Toward Common Ground

Teaching, A Sacred Trust

Wisdom From A Dream

Wow! Hang on, folks, what a year, right? Are you crisis weary?

I have been, for some time now. Getting up early each day to water what few trees and plants my water hose will reach, with one eye toward water conservation and the other toward my responsibility to those things I had previously planted…watching world news and political news and weather news…month after month of no rain and triple digit heat…tragic news here and there and there…I remember being in the National Cathedral, and the thought of its being damaged in an earthquake, along with the Washington monument…the Washington monument???

Good thing today happened for me here at Earthsprings. Several things happened, actually. It started off when I awakened from a dream that was most instructive, and then it went from there.

I dreamed that I was at the home of friends, along with a whole group of others dear to me. We were having a great time, until I accidentally dropped and broke a precious dish that I knew had belonged to my friend’s grandmother, handed down to her for generations. I was distraught and so was my friend. She wandered around trying to act as though it was alright, while I came undone, weeping, withdrawing to another room, telling everyone that I had broken several things lately, and that I was obviously getting untrustworthy and unsteady, that I needed just to stay home from now on, and actually that I wasn’t ever going to go anywhere again, and so on. This went on for a good while, with me crying and all the other women sort of clucking around trying to comfort first me and then the owner of the broken dish. Finally, my dear wise friend, Steve Nash, came charging into the room and said something exactly like this: “Alright now, this has gone on long enough! Yes, that was a precious dish, and I’m sorry it got broken. But you know, Glenda, it’s not only your fault; we should not have left that priceless object sitting around where it could get broken. Any of these children might have broken it instead of you, and would you want them never to leave their home again? And OK, yes, you’ve dropped a few things lately, and I know what you’re feeling. You’re just scared, really scared, feeling less capable, more fragile, less in control. But , you know, having those things get broken may have nothing to do with your age or the condition of your brain. It could be coincidence, it could anything. And, you know what, if it does mean you’re getting shakey, and if you do get more helpless, well then, we’ll just baby-proof the house before you come, because I’m not having it that you aren’t coming here anymore! If you don’t, I’ll come get you! Just because you are getting older, maybe more fragile, doesn’t mean you aren’t necessary to us, or that you don’t still have responsibilities to all of us. You’ve still got work to do, girl; you can’t quit. You can’t get to feeling too sorry for yourself and just give up! Now, everybody, pull it together here, all of you, and let’s get on with what we came here to do, have some fun!! The rest of you get on out there somewhere, so Glenda and I can get ready to go take a little boat ride together!” And with that I woke up, tears in my eyes, and with my instructions from Steve (and Life) sounding in my ears.

So I got up, went outside, and did my morning chores with a will. And there I found several other happenings that touched my heart.

First are the “grandson trees,” the little redbud transplants my grandson Jacob brought from the garden and planted all around among the dogwoods near the driveway about a year ago. They made it through last summer and the hard winter, so I’ve been dragging a hundred-foot water hose around every other day, watering them. And I see that despite the 105 degree days, they are hanging on. They first lost all their leaves, but as I watered them, within a couple of days, they dutifully put out two or three new little leaves. But then, those new leaves a get browned up. So, I water, and then, some of them put out more new little leaves, only to dry up. But they keep trying, and I keep watering. So courageous are those little trees. I may have lost some of them, but some of them may make it. And every time I water them, I notice that, scurrying out from around their bases, where the water is filling up the little low place around them, come all sorts of bugs and lizards and tiny creatures that temporarily evacuate their oasis. I had no idea that my watering the seedling trees might be life- saving to others too. We never know the result of our actions. When I got animated over the morning glory vines completely covering over an azalea bush and jerked off the morning glory vines, I discovered that those vines had been shading and protecting that particular azalea, so that it was the only one that was still green and healthy looking!! We just don’t know what’s what, we make mistakes that way, thinking we are doing what is right. But we have to trust the deeper wisdom of nature, of the eternal, and just keep on keeping on, somehow.

The other thing this morning that underscored that (and I really don’t know what it portends), is that the “bliss bestowing tree,” so named because its blooms, in spring, smell so wonderful, well, last week it lost every leaf; the leaves just suddenly turned crisp and fell off. The tree had been busy, as usual, in the year long process of making its flower buds for next spring, and that’s all that was left on the tree, those tight little buds all over the tree, still wrapped in their protective husks, trying to grow. I was devastated, feeling I had failed the tree as I tried to get here and there and water everything and missed it too long. So I put the soaker- hose on it for a good long while, hoping desperately that the tree itself would not die. Well, I went out this morning, and there before my eyes was the little tree, blooming!! Those tight little buds, instead of waiting for spring, were opening up, small and not fully developed, were nonetheless blooming, in the autumn heat, not a leaf to seen, but they were blooming!! What does that mean? Is it the tree’s last hurrah, its final gift? Is it Life, saying yet again, “Never give up, do what you can, don’t wait till conditions are favorable, if you must, do what you must, but BLOOM! Give forth your gifts!” Sort of the same message I got from Steve in the dream, with the sweet smell of bliss added. I wept, even while I kept going to try to save something else.

Bliss in the midst of mayhem. Wow! Be here now. Live now. Don’t give up! Bloom!

Now this is, again, a homely little homily. But you know what? I used to be one of those out there storming the barricades, so to speak, taken up with BIG things, and I value that way of being. But there is also another way, a quieter, more earthy way, a more gentle, Taoist way, I guess. That way is just to be with what is, however it is, however hard or sad or challenging it is, and somehow see the good, and do the good, and feel the Presence of Life, in all events and all circumstances. Not being a Pollyanna; I don’t mean that. It does hurt when a precious thing breaks, a precious one dies, when so much suffering is abroad. It is important to be with that too. Looking it right in the eye, experiencing that deeply. And also. And also. And also, finding a Yes! Somewhere, a “Yes, and, “ my life motto, “Yes, and…there is also the good, always some good, some beautiful, that deserves our notice, our commitment, our responsibility to keep on keeping on.”

At least that’s what I’m telling myself, even as a hurricane bears down on the East Coast of the U.S. shortly after an unusual earthquake and a wild war in Libya and a famine in other parts of Africa and my giant oak tree that is dropping limbs, dropping limbs, maybe dying.

Nonetheless, I’m holding on to my dream, the dream of last night, and the dream of my lifetime. I stand with the bliss bestowing tree, living and dying.

Let us all bloom! Now! No matter what, let’s do our best. Let’s “pull it together” as Steve said in the dream, and do our best.

And, also as Steve said, don’t forget, we’re here to have some fun, no matter what breaks!

Amazing!

This is too wonderful! In publishing the post below, the one called “A Way Forward,” an item on a list in the post involves “a sense of humor.” Well, somehow, (HOW?) the post now appears with a little smiley face next to that item! I didn’t put it there, I don’t know how to put it there, and I can’t edit it out or get it to go away!!! It looks kind of silly there, but it’s insistent, so there it is! Spirit moves in the most delightful ways sometimes. Gratitude!

A Way Forward

“The way forward…” An expression we’ve heard frequently on television this week, spoken tentatively, as pundits, professionals, and politicians, like all the rest of us, grapple with the uncertainty of the present moment in our national history.

A few days ago, I happened across some notes I had made years ago in preparation for a lecture I was about to give. Right at the top of the page was this penciled phrase: “Uncertainty as a sacred state.”

Well, it’s been a long time since that lecture, and though I know, of course, that all states are sacred, still, when one is in the midst of challenge, as we are now, uncertainty can feel anything but sacred. Sir Laurens van der Post once talked about people “running amok” out of a sense of meaninglessness, a sense of despair , and that seems to be much the case today.

My refound lecture notes take this into account, and then point to another way, beginning with a quotation by Ghandi: “…Life is governed by a multitude of forces. It would be smooth sailing if one could determine the course of one’s actions only by one general principle…But I cannot recall a single act which could be so easily determined.” Uncertainty.

Uncertainty is inevitable, he says, and he isn’t the only one. Plato recognized that “… the generation of this universe was a mixed result of the combination of Necessity and Reason.” Necessity? The necessity for something other than reason?

James Hillman helps us find the distinction between these two principles. Commentators on Plato, he says, use, for the principle of Necessity, such words as : rambling, digressing, straying, irrational, irresponsible, deviating, misleading, deceiving, irregular, random. Necessity, Hillman says, “operates through deviations… We recognize it in the irrational, irresponsible, indirect…”

Necessity, then, is seen as a kind of wayward, often difficult giveness, a recognition that “here we are, this is, and we must deal with it, like it or not.” Plato and many others, all the way back to the beginning of the earliest written accounts of the meaning of things and all the way forward to modern physicists, insist that we cannot avoid times of uncertainty, insecurity, chaos.

What, then, is Reason to do in the face of such Necessity, of “irrational” things over which we have no control, of Chaos?

I don’t pretend to have “the answer,” but it feels right to share the few insights in my recovered notes, to make whatever offering I can to you today. (This is, of course, no place to recreate the whole lecture I gave, even if I could, but my notes do point to a way forward, to other ways available to us.

My notes list what I called “some qualities of the new way.” Here are some of the things on the list. (I’m no longer aware of how I developed these themes back then, so you can expand upon them for yourself, but there were some interesting quotations listed for some of the items on the list, which I will include.)

So here’s the roughly organized, penciled list, from long ago.

1) Humility is Power.

““The acquisition of the spirit of non-resistance is a matter of long training in self-denial and appreciation of the hidden forces within ourselves. It changes one’s outlook upon life. It puts different values upon things and upsets previous calculations. And when once it is set in motion its effect…can overtake the whole universe. It is the greatest force because it is the highest expression of the soul…” Ghandi

2) Careful and proper placement of trust

“Picasso was right when he said that we do not know what a tree or a window really is. All things are very mysterious and strange (like Picasso’s paintings), and we overlook their strangeness and their mystery only because we are so used to them…” Ernesto Cardenal

“I believe in a new world. I do, yes I do. And I live in this trust: that although everything I see may turn to dust, we are moving inexorably, inexorably, inexorably, toward a new world.” Al Carmines

3) Avoid absolute statements and rigid principles

“There is an art to wandering. If I have a destination, a plan—an objective—I’ve lost the ability to find serendipity. I’ve become too focused, too single-minded. I am on a quest, not a ramble. I search for the Holy Grail of particularity and miss the chalice freely offered, filled full and overflowing.” Cathy Johnson

4) Keep childlike openness.

“Devotees of all ages, approaching the Mother in a childlike spirit, testify that they find her ever at play with them.” Yogananda

5) Awareness of and interaction with more subtle realms (energy fields that are non-human but interactive with us)

“In a recent article on astrophysics, I came across the beautiful and imaginative concept known as ‘the butterfly effect.’ If a butterfly winging over the fields around Crosswicks should be hurt, the effect would be felt in galaxies thousands of light years away. The interrelationship of all of Creation is sensitive in a way we are just beginning to understand. If a butterfly is hurt, we are hurt. If the bell tolls, it tolls for us.” Madeleine L’Engle

“Our lives extend beyond our skins, in radical interdependence with the rest of the world.” Joanna Macy

“Even before reason there is the inward movement which reaches out towards its own.” Plotinus

6) Silence as a gateway to the subtle.

“It has often occurred to me that a seeker after truth has to be silent…If we want to listen to the still small voice that is always speaking within us, it will not be heard if we continually speak…A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech….” Ghandi

“Cultivate the art of deep listening in which you lean toward the world in love. All things in the universe want to be heard, as do the many voices inside us.” Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

7) Courage and Tenacity.

George Matthew Adams says that enthusiasm is “a kind of faith that has been set on fire.”

8) Sense of Proportion, a sense of humor

I read somewhere about a Greek Orthodox tradition in which believers gather on Easter Monday to trade jokes, because the best joke of all happened on Easter, the triumph over death, so people gather to tell stories with unexpected endings and a sense of humor.

The Apaches say that the Creator was not satisfied with humans until they were given the ability to laugh. Only then were they “fit to live.”

9) Dare to fantasize, imagine, recreate

…We’re so bogged down in traditional ways of doing things, we don’t know what’s buried in the human spirit or how much capacity there is for change.”

“Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” St. Paul

10) Retell the story, reframe the meaning.

Maya Angelou records that she was raped at age seven, and after the rapist she named was later found dead, she stopped talking, for five years. She notes:

“…To show you how out of evil can come good, in those years I read every book in the Black school library; I read all the books I could get from the White school library; I memorized James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes; I memorized Shakespeare, whole plays, 50 sonnets; I memorized Edgar Allan Poe, all the poetry—never having heard it, I memorized it. I had Longfellow, I had Guy de Maupassant, I had Balzac, Rudyard Kipling—it was a catholic kind of reading. When I decided to speak, I had a lot to say, and many ways in which to say what I had to say. I listened to the Black minister, I listened to the melody of the preachers, and I could tell when they meant to take our souls straight to heaven, or whether they meant to dash us straight to hell. I understood it. …there is nothing quite so tragic as a young cynic, because it means the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. In my case, I was saved from that muteness. And out of this evil, I was able to draw from human thought, human disappointments and triumphs, enough to triumph myself.”

At a conference on the topic of facing evil, Chungliang Al Huang once said:
“…We are often looking in the wrong place where we miss the truth right under our nose. ..Often people say, ‘just another lousy sunset. I’ve seen it. …’ Our heart closes, our mind closes. We become small human beings. And when an individual becomes internally small, he or she turns evil. But when we continue to open our eyes, open our spirit, there is no chance evil can breed. We can also influence others to open up. Let’s all open. This time, let’s say ‘another lousy sunset in paradise!’ Of course, you have seen a sunset, but this time it is different. It is always different.”

Patriotism and Religion

On this Fourth of July weekend, I reread the words of James Madison, written in a letter to Dr. Jacob de la Motta and Mordecai M. Noah in 1820:

“…Among the features peculiar to the political system of the United States is the perfect equality of rights which it secures to every religious sect. And it is particularly pleasing to observe in the good citizenship of such as have been most distrusted and oppressed elsewhere a happy illustration of the safety and success of this experiment of a just and benignant policy. Equal laws, protecting equal rights, are found, as they ought to be presumed, the best guarantee of loyalty and love of country; as well as best calculated to cherish that mutual respect and good will among citizens of every religious denomination which are necessary to social harmony, and most favorable to the advancement of truth…”

An important read

I’ve been reading a book recently that, despite all my previous exploration of this subject, has really given me new insight, information, and cause for hope. It is Dr. David Liepert’s book Muslim, Christian and Jew. In a very personal voice of experience, Dr. Liepert presents a balanced and very readable assessment that I highly recommend.

Here are two reviews of the book:

“An honest and wholehearted attempt to fulfill a task that is incumbent upon us all, whatever our faith: to get beneath the layers of self-righteousness and defensiveness that have accumulated over the centuries, to learn from the complexities of history, and to make our traditions speak with compassion and respect to our dangerously polarized world.” — Karen Armstrong, New York Times bestselling author of A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam

“One danger of interfaith dialogue is that differences in theology or dogma can be so smoothed over or diluted that the integrity of each religion is sacrificed for the sake of an ecumenical consensus. Dr. David Liepert’s Muslim, Christian, and Jew takes a very different path. As much a fascinating spiritual autobiography as a plea for interfaith understanding, Liepert (who has been engaged in interfaith dialogue for many years) confronts rather than waters down differences in a textual criticism of the three Abrahamic religions. This often takes the form of an internal dialogue, particularly when dealing with his own conversion from an evangelical Christianity to what might be described as an evangelical Islam. The binding thread to this book is a recurrent and impassioned plea for the practitioners of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism to transcend their undeniable differences and relatively recent past histories on the basis of that ‘Common Word’ shared by all three religions—love of God and love of neighbor—and to apply this core conviction existentially and not just affirm it.” — S. Abdallah Schleifer, Reviewer for the Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, Distinguished Professor of Journalism at the American University in Cairo, former Cairo bureau chief for NBC News

Ceremony for Unity, Indigenous Peoples

The following message from Sheila Collins in Pittsburg invites us all to join in a prayer ceremony for unity among the peoples of the earth, indigenous peoples and those of us who have forgotten our indigenous roots, a ceremony to be held this Sunday, June 12, 2-4 pm EST, at the confluence of three rivers in Pennsylvania. Here is Sheila’s message, followed by a number of prophesies of indigenous peoples calling for unity among all people to allow the healing of the earth and her children. This is a remarkable series of readings which I encourage you to share, including the ancient Mayan prophecies of Unity, Hopi prophecy, the words of the Kogi (Co-gee) of northern Colombia, the Algonquin Nations, Taino Prophecy of the 24 Generations, the Lakota, the International Council of 13 Grandmothers, the Cree Indian nation, and the prophesy of Crazy Horse. I also ask you to join in prayer with everyone this Sunday. First, here is Sheila’s message:

My deepest desire is to have the Fellowship and those on the prayer web to connect about a larger communal issue. Our Ceremony of Unity, what has lead up to it, and what will follow, seeks to heal what our ancestors have done, and what we have continued to do, to our country, to one another, to ourselves and to the mother of us all, the earth.

Our women’s prayer circle has been meeting at the point here where three rivers come together and a fourth underground river comes from the earth in a fountain. It has been lead by a Lakota Sioux woman Susan Ferraro who also is one of the keepers of the white buffalo which was born nearby a few years ago. The purpose of this prayer circle was to clear the negative things done to the indigenous peoples of this geographic area, when colonists broke treaties, traded small-pox infected blankets, and began a process of systematic destruction of Indigenous Cultures. I was able to attend last Monday night when men were also invited and the chief of the Lenape tribe was there. Our prayer circle is based on protocols rooted in the traditions of the medicine wheel where all races and faith traditions are respected and needed for mending the Web of Life.

Here are the prophecies which are being read at the ceremony on Sunday.

1) In his “Statement of Revelations and Prophecies,” given to Pittsburgh in 2007, confirming our 3 Rivers link with the ancient Mayan prophecies of Unity, Mayan Elder Don Alejandro said:

“In the passage of time we find out what the Creator left for us since creation: We see the three rivers. The rivers show us this unity that is the future. Now is the time of 13 Baktun and 13 Ahow, when the prophecies of this unity are being fulfilled.

If we look up above, we see the three guiding stars in the sky. If we look down to Earth, we find the three humans holding hands, engraved in [the rock] petroglyphs. If we look down, we find the three rivers of water.

All this symbolizes that we are all brothers and sisters: those of the North, those of the Center, those of the South. Those of the Center, with their mystical bird, the quetzal, unite with the eagle of the North, with the condor of the South. We come together, for we are one—like the fingers of the hand. Mayan prophecy tells us the dawn is coming for this unity. This is the predicted time of the return of the Ones of Wisdom.”

2)Thomas Banyacya of the Hopi brought the ancient rock drawing to the United Nations in 1992, explaining the Hopi prophecy of the choice humanity must make at the crossroads we are currently facing.
“This rock drawing shows part of the Hopi prophecy. There are two paths. The first with technology, but separated from natural and spiritual law, which leads to these jagged lines representing chaos. The lower path is one that remains in harmony with natural law. Here we see a line that represents a choice like a bridge joining the paths. If we return to spiritual harmony and live from our hearts, we can experience a paradise in this world. If we continue only on this upper path, we will come to destruction. It’s up to all of us, as children of Mother Earth, to clean up this mess before it’s too late.”

3) The Kogi (Co-gee) are an ancient indigenous people living in the remote mountains of northern Colombia, in South America. They are the only civilization to have survived the Spanish conquests and to have kept their original culture.

They call themselves the Elder Brother and refer to the new- comers as the Younger Brother, who they see are destroying the balance of the world.
In 1990 the Kogi decided they must speak out to the rest of the world. They had survived by keeping themselves isolated but they decided that it was time to send a message to the Younger Brother. These are their words:
“The Younger Brother is doing too much damage. He must see, and understand, and assume responsibility. Now we will have to work together. Otherwise, the world will die.”

4) This next prophecy is kept by Grandfather William Commanda, Keeper of the Seven Fires Wampum belt, of the Algonquin Nations:

It tells of seven epochs of history to come, called The Seven Fires…
“In the time of the Seventh Fire a New People will emerge…They will retrace their steps to find wisdom that was left behind long ago, seeking help from the elders to guide them. At this time there will be an awakening of the people, and the Sacred Fire will again be lit.

It is during this time that the light skinned race will be given a choice between two roads. If they choose the right road, then the Seventh Fire will light the Eighth and final Fire, an eternal fire of peace, love, brotherhood and sisterhood. If the light skinned race makes the wrong choice of the roads, then the destruction which they brought with them in coming to this country will come back at them and cause much suffering and death to all the Earth’s people. This is the time of the Seventh Fire.”

5) Taino Prophecy of the 24 Generations

The year 1492 was the time of the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores to the “New World” arriving first at the Caribbean Islands. Thus began a time of pain, turmoil and death for the Taino, the native people of the land.

Two Taino Indian women, Aura Surey of the island of Boriken (now called Puerto Rico) and Guaricheanao of the island of Cubanakán (now called Cuba) foretold with great sadness the coming of the end of native culture as they had known it in their homelands.

These two visionary women also spoke of a future time of rebirth, not only for the Taino people, but for all of humanity. Their prophecy states that after 24 generations (500 years), all of humanity would reach a time when we would have a chance to live in reconciliation, harmony and peace.

Will we continue to choose separation from one-another, from the earth and her creatures? Or will we choose healing, reconciliation, and unity?

The choice is ours, for we are the 24th generation.

6) Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Lakota, has spoken these words:

“Our prophecies tell us that we are at the Crossroads. The birth of the White Buffalo…is a sign signifying this crossroads, for with our thoughtlessness we are bringing disaster to all generations to come. It is time for humanity to choose….
Our instructions from [Creator] tell us to consider the welfare of the Seventh Generation yet to come…. Our instructions from [Creator] tell us to teach peace and harmony to the many nations of Mother Earth, to begin both a Great Healing and a Great Forgiving. We must teach all Peoples that Mother Earth is not a resource but is the very Source of Life itself itself. Unless we do this, destruction will overwhelm us.”

7) The Hopi Elders have told us this message:
“We have been telling the people that this is the
Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is
the Hour….
It is time to speak your truth,
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now, very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore….
Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, and push off and into the river,
Keep our eyes open, and our head above the water.
See who is in there with you and Celebrate….
The time of the lone wolf is over, Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that you do now must be done in a sacred manner
And in celebration.
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
– The Elders, Hopi Nation, People of Peace, Oraibi, Arizona (2003)

7) The International Council of 13 Grandmothers relate to prophecies from each of their cultures about the Purification Times, that people will become cleansed through transforming themselves from being materially to spiritually oriented.[12] p6
In response to the prophecies from each of their 13 traditions, across five continents, the 13 Grandmothers came together to form the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers in 2004. They tell us:
“We represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Mother Earth, all Her inhabitants, all the children, and for the next seven generations to come.
We are deeply concerned with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth and the destruction of indigenous ways of life. We believe the teachings of our ancestors will light our way through an uncertain future.”

9) In the last century an old wise woman of the Cree Indian nation, named “Eyes of Fire”, had a vision of the future:

She prophesied that one day, because of the white man’s’ greed, there would come a time, when the earth would be ravaged and polluted, the forests would be destroyed, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, the fish would be poisoned in the streams, the trees would become sick, and mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.
Then the Indians would regain their spirit and gather people of all nations, colors and beliefs to join together in the fight to save the Earth. A time of awakening would come, when all the peoples of all the tribes and races would form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom — and recognition of the Great Spirit. These would be the Rainbow Warriors.”

This prophecy was also told to Native author, Jamie Sams, by two Kiowa Grandmothers in Mexico, who call it the Cradleboard Prophecy…they also told of the emergence of thousands of Rainbow Warriors of both genders, who will assist in manifesting the dream of the Fifth World of Peace.

10)This is the Prophecy of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Sioux Chief:

“Upon suffering and beyond suffering; the Red Nation shall rise again and it shall be a blessing for a sick world …. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things, and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be as one”.

Prayer for the Warriors

Memorial Day 2011. As we remember the warriors of all ages, we honor prayerfully those who struggle for peace. We acknowledge the fierce demands of the battles that rage in the external world as well as those that sound within the very hearts and minds of each individual. We are aware that no one else (other than the person that is presently experiencing it) can ever realize the incredible, unique intensity of any aspect of war, and we pray for the healing of the memories of each warrior and each person caught up in war. For the sacrifices of those who have gone to battle and those who have been left behind, we pray for redemptive time and love to heal. We pray for peace on earth and in the hearts of us all, that battles may end, that the warriors be finally able to come home in safety and sanity with honor and dignity in a world at peace.

The following are the words to a beautiful prayer song recorded in 1994 on the album Return (Sophia/Hidden Waters Sound).

With mercy and compassion, beloved Kwan Yin,
Melt away this anger and let me love again.
Melt away this fear and let us love again.
May the warriors find peace within.
Let the wars of the nations end.
May the warriors find peace within.
May the healing of the earth begin.
Let the healing of the earth begin.

May it be so.

What is the highest path?

In or about the year 1042 in Tibet, the Buddhist sage Atisha was asked the question “What is the highest path?” Here is his response, as translated by Robert A. F. Thurman:

“The highest skill lies in the realization of selflessness. The highest nobility lies in taming your own mind. The highest excellence lies in having the attitude that seeks to help others. The highest precept is continual mindfulness. The highest remedy lies in understanding the intrinsic transcendence of everything. The highest activity lies in not conforming with worldly concerns. The highest mystic realization lies in lessening and transmuting the passions. The highest charity lies in nonattachment. The highest morality lies in having a peaceful mind. The highest tolerance lies in humility. The highest effort lies in abandoning attachment to works. The highest meditation lies in the mind without claims. The highest wisdom lies in not grasping anything as being what it appears to be.”

Morning prayers

Rising sun and a gentle breeze,
a yellow and bronze dew-kissed iris, Celtic,
the rustle of new green, soft, in sturdy oaks,
scent of honeysuckle from the laden fence,
a night-fallen carpet of rose petals, red, that only
cat’s feet can tread gingerly enough,
scatter of bird sounds, a double handful
of plump strawberries ripe for breakfast,
and all everywhere the rest,
beauty and abundance–

This and more for Japan, Libya, Washington,
the Crockett State School, the hungry,
the weary, the teachers, the broken-hearted,
the children,Yemen, the reindeer,
the Gulf waters and Pacific, Mother Earth’s
bony plate’s abrasions and the hot eruptions
from her core, and the individuals, every one
named and unnamed, all my relations—

wisdom, discernment, patience, good health,
joy, bliss, eyes to see, ears to hear, ecstasy,
and, oh yes, a gentle rain to ease the drought,
this or something better, most benevolent outcome,
it is on the way, trust and obey, seen and unseen,
mystery unfolding, guidance provided, plenty of time,
intuition to be trusted, grace, forgiveness, trust,
all I have is all I need—

a sprinkle of tobacco, an offering of song,
an amen, it is so, blessed be, gratitude beyond measure.