A TIME OF GRACE - Independence Is Interdependence

Seeing Through To The True Wisdom

Forward: On this Fourth Of July in America as a descendent of both the European founding ancestors of America and of the Sioux and the original inhabitants - the Native Americans - a few words.

When I view our founding ancestors I see flawed men and women trying to make the old world better. I honor them for being able to have the wisdom to see the potential grace - the possibility of creating a nation where the unalienable rights conferred by a creator to each individual would be the guiding wisdom.

They were not wrong but as men and women of their times this was not yet possible. They, like us, did not choose the time - the time chose them.

Our Native American ancestors were also caught up in the whirlwind of time. The forces they faced against them - like those of the European ancestors - were of the old world.

These old world forces crushed lives and spirits. But some of this wisdom graces us today. In every tradition - across the groaning old world - there has been great wisdom pointing the way to this new world being born.

It is that wisdom we must get in touch with and carry forward into the new world which all around us is being born.

QUIETING THE STORM

Within this eye of the storm it is difficult to see the grace which surrounds us. Grace we are a part of. Grace we must remember to be thankful for. The terror of this whirlwind can paralyze us and prevent us from taking action. The grief we feel can blind us to reality. We have lost much and it hurts.

We as humans - if we have learned nothing else - have learned through our spiritual teachers and traditions - that positive change brings great pain. That the journey of learning to live in grace does hurt. These birth pains of growing, of knowing, are just that.

But we have also learned that when we find ourselves at the center of the whirlwind that by quieting ourselves like Jesus did we learn, grow and experience grace in the same way.

Pain is nothing when encountered from the place of compassion, wisdom, and love. We obliterate our fear of the unknown and fully inhabit a world of wisdom and peace.

Giving birth physically or spiritually is painful. This pain is the universe’s way of getting us to stop, to breathe, to feel deeply and to pay attention. Those who are able to get quiet, to go deeply within, to commune with the natural world will reap the rewards of this painful process.

Pain and suffering do not mean there is a god which has abandoned us. Quite the contrary. It means there is a god which loves us and wants us to fully experience the process of change - of becoming.

We, as humans, are becoming right now. These changes have been coming for a vastly long time. We could no more stop the time than we could physically grow wings and fly.

But we can grow spiritual wings and fly. Growing new wings is not free of pain & suffering. It is also not for everyone. We must accept that not everyone can do this.

But those of us who can must fully inhabit this grace. We must learn finally that grace means forgiveness, compassion and love. That the world of hate, of anger, of suspicion must be abandoned.

Once you can fly spiritually those things are useless. They belong to the old world. This dead old world will fall away.

Those who go forward to live in this new world will live in grace and wisdom. Will live in harmony with the universe. Will be guided by the universal wisdom. Will live in the harmony provided by balance in all things.

They will be graced by understanding and living within the magnificent balance offered by this universal wisdom. They will live in harmony. Lit - not by fear, hatred and anger - but by love, compassion and wisdom.

Be the change we wish to see. Be the love, the calm, the acceptance, the compassion - embrace the grace.

Fly strong, brave, free and true. Be the change. You are the change.

THE WAY OF THE HERO AND HEROINE - THE WAY OF THE WARRIOR

• The warrior stands with pain accepts it - even welcomes it.

• The warrior understands the pain is a process.

• That without this process the new world cannot be born

• The warrior is grateful they are part of this process

• The warrior learns to forgive themselves and all others

• The warrior understands there is nothing to be gained and much to be lost through resentment, anger & hostility

• The warrior uses compassion, understanding, and love as power

• The warrior - through pain - is washed clean

• The warrior arrives at a state of grace with all other beings

• Part of the great turning of the wheel of time

• Part of the great mystery of which they are a part

• Understanding that not knowing may may often be a greater strength than knowing

• Part of what is meant to be - part of the universe as it is

Standing at the heart of the terrifying whirlwind the warrior is steadfast

As the old world collapses in flames and violence the warrior observes from a distance

The warrior would no more think of joining in the madness than they could grow wings and fly.

The warrior holds fast to the birth of the new world

The warrior understands that for the new world to be born the old one must die

The warrior becomes the bridge to the birth of the new world.

In some traditions it is thought of this way:

May I be protector for those without one,
A guide for all travelers on the way;
May I be a bridge, a boat and a ship
For all who wish to cross (the water).

May I be an island for those who seek one
And a lamp for those desiring light,
May I be a bed for all who wish to rest
And a slave for all who want a slave.

May I be a wishing jewel, a magic vase,
Powerful mantras and great medicine,
May I become a wish‐fulfilling tree
And a cow of plenty for the world.

Just like space
And the great elements such as earth,
May I always support the life
Of all the boundless creatures.

And until they pass away from pain
May I also be the source of life
For all the realms of varied beings
That reach unto the ends of space.

A guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life - Shantideva

WE ARE THE STORIES WE TELL OURSELVES

From the White Buffalo stories straight through to our own cultural mythology, religious wisdom, song, dance and great literature there is a place where all of these meet. That is where we discover the place where the way of the warrior and the way of the new world is found.

The warrior supports those forces which are part of this new world

The warrior concentrates energy on growing the spiritual wings of grace

The warrior flies free

Go forward in grace. You are free.

We all carry within our very beings these sacred prophecies if we but pay attention to the place where they all abide.

“It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into the human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the social forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth.” 

Joseph Campbell, Hero With A Thousand Faces

Freedom is interdependence. Together we can and are changing the world.

Happiest Fourth Of July to all who celebrate. The dreams of humanity are not dead. They are just beginning.