Different ways

[Ishtahota]

Each of the over two thousand different Native American nations has its own way of seeing this world. They all also have their own way of seeing what we would call medicine. The real Medicine Men and Women do not like teaching us who come from the Waccisu (fat taker or white man) world. In the white world most want what they want right now and when we do not get what we want right away we tend to move on and study something else. Or when what we are following starts to work on us on very deep levels and our nuts starts coming up so that we can do the very deep levels of personal work, we move on to look for something easier and softer. The real Medicine people are made over a lifetime with great difficulty and care.

It saddens me to see what people in my world do to these ways. Some people go out and take a few courses that are sold, for a few weeks or one or two years and then they are shamans or medicine people. The real people do not choose these ways, the ways choose them. It takes them many decades of hard personal work to open up to the Spirit world. And if they choose to run from what are meant to be the Spirit world makes their life a living hell, until they come back to the ways.

How things work in the white world and how things work in the spirit world are from each other. We do not choose the Way, the Way chooses us. People do not call themselves Medicine Men and or Women, Shamans, or Holy people. The people that they help call them these things. In our world people want to be doctors, lawyers, and other kinds of healers because of the money and the security that they can get. In the Native American world the real healers almost always live below the poverty level because they give away to the people most of what they have.

We do not mix the different ways out of respect for what some had to endure to bring these ways to the people. Another reason is that as you learn a certain way you are also programing your higher-self and your sub-conscious in how to give you information from the other side. If you study the Christian way, the Lakota Way, and the Apache way, it is like your spirit self is speaking a mix of three different languages in the same sentence and you only speak one of these. Take the animal totems as an example. Different animals and insects, can mean different things to different nations.

The Native Americans do not teach like we do in the white world. They have seen something all along that we in our world cannot yet see. We have books and teachers to pass on knowledge. That is all well and good, but there is certain knowledge that we cannot even see until we have done a certain amount of personal work. Everyday real life and ceremony are part of their teachings. There is a third part to learning that puts all of the peaces together for us. It is this part that cannot be taught. The ah-ha moment, the realization, and the deeper spiritual understandings have to be earned directly from Spirit. The raising of our vibration unlocks greater ability to comprehend knowledge, it also unlocks higher memory function, the knowledge that is already in us.

We go to their world and their towns and we sit on the street corners of the reservations and we cry because of how poor these people are. Very little food, cloths, run down houses without heat. Their Medicine people come and sit on our street corners and they also cry because we are so poor. We have no connection to the land, to each other, or the spirit world and our ancestors.

[gruntal]

I have been told, by someone who might know this, that persons can be approached if they share a common interest or respect. Even if they might be normally antagonistic to each other. It is not something you can easily fake but it can be recognized. In that there might almost be a confraternity of sorts. But nothing so organized. I do not know but something about body language or the way one just stares at something betrays their likes and dislikes.

We seek to be a part of a group or disassociate from another. But I much prefer the analogy of the group that was outcasts and grateful to partake of the left over crumbs from another. Now in the Information Age not so much is hidden and we move about in a way that was difficult or impossible a hundred years ago. I still think you can not just barge into things. You don't have the right to. You can not force anybody to tell you their truths.

I seem to have gotten into some trouble in maintaining your "worthiness" was very real and a self limiting barrier to what you were and could understand. It doesn't seem fair to be under that restraint until you have a deeper understanding of what you are bringing to the table. For me it is apparently a long line of conservative European ancestry. Even though I live now so far away amongst people native to  this land. Sometimes I feel bad because I try to fit in some things and I can't.

As I understand I still have many jobs left for me to do as I am now and in the far future. In that I agree 100% you are CALLED to do or be. Some of us were never even called to be spiritual but to just learn some respect for it.

You have to start somewhere ....I have taken some classes. They don't make much sense but they are more interesting then three dimensional Calculus which I did better in. I will be a technical type for a long time to come. For now that is my way.

[sparklekaz]

Dear Ishta,

A heartfelt post, thank you for sharing what you have learned with us. Your insight and observations are really helpful. It is sad that many have lost that connection and affinity with natural world. And I understand where you are coming from in terms of the personal work people need to do when they take their path seriously. It is a life long committment, and there are many things that cannot be taught or given to another in the form of knowledge or information. These are only things that can be personally experienced if and when the seeker is ready or at a stage in their spiritual evolution to understand. But I think that is true of any path, be it Buddhist, Christian or Native American.

I hear your words and I understand where they come from. But I ask you, is it right to refuse someone the right to seek to know more about a belief path or way of life that they feel strongly drawn too. They will only go as far as they are able. Nothing is given away, because as you have rightly said, it has to be earned. I like to think we are spirit people, not just physical bodies. The spirit knows no boundaries of religion or the colour of the skin and cultural differences. Spirit seeks unity with all that is. How beautiful is it then that many are drawn to learn more about a culture and way of life that is not their own. The idle curiousity seekers, will fall by the wayside. Those who have the heart for it, will find what they seek, or at least be show sign posts along the way. Only those who recognize the signs for what they are, will follow them. There is no risk of anything being discovered accidentally or abused in any way.

I personally believe that anything that lifts from our eyes the blinkered view of the world, and lets us see the connections we have with our animal friends and the natural world can do only good. To see ourselves as being a part of something, not seperate. What we do to our animal brothers and sisters, what we do to hurt mother earth, we also do to ourselves. It is a symbiotic relationship. These are my feelings on it Ista and when I try to share a little of the different ways as I learn about them for myself, it is something I do out of the deepest respect. Though my knowledge is meagre. In my own way I try my best. I wish you'd share more about what you know. It does not have to be on any deep level. Just enough so that what we hear is the right way.

Love and light
Kaz

[tribunalofmercy]

If I may….I have a Lot of respect for what I see of your path, Ishtahota. I often have too much difficulty with my own self-perception to step into the shoes of another with intent to Walk Confidently in them – and, Thankfully! though I enjoy the expansion that comes with observation, interaction and the increase of Knowledge…


The cry of your heart moves me to Reflect on the perceptions that still define Human Nature…it hurts to Remember, you know? How long will it Take before mankind will walk Forward instead of looking left or right…


I see my Father as a Master Gardener with many flowers, each of their own kind, in various stages of growth, and wisely allows us to develop as we are Made to, though he desires that we Grow.


So often we perceive Difference, in so many ways, when we have the option to Embrace each part and know that we are best suited to our Own parts, yet still functioning together, to move forward as a Whole.

[mojomojo]

The old ways, which have always been considered sacred, will never be truly respected by modern man, except for the few.
Modern man's main aim will be to learn quickly and sell, it will always turn to money.
Shaolin priests were in a similar position, do they keep their knowledge to there dwindling few, and in time, let it die out, or pass on the knowledge to outsiders in order that it may survive, in doing this they knew it would not remain the same, but now became a commercial product, the respect of generations gone.
Is it better for the knowledge and way of life to die out, or have a commercialised version still in existence.
It is an extremely sad situation, but also a byproduct of modern life, and will never change until man's conciseness has been raised, that in effect brings him back to the old ways of respect and harmony.
I would imagine the elders turning in their graves, at the thought of it.



Robert.

[atehequa]

As an indigenous person from the western hemisphere I'm simply amazed how much we American Indians can learn about ourselves
when other people speak of us.