THE MESSAGE OF NON-DUALITY, From India and Asia to the “Americas,” Part Three

[Continued from yesterday]

F.: The posting today continues with quotations from "Native Americans" whose words transmitted the non-duality teachings of Advaita:

ON SILENCE / MEDITATION / QUIET TIME
[NOTE: According to the earliest Native Teachings, that which is "true" is only the space between exhalation and inhalation. Advaita teachers agree that truth cannot be spoken. Because inhaling and exhaling is a meaningless occurrence involving a temporary combination of earth elements, it is in the silence between those actions that "truth" can be understood in the moment of non-action. Quiet meditation, therefore, was intended not to still the "mind" but to focus on the nothingness, just like the nothingness during that breathless span of freedom from body and "mind" activity, whereby truth could be realized during that empty moment.]

“When you are in doubt, be still, and wait. So long as mists envelop you, be still; be still until the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists—as it surely will.” White Eagle

”Earth, teach me quiet—as the grasses are still with new light.” Ute Teaching

“Remember the peace that may be found in silence.” Cherokee Teaching

“There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities, no place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects’ wings. Perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand, but the clatter only seems to insult the ears.” Chief Seattle

“I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.” Oriah Mountain Dreamer

ON NATURAL LIVING / FREEDOM FROM CONCEPTS
“I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural.” Zitkala-Sa

“Your religion was written on tablets of stone, ours on our hearts.” Chief Seattle

ON CYCLES
“Earth, teach me renewal—as the seed that rises in the spring.” Ute Teaching

“You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round.” Black Elk

“Tribe follows tribe and nations follow nations, like the tides of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless.” Chief Seattle

“We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.” Chief Seattle

“Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.” Black Elk

“There is no death.” Chief Seattle

THE HISTORY OF THE SPREADING OF THE ADVAITA TEACHINGS: The Message of Non-Duality Moves Beyond the Far East

While the Original Understanding is timeless, there is some evidence that the Advaita (but, obviously, not the “Advaita Vedanta”) Teachings were circulating in the India-Asia region as much as 40,000 years ago. Moses plagiarized “I AM THAT; I AM” 4,000 years ago when he most likely heard the summative expression of the Advaita teachings from persons traveling through the Middle East. Caravans that hauled goods between the Middle East and Asia exposed many in the Middle East to elements of Far Eastern cultures, Advaita Teachings included. Some 2,000 years ago, Christ taught the Advaita Teachings that he had obviously learned during his “Lost Years” when he studied with certain “radicals” in the desert or when he traveled to the Far East, as some evidence suggests, on some of the caravans being operated by a relative.

So the Teachings were being spread from the Far East to various parts of the world, but when did they reach the “Americas”? It seems that the first wave of Asians migrated to what would later be named “the Americas” between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago…mainly as hunters. The second wave came when their lands were invaded by Aryans.

[A note of irony: Those Asiatic people ran eastward to escape the invading Aryans. Eventually, those Aryans would plunder that region but would move westward and would settle as Angles and Saxons in what is now called "Germany," would move farther west and would invade and settle what they would call "Angleland" (England today), and would move even farther west and invade the “New World,” which the more logical native population would point out was actually the same age as the rest of the earth. After thousands of years, the descendants of the Aryans who ran the Asians from their lands would invade the lands that those Asians had moved to in an effort to escape the Aryan invaders thousands of years earlier. Eventually, 98% of those native inhabitants would be killed, 99% of their land would be confiscated, and the remaining 2% of the indigenous peoples would be separated from the new Aryan population and confined to the 1% of the lands that was “reserved” for Indians.]

The discussion of the ways in which those indigenous peoples shared the Advaita teaching in the "Americas" will continue tomorrow. For today, you are invited to pause, to re-read the quotes above, to find the message of non-duality contained in the quotations, and to reflect upon the meaning of those teachings that were shared among the first people to inhabit the lands now called “North, Central, and South America.” Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

THE MESSAGE OF NON-DUALITY, From India and Asia to the “Americas,” Part One

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?)

“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)