Camel of Love: Native American Wisdom

NativeAmerican Prayer

Great Spirit of Love, come to me with the power of the North.

Make me courageous when the cold winds of life fall upon me.

Give me strength and endurance for everything that is harsh,

everything that hurts, everything that makes me squint.

May I move through life ready to take what comes from the North.

Spirit who comes out of the East,

come to me with the power of the rising sun.

Let there be light in my world.  Let there be light on the path that I walk.

Let me remember always that You give the gift of a new day.

Never let me be burdened with sorrow by not starting afresh.

(from "God Makes the Rivers to Flow" by Eknath Easwaran)

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Native American Wisdom is creation centered spirituality.

The "medicine wheel"  is a sacred circle which honors what Black Elk calls the Sacred Hoop.

Native American prayer  honors the spirits of the four directions:north, east, south, west.

You and I are at the center of the medicine wheel,  no matter where we are.  Below us is Mother Earth, above us is Father Sky, around us are the four directions.  Sometimes they are called the four winds.  And along with them go the four elements which make up creation;  earth, fire, water, and air.   The four directions also symbolize the four times of each day which are good for stopping to pray; Sunrise, High Noon, Sunset, and Night.

The prayer above comes from the heart.  Native Americans pray from the heart, not from

 written prayers.  You and I can go out in nature, and sense the special feeling, virtues, and power of each direction and element for ourselves, and prayer in our own words from the heart.  I think of this as Blessing Prayer.  I face each direction, receive a blessing, and resolve to offer the blessing as a gift for "all my relations," which includes the world and everyone/thing in it.    I recommend you try it for yourself to experience the blessing of this way of reverent creation-centered prayer.

The Camel of Love

     This picture, taken on a recent trip I made to Egypt, shows me and my good friend Donna riding the camels we took to the Great Pyramid on the Giza plateau---a memorable ride indeed.

It reminds me of a wonderful poem by the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi which goes something like this: (I have seen various translations, and this is from memory, so it is not exact, but bear with me.)

My heart has become capable of every form.

It is a pasture for gazelles, 

A shrine for pilgrims,

A temple for image-worshippers,

A monastery for Christian monks,

A mosque for Muslims,

and the pages of the Torah for Jews.

(I would add:  and a Sacred Ceremonial Circle for Original Peoples.)

My religion is Love,

And wherever the Camel of Love takes me,

That is my religion, and that is my faith.

     That poem was a lodestar for me in my journey into interfaith ministry.

My years of training at the All Faiths Seminary in New York City; my experience initiating an Interfaith Institute at Mother's Trust in Ganges, Michigan; my years of teaching and studying world religions;  my friendships with people of other faiths; and the privilege of conducting  interfaith ceremonies, all have been some  of the most deeply rewarding and soul-satisfying experiences of my life.

      I am convinced that one of the most important ways to be a peacemaker in the world today is to do what one can to share an understanding and appreciation of the faith of  millions and millions of people who are adherents of the great religions, or as Huston Smith calls them, the Wisdom Traditions of the world.  (His book on World Religions is one of the best.) I have found that when I am able to relate to someone on the basis of their faith, doors fly open and deep connections are made.  

      A story of an experience in Egypt will serve as an illustration.  On our cruise down the Nile, a young Muslim waiter was assigned to our table.  On the evening of the day of our camel ride to the Great Pyramid,  two of my friends and I were talking about how we had enjoyed chanting  a phrase in Arabic which means "There is only One God"  as we rode our camels. The chant is part of the call to prayer that echoes five times a day from a million minarets all over the world.  Our waiter's eyes lit up as we chanted it for him, and he seemed amazed that three American white women would know such a thing.  He wanted us to teach it to him, and we did.

(He knew the words, of course, but not the tune.)  Then, when the other diners had left the room, we showed him some Sufi whirling while singing the chant.  He loved it!  On the day we were due to leave the boat to go back to Cairo, he told us how he hated to see us leave.  What would he do?  We smiled and started the chant.  He joined in.  "We will always be united in our heart by these sacred words,"  I said to him with a smile.  "Salaam.  Peace."  With a smile and a bow he replied, "Salaam." We could feel the heart connection we had made.

      All this is by way of saying that I would like to start sharing a little of all the riches of the interfaith resources and training I have had by writing a short morning blog, in which I will post a picture of the beauty in which I live, accompanied by a short quote and my reflection on it from a different faith each day:  Sunday: Christian, Monday: Native American, Tuesday: Taoist, Wednesday: Hindu, Thursday: Buddhist, Friday: Muslim/Sufi, Saturday: Jewish.

     My bias will be towards those quotes that come from the Mystical Heart of all these religions:  words that sing in the soul and lodge in the heart. I will be choosing the quotes after spending at least an hour meditating with the sacred music and holy words of the religion on which I am focusing that day.  In this way, I intend to continue to deepen my own interfaith consciousness--or to put it another way, to ride the Camel of Love!

     I hope that  those of you who are following this blog will find the new one enriching and inspiring, and that you will share with others this way of  engaging in the enterprise of peacemaking, through mutual understanding and appreciation of the heritage of Divine Wisdom with which all of us, as earthlings, are entrusted.  In other words, Spread the Wisdom!       And please accept my appreciation for every one of you who cares enough to read what I write, especially when you take it to heart.  "Blessed are the Peace Makers."

      I close with a paraphrase recommended by some Sufi leaders from the Muslim Call to Prayer: "There is no god but God(Allah) and we are all God's prophets."

     

     

The Gift of Laughter

     I took these two pictures of a metal tree of life which hangs in our house above our dream catcher tree near the fireplace.  It was a thank you gift  from my nephew Daron and his wife Julie for officiating at their wedding.  You will notice there is a small figure of a spry little elderly woman sitting under the tree, laughing.  Her hand is partially over her mouth, so you can't see how hard she is laughing.  

      Laughing, I think, is under-rated as a spiritual and a healing practice.   I am not speaking, of course, of cruel, mocking, or cynical laughter.  I am talking about the delighted chuckling or outright belly-laugh that comes when we don't take ourselves and our own perspectives and opinions too seriously.   I am blessed with a husband and four grown children who have a marvelous sense of humor, and when we are all together, there is a lot of laughter.  They have the gift of being able to see the funny side of situations which most people miss.  And in our family, its pretty hard to take yourself seriously for very long.  

     Laughter, studies tell us, is great for our bodies and our souls.  In fact, there are societies whose whole purpose is to get together and laugh, just for the fun of it.  Laughter is infectious, and sometimes you don't even have to have something particular to laugh at.  You laugh because others are laughing.  Its the sign of a light heart and a small ego.  If someone doesn't have a good sense of humor, and laugh even "in the dark" I am a little wary.  

      When I was in high school, it was the custom for the year book to feature the pictures of seniors with little sayings under them.  Mine was:  "Laughing at this, laughing at that, but nobody knows what she's laughing at!"  And I had a huge grin on my face.  I have been laughing at my own and people's foibles ever since.  I like to imagine that I have grown up to become like that little old lady under the Tree of Life,  just watching, and laughing a lot, because she knows deep down that Reality is Good and True, no matter the stories we make up about it.

     There is a River that runs by this Tree of Life, and to all who are going by in the little boats of their self-constructed lives I imagine that little grandmother is smiling and waving and singing, "Row row row your boat gently down the stream  merrily merrily merrily merrily

life is but a dream."   That profound and playful perspective is at the heart of all true laughter.

Dream Catching

     Ah, the mystery of dreams. . . . . . .   

We fall asleep, and enter another, strange world where, unaware of our body lying asleep in our bed, we engage in or watch all sorts of events taking place.  Sometimes, as a friend of mine says, it's "Saturday night at the movies."  Sometimes, its what Native Americans call "A Big Dream"-- vivid, memorable, even numinous--the kind you might remember your whole life.   The Bible and other sacred literature tell stories of dreams like that.  You may have had one.   It is likely to carry an important message, and needs to be pondered.  If you've ever wanted to remember and work with your dreams, you are on the "royal road to the unconscious,"  as Jung once said.   "An unexamined dream is like an unopened letter," said a famous rabbi.   

     One of my favorite authors, John Sanford, wrote a remarkable book some time ago called "Dreams: God's Forgotten Language."  This book started me on a journey that is still going on of remembering and pondering my dreams for Divine Wisdom.  In fact, for many years, I have been in a group with several other women called "The Dream Group," which meets regularly to talk about our dreams and get each other's wisdom about them.  I recommend this as a significant tool for soul work and spiritual growth.  A good book to help you work with your dreams is by Jeremy Taylor titled "Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill."

     No wonder I have dream catchers in our house here!  There is a dream catcher tree (no, its not a Christmas tree!) hung with dream catchers from family and friends.  There are dream catchers hanging in various places in every room except the bathrooms and laundryroom.

There is a big one in the picture above in front of the stained glass window in our dining area,

which reminds me of the fact that little fragments of dreams, caught in memory and valued and pondered, can yield as much wisdom as big, complicated dreams remember in full detail.

Even a color is sometimes enough to trigger fruitful reflection.

     And then there are the dreams we have for our lives.  Some fade away, some remain to haunt us when we are straying from our real purpose in this life, and some come when we are in big transitions as a form of Divine Guidance.  They are not just night dreams.  They are the soul dreams we may have had as children, or the dreams we still carry secretly in our heart's longings.  Far too many of us sacrifice our dreams on the altar of expediency, or out of fear of the misunderstanding of others, or the sheer seeming impossibility of our dreams.  I like Thoreau's saying on the plaque beneath the Native American Grandmothers.  I invite you to read it and ponder it in your own way.

      For years, I dreamed of being able to live in Sedona, and hike out into its beauty, as I hiked as a child in the Himalayas.  In seemingly impossible and wonderous ways, that dream has come true in my life.   Like my dream of becoming a minister.  And the mother of two sons and two daughters.   And travelling the world.  And publishing my own books.  And showing some of my art in galleries. And more.   I can surely attest that dreams do come true, and that they are a vital part of living the Divine Design of one's own unique life.  

  

Doggone It

     These days, for a few days,  John and I are dog-sitting for a couple friends of ours who are in Hawaii.   Our dog Leo stayed with them when we were in Michigan over Christmas, so Leo and their dog Maggie are buddies already.  They are both sweet,  lovable dogs, and they get along well.

    I think I look a bit bedraggled here.   Coping with two big dogs is not as easy as I expected.  This morning I thought I would perch on my meditation couch by the window overlooking the gorgeous scenery out back, sip a cup of coffee, read a bit from my newest interfaith book, and listen to some Buddhist chant Janelle brought me back from Nepal.    

     It seems the dogs had other ideas.   They both decided at once that meditating with me on the couch was a splendid idea, and they both jumped up and settled themselves on on top of me.  I really wouldn't have guessed those two big dogs would have both fit on my lap at once, but you can see by the picture John took that they were quite successful.   I gave up on my idea of sipping coffee and reading, and decided it was clear that my meditation was supposed to be DOG centered.  Which is GOD spelled backward.  Appropriate!  

    While I stroked them both and whispered now and then in their ears what good dogs they were, I joined them in the joy of just BEING in the moment, not thinking profound thoughts, just enjoying the love we were sharing.

    If I jumped in God's lap like that more often, and just soaked up Divine Love with the same relaxed spirit of trust and pleasure, I would probably have progressed spiritually a lot more.

I think I try too hard too often.   So with their inspiration, I will relax and enjoy God more, and think less, especially during times of meditation.

     I reflect now on how different the experience would have been if I resisted it,  shooed the dogs away, and persisted in following my plan.  I think I would have missed some precious, God/dog moments!   And I would, at least for a few moments, have felt the irritation that goes with resisting what is.  Needless suffering is what the sages call resisting what is happening in any given moment in my life.    Needless suffering.   Who needs it?  Why allow it? 

      I heard Matthew Fox, a favorite author of mine,  lecture years ago at Central Reformed Church, and he got a laugh when he said "My dog is my spiritual director."  

With a big smile, I say " Ditto!"

       

Spin Your Own Web

     This is a picture of a drum I painted with an image of Spider Woman surrounded by a rainbow.

Both are important in the mythology of southwest Native Americans.  Grand Mother Spider, as they call her,  is the Creator of the world, and she also takes a helping and supporting role, and sometimes a reproving role, in the legends of the Hopi, Navajo, and others.   She spins the web of being, and draws all creation out of herself.  

     There are ways we are like Grand Mother Spider.  We too, spin our own stories and lives.

They come out of our own being, our own consciousness.  There are those who say that everything that we might think is "out there" or "happened to us"  actually is of our own making.  That makes the blame game a little harder!

     "What tangled webs we mortals weave," says Shakespeare, and he has a point.   If only what we create in our lives always had the beauty, the symmetry, the strength, the skill of a spider web. I have often marveled at seeing one sparkling with dew-diamonds on the stairs going down to our cottage on the beach in Michigan.  When is the last time you really looked at a well-woven spider web?

       Of course, there's another side to its beauty.  Watch a bug caught in a web, struggling to escape, and being consumed by the spider that has been waiting for its prey.  And consider the times when perhaps you felt caught in someone else's web, or maybe someone got caught in yours.  Spin out for yourself what the elements of that web might be.....

      This drum was inspired by an experience at Morning Star Retreat center, where I sat in one of their delightful little log cabins one day and watched a spider make a web from start to finish.  At the end of that time, I had a song that came to me.  I can't sing the tune for you, but the words are written around the margins of the drum.  In case you can't deciper them, here they are:

Spin your own web, sister (or brother) dear,

Spin your own web, do not fear.

Never let yourself be caught

In another's should or ought.

Spin your own web, spin it now.

Spin your own web, you know how.

Other people's webs will be

Places where you can't be free.

I've been caught in more than one web not of my own making.  Maybe you have too.

It is too easy to get all tangled up in someone else's drama or design, and begin to feel one has to take on all their problems.   Those of us who have a strong helper streak are especially prone to this mistake.  Pretty soon, we find we no longer have a life of our own.  We're living in the webs of other people's needs and stories.  But if we don't live our own unique life's design, who will?  If we don't weave our own web of beliefs, choices, and action, we will most certainly get caught in those of others.  At this stage in my life, I think I am finally learning to spin my own web!

     

Recycling Words

     When you come into our main entrance,  you see these two terra cotta figurers, which are perched on our two recycle bins.   I got them at a local store called Mexidona, and they were labeled "The Whisperers."  I wonder what one of these maidens is whispering into the ears of the other.   Gossip is one obvious thing that comes to mind...something way too common, like old newspapers and bottles and cans.   Isn't it the case that most if not all of what we pass on to others is just recycled information, opinion, etc?   So much of what we talk about with others is "used".....it comes to us second or third hand, and then we pass it on.   

      Now recycling is a good thing, and that's why we have those bins.   We are grateful to live in a community that values recycling and the environment.   We like the thought that what we have used can be reused, recycled, and put to good use.   

     So here are the questions these figures pose for me:   Can the things you and I say to or about others be put to good use?  recycled in a positive way that is good for the spiritual welfare of the community and world?   Can our worries be recycled into positive action in behalf of whatever values we hold dear?  Can our complaints and criticisms be reformed into something useful and valuable to others, like empty cans and bottles are?   Can judgments be put into recycle bins in our mind, and come out as compassion?   If so, then we are helping create a better spiritual environment for everyone.   That's a lot better than "trashing" others, what's going on, or even ourselves.  

      As one wise teacher, Eric Butterworth, once said, "Let something good be said."  A friend of mine rephrased that as "Tell me something good."   He always said it with a big smile, and said it prevented a lot of "ain't it awful" conversations from continuing.   

     I am going to re-use those phrases a lot!   And I imagine those two young maidens in blue on  our recycle bins are whispering good things to pass on.   How about you?