less time, with only one stop. Most peculiar. (I could mention here that the trip back to Sao Paulo took about four hours. I figure it was because it was downhill.) The landscape often gave me the impression of being tattered and “used” (which is the best term I can come up with to describe what I felt). As one reaches the higher lands there are many, many coffee plantations.

We arrived in Carmo da Cachoeira a little past 7:00 pm on a pleasant late winter evening. Winter in these latitudes is wonderfully sunny during the day, and pleasantly cool at night. We were met at the station by Adelina, who was in charge of visitors and was the general registrar of the organization. Even though she only spoke Portuguese, it was very friendly, and it was a relief to have someone who actually knew what came next in our process.

She took us briefly to one of their town houses, the Administrative Center of Figueira. On our way to the first of their properties outside of town she pointed out another house across the street, also run by them, and fulfilling an important function in their service to the community around them (but more on that later).

The drive out to F1, the name given to the houses of their first property, was over hilly, rugged, rutted earth and gravel roads. Though the distance was only about six miles from town, it seemed much longer and set me to musing over the interestingly long and complex approach to Sparrow Hawk Village. We arrived thankfully at the house—the Casa do Patio—where we were to stay, and were shown to our rooms after a warm welcome by Cristina, one of the three general managers, and Zara, the house administrator of this particular place.

Self-Sacrifice—Purity, Love, & Universality:
Our rooms were to be separate, though we are married. This is one of the rules of this Spiritual Center: that men and women live separately and chastely. In fact, until just before we visited (approximately three months earlier) there were two establishments, each dedicated to nuns or monks; that is to say, the women in the one place and the men in the other lived retired and celibate. At the time of our visit they were no longer secluded and mixed freely with others of the community. Other people staying in Figueira, although not nuns or monks, also honor the rule of celibacy.

There were approximately 120 or so permanent residents of the Spiritual Center, and many, many visitors, the number varying widely according to activities offered or time of week. For example, at the twice a year general meetings (which last four days) there can be more than one thousand people.

To house all these people there are a multiplicity of different kinds of accommodations. But the rules for visitors and residents are very simple. One wakes and comes together with the group of the house one is staying in at six in the morning and all share in the cleaning and tidying of the whole establishment. There are public bathrooms to clean, and areas to mop and sweep. Having done all this, one can retire to one’s room (a two bed set-up where I stayed, with a private bathroom) for a brief time before breakfast.

Breakfast is served at seven-thirty. Depending on where you stay, it may be in the same building or at another establishment about five minutes walk away. The meals are all vegetarian, with absolutely no dairy or animal products; what in the U.S. is called a “vegan” diet. The food is set out on two or three long tables while everybody sits quietly on benches set against the wall. There is no talking. When the meal is announced, everybody quietly goes up, collects a plate, glass, spoon, and fork and serves themselves from the ample dishes. There is herbal tea to drink. Everybody eats in contemplative silence, though sometimes there is an occasional whispered comment or exchange. One can go and sit on benches outside and watch the furious activity of hummingbirds in beautiful red-blossoming bushes, or look at the calm scenery of hill and pond, or gaze over extensive fruit plantations. The countryside here does not look “tattered or used.” There is a wonderful calmness about it.

Having finished the meal and washed one’s utensils, one goes to the housekeeper and is assigned work for the day. This can be in the herbal gardens, the laboratory, the kitchen, the farm, or in fields. There is ample opportunity for service. Everything is kept in impeccable order. For example, if one cleans a room, one uses a particular box with particular cloths and soaps. When finished, one then washes the cloths that one has used and hangs them up to dry. These, when dry, are put back where they were taken from.

Freedom, Harmony—Joy, Beauty & Harmlessness:
On our first morning there we were told that we could “sleep in.” We didn’t need to participate in the general service of cleaning nor did we have to work at all. We could walk around and explore and learn about our surroundings. This is customary for all visitors.

The Casa do Patio, where we slept, is a quadrangle of rooms around a beautiful formal garden, a wonderful, gentle energy center; yet not diffusive, but centering to a specific focus. The garden is in the design of a wheel with a center hub of bird feeders and spokes of pavement radiating out to the edging path (a square). Besides the Casa do Patio and the dining hall (which at that time was down a steep hill) there are three other houses in the area (uphill from it): The Casa do Ipé, where Clemente, the resident doctor, gave talks at that time, and where we heard a choir practicing over the next few days. Beside this building is what is now the headquarters of Irdin Editora, which publishes Trigueirinho’s books, as well as Clemente’s, and some other authors. A little to one side is the Casa do Silencio, a place with rooms to stay in, and where silence is required. One of the possible things to do when visiting is to stay the night in this house. It is modeled after the idea of the healing houses of Aesclepius, in Greece, which were specifically for encouraging guidance dreaming and healing sleep. Near this building, on a slope, is a garden where all the medicinal plants were raised, and the shed where they were dried and prepared for the homeopathic and herbal remedies. Also in this shed were various containers for the clays prepared for use in healing packs, and compresses, as well as indoor and outdoor drying racks and ovens for fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Currently (2008), all the healing herbs stores and treatments rooms have been moved to Sohin, built some minutes walk away from where we were staying. In Sohin the resident medical team serves all that need healing. Its chief tools are acupuncture, homeopathy, essences, clay packs, and herbal remedies, as well as the technique of manipulation of the vertebrae of the spinal column (praxis vertebralis), developed by Clemente (alias Dr. José María Campos), as well as procain injection treatments (which are sort of miraculous in their effect). There is an extensive set of laboratories where remedies are prepared; which is to say, the herbs are picked, sorted, dried, ground, bottled as pills or made into infusions, or homeopathic remedies, and essences.

There is a very special place, within a quiet wood, where there a permanent 24-hour vigil has been established. It was started approximately 12 years ago. Anybody who wishes can sign up to participate. The usual time one stays at the site is one to two hours, any time of the day you wish. The vigil takes place in a construction made of bamboo and straw thatching called an Oca, made in the housing style of the natives of Brazil. It can seat up to 21 people in chairs set around its edge. You go in through the right door, and this is where the people assigned to the permanent vigil go. If you are just visiting, you enter by the left door (into the same area) and can stay as long or as briefly you wish, just keeping silence. Once a week the grass and plants around it are cut and the area is weeded, with the vigil withdrawn to a slightly different area in order to free the people cutting and weeding from the need for silence (although there is little or no chatting anyway!) On the last Wednesday of every month there are 24 hours of silence in all of Figueira.

All their establishments have ponds, and by these ponds there are several little one-person trailers where someone can retreat for any period they wish in order to gain inner understanding or clarity in their lives. They are taken food and water and can be in complete seclusion, or in silent intermingling, as they need and wish. Also at the ponds are outdoor showers for healing processes.

Near Casa do Patio and its ponds there are some buildings for housing abandoned animals. Most of these are dogs and cats, of course. But there are also birds. In particular, there was (and still is) a cheerful toucan called Sol (Sun), who is a wonderful being with a fantastic screeching voice.

Lunch is served at twelve noon, and there is fruit and herbal teas served at 3:30 pm. During the first afternoon of my stay, Ibis—in the healing center—had a look at my right elbow, swollen as a result of a blow way back in February. The swelling had simply appeared a few days previously and was bothering me, though there was no pain. Ibis put a hot clay compress on and I lay quietly in one of the treatment rooms. I believe I dozed. I was woken by the choir practicing hallelujahs in the Casa do Ipé.

Community, Responsibility, Service—Reverence, Enthusiasm & Humility:
The second morning of our stay we were up at six to do our housework. We all quietly sat on benches till six, when the person in charge read the “thought for the day,” then spoke of what needed doing and called for volunteers. Since John and I didn’t completely understand what was being asked, we kept quiet and were assigned what was left to do when all others had left to complete their tasks. We swept the inner patio surrounding the garden center. All brooms and pans and such are kept in a janitor’s cupboard with orderly hooks and labels for everything.

At nine that morning we listened to Clemente give a talk to a substantial group on the subject of what he calls Solar Remedies, a homeopathic solution which works through the Law of Correspondence to invoke and balance certain “impulses” or energies represented physically in this solar system by the seven alchemical planets: Mercury, Mars, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, Pluto, and Earth. These energies can also be associated with certain metals, and also certain plants.

After lunch we visited the Casa do Vida Creativa. This is a house on a (public) dirt road within walking distance from where we were staying. Here there are yet more rooms in which to stay, as well as a bookstore and a large room where Trigueirinho usually gives his tri-weekly talks (Currently it is Wednesdays and Saturdays at 5 pm, and Sundays at 11:30 am). There are also sheds where machinery and such are kept. There are lovely cobbled roads around the buildings, and the guest housing is a beautiful circular building of wood.

We also visited F2. This cluster of buildings is at a distance of about five miles from F1. It is reached by passing the town, then under the bridge, and on to the main road that originally brought us to the town, then exiting after about a mile and a half onto another dirt and gravel road.

F2 has a completely different feel to it. It is dedicated to growing all the crops that the Spiritual Center uses for food. It has a large refectory and kitchen for eating, as well as storage rooms. At the time of our visit it also had another large building with a clinic that attended any person from town or country that was having psychological problems, spiritual emergencies, or was hurt or battered in any way. It had two large dormitories for these people in which they could stay and shelter. It had a large room where donated clothing was washed, repaired, and sorted before being transported back to the town to their distribution center. It had a small dentist’s office. A lot of these activities have now been moved to the near town of Carmo da Cachoeira, including offices where people can receive medical assistance.

Another building, beside this one, was being built for holding the very large crowds that come periodically to Figueira to reconnect with and hear Trigueirinho talk (remember that 1000 person crowd I mentioned?). This building would also house the large cultivating and harvesting machines for their crops. It had storage for an extensive seed bank of non-hybrid seeds (open pollination). They grow all their own grains and rice (although wheat does not do well in the area and they have to buy just a little of this to produce some of their delicious breads). There are extensive orchards and vegetable gardens in F2 (though there are smaller ones in the other places as well). There are sheds for repairing machinery, and electrical installations. Each “F” has its own repair shops, though if expert help is needed anywhere, there will be someone in one of the “Fs” that can go and show what must be done. I saw a large room with plenty of washing machines. “Phew,” I thought, “all is not done by hand-washing” (as I had done with my cleaning cloths). However, visitors usually wash all their clothing by hand, so if you plan to go, remember to take easily washed, quickly dried clothing!

I saw a horse in a stable, which they use to reach the more remote areas of their properties or go where they do not want to damage the environment with motor vehicles. In F2 there is another big pond where people can pitch tents to experience a completely isolated retreat. Food is left in a bag at a certain place and they can collect it when needed. There are outdoor showers and bathrooms down there too.

There is a wonderful labyrinth in F2, with twelve circles, making up about 31 pathways, with a completely different energy than the Casa do Patio center. It felt like one was slowly detaching from the physical plane, layer by layer, as one walked it.

In the late afternoon we all went to the Casa do Vida Creativa and listened to Trigueirinho give one of his talks.

Another set of buildings on its own land is F3. This is within a long walking distance of F1. It is uphill, past a lovely bald hill—called Crystal Hill—where Trigueirinho told us many mantras were chanted when they first were given the property. Now the energy had split into these three establishments, where different aspects of the work are done within the F1, F2 and F3 triangle. Over the years since our visit other establishments have been added, and all have their unique characteristics. For example, there is one where one can do a 24-hour group silent retreat called the Short Path.

To reach F3 we drove past a huge construction going on at that time. It is the Area Sohin. The plan was to bring the various services of healing that Figueira provides all into that one building (which has indeed happened). There were to be therapeutic bathing facilities and a broadening of their medical services to the surrounding community. Some years after this first visit I stayed there and experienced broad night skies and another magnificent labyrinth, like the one at F2. Their herb-processing laboratories and rooms are impressive.

F3 itself is where the monks used to live in seclusion. It has a wall around it, with a lock on the front gate. This was the only locked gate we encountered. We went into here and were able to inspect the healing rooms and retreat facilities. This was where the healer Artur did his work. He was visiting Sparrow Hawk Village and the Light of Christ Community Church at the same time that we were visiting Figueira. The kitchens in F3 prepare the special foods for people doing profound inner self-healing. There are five little houses with private bathrooms were people in retreat can stay. They do their own house cleaning and are supplied with food from the special kitchens. Beyond them is an energy center, again totally different from the others. This was a very potent, active one expelling energy at a great rate. It felt a little like sitting on the edge of an active volcano. On later visits I found that some changes had been made to it, and it had become most quiet and contemplative!

Downhill from here is another fenced enclosure where Trigueirinho and Artur live. There is also a building where all the audio recordings of talks given by Trigueirinho, Artur, Clemente, and various others, are edited and stored. We overlooked the area where most of the beehives are kept. There are a couple of apiarists in Figueira, but when the extraction work happens, several come from the big cities in Brazil.

The little, deep hollow hid a pond. After this we drove to the top of Crystal Hill, where we could see all three “Fs” forming a triangle.

On our second evening we were fortunate to participate in the monthly custom of gathering a large group to chant mantras in Irdin. This particular time it was held in the inner court of the Casa do Patio. We had, in fact, as the cleaning crew, done an extra special job of polishing everything that morning early.

Future, Humanity—Hierarchy & Transfiguration:
Mantras in “Irdin” need to be experienced to be fully realized. Trigueirinho says that the Irdin language is at the root of all the languages of the world. Everybody stood around the edge of the patio, in silence and darkness. One leader called out a phrase or two and everybody would repeat it together, and this continued rhythmically, chants interspersed with silences, for about an hour. In Sparrow Hawk Village there is a group that gets together every morning, six times a week, to chant mantras. It is a remarkable process to learn this use of sacred sound.

The chanting of mantras is some of this Spiritual Center’s work, and is significant in their energy link to the Planetary Center of Mirna Jad (of which they are a physical manifestation). Trigueirinho says that his group is part of the planetary healing centers, the “rescue” operation of humanity. The Trigueirinho material is very broad, and it is impossible to even synthesize in this article, which is getting too long anyway! Some other time, perhaps.

In the second talk of Trigueirinho’s that I attended, he spoke a little of the role that Figueira fulfills. Each “F” has its part: F1 vibrates the tone of contemplation, F2 works with dematerialization, and F3 and the Area Sohin are dedicated to transmutation. These all harmonize and unify to form the service for humanity that leads people and groups working spiritually to gain greater insight into their service to the Hierarchy and humanity, and to gain a more conscious contact with their group work. In other words, to refine the material of which their bodies are made in order to gain the Kingdom of Souls.

The Spiritual Center, Mirna Jad, serves all who need it, be they members of Figueira, or people in need drawn to that place. The group that lives permanently at Figueira has the responsibility of forming a seed group of souls that assists in the healing and rescue process of humanity. They form a bridge or open channel from the material world to the non-material world.

There are other equally powerful planetary centers in South America and in other continents. Some have physical expression and some do not. Each has its particular role and vibratory task. There is some information on the work of Trigueirinho in Carol E. Parrish-Harra’s New Dictionary of Spiritual Thought.

Conclusion:
John left the next day. I stayed on for a full week. In the next few days I dutifully rose at six to help with the housework. I participated in helping to cook at F2, talked horse care at F2, worked in the homeopathy lab in F1, and gave my room and bathroom a thorough cleaning according to rules posted on my door the day before I was planning to leave.

I was gowned, masked and capped as I worked with the homeopathic remedies in the lab. I had a large apron and cap for cooking.

I met Tatiana, who managed the laboratories, and though we each spoke a different language, found harmony with each other in our inner paths.

I met Samuel and Felipe, the first in charge of all animals in Figueira, and the second specifically in charge of the large, placid Belgian type horse who had it made in such a busy, efficient world dedicated to perfect ethical living.

I got to be at the town houses, where Casa 1 is the administrative center, as well as the guest center, and where they have their ham radio operators. Did I mention that there are no phones in these establishments? The managers all have hand radios with which they communicate. But most communicating happens through hand-written notes passed on to anybody traveling between establishments. There is a private bus service at set intervals too, between houses and “Fs,” which carry mail and food as well as people. Casa 1, with its medical center right across the street from a town hospital, had doctors that work in one donating their services in the other. There was a mobile dentist vehicle that toured the countryside, helping poor families.

Casa 2 was a small place that could house guests and also serve as the place to process the honey that the hives in F3 produced. Casa 4, across the street from “1,” has a large kitchen area where soup and food were prepared for the local poor families that have no means of support. Here, too, was where the donated clothes were distributed. On the second floor is where the administration of the whole operation still is partly done. Since there are phones here, about 20 requests a day are faxed in for people wishing to visit and stay, and the administrators try and decide how and where these people can be accommodated. All the people of Figueira are trained in emergency medicine and techniques so that if there are accidents or disasters they may be of service to the community. (Did I forget to mention they also farm neighboring land, giving part of the crop to the owners in payment for use of the land?)

I walked the F2 Labyrinth a last time, by myself (and in not such a hurry as the first time I tried it), and had the peculiar experience of feeling that the walk was timeless and featureless, and that the only important thing was that I was doing the walk. What was at the other end was and is not significant.

I had my elbow and back carefully and lovingly tended in the Casa do Praxis (where medical attendance happened before Sohin opened for business) and I came home with a collection of homeopathic remedies with strict timetables on when to take them.

I had the interesting experience of attending two of Trigueirinho’s talks, where the large crowds did not murmur at all, but a bird outside sang loudly and incessantly as soon as he began to talk and didn’t stop until the talk did. By the volume the bird sounded like it was right outside the window.

I have visited back many times, and each time it is a completely different experience.

Copyright 2008 Brenda R. Cutrell, Ph.D.