FROM A SITE VISITOR: I am like Gerald in that I found your site in January and have been reading it every day since then. A turning point happened for me in February when I read your response to Awinita. You mentioned being the “grandson of a Cherokee” grandmother, and I am the “grandson of a Lakhota” (or “Lakota,” or “Sioux” to most). But you seemed to tell Awinita to move beyond where she was and be free. That eventually became an invitation to me to move beyond where I was as well. I had actually stopped seeking and would visit only with "medicine men" or read their words in order to reinforce what "I" thought I knew and who I thought I was.
Many times during my childhood my family and I traveled to Wounded Knee, and I thought I felt a kinship of some kind when I walked those grounds which Grandmother said were “made sacred by blood.” Since a small child I have identified with the indigenous peoples. I thought that we were more spiritual and that only the words of elders could teach me any true wisdom. Then, a friend loaned me his copy of FROM THE I TO THE ABSOLUTE and I saw that I was “trapped” (as you say) at the third stage. I had to give up that identity and the idea of being “more spiritual” or “Lakota” or “Native American.” Now, I am seeing advertisements for an upcoming presentation about Wounded Knee and I wonder why I want so strongly to watch it, but I do. Does it show that I am still “clinging,” as Awinita was when she wrote to you? Is this emotionalism inspired once again by a false identity? Is this something that you can relate to? Thank you for your site and your help. Chaska (now, “Charles”)
F.: Hello, Chaska. If you want to watch the program, watch the program. At least you are clear about having fixated at the third stage in the past, and if you are presently being influenced by an ego-state, it is suspected that you will recognize that as well. If you feel "pulled back" to stage three and witness that, so it is. As for the show, the Realized can witness anything and feel what they feel, but without becoming attached or emotionally intoxicated in the process. You need not avoid in order to "prove something." As far as “can I relate?”: I have not traveled to Wounded Knee, but during the days of “floyd the activist” and "floyd the seeker on a worldwide basis," I traveled to Chivington, Colorado, site of the Sand Creek Massacre. I saw a sign tossed onto the ground that had marked the turn from the main road onto the smaller road that leads to the massacre site. Once there, I parked the car, approached a fence, pulled up a “no trespassing” sign that was there and tossed it aside, climbed the fence, and then walked across a pasture to the site where the massacre occurred.
Then, on the way back into town, I stopped long enough to use a tire tool to drive the stake holding the direction sign to the site back into the ground, drove down the road a very short distance to the house that had been identified earlier as the mayor’s, and knocked on the door. When he opened it and answered that he was indeed the Mayor of Chivington, I asked, "Why would you continue to honor the Butcher of Sand Creek—John Chivington—by leaving that man's name on this town?" The door slammed, and even as I was still banging away, a county law officer pulled up to the front porch of the large white house and was soon escorting me to the city limits after warning me to return only if I wanted to be locked away in a jail cell in Pueblo. (Ah…the peace that has now come since “the activist” disappeared!)
Will I watch the program you mentioned? Sure. If it includes any accurate quotations from Hakadah (a.k.a., “Ohiyesa” or “Dr. Charles Eastman”), then Advaita seekers will hear some pointers that are rooted in non-duality. (As you know, the indigenous peoples had lived in the Asia/India area before crossing the Bering Straits. They brought the Original Understanding with them.)
What might we hear from the Eastman character that is relevant to the Advaita Teachings, if some of Eastman's original quotes are included?
“He (the Indian) sees no need for setting apart one day [as] a ‘holy’ day.” (Non-Duality)
“In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees.” (Nisarga Yoga invites seekers to return to natural living, to reason, and to logic while still feeling feelings.)
“In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty…the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal.”
“It appears that where marriage is solemnized by the church and blessed by the priest, it may at the same time be surrounded with customs and ideas of a frivolous, superficial, and even prurient character. Love between a man and a woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self-seeking.” (Consider all of the false selves that are generated when persons re-define themselves as a result of enculturation. Also, the indigenous peoples had no word for “ownership.” Might the concept of “my wife” or “my husband” affect attitude and behavior?)
F.: Hello, Chaska. If you want to watch the program, watch the program. At least you are clear about having fixated at the third stage in the past, and if you are presently being influenced by an ego-state, it is suspected that you will recognize that as well. If you feel "pulled back" to stage three and witness that, so it is. As for the show, the Realized can witness anything and feel what they feel, but without becoming attached or emotionally intoxicated in the process. You need not avoid in order to "prove something." As far as “can I relate?”: I have not traveled to Wounded Knee, but during the days of “floyd the activist” and "floyd the seeker on a worldwide basis," I traveled to Chivington, Colorado, site of the Sand Creek Massacre. I saw a sign tossed onto the ground that had marked the turn from the main road onto the smaller road that leads to the massacre site. Once there, I parked the car, approached a fence, pulled up a “no trespassing” sign that was there and tossed it aside, climbed the fence, and then walked across a pasture to the site where the massacre occurred.
Then, on the way back into town, I stopped long enough to use a tire tool to drive the stake holding the direction sign to the site back into the ground, drove down the road a very short distance to the house that had been identified earlier as the mayor’s, and knocked on the door. When he opened it and answered that he was indeed the Mayor of Chivington, I asked, "Why would you continue to honor the Butcher of Sand Creek—John Chivington—by leaving that man's name on this town?" The door slammed, and even as I was still banging away, a county law officer pulled up to the front porch of the large white house and was soon escorting me to the city limits after warning me to return only if I wanted to be locked away in a jail cell in Pueblo. (Ah…the peace that has now come since “the activist” disappeared!)
Will I watch the program you mentioned? Sure. If it includes any accurate quotations from Hakadah (a.k.a., “Ohiyesa” or “Dr. Charles Eastman”), then Advaita seekers will hear some pointers that are rooted in non-duality. (As you know, the indigenous peoples had lived in the Asia/India area before crossing the Bering Straits. They brought the Original Understanding with them.)
What might we hear from the Eastman character that is relevant to the Advaita Teachings, if some of Eastman's original quotes are included?
“He (the Indian) sees no need for setting apart one day [as] a ‘holy’ day.” (Non-Duality)
“In every religion there is an element of the supernatural, varying with the influence of pure reason over its devotees.” (Nisarga Yoga invites seekers to return to natural living, to reason, and to logic while still feeling feelings.)
“In the life of the Indian there was only one inevitable duty…the daily recognition of the Unseen and Eternal.”
“It appears that where marriage is solemnized by the church and blessed by the priest, it may at the same time be surrounded with customs and ideas of a frivolous, superficial, and even prurient character. Love between a man and a woman is founded on the mating instinct and is not free from desire and self-seeking.” (Consider all of the false selves that are generated when persons re-define themselves as a result of enculturation. Also, the indigenous peoples had no word for “ownership.” Might the concept of “my wife” or “my husband” affect attitude and behavior?)
“In those white men who professed religion, we found much inconsistency of conduct. They spoke much of spiritual things, while seeking only the material.”
“The American Indian was an individualist in religion as in war. He had neither a national army nor an organized church.”
“There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature.”
“Silence is the cornerstone of character.”
Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
