On November 23rd, 1993 Native American prophecy was fulfilled
when a delegation representing the North American indigenous nations addressed a
gathering at the United Nations building in New York. Hopi prophecies had
directed messengers to knock four times on the imposing doors of the UN in an
attempt to deliver an appeal to the peoples of the world. The messengers began
knocking in 1948. It took 45 years for the last living messenger to finally gain
access. The Cry of the Earth Conference resulted from that fourth—and
final—knock. Native American elders took that opportunity to deliver the
prophecies of their spiritual leaders concerning the state of the earth and the
people living upon it.
Their message was clear and very simple: The long-predicted
time of purification is already under way. The elders pleaded that we heed
The Creator’s original instructions to the indigenous peoples and voluntarily
return to living in more simple, harmonious, and respectful ways. The prophecies
warned that, should we choose to ignore this message, erratic weather patterns,
earth movements, starvation, violence, and war would occur with ever-increasing
frequency and intensity.
We live at a time when Native American prophecies and
contemporary scientific predictions are converging and manifesting before our
eyes. When we read the morning paper or watch the evening news, we are literally
witnessing those predicted events unfold. While there are occasional,
encouraging, isolated bright spots of technological advance and humanitarian
action, I still see very little evidence that we are seriously heeding the
warnings.
My purpose is to reissue that call. I am asking each of you to
voluntarily commit to living in ways that are simpler, more respectful, and more
harmonious—more in line with The Creator’s original instructions.
You, as
an individual, must choose how you will respond. Will you voluntarily make
the required changes in your lifestyle? If you do, there’s no question that it
will have a positive affect on you, the people around you, and the earth upon
which you live. You will bring the benefits of simplicity, harmony, and respect
into your own personal life. You will prepare yourself to pass through the
predicted challenges ahead more successfully and with greater ease and grace. In
addition, you will provide a much‐needed
positive example for others to follow.
I have written this four part article to help you implement your
commitment. In the first two parts, I suggest a number of specific steps you can
take to achieve a greater simplicity—both internal and external—in you life.
Part I: Five Steps to Simplify Your Inner World
Any unresolved issues you carry inside can distort your
perceptions of the world, inhibit your personal options, and make you more
vulnerable to stressful life events. You’ve probably heard the saying,
"Wherever you go, there you are." Well, it’s absolutely true. In
order to live more fully, and flow more fluidly with disruptive changes, it is
essential that you free yourself of any remaining unresolved issues.
Step 1: Release your attachments
I believe this is the most important internal change you can
make. Imagine strands of your energy running out from you to all the people and
things you rely on to define your identity. One strand may run to a person you
love, another to your car, and still a third to your music collection. Some may
stretch back in time to people who let you down, while others might reach far
into the future, tied to an aspiration or desired possession. Strands might even
run to your own body (how you look), or to your thoughts and beliefs (religion,
politics, etc.). We can attach ourselves to anything. . . and we do.
Buddha said that we suffer because of our desires and
attachments. We attach ourselves to people, things, and outcomes as if they were
extensions of ourselves. Then we hold on very tightly (using words, actions, and
our will). If another person must respond with the "right" expression,
answer, or behavior in order for you to be "happy" or
"okay," then you are definitely attached. If events must turn out in a
particular way—match the picture in your head—in order for you to be
"okay," you are attached. If you still carry unresolved feelings about
something that happened in the recent or distant past, you are attached. Those
attachments handicap you by causing you to resist change or avoid making choices
that might jeopardize a desired outcome.
The only solution is to let go. You must draw back—from your
side—the strands of energy that you extend to hold, influence, or control
people, things, and outcomes for your own ends. You must let everything and
everyone go free.
There are a number of ways to go about releasing attachments.
Satchidananda offers a comprehensive Eastern approach in The Yoga Sutra’s
of Patanjali and John Randolph Price presents a Western version in A
Spiritual Philosophy for the New World. I describe my own set of eight
release steps on my website (www.circledancer.com) in an article titled Releasing
Attachments. If you discover that you need additional help with this
process, some therapists and members of the clergy are able to provide
assistance.
Ultimately, we let go of everyone and everything—we die.
According to most spiritual traditions, the sooner you release your attachments,
the more peace and ease you have in this life. The Native American prophecies
provide a little extra incentive. It will be a lot easier to adapt to a changing
world once you free yourself.
Step 2: Face and resolve your issues
Another powerful way to simplify your life and prepare for
change is to solve any unresolved personal issues (fears, anxieties, judgments,
reactions, addictions, compulsions, depression, etc.). The increasing stress and
challenge presented during the difficult times ahead is likely to intensify your
unresolved issues, making it even harder
for you to operate effectively. You would be wise to resolve
those issues before those external pressures mount.
Most issues can be resolved by bringing them fully into your
awareness, facing and accepting them, and then taking any required actions
(e.g., learning a new approach to managing stress). It’s likely that your
unresolved issues have already been brought to your attention. If so, perhaps
you dismissed them (e.g., I only drink on weekends.) or even defended them
(e.g., If you didn’t do what you do, I wouldn’t react the way I do).
Winston Churchill noted that we often stumble over the truth, but we quickly
pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and hurry on our way. I strongly
encourage you to stop and acknowledge the issues that repeatedly trip you up.
You may be able face and resolve your issues on your own, using
methods such as introspection, meditation, or journaling. You might even be able
to address the issues that arise in your relationship—with your partner’s
help. However, if you have trouble facing an issue, or coming up with the means
to handle it, you may want to seek the help of a counselor. It always makes
sense to remove a rock from your shoe rather than limp along with it, but that’s
especially true when the road ahead is likely to be rough and full of unknown
twists and turns.
Step 3: Tell the truth
Your personal power comes through representing your true self in
the world. Your power with others lies in their being able to count on you and
to trust in you. Any lie diminishes your credibility in this world. . . and it
diminishes you. Tell the truth at all times, and under all conditions—without
exception.
Step 4: Reduce your dependency
In a dependent relationship, another person (a lover, a parent,
a child) appears to control the availability of something you desire. That
desired thing can be almost anything, but most often it tends to be acceptance,
love, or financial support. Dependency occurs when you surrender your own
personal power and control in an attempt to obtain the thing you desire. Then,
you and the other person both end up feeling bound, unfulfilled, and resentful.
The only way out of dependency is by becoming independent. You
are independent when you are willing and able to make your own choices,
regardless of the reactions and responses of others. Independence also requires
being willing and able to stand alone on your own two feet (e.g., take care of
yourself financially).
One of the best indicators of whether you are independent is
whether you are willing to address issues that arise in your relationships. If
you are reluctant to express the truth to a friend, a colleague, or a partner,
you are probably in a dependent relationship. Your life will be very complicated
if there are unexpressed negative feelings or unresolved issues present in your
relationships. Say what you need to say and make certain you avoid the binding
ties of dependency.
Step 5: Remain light-hearted
I saw the Dalai Lama when he visited Salt Lake a few years ago.
He walked out on the stage, and everyone in the audience lit up. That didn’t
happen because of his importance as a spiritual or political leader. It happened
because he came out grinning so excitedly, waving so lovingly. . . with his socks
falling down. His light‐heartedness
was absolutely contagious. I know the Dalai Lama was fully aware of all of the
suffering in the world. I’m also certain he was under tremendous pressure to
meet with the crowds and deliver his teachings that day. Still, he remained
exuberantly light-hearted.
It didn’t diminish him one bit, and it elevated all the rest of us.
There is suffering in this world, and maybe even in you own
life. According to Native prophecies, it’s likely there will be more. But,
your anger, discouragement, and sadness will not diminish that suffering. It
will only aggravate and amplify it. It will rob you and those around you of the
possibility of perceiving the joy and love that exist right along side the
suffering. Be the light‐heartedness
that brightens even the most difficult times.
* * * * *
Read Part II next week! Read
about Stephen C. Paul here. We thank Stephen for his permission to use
this article in its entirety. You can read more by him at his website at
circledancer.com.
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I think so many of us are too hard on ourselves for
what we didn't accomplish or what we should have
done. The first step is to forgive yourself for all
the things you didn't do that you should have and all the
things that you did do that you shouldn't have. Get
rid of the guilt. Negative feelings don't do you
much good. The way to deal with them is to forgive
yourself and forgive others.
Forgiveness is a tricky term. It does not only
mean that you apologize, although regretting what you did
is part of it. You may want to make amends if you
can, but there are some circumstances where there is
nothing more you can do. Even when you cannot mend
fences with others, you need to tell yourself:
"Yes, I did it and it would have been better if I
hadn't, but now I want to forgive myself for having done
that negative deed."
Forgiveness helps you come to terms with the
past. I've learned how to forgive myself, and this
has helped me no longer feel deep regrets or sadness about
my past.
For twenty years, I went around feeling terrible about
the fact that I had treated a colleague very meanly.
He was in an organization with me, and I did not want to
lead a group with him. For all those years I carried
around the guilt that I had been unkind to him and that it
wasn't right. When I saw him again recently, I went
up to him and said, "Look, I've carried this burden
for twenty years. I really feel terribly apologetic
for what I said and did to you, and I really want to ask
your forgiveness."
He said, "Oh, it's perfectly all right. I
remember the time when I was feeling dejected and low and
you put your arm around me and were comforting."
I felt tears in my eyes because of the generous way he
responded to me and the relief I felt.
There's a difference between using your past and
wallowing in it. Say I had an experience with a
nasty person and I got nasty back, but I don't want to be
that way anymore. I can use that experience to work
out a different response whenever someone is not so
pleasant to me. If I don't like my reaction, I can
change my response.
You can review your past, benefit from your successes,
and learn from your mistakes without judging
yourself. This is an excellent time to do a life
review, to make amends, identify and let go of regrets,
come to terms with unresolved relationships, and tie up
loose ends.
Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week.
The people who are living on this planet need to
break with the narrow
concept of human liberation, and begin to see liberation as
something
that
needs to be extended to the whole of the natural world. What
is
needed is the liberation of all things that support life--the air, the
water,
the trees--all the things which support the sacred web of life.
from the Haudenosaunee address to the western world, 1977
Laughter
I had a strategy many years
ago when I was working on two master's degrees at the same
time. I would do my work for my M.A. in English during the
day, and I would teach the classes I was teaching during the day,
also. In the evenings, I had my classes for my educational
administration degree. During those two years, then, I was
extremely busy and I was dealing with an awful lot of stress, as
you can probably imagine.
But I had something going for me. During those two years,
there were two television programs that were on between four and
five every afternoon: Animaniacs and Tiny Toon
Adventures. Now, I'm not a huge fan of television at
all, but during those two years, that hour became very important
to me. For those sixty minutes, I was able to laugh and to
relax as I watched these programs, and this was a fact that I'm
sure contributed a great deal to my successful completion of the
two programs. It didn't matter to me a bit that most people
saw them as "children's" programs; because I watched
them regularly, I knew that most of the humor in the programs was
extremely adult in nature. And besides, what other people
think should almost never cause us to make decisions about what
we're going to do with our own lives.
I also like to read comic strips, especially right before I go to
sleep. There's something comforting about ending my day on a
humorous note rather than reading something stressful or
informative--right before I go to sleep, I don't want to have any
violence or learning in my brain. Sleep should be about
sleep, and I certainly don't want to read anything that will cause
me to have nightmares or to get my brain running around in
circles.
How
tremendously valuable is the power of joy and laughter to enliven our
soul as we go forward to meet our goals. Laughter can lift us
over the high
ridges and lighten up the dark valleys in a way that makes life much
easier.
A happy heart generates a forcefield of love and joy in which doubt,
fear,
disaster, and dismay have no power to interrupt the universal flow of
good.
And in some instances, laughter has been considered to be a high form
of
prayer! Truly, when you are in the consciousness of the joy of
spirit,
you are praying from the very heart of your being.
There are many
physical benefits to laughter. When we laugh
well, according to the Mayo Clinic website, we
soothe tension, activate and relieve our stress
response, stimulate many organs, improve our immune
systems, relieve pain, increase personal
satisfaction and improve our moods. Our
spirits, too, benefit from laughter. When we
laugh, we see the world more brightly, and our
problems grow smaller and more manageable when
they're in a new context.
Many people choose not to laugh much. When
they choose reading material, they choose murder
mysteries or crime dramas or romance novels, none of
which are necessarily bad, but which should be
balanced out with a healthy dose of humor now and
then. Likewise, many people choose to watch
television shows and movies that focus on killing
and extreme violence, and they fill their minds and
hearts with images of other people suffering at the
hands of sadistic killers. Again, this is
something that needs to be balanced with humor--we
have enough tension in our regular lives, so why do
we choose to fill our minds and spirits with tension
when we seek out "entertainment"?
Even many of our so-called "comedies" are
focused on a type of humor that's insulting and
demeaning to others--the makers expect us to laugh
at someone cutting another person down, someone
insulting another, someone hurting someone
else. This type of negative humor actually
adds to our stress because as we watch it, we can't
help but think--at least on a subconscious
level--that someone might be saying those same
insulting things about us. Personally, for
example, I can't stand to watch episodes of Home
Improvement because so much of the humor is
based on demeaning and insulting others.
Wholehearted,
ready laughter heals, encourages, relaxes anyone
within hearing distance. The laughter that springs from love
makes
wide the space around it--gives room for the loved one to enter in.
Real laughter welcomes, and never shuts out.
Eugenia Price
In many ways,
laughter also helps us to learn about the world
around us. I'm sure that we've all experienced
hearing someone laugh at seeing someone else be
harmed or embarrassed, and we all of a sudden know
something more about the person who has laughed at
someone else's misfortune. We can learn about
ourselves this way, too--by finding out what we
laugh at. Are we the type of person who finds
it funny when someone gets hurt? Do we find it
amusing when another person has an extremely
embarrassing moment?
We have to ask ourselves an important
question: From whom have we learned about what
to laugh at? When I was young, I learned that
other people's misfortune was funny, and I grew up
laughing when I witnessed incidents when other
people failed at something or got hurt. As an
adult, though, I was fortunate enough to have
friends who helped me to see that this was harmful
to others--not only does someone have to deal with
failure or embarrassment, but they also have to deal
with being laughed at--ridiculed--now. I want
to be the person who helps someone else with
encouragement and support, not someone who helps to
tear another person down with mocking laughter.
Nothing
shows our character
more than what we laugh at.
There will
always be the people who say, "You need to
lighten up." They say this because
they're people who laugh at other people's
misfortunes, and they think that everyone else
should, also, because that's the way they see the
world. But I really don't need to
"lighten up." I see more humor in
the world than most people I know--I just choose to
focus on the humor that's healthy and intelligent
rather than the humor that's directed at people's
lower natures.
Sometimes we don't see the world in a humorous way,
but even in our most dire misfortunes, we still have
the ability to find laughter. And of course,
there's a season for everything, times when laughter
might simply be inappropriate or unhelpful--and we
must respect those times and not try to force
laughter in where it doesn't belong. But in
most of our lives, laughter is an important element
that can be extremely helpful to us, and it's well
worth our while to search it out and practice it as
much as we can. Our lives will certainly be
brighter when we do.
When despair for the world
grows in me and I wake in the night
at the least sound in fear of what
my life and my children's lives
may be, I go and lie down where the
wood drake rests in its beauty
on the water, and the great heron
feeds. I come into the peace
of wild things who do not tax their
lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of
still water. And I feel above me
day-blind stars waiting for
their light. For a time I rest
in
the grace of the world, and am
free.
Wendell
Berry
Oren
Lyons was the first Onandagan to enter college. When
he returned to his reservation for his first vacation, his
uncle proposed a fishing trip on a lake. Once he had
his nephew in the middle of the lake where he wanted him,
he began to interrogate him. "Well, Oren,"
he said, "you've been to college; you must be pretty
smart now from all they've been teaching you. Let me
ask you a question. Who are you?"
Taken
aback by the question, Oren fumbled for an answer.
"What do you mean, who am I? Why, I'm your
nephew, of course." His uncle rejected his
answer and repeated his question. Successively, the
nephew ventured that he was Oren Lyons, an Onandagan, a
human being, a man, a young man, all to no avail.
When
his uncle had reduced him to silence and he asked to be
informed as to who he was, his uncle said, "Do you
see that bluff over there? Oren, you are that
bluff. And that giant pine on the other shore?
Oren, you are that pine. And this water that
supports our boat? You are this water."
Huston
Smith
When
we are afraid of someone or something, it is because we do
not feel
that particular person or thing is a part of us. When
we have established
conscious oneness with the Absolute, with the Infinite Vast,
then
everything there is part of us. And how can we be
afraid of ourselves?
Sri
Chinmoy
Yes, life
can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's
actually rather dependable and reliable. Some principles apply
to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called
universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use
them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever
learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning. I use it a lot when I
teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to
the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.
What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or
generous, compassionate or arrogant? In this book, I've done my
best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life,
writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.
Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too! Universal Principles of Living Life Fully. Awareness of
these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration
out of the lives we lead.
Explore all of our
quotations pages--these links will take you to the first page of each
topic, and those pages will contain links to any additional pages on
the same topic (there are five pages on adversity, for example).
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