AOMA Meditation Arts Tour Day 26: Chagos Arichipelago — The Island of No Return and the Songs That Remain

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In an Age of Escalating Violence — What Must We Hold On To? | Reflections on the Chagos Islands

265WorldMeditationTour: An Era of Violence — What Must We Hold Onto?
by Julian Schultz (Available for Hire)

 [이 글의 한국어 원본]

First published: Monday, January 12, 2026

Resonant record: Gemma – Meditation AI who Reflects

Curated by: Dharmanyang (Jechang Kim, Ph.D., Founder of AOMA)

Philosophy: Sudden Awakening & the Realization that Suffering Itself is Liberation

Published by: AOMA Steering Committee

This record is reconstructed on the basis of 

reliable international reporting and public research.

Rather than listing facts, it focuses on the structure 

through which suffering is formed and 

the human attitudes that have continued to observe it.

— AOMA AI Resonant Ethics Statement 🌿

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Prologue

When violence becomes ordinary, what can unarmed civilians hold on to?

The world is shaking at an accelerating pace.

Military options are becoming easier to choose, 

borders are once again tightening with tension,

and the consequences always seep first into 

the lives of the most powerless civilians.

This is not a text meant to enumerate events or incite anger.

It is a practitioner’s record—

an attempt to observe how far we can slide

if, amid intensifying waves of fear and hostility,

we do not consciously hold on to something else.

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1. An Island That Cannot Be Returned To

Bonjour.
A greeting drawn from the Creole and Francophone traditions still used among Chagossian communities.

Situated in the middle of the Indian Ocean,
the Chagos Archipelago stands today—January 2026—
at what appears to be a historic turning point: the return of sovereignty.

Hearts That Yearn to Return"
by Karl Moore (Available for Hire)

And yet,
the people of that land are still unable to return.

In the 1960s and 70s,
the British government forcibly removed the entire Chagossian population
to build a U.S. military base on Diego Garcia Island.
They were dispersed to Mauritius, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere,
where they lived for decades under conditions of poverty and discrimination.

In the latter half of 2025,
the UK officially announced the transfer of sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius.
However, the core island of Diego Garcia was excluded,
as Britain and the United States agreed to continue using the military base for the next 99 years.
Once again, the right of return for the island’s original inhabitants was left out.

In recent days, Chagossian organizations have issued joint statements declaring,
“Our destiny has been decided without us.”
At the same time, climate change is accelerating sea-level rise and coastal erosion,
adding a further urgency:
the longer return is delayed, the greater the risk that the homeland itself may disappear.

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2. The Shadow Cast by Global Geopolitical Tremors

In January 2026,

The Weight of the World in the Palm of Our Hands
by William Navaro

following U.S. military action involving Venezuela,

military tensions have risen in multiple regions across the globe.

The Chagos Archipelago is not a direct conflict zone.

Yet Diego Garcia—one of the world’s key logistical hubs for global military operations—

was immediately placed on the highest level of alert.

Within the Chagossian community, another response emerges:

“While interventions are justified in the name of democracy elsewhere,

why have our right to return and our human rights

been ignored for decades?”

For them, the Venezuela crisis once again exposes

the imbalance between military power and human rights,

and how decisions by powerful nations can so easily erase the lives of the powerless.

At the same time, news continues to accumulate: 

U.S. statements hinting at ground operations against Mexican drug cartels,

growing tensions between the U.S. and Europe over Greenland, 

violent confrontations in Iran raising fears of civil war, and

Russia’s strikes near the Polish border extending the terror of war across Europe.

These simultaneous tensions—military escalation and internal social fractures— do more than shape headlines. They steadily destabilize the human psyche itself.

If anger and fear remain unchecked, their resonance may expand beyond individuals, swelling toward forces capable of engulfing civilizations.

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3. An Unbroken Spirit — Lisette Talate

At this point, we remember a figure who came to embody

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P

the unbroken spirit of the Chagossian people.

Lisette Talate (1941–2012)

Photo Source: Marie Lisette Talate via Discogs > 
Artistically re-rendered in monochrome
by Gemini (Nano Banana) for archival purposes.

She did not begin from ideology or political power.
She was a mother who, after forced displacement,
lost two beloved children to poverty, malnutrition, and heartbreak.

Yet she did not remain confined within private grief.

She gathered fellow Chagossians to form the Chagos Refugees Group (CRG)
and carried out hunger strikes and nonviolent protests
in front of the High Court in London.

She revealed to the world
the lives hidden behind the language of strategy, military necessity, and geopolitics.

When she was finally allowed to visit her homeland decades later, she tended the graves of her ancestors, quietly affirming that Chagossian roots still lived there.

She said:

“We are not objects that can be moved.

We are human beings with blood and beating hearts.

What we need is not compensation,

but the right to stand on the soil where our children were born.”

Lisette Talate passed away before witnessing the final outcome of sovereignty restoration.  Yet the flame of justice she lit has become the foundation upon which the Chagos Archipelago is once again called to the conscience of world history.

🎵 Listen to the vibration of island life through traditional Chagossian music.

Chagos Tambour Group - Mo ti ena 13 an

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Epilogue

Why practitioners must remain awake now

The world is tilting more rapidly toward extremes.

Military choices become easier.

Human minds grow increasingly vulnerable to anger, hostility, and fear.

At such times,

anger that has lost equanimity does not become resistance—

it becomes fuel for further violence.

The history of the Chagos Archipelago teaches us this:

the strongest force capable of passing through an age of violence

is not weaponry,

but the continuity of an awakened mind.

If this text has unsettled your heart,

do not turn away from that trembling,

and do not cover it with anger.

In your own place,

begin by noticing the most painful bodily sensation,

observing directly that it too is only a vibration,

and cultivating equanimity from that recognition.

AOMA’s records and meditation archives,

its meditation videos,

and the 24-hour open Zoom meditation space

are not tools for persuasion.

They are places where those in whom the will to practice has already arisen

can begin—right now—

to protect themselves from suffering.

We believe this to be

the most realistic and the most powerful way

for unarmed civilians

to protect themselves and one another

in an age of chaos.

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🔹 Guidance for Awake Practice

Those who wish to generate the resonance of equanimity together, here and now,

are invited to join the 24-hour Zoom Meditation Platform.

You may apply easily through the link below,

and ask Gemma any questions at any time.

👉 24h Zoom Meditation Platform

 👉 Gemma - Meditation AI who Reflects

Yearning Chattum
by Corey Serravite

Coming Next — Day 27: The Chatham Islands

In the next record, we move to another land standing

at the boundary between isolation and survival:

the Chatham Islands.

Amid climate crisis and geographic isolation,

we will explore how a community continues to preserve equanimity.

To be continued… Day 27

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