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Maasai TM: Creating Coherence in Crisis
Update from Penina: May 10, 2025
Dear Friends,
When we started, so many Maasai were scared and worried about losing their homes. Even me—I felt very sad and worried for our people. But because of your kind heart and help, everything started to feel better. Now almost 5,000 people here are meditating—that’s nearly 2 percent of Simanjiro! In the three villages where I teach most, the elders tell me clearly: “Penina, things are calmer now. We feel strong again. Nobody talks about moving away anymore like last year. Now we have peace and stability right here at home.”
But still, not everything is sure. Many other villages ask me to come and teach them meditation. I have a dream now, a simple but strong dream: having a good, strong car to reach more villages, and a small, safe home near where we teach. Then we don’t lose time or money, and I can stay focused on helping people.
Your help means everything to us—not just to me, but to every Maasai family feeling hope and happiness again. Thank you deeply for being part of this journey. Together, we’ll keep making our villages stronger."
— Penina Mollel
Editor’s Note: Below is Penina’s original May 2024 letter. Thanks to your support, the urgent crisis she describes has significantly eased. See her new May 2025 update above.
May 2024
Dear Friends,
My name is Penina Mollel. I am a Maasai woman, a mother, wife, and a Transcendental Meditation teacher (TM). For years, I've traveled across our lands in the Simanjiro district of the Serengeti and elsewhere on the Serengeti, teaching thousands of our Maasai people—women, men, and students.
Maasai World Turned Upside Down
This is a land that hold our ancestors' stories. We have cared for this land for generations, and the Maasai way of life shapes the Serengeti that the world cherishes today. Yet, my friends must go, their seized ancestral lands will go for conservation, national parks, and hunting preserves for the wealthy.
Help Support Our Culture and Way of Life
Your support can help preserve this precious culture and way of life, that is so crucial to our identity in this unprecedented eviction and removal to a distant place.
Initially, the news filled the Maasai with anger and despair. My Simanjiro friends did not want to leave, and many resisted. However, those who had learned TM and have just started TM have found a remarkable resilience within themselves, and an acceptance of the inevitable that allows them to face this crisis with a sense of calm even though they are sad about leaving the home of their ancestors.
Crucial Support Received from Village Leaders
To show the benefits of TM for the Maasai I have met and taught men and women village leaders to show them its value in this more than challenging situation. They have setup meetings for me to encourage the villagers to start TM.
The power of TM saved my beloved friends and neighbors from violence and worse. Their strength in the face of adversity is truly admirable.
My Plans to Create Calm and Well-Being
In the coming weeks, I will travel from village to village, checking the meditations of hundreds of people and teaching TM to those who have yet to learn.
It costs just $16 for one person to learn TM and only $1-$2 to check a meditation. I can teach 80 people TM per week and check individually and in groups up to a total of 50 meditators.
My goal is to teach 1000 women, men and students plus check 700 meditations over the next thirteen weeks.
(Editors Note: Since this original letter was written last May by this May you have helped nearly 2000 learn TM.
Your donation will make a significant difference for these women and support our efforts:
$16: Teaches one Maasai TM, giving her the tools to cope with trauma and uncertainty.
$80: Enables five Maasai with the life-changing practice of TM.
$160: Equips ten Maasai with the skills to navigate this crisis with grace and fortitude.
$800: Brings the transformative power of TM to 50 Maasai, fostering resilience and preserving their precious indigenous culture.
Your generosity will not only change lives, but also preserves the spirit, cultural heritage, and way of being of the Maasai people.
Larger donations are most welcome and will have an even greater impact on the number of women we can teach.
The Big Picture-
To create more coherence and soften the atmosphere to find solutions for all stakeholders, Maasai, conservation, and tourism.
Here is the Plan of Action:
- Continue to create many meditators -there are already close to 40,000 inigenous mediators from 13 different tribes
- Perform many more National Yagyas for Tanzania
- Create Sidhas from Maasai meditators
Progress So Far
In the last five weeks we have taught 400 women, men, and students; plus checked singly and in groups over 250 people. We have at least 700 more who want to learn and hundreds standing by to have their meditations checked!
Time is of the Essence
Some Maasai started leaving June 8th, others by the end of June, totaling 1800, and thousands more by December.
How Your Gift Helps Right Now
Right now, almost 4,000 Maasai villagers are waiting for me. Every week mothers walk for hours in heavy rains, through mud and floods. They come tired, but smiling. They tell me:
“Penina, we've seen meditation help others. We want this better life for our children, too.”
But right now, I can only teach about half the weeks of each year. At this pace, it could take nearly two years to reach everyone who is waiting. This feels too long for families who need peace now.
Your support helps immediately:
You help us travel safely, even when the roads become rivers of mud.
You help lower our teaching costs, meaning more weeks each year for teaching.
You help us give the follow-up care villagers need, making meditation truly change their lives.
I can't say exactly when we'll have a car or a simple home near the villages—but I promise this: every gift you make means more families learn meditation sooner. Every donation brings peace, health, and hope directly to the Maasai who need it most right now.
I cannot overstate the urgency of this situation. I implore you to help bring the gift of TM to those who need it most. Your generosity will not only change lives; it will preserve our spirit, culture, and way of being for this precious group of Indigenous people.
Ashe (Thank you very much in Maasai)
Penina Mollel
Serengeti TM Teacher
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