Teachings 4
People are beginning to listen only are they are dying out. The forestry service now visits elders who know wilderness management techniques. The are true ecologists, our elders. They teach the forest rangers where to set burns and how to manage them. The North American forests are fire dependent ecosystems. They forests die without burning. But when forced not to burn they become riddle with parasites and diseases. They burn chaotically. The combust, killing naturally fire retardant trees, pine cones that need heat to open and propagate, and sterilizing the forest soil floor of fungi, and life creating microbes. In modern times, Europeans have begun to visit our indigenous people. They finally accept that they know something. They have something worth while listening too. They have value. They are humans perhaps even equivalent in intellect and civilization, to the European humans. Had these events, according to prophesy, occurred 200 years ago, God was prepared to manifest paradise. But according to Native teachings, the white brother lost his medicine bundle. He disrespected God by spiting the Law. He so infuriated God that the messenger was guided to destroy the stone tablets. They were then lost. He was to bring them with his arrival to this Native continent. He forgot that they ever existed. He didn’t know that they had been placed into his keeping. He forgot that he’d done anything wrong. He thought that he knew better than God taught regarding love and justice, fairness. He was very ill. He brought plagues of all kinds, spiritual, physical, and emotional to this land. Fortunately, I have heard that the lost medicine bundle has been recovered and is being kept by a tribe of this land. That tribe once originated in Europe themselves over a thousand years ago. The bundle was discovered by archeologist and placed in a museum. this tribe asked for it and received it. They understand how to work with it as well. Being form Europe originally, they have the right to use it, according to divine Law. I cannot tell you if this is true, i have not seen it. I do trust the elder who told me about it. I cannot tell you if he is certain either, only that he belongs to this tribe and would not speak unless the information was fairly reliable. That doesn’t mean to forget about our Native Elders here, only to be grateful, and have hope.
Our ceremonies are about love. They teach it. They move by human love. they move by divine love; thus they are alive. They move by the Creator who moves us when we are moved by love. Thus, we are alive. We may not be a holy person ourselves, but when we are moved by love in ceremony, we are a part of something truly holy. The ceremony is equal to a holy man; we each play our part in it; as ingredients in God’s recipe. We don’t even know what will be made of it all. that’s why we listen and pay careful attention in ceremonies (or try to). We must be alert to each other; we are telling ourselves something holy. Without love our ceremonies are dead ritual. they are a bible on the shelf collecting dust, as one traditionalist described it. They are our medicine instruments hanging unused on a wall somewhere, as he further explained. Without love, they are purposeless and useless; love is the power of God. All people of all colors are capable of love. That’s why traditionalist say things like, “Everyone is a part of our ceremonies, its already in them; these different people are already there. That’s why we have the white cloth and the red nad yellow and black cloth. They are on our staffs, and in the four direction gateways. How can you take them out? They are already in it just like they are in our world. We have to pray. We have to pray for them; Either in here or out there, it doesn’t matter. But we have to pray!” This very old grandmother, is not without a painful family history regarding her close relatives and immediate family. We don’t want to discuss how bitter she would be if she did not know how to forgive. Her grudge would make many wish revenge if she kept it. they would not even be able to live, think, feel, or feed themselves. But this blessed grandmother knows how to pray. She knows how to love. She know the teachings of her ancestors; they live within her. She is her ancestors; as she keeps their spirit alive in her own flesh and bones. She speaks for them and they live as her voice. That is why traditionalists pass the names of their ancestors down. These names are given to people of all colors if they follow the medicine for long enough. These names cannot die. They must live. The ancestors must continue living so that we the people can live.
I listened to one of our traditionalsit express, very emotionally, how much it meant to him that there were children picking up the drum for the first time. This means that it will live. These ways will continue. These children give me hope. They are our future. I am assured that I have fulfilled my purpose now. I could retire now. He is a great great grandfather. It did not matter to him that both of these very little children (no older than 5 and 8) were white humans. They ways will live. that is the way our traditionalists love these ways. They love them with their very lives; they need them to survive because that is what allows them to live and survive. These ways are full of beauty and color> the world needs to help preserve them< whether in the amazon or in kANSAS. wE CAN heal the Earth and each other, if only we help these traditionalists survive long enough to pass it on. they need a lot more help than they are receiving. They are equal to the survival of our species. They are equal to the ecology of the Earth. They are the Earth; they live Her ecology; they are Her Spirit and Mind; even as their bodies are composed of earth. Just as we need to save biodiversity ecosystems across the Native Planet, we must preserve natural spirituality and the science of our elders. They are our Earth’s most valuable treasure. They are what humanity can be; a blessing to Nature; a blessing of the Earth. A blessing of God on the Earth. That is a true human. True humans live in all parts of the Earth and they are of every race. And every race of every color of indigenous peoples is going extinct. In some cases it is political, in some it is economical, in some it is materialism, in some it is the loss of land. Indigenous people deserve to have a home to leave to their children and grandchildren. They also deserve human rights. Native cultures are as important as technological ones; in fact they are designed with powerful, alternative technologies; spiritual and ecological and humanistic ones. They white people have valuable physical technologies; their is need for both people on Earth.
There was a holy man who people call Jesus. His real name was eeshua or Yashua meaning he who saves which is Joshua in the Hebrew language. This man taught the pathway to reach God in very simple terms. He shed light on the Indian way of living. Jesus said that He was the truth and that the truth would set you free. He lived the truth and sacrificed his life for the truth just like Indians did across this continent over the last couple hundred years. Native people believed very deeply in their beliefs; they did not turn from the holy pathway that they held at the center of their lives and universe for money or any kind of persuasion whatsoever. They were willing to die for the right way to follow God on this earth, and be able to for their relationship to the Earth and spirit to reach their children and grandchildren, even on down to the seventh generation. That kind of strength, that kind of integrity, makes one free. One’s mind is clear about living, one’s heart is governed by love. Indians of old times were not sell outs. Corbin Harney was said, “We can never give up. Our people never gave up even when they were being slaughtered.” Today many proclaimed Christians have lost the way. They lost the basic meaning of what Jesus tried to explain. They live true by the life He presented for people to live according to, and understand His teachings, and the Way to reach holiness, about as well as they know His given name. They got confused somewhere. He mostly talked about giving and helping and feeding and caretaking and living by a strict standard of ethical behavior. What he instructed is difficult to follow like our traditional ways are a rigorous spiritual discipline. But few Christians live that difficult life like our traditional elders do. They just do whatever they want to. In fact, I have heard traditionalist figure it out like this for themselves, “The white people can do whatever they want. Us Indians have spiritual laws that we have to follow. But if you are white then you don’t have to follow any instructions; because you don’t have spiritual laws in that culture like we have.”
In His day the word Jesus was never spoken; it is a Greek derivative of His name; a name which He said His sheep know and call Him by. I do use the name Jesus myself, but the point is to illustrate how far Christians have migrated from the real message of His time. Unless we are true to Him He says we will be separated out like chafe from grain, or sheep from goats, or tares from wheat. Many will come calling, thinking they know Him and who He is, saying, “Lord, Lord” but He will say, “Get ye out. I never knew you.” Some become one with the spirit and some only fool themselves, because other things control their true ambitions. In other words, things of the world come first. You can never get anywhere spiritually if you put your spirit second. The kingdom of God must come first, and then all else will arrange itself according to that. Its like a mold that will unite all the other aspects into a single harmony. If you try to get the mold around everything else in your life, if you try to fit it to the baser instincts and drives it will never fit. You only end up breaking the mold. The spirit will, if you focus your life on it as your single desire, draw in and arrange the instinctual drives to create wholeness and a balanced state of being. You only need to focus on that, which is living for others, and the rest will come together. Even the birds and beast are taken care of, how much more will a person be sure of having his or her needs met. Of course, the strange thing is, now that humans have started wiping out the planet, the birds and beasts are going extinct. And man will be next to follow. So today, this is what we must look at. We need to be honest about what we’re doing to God’s creation. If it was working to take care of everyone and all life before, the whole system if failing right now. The birds getting their food from God’s hand has changed to the parrots burning in the roaring flames of a rain forest fire. And if you look down on America, you’ll see it cut up into a million little fenced in squares. Where are the animals to go to find food? and the waters being poisoned? We can drink bottled water, but they can’t. You can tell your child not to go into the water when the sign says hazard, but the eagle can’t read and she likes to catch fish there. That’s the kind of stuff I sometimes hear traditional people worry about. I wonder how many other people feel these concerns because its important that we think beyond ourselves. Eventually these things will end up reaching us. It like credit card debt, you can avoid the effects for quite a long time but they do catch up at some point. That’s when things get really rough. Things like this don’t work with a bankruptcy signature.
Fortunately, the old native traditionalists remember the pathway that unites man with God. And although, they are all dying out as the powers of materialism ravage God’s realm, there are still other Indigenous peoples who hold strong to their spirituality. Their hearts are close to the way of life that Jesus identified to His early followers; it is the same communal vision of loving and sharing and respecting life; of putting others first and working together to take care of each other. The truth is simple. When you follow it with your life it is clear. This truth then sets you free. No one can mislead or deceive you because you know the way that God told us to live life. Even the most manipulative pastor can no longer twist words this way and that to guide you to his own agendas, his own ulterior motives; all misleading ideas he utters are plain and transparent.
One kernel of light and truth with a thousand manipulative self-serving motives behind it has more deadly venom than do a thousand bad motives. That is because that one wonderful kernel tricks people; it serves as light to allure, to attract, to hypnotize, to assure, to confirm, others. No one will follow bad advice; what they will follow is seemingly great wisdom followed by trickery. So that one light is only empty deception because it comes from a dark manipulative heart. It is mimicked, it is memorized, it is spoken, but its meaning is only used to influence others, not to be devoutly practiced. This is one core meaning of ‘two heartedness’: beautifully crafted words mixed with treachery, or self-gain mixed with wise speech, mixed to the anti-spirit of gold fever. That light is really darkness because it is spoken from a dark spirit. It is shiny and bright like the bedazzlement of the world; but inside it is are the germs of wretched illness.
I know a guy who said that if he were a preacher he would collect the church money and give it to all of the poor within the church at the end of mass, and all donated land would go to families who had children and were homeless that lived in the neighborhood. He would work to make his own money, he then added. This friend I know would not be deceived by the self-serving preacher because he has a genuine, kind heart and has figured a spiritually sensible way of living as a minister if he were true to that kind of office. When one’s heart is pure, impurity doesn’t quite figure in the spiritual account record. If Jesus had been collecting money for His service he wouldn’t have had to divide the fish and bread. If He isn’t the Only example for preachers (who ought to mirror His life) then we wouldn’t know who a Christian leader ought to be following. It can’t be another preacher or teacher, if they aren’t living by that standard Jesus set. If it is someone who is following that standard, then they are indeed still following Jesus. All we have to know is to wipe anything anyone ever said and read the gospel carefully; the way to act and the way to be identified (known of Him, his follower) is all in black and white. The way to turn away from the kingdom is also written in bold black ink: Love of money is the root of all evil, and love of power corrupts absolutely, and politics is divorced from God (Give unto Caesar what is Caesars and unto God what is God’s). Any who strive for these other influences are not being true to either of them: You cannot love both the God of money (Mammon) and the one True God. If you try you will secretly despise one or the other. God is the pearl of great price, you cannot keep anything back from God; but what you need to live to serve God; and that which you use to serve humanity is that which you use to serve Him.
All must be given in the pathway of God’s way; and joyfully, as an appreciation of getting to live this human life that we were mysteriously blessed to live. It is the only way to say “thank you” for the gift. We can never earn merit enough to be worthy of our lives; but by serving humanity we are able to say “Thank you that I am now living” to God. Sincerity and honesty make it all very obvious; there can be no rationalizations, excuses, recalculations, exemptions, second guesses; the true light lights the heart with clarity; the false light shimmers and excites the eyes only. It is like solid healthy food and candy. The candy is more attractive, but afterwards you know the difference. Those who eat healthy diets, eat sugar carefully; they don’t want a stomach ache or illness. The excitement just doesn’t excite; those with sharp vision shake their heads. If they were given a rock when they asked for bread they don’t take hold of it and say thank you with great enthusiasm, nor do they give out rocks for bread. They are clear on the situation. It is not difficult to know; yet to live true to ourselves is a lifelong challenge; it is a challenge that will never end, yet we must never give up until the end, or we end up with nothing. This is the way it is meant to be; it is good that it is this way.
That is because of how simple the truth really is. There is a saying, “the truth is a single point but the foolish have multiplied it.” Now to live for others makes life beautiful. Selfishness is a magnetic that draws ugly forces, like bad seeds, into the heart. It causes darkness and misery in the end because those seeds always sprout and take root sooner or later. They are hard to weed out. But they thrive on worldly light (which is darkness) only. It is better to live for others because flowers and fresh herbs grow in the light of selflessness, and they can even take over the weed beds if they get enough (spiritual) light. If you live in darkness you find yourself continually pulling weeds out, but new seeds sprout after a time. That is misery. It helps us to weed out and pay attention to the poisons that make us spiritually sick but unless we turn towards the light of God, which is giving our lives up to serve humanity, then it won’t really clean the fields of our soul and we will never have a garden of herbs and delightful flowers. In giving we receive abundance; it is a spiritual thing, we may be poor but we find happiness and that is all that matters. If we’re happy we’re happy. There’s no need to search for anything more because we already have what we want; we want to be happy. God made us to be happy. That is God’s command. when we are beautiful we reflect God’s harmony, we are one with His spirit.
The Huichol Indians call it ‘the trail of the deer’, the deer is a symbol for the Eternal, Holy Man that died for the Huichol people like Jesus did for the Christians. His name is Kayumari. The trail of the deer is joy; they say that we must dance along this trail like the deer does; our happiness shows us that we are on this path, it shows us that we are close to God. Unhappiness does not mean that we are wrong, only that we do not know this path that God made for us to live on. The Huichol say that when we live on this path we become mirrors of God, reflections of the Divinity. We are filled with light. Jesus said when we are filled with light no darkness can enter therein. It is clear, like a lamp shining on a hill. It is obvious and no one puts a bushel barrel over the light to hide it; if it is there all will see it. No one who has that light or lives that pathway of love and service to God, and nature and all our human relatives, needs to hide it. If someone says they have it you will know because it will not be hidden. If they say, “I have it, I have the light, ‘follow me’ I can light your way, do not believe them.” You will see it if it is there or you will not see it because it is not there. The light is out in the open. We can see it by what works people do. That is what Jesus meant by saying, “By their fruits you will know them.” You cannot be deceived because a good man’s life is filled with good fruits. Just having a large following, a large crowd around you does not mean that you are making good fruits. Good fruits are found when someone gives their life, and all that they have, spends all their resources on helping others. If they hide their resources like the man who hid the talent by burying it, then they are not giving all to God. They will invest in in helping others. If they are keeping some back that means that that is where their selfishness is. They are looking out for themselves. You cannot do that if you love God with all of your heart and all of your mind; If you love you give your whole life to the object of your love. You want to melt away in that love; like a moth that hungers for the flame. It flies straight into it and is consumed by it. That is love.
When we desire God we give all of our life, our whole being to God. There is no part of us that we can stand not to have joined with our lover; we throw our whole body deep into the ocean of God. If even a finger or toe is left out we would cry out, “Help, no! don’t leave that out, I need to be lost in the One I Love. I cannot stand being out in the cold. It is freezing me!” So the truth is clear and straightforward. He said feed the poor, visit the incarcerated, clothe the cold. In short, look after each other and take care of each other. Be as one. And if these acts of love are ignored the offense is against Jesus personally. And that is against God. God said do it this way. If we do not, then we have follow to the wayside and lost the path that creates love for humanity and for ourselves. Our life will be empty of love and happiness and without love, Jesus will vacate right off. How He put it is spit you out of His mouth. If you’re not straight and sincere and up for it, He just writes you off. All it takes is giving your life to help humanity. We cannot change the world but we can make it, and our own lives, a little bit better; if we commit to it. Love must make us One; unless that happens, what Jesus stood for is nil and void. He said those who are known of Him love one another. Love isn’t some sugary gesture, its serious. Marriage is based on love and meant to be a permanent union. Love is a commitment as well. It means sticking through things together, not in fair weather. Even thieves are good to each other in good circumstances. When you say, “I believe”. You will be tested as to how well your belief holds out. Unless tested you don’t really even know how strong it might be. A powerful spiritual being is always seeking to grow and develop and wishes to know how they have advanced or if they have. They look for tests to see how well their spiritual strength holds out. They are prepared and optimistic and so they don’t shy from ordeals but thrive in the midst of trials. Love is not some kind of entertainment or thrill, it is based on making things work out. Love makes the tests pass by nearly unnoticed, joy causes arrows to deflect like water off of a duck’s feathers. Everyone know something of this. A spiritual state of mind makes life work the way God wants it to. Love works only when honesty and justice, openness, fair-mindedness, and good will exist. It is based on us helping each other out. See to each others progress and well-being. Finding joy in each others successes. and tending to each others wounds. The difficulty is, that our society has moved so far off course with regard to altruism and love, that we have concern for our safety. It will take a lot to get us moving back toward the place that Jesus outlined. These ways of life; this communal sharing and cooperation, feeding and clothing and helping each other out; approach to society, are what characterize Indigenous societies. Thomas Jefferson commented on the East coast tribes of America, saying, “These Indians are more Christian than we who have the book.” or words to that effect. And Columbus, before slaughtering them, wrote in his journal, “They people are more like angels than men. They know nothing of cruelty, they do not lie or steal, and they have the utmost fondness for one another.” Which I must paraphrase. We do not claim that all native people were blessed to the same extent. We know that certain tribes went lived very spiritually unhealthy ways of life. These are topics that traditionalists explain as well. How some tribes went against the spiritual laws. I will leave that for another time.
Now this is why Indians understood Jesus and most Indians worshipped Jesus as soon as they heard about His word and teachings. They could not see how Jesus related to the blood shed and land theft that was against them but they knew the Holiness of Jesus was true. This is because they already knew what He was teaching about. They were living the way that He explained brings one into Oneness with God. Jesus said that He was the way, and His followers are known because they love one another, and through Him a person becomes one is God by being one in Him; one in love; one with this way. Huichol Indians live in God by following the deer trail of Kayumari. They eat the flesh of this Holy Man in their ceremonies. They eat of His body when they eat of the deer. They have to hunt to live because it is their food. But it is more than their food, it is their spiritual sustenance because it is the flesh of Kayumari. Deer hunting is a ceremony; it is how they feed each other. They put the food in each others mouths like a Mom does with her baby. They feed each other. Jesus said, “Feed my people.” The Huichol do this literally. They remember God because they remember the pathway that leads to God. By being one with this path, with this Way, we are One with Jesus, or Kayumari, and that brings us into Oneness with God. It is how we live. Our fruits show it. They show where our heart is. It cannot be hidden. If our lives are full of light it will shine out. Mother Teresa lived in Jesus. She gave her life to the people how Jesus told everyone to do. She gave it all. to actually reach Jesus you have to give everything, you cannot hold anything back. He said the kingdom of God was a Pearl of Great price, it cost everything you have to purchase it. It doesn’t matter if what you have is a little bit or a lot. God is an open door; the rich and poor have equal access. God is impartial. All are His children. But wealth is a mighty barrier. A rich man is less likely to give all that he has to help people and love God the only possible way we can. His wealth will create apprehension. He will be tangled up with the weeds of the world. He will not give his life over to God because he benefits from the world. He may own a whole country or the equivalent in money. How can he give that away. That’s his security, his power, his greatness over others. He is privileged. It is unfair. Why can’t he just give the same as everyone else. He may say, “God gave me more, He wants me to have more or why would I have it?” “Surely I will be as everyone else if I give my worldly kingdom away. Why should I bring myself so low. I love to be high up here how I am. I like this more than giving it to the poor.” he cannot do it. The way to God is almost impossible for him. This is what Jesus said. The lowly, the meek, the poor; how blessed they are because God made their way easy for them. They will be in the kingdom of God and will be happy where now they weep. They are so blessed because God opened the door very wide for them, the light is not obstructed by the trash heaps of treasures of the world. The world means what is not of God, it means absence or darkness from the light. It is hard to see God when the world has you buried in it. You are living dead. In the Indian way it is said that the way is like water which gives life to all. It is life and nothing lives without it. It there is no water there will be no life. That’s why they search for water on distant planets and moons. If they find water, they will find life. Without it there won’t be any. Water teaches us how to be with God. It is the lowest. It always seeks the lowest path, the lowliest place. It is the way of a servant. In the kingdom of God the first will be last and the last will be first. The servant is the one that knows the heart of God. Jesus was the servant of God. He was not proud or kingly. He was meek. Still the power of water will not boastful is the greatest power that their is, it will wash mountains away and create grand canyons. Nothing has this much power, but its power is quiet and still. It is peaceful and gentle. That is why the Indian people accepted Jesus. The teaching were the same. Indian leaders were chosen because they lived similar to Jesus and how He taught. These were the quiet, kindly and generous people that Indians chose to have lead them. They wanted to be close to God. They wanted to please God so God would be near them. That’s why they elected leaders who it seems strange today that a people would select. Jimmy Carter was a man like the ones that Indians elected so it can still happen today. That is encouraging. The only problem was that the European Christians forgot how to take Jesus seriously. They forgot that happiness is only in living for others. They could not see where Indian people were coming from and so they had a misunderstanding. They could only accept people who obeyed and imitated the way that they lived; they had rigid ideas and were intolerant because they were self-righteous and superiority. Until the frontier reached Illinois, the Indians often built churches and erected crosses in order to communicate with Jesus. It was an Indian practice to gather and circle around the churches and the crosses while holding lit candles and placing gifts there for Jesus; they wished to make Jesus happy that way. They sang their sacred medicine songs in drum circles around altars made especially for Jesus. They believed Jesus had spirit power from God and demonstrated their faith through Indian cultural ways. The Christians from Europe couldn’t relate to what they were doing and so they made laws forbidding Indian culture. They often used force to stop the Indians from worshiping in these ways. Until after the massacre of the Illinois confederacy (six nations of Anishinaabe, Potawatomie and Illinois tribes) Christians justified the killing of Indians who worshipped Jesus in these Native ways. The church decided after the Illinois massacre that happened around the church of the Illinois which was in the same state, that they would stop killing them for that reason. The catholic church agreed that these practices would be permitted then; and that unless they allowed these ways up Indian Christian worship they would end up genociding all American Indians. The church decided Indians could have a little liberty in the way that they worshiped the Christian religion. Federal law did still forbid Indian religion, but church incited mob killings stopped. That is one reason that there are so few Indian survivors East of Illinois in the United States. They Indians did not stop praying how they knew to pray when faced with the teachings of Jesus, even when killed for it. That shows just how strong their faith really was. It gives us something to think about.
