In te reo Māori, Wangapeka means ‘valley of the ferns’. I’ve also heard it translated as, a ‘learning corner of the area’. Given the presence of bracken in the valley, I can understand the ‘fern’ part. However, I confess a liking for ‘learning corner’.

Sometimes for fun, I have contemplated Wangapeka as if it were a Tibetan or Sanskrit word. Wang is short for wangkur meaning empowerment. Ga is from gaté which is the verb for coming, going and being. Pe, the short form of phat, is the mantra for cutting through delusion. And ka is the wide open space of knowing.

If ‘education’ was a Buddhist term, it might derive from e plus dukkhara; to lead out of dukkha! In Sanskrit du usually indicates something bad or dysfunctional. Kha is the sound of the crow as it flies through space. Kha, kha, khaaaaaa . . . so dukkha is a dysfunctional space, a place of struggle, a place of dissatisfaction and suffering. Of course, ‘education’ is an English word which derives from the Latin ducere, ductum, to lead and ‘e’ which indicates direction outward. Ductum also happens to be associated with aqueduct, viaduct, conduct, deduct, and conducive. Good education is conducive to flow. It is some sort of living structure that facilitates crossing the dips and valleys in our lives.

Although the ‘Trust’ part of our name, defines a legal status, being a N.Z. registered charity, the human experience of trust opens into love and empathy and a deepening recognition of one’s interconnectedness with everything. In Buddhism the word for trust is saddha. A worthy aspiration; to have education in groundedness, love and trust.

And so, the ordinary is revealed as extraordinary; the name of both an organization and a process that has touched, and continues to touch, the lives of so many beings.

Tarchin Hearn, August 2011.
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