After each show I send a survey to the co-host of the show so that I may get some insights regarding the show and for future shows. A co-host by the name of Gloria had suggested that I have a gentleman by the name of Santhan Naidoo who handled the “internet stuff” for her to co-host a show with me.
Gloria raved about this gentleman named Santhan, so I went for it and e-mailed him and asked him if he would be interested.
I wasn’t sure what he was going to bring to the table or insights he would offer because he wasn’t your typical “guru” that was out there.
The show we had a couple of months ago was simply amazing…I knew right after the show I was going to bring him back again for another show, and when “It’s your time for a phenomenal year in 2009” came up I knew he had to BE part of this series of shows.
He speaks form the Heart, his energy just seeps through the phone, and it is the energy of original innocence. The inspiration he provides comes from “All That Is" for our best and highest good.
He elevates others just by BEing him Self.
Here is his e-mail address: santhan@mojahmedia.net
Listen to the show on January 4th at 11am Pacific and hear how you can have a priceless gift of a 1 hr consultation with Santhan regarding your vision for your online presence.
Here is the link:
www.blogtalkradio.com/Ilumine-Ao
“It’s your time for a phenomenal year in 2009”
For OUR best and highest good, all ways... In every moment.
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
Continue the healing and empowerment... get "BEing The Titus Concept"
Here is the direct link to Amazon:
www.amazon.com/BEing-Titus-Concept-Al-Diaz/dp/1421890429/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228489952&sr=1-2
Showing posts with label heart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heart. Show all posts
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Thursday, May 1, 2008
An article filled with Wisdom from Yeh-Weh-Node -- "She Whose Voice Rides on the Four Winds"
This article may be a little long, but it is worth the read. Especially the paragraph about "Truth".
For our best and highest good, all ways...
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
All For One & One For All
by Margaret Wolff
...they could not dislodge the garrison which was within -- her serene, great heart and spirit, the guards and keepers of her mission. -- Mark Twain
IT WAS THREE days after I met with her that I realized Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch is a small woman. Her fathomless eyes, her great good humor and the magnitude of the peace that effortlessly flows from her heart convey a physical presence that reaches far beyond her diminutive frame. She is warm beyond measure, mercurial and deeply connected to the Earth.
Daughter of a Seneca mother and an Oneida/Scots father, Grandmother Twylah is a direct descendent of Chief Red Jacket, a renowned Seneca orator whose discourses are still studied by scholars today. The Seneca are one of the original members of the Five Nation Peace League known as the Iroquois Confederacy and are the acknowledged philosophers of the League. Seneca society is composed of various clans. Grandmother Twylah's clan, the Wolf Clan, teaches the wisdom, philosophy and prophecy of earth history, namely that all creatures -- all creation -- are members of the one family born of Mother Earth, and that our destiny is to reclaim that Oneness. Her family has been teaching the wisdom-traditions of the elders since the 1700's.
Born in 1913 on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in upstate New York, Gram, as she is often called, was raised by her grandparents, Medicine Man Moses Shongo and his wife Alice, and trained to become the Lineage Holder of Seneca wisdom and leader of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge. This role was prophesied before her birth and assumed after her grandfather's passing -- when she was just nine years old.
As a young woman, Gram worked for a time as a jazz musician, singing and playing the drums, and was once invited to sing with Jimmy Dorsey's hand. She married and raised five children. When she began to teach, Gram brought students into her home to live with her family and learn the ancient ways first-hand. As her work grew, she formed the Seneca Indian Historical Society, a school without walls, and began disseminating her teachings through a home study correspondence course and holding semi-annual councils and workshops around the world. True to her Seneca name of Yeh-Weh-Node -- "She Whose Voice Rides on the Four Winds" -- she has single-handedly spread her ancestral teachings to Australia, Africa, Holland, Germany, Poland, Canada, Isr'l, Russia, Japan, the British Isles, Italy and the United States. In April of 1999, she received the prestigious North American Living Treasures Award in recognition of her life's work.
I first heard about Gram from a friend who is a great admirer of her teachings. I knew little about her then, but something about her beckoned me, stirred pristine images within me of walking barefoot on the loamy trails of an ancient Redwood forest. I had a hard time finding her for she had recently moved from her home on the reservation to live with her son Bob, the future Lineage Holder of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge and the current President of the Seneca Indian Historical Society. Eventually, I contacted her publisher who forwarded my invitation to participate in this project on to her. Several weeks later, Bob phoned. They were preparing to leave for a European lecture tour, but he offered me one brief window of time to meet with Gram and I jumped at the chance. I made my travel arrangements that day and one month later, met with Gram, Bob, and Lee Clark, Bob's wife and the Society's Program Coordinator, at their home in Jacksonville, Florida.
Driving from the airport to Gram's modest ranch home in the neo-wilds of suburban Jacksonville, is no easy task. As a result of a car accident, I have immense difficulty with linear thinking and in perceiving spatial relationships. Though I have written out every step-by-minute-step of the drive, I cannot track even my own directions and must ask for help at least a dozen times en route. I talk to myself as if I am the little engine that could -- "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." -- and it helps, but the glue that holds me together, that actually keeps my frustration in check, is my heartfelt longing to be with Gram. This provides me with an important key to managing the impotence I feel whenever my cognitive dissymmetry will leave me geographically or mentally adrift: Now I know that staying in my heart, that connecting to someone or something that fills me with meaning and purpose, can propel me to the other side of oblivion.
I arrive at her front door relatively unscathed, take a deep breath, then climb out of the car. Bob greets me with a firm handshake and ushers me inside, past a desk piled high with educational materials, into the simply furnished living room, a room pulled together by a man who has little interest in material things beyond the practical necessities. He introduces me to Lee who welcomes me warmly, then excuses herself to get Gram. For a moment I blanch, wondering if there's some protocol I must follow when greeting a tribal elder, but my concern evaporates when Gram enters the room. Her long white hair is woven into two braids that sit on top of her head like a crown. Her face is weathered, etched by time. She wears a cardigan over a simple cotton dress and tennis shoes. Lee introduces us and Gram looks squarely at me with crystal-clear gray eyes. She opens her arms in an embrace, and I step inside. I feel as if I am a lost child come home.
We all chat for a few minutes about the tribulations of cross-country travel. Gram is surprised to learn that I came from California to talk with her "I can not imagine why anyone would want to come all that way just to talk with me," she says as she sits down on the couch. I settle in on the floor at her feet with my questions and recording equipment fanned out before me. Once I'm situated, I look up at her and smile. She returns my grin. Lee retreats into her office and Bob hunkers clown at his desk nearby. Gram and I talk for a few minutes about the fact that we are wearing the same tennis shoes. Then we go from the mundane to the sublime as I ask my first question:
All the great religious teachings presuppose that the everyday world and our individual consciousness are manifestations of an underlying Divine reality. The Hindus call it Brahmin, the Buddhists call it One Mind, the Christians call it The Kingdom of Heaven. What do you call it?
"The Seneca call it Swen-i-o, The Great Mystery. Great Mystery is everywhere. It has no one particular form or manifestation, no criteria or rules that limit or define it. It is present in all creation and is beyond matter. It is spiritual energy, spiritual intelligence, the original source and the creator of all life forms, of all existence. It is the essence of all things."
The word "mystery" intrigues me -- the implications of complexity and secrecy -- and I ask her to tell me more about this.
"When something is mysterious," she says, "there is an energy, a magnetism about it that draws you to it, that makes you want to know more about it. It propels you to ask questions, to explore and, hopefully, to learn. Eventually you understand that you can not grasp the totality of Great mystery, your Creator, with the small mind, with the logical, linear mind. Great Mystery can only be understood and remembered through the experience of Oneness:'
You said Great mystery has no one specific form. Does it manifest to each person in the way that most appeals to them?
"It can. It's very personal. Once Great Mystery nips you, you follow the way you are shown."
What kind of a relationship do you have with Great Mystery?
"It's an energy that lives within me constantly, It calls to me internally and prompts me to develop or expand specific information or insights for myself and for others. It talks to me through my mental processes, through my intuition and feelings, and through inner visions. Great Mystery both sends and receives -- it's a two-way street. I talk to Great Mystery all the time and Great Mystery responds."
She is quiet for a moment, then adds, "I once asked Great Mystery for more understanding about this way of communication and the answer I received was, 'We speak the universal language of love.' Hail-lo-way-an is the word Great Mystery used to describe it.
"Everyone has experiences of being inwardly guided like this," she says, "but most of us simply don't honor the information we're given. We say, 'Not now,' and let the guidance pass, because we do not want to take the time to enter the silence."
What is "entering the silence"?
"It's communion with your true nature in spirit, mind and body. When you enter the silence, you go through an inner portal into the unity of all life. The more you go into the silence, the more you learn about your true self and your capacity to function in society. You can't just say 'I want to go through the portal,' and off you go. You have to become receptive; your purpose and intention must be pure. That's why most of us don't go there. Initially, it takes work."
It sounds a little like meditation.
"Well, that depends on how you interpret meditation," she replies. "Going into the silence is listening within. I have a feeling that when some people meditate, they are busy concentrating on a process or they are daydreaming. They are doing instead of listening. I sometimes sit in a chair in a comfortable position when I go into the silence, but that's where any similarity to meditation ends.
"When I go into the silence. I have something specific I want to discuss with Great Mystery or with my Band Members, the friends and relatives in the spirit realm who serve as my teachers and guides. To go into the silence, you must first enter what the Seneca call your 'Sacred Space'."
What and where is your Sacred Space?
"Imagine a dot in the center of a circle that is located at the solar plexus. This dot represents what we call your Vibral Core, the home of your inner wisdom, balance and stability. A vertical line that starts just above the head and ends just below the feet dissects the Vibral Core. This is your Truth Line. Another line extends horizontally as far as the arms can reach on either side of the body and intersects the Truth Line also at the Vibral Core. This line represents your Earthpath. The endpoints of the Truth Line and the Earthpath rest on the circumference of a circle. Inside that circle is your Sacred Space."
I close my eyes and visualize what Gram has just described. When I open my eyes again, she is smiling at me.
"In the North, at the twelve o'clock position of the circle, rests your wisdom; in the East, at the three o'clock position, rests your integrity; in the South, at the six o'clock position, rests your stability; and in the West, at the nine o'clock position, rests your dignity. When anything negative enters your Sacred Space -- such as an inharmonious thought or a disagreeable person -- it disrupts your peace and harmony. You become unbalanced and things begin to get difficult. The only way to restore harmony is to act with wisdom, integrity, stability and dignity."
Wisdom. Integrity. Stability. Dignity. I take these words in each time I edit this piece, breathe them into me so that I can move them beyond the ideational realm and make them a part of how I operate in the world. I ask myself: What do these qualities now look like in my life? How can I develop them more fully? How do they relate to each other? To my needs and my desires? I see this questioning as being integral to living my life with more effectiveness and meaning. Gram explains why this is so.
"If you continue to avoid Truth Within, your difficulty lasts longer and hurts more because it also affects Love Within and Peace Within. Eventually, your pain compels you to grab hold of the Truth you tossed aside so you can integrate it into your life and remember the experience of Oneness with all creation that is locked inside your Vibral Core at birth. Hopefully, this experience will provide you with the understanding that prevents you from making the same mistake over again. But you will continue to learn through opposites until you remember that you are a part of the unity of all life."
Learn through opposites?
"Yes. You confront the opposite of Truth so that you can learn Truth."
Oh, yes, I say, and roll my eyes, for I have ample experience of my own opposites. I have learned to be more honest with myself, to be more proactive, to take time for personal renewal -- the list is endless -- as a result of an intimate communion with the silver-tongued converse of each of these behaviors.
Gram looks at me with a twinkle in her eye as I say this and chuckles. In your book, Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours, you wrote about the fallout that occurs when we lose that deeper connection to Truth and have to learn through opposites, how we "... unconsciously project our sense of separation from the unity of all life out onto the world and see it as broken." In the heat of battle, most of us rail against the opposition -- whomever or whatever is outside of us -- rather than try to reconnect with our inner Truth.
"Yes. Once the bonds of Love Within are broken and you begin to operate outside of your Sacred Space, you forget that you and all of life are a part of Great Mystery and that Great Mystery loves all creatures equally and unconditionally. When you are no longer aware of your true nature, you feel threatened by anyone or anything that is different from you; so, in an attempt to restore your own balance, you make others wrong or the world broken.
"When something inside us needs work, most people generally don't take the time to look at it honestly or deeply enough because, initially it can be a painful exploration. So we hang onto false beliefs, false patterns of self-knowledge because they keep us from making important inner changes or we try to 'fix' others rather than make things right within ourselves.
"Truth Within is sacred. It's whole. It's a positive energy that unifies and feeds the body and the mind. It helps you digest your food, digest your lessons and move through your Earthwalk in a focused and positive manner."
Truth Within is like soul food.
"That's right. And when you live Truth Within, your challenges do not affect you as deeply."
Is Truth Within the same for everyone?
"We each have an individual truth that relates to our gifts, our willingness to develop our gifts, the time and environment were born into, and so on. There's also a Uniworld Truth, a Whole Truth, derived from our oneness with Great Mystery that is the same for everyone. We have to live in accordance with both aspects of Truth to maintain our inner balance. If we don't, that imbalance becomes the part of you others will notice most."
It's also the part of myself I notice most. And, if I'm not living my Truth, I can't be of real service to myself or to others.
"If you really want to help others, be an example," she counsels. "A good example is the best teacher. Others admire you and want to be like you. They sense your inner comfort and want that for themselves."
She leans toward me and says. "It's like this: If you wear a sharp outfit that makes you feel good, yet you can't maintain that comfort and wholeness when you take off the outfit -- or no matter what else you put on -- you've got a problem. Your outside image doesn't ring true. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of people today who feel whole."
I think, these days, more people are working at it though. Sometimes we've got it together, and sometimes we don't.
"That's part of the growth process. We learn in increments because we can take in and hold just so much at one time. Attempting to remain in your truth is better than not trying at all. The main thing is to be open to learning and to learn with a humble attitude. Seek more than immediate or exterior comfort. Be true to yourself. When it's time for you to learn more, Truth is there for the asking. It's always with you. Unity is always with you. All you have to do is recognize it."
What blocks our recognition of Truth and Unity?
"Not knowing Who you really are and not understanding your connection to Great Mystery. Not knowing limits you; it compels you to look to the small mind to sort things out. We know there's 'something more,' we hunger for it, but we haven't the remotest idea what 'more' really is! In our ignorance, we create exhaustion, fear or intentional busyness or we passively let others tell us what to do just so we can have something to use as an excuse for why we're not happy. Once you get distracted and pulled off-center like this, you see only the periphery of Truth. The energy required to navigate through this illusion is immense, often more than we can muster. But the process can be simplified through prayer and willingness to follow Great Mystery's guidance."
She smiles at me and I get the sense that she knows that I am both fierce about my own growth and looking for answers to questions I have not yet named. I am not at all intimidated by this. She is so comfortable to be around, so safe, that I'm happy to let her in. She may see parts of me that aren't particularly attractive, but I intuitively know this doesn't matter to her. She looks out at me, out at the world, from some cavernous core not molded by theory or opinion -- or judgment. I notice how internally quiet I have become just by sitting with her, and I rest for a moment in the Quiet.
Something else I read in her book floats up to the surface of my mind -- her belief that all creatures are Relations, members of one planetary family. Humans, she wrote, are the only Relation unaware of this familial relationship. The animals, the trees, the stones, and so on, have all chosen to endure the harshness of mankind's delusion of separate existence until we remember our unity with all life and can then, all return to Great Mystery together. I tell her how moved I am by the compassion, the patience, of creatures we consider to be "less than."
"The sun and moon, the earth and sky are our family;" she says. "The Earth is our Mother, the sky is our Father. It's Grandfather Sun. Grandmother Moon. White society doesn't feel this connection the way Native people do. They walk the Earth, they eat Her food and drink Her water, they even love Her trees and mountains, but they don't feel their natural bond with the Earth.
"Humans have become pushy and egocentric. We do not know that all life is interdependent. Our other Relations can wait until we remember this Truth because they know that within the challenge of separation, lies the promise of equality and unity."
As I begin to grab hold of these words, Lee emerges from the inner sanctum of her office and suggests we break for lunch. I look at my watch and am surprised to see that three hours have passed. Ten minutes later, the four of us are sitting on stools around the breakfast counter holding hands, each offering Great Mystery our gratitude for something the day has brought. I listen to their effortless words of thanksgiving and when my turn comes, I give thanks for being able to share this day with them. I do not feel as if I am a guest in their home; rather I am a Relation, a member of the family.
The salad Lee prepares is delicious and we laugh and talk as we eat. Lee and Bob giggle as they try to piece together a wonderful story about Gram's visit from the Dali Lama. I get the full report several months later from a student of Gram's who witnessed the event.
It goes like this: During the winter months of 1991, the Dali Lama and an entourage of Buddhist monks visited Gram for two days at her home on the reservation. She often received guests, people from all walks of life, who came to learn more about her teachings and enjoy her warm hospitality. The two spiritual leaders spent many hours in deep conversation about the state of international affairs and exchanged thoughts on their shared desire for world peace. As was her custom, Gram also invited the Dali Lama to visit the twelve-sided Wolf Clan Lodge building located a short distance from her home.
The two elders walked slowly, arm-in-arm, along the ice and snow-covered path to the Lodge, with members of the Dali Lama's party and the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge following at a respectful distance. Then, without warning, Gram and the Dali Lama slid on a patch of ice, lost their balance and fell, in Gram's words, "butt over tea kettle" on their hacks into the snow. For a few brief moments, no one breathed. Horrified monks and Wolf Clan members engaged in a mad scramble to assist their leaders, but Gram and the Dali Lama just turned to each other and burst out laughing. Then, like two mischievous school children, they each gathered a lump of snow in their hands and initiated a snowball fight. From the little I know of Gram, it is not at all difficult me to picture the event in my head.
After lunch, Gram meanders hack to the couch and I resume my place on the floor. The tape starts to roll as I ask her if there's one precept, a sort of "Golden Rule" she follows, that guides or inspires her.
"My Grandfather taught me to follow the Twelve Cycles of Truth and the pathways of Peace to preserve my wholeness and help me walk in balance and fullfil my life's mission. They are: learn the Truth, honor the Truth, know the Truth, see the Truth, hear the Truth, speak the Truth, love the Truth, serve the Truth, live the Truth, work the Truth, share the Truth and be thankful for the Truth. The Pathway of Peace is living in harmony with this ancient philosophy."
So, if you live in harmony with these cycles, you fulfill your life's mission?
"You fulfill your Earthwalk, your Pathway to Peace, the personal pattern that guides you toward wholeness. Each person must develop their dreams and discipline themselves to achieve what they desire for their life in a way that satisfies Truth Within."
What is your Earthwalk?
Gram looks over at Bob, who is, by now, back at his desk, and chuckles. "Well, my Earthwalk is just about over," she says. "At this time in my life, I'm happy to sit back and take it easy. But when I was a young girl, my elders told me I would carry on the work of my Grandfather Moses Shongo to spread our teachings and help others understand their connection to the earth. My Grandparents also told me I would experience certain disabilities when I grew older that would help me learn how to carry out the work and better understand others. This too, has been part of my Earthwalk. I was crippled to teach me about perseverance, positive thinking and faith in Great Mystery's plan. I was blind to learn to perceive more than what my outer eyes could see and be more sensitive to the energy of others. And I was deaf so I could become aware of a deeper vibration and rhythm of life that extends beyond my sense of hearing."
I make a presumption and say. "Those must have been difficult times." But Gram is on a totally different wave length.
"Actually, they were wonderful times! My elders also told me I would fully recover from these challenges, but I had to do my part and be willing to grow through them. I never lapsed into 'Poor me."
Did you ever have periods of doubt?
"Never."
Lack of faith?
"Never"
No "dark night of the soul"?
"No. Never"
That's amazing! What do you attribute this to?
"To these teachings. Everything that happened to me was just like going to school. Even when I couldn't hear or see, I didn't feel disappointed. I felt like I was being gifted because of what I was learning through the experience.
"When I was a child my elders taught me it was up to me to make myself happy each day, and when I go to bed each night, I should thank Great Mystery for my happiness. Most people don't take responsibility for their own happiness -- it doesn't even enter their heads to do this! And at the end of the day, they're not grateful for the good things that happen to them."
Were your Grandparents your mentors?
"They were my examples. My grandparents raised me before I went off to boarding school. My grandfather was a Seneca Indian Medicine Man. He was always in the woods looking for herbs, and I learned from him how to live in harmony with Nature. Our kitchen constantly smelled like a 'medicine factory,' as he called it. He was a brilliant man. All the doctors in the community were his friends. Sometimes they would send him patients who didn't respond to their medicine. My grandmother was a very quiet person, but when she spoke, her words were packed with meaning.
"Our house was always full of people. My grandparents knew how to make everyone feel comfortable with who they were. I often heard them tell people, 'You were born with these gifts so use them. They showed me how to listen and pay attention to others and to be aware of what was going on around me. They also taught me that I was worthy of having my own ideas and that the answers to my problems lay inside me."
After your Grandfather died, you assumed the responsibility for carrying on his teachings. You were just a young girl at that time. Did you feel prepared for this?
"His passing was a devastating loss to me, but he had been preparing me for this role all my life -- by his example, in everything we did together and in the ancient stories he told me. In our tradition, wisdom is passed on orally. Those who tell the stories are called the Wisdom Keepers or the Storytellers. They are chosen for their ability to listen and speak, so that the people can he sure our wisdom is passed on correctly. That role, like the stories themselves, is passed on from generation to generation. When I die, my son Bob will become the Wisdom Keeper. I have prepared him in the same way my Grandfather prepared me."
What advice, would you give to others seeking to live a more spiritual life?
"Be kind. Do nice things for others; speak kindly about others. If someone does something nice for you, be grateful. Say 'Thank you: Be grateful for every day. Be grateful for waking up. Be grateful for being able to breathe.
"You know," she says, after a moment's pause, "gratitude is actually based on love, and nothing is more powerful than love. It's lack of love, or the misuse of love, that causes many of the problems we have today. People don't appreciate what they have. They don't love and respect themselves or each other. They take without giving anything back. They hide their elders -- the ones who have the most life experience and can be most helpful in guiding them -- in old folks' homes to get them out of the way. No wonder people today are so confused! No wonder people are not happy!
"In order to be happy, you need to develop and share your inner love. That's how it grows. If you're not sharing what you have with others -- your gifts and abilities as well as your material possessions -- if you're not helping others to grow, if you're not a teacher or an example, you're a user. Users don't honor what they have. They don't know how to take care of things so they can be perpetuated. Madison Avenue steps in and tells us to 'Have it your way,' so we push for more. Once we get what we want, we devour it until it's gone. There's no happiness in that," Gram declares and shakes her head.
"Happiness -- inner happiness -- is the goal of life. Most people can't even look at themselves in the mirror and smile! If someone comes to me and tells me they're unhappy, I tell them to examine their feelings and figure out what their limitations are and deal with them! You may have a nice house, a nice car, a good job and make $100,000 a year, but if you have all that stuff and you're still unhappy, you have to ask yourself, "What's wrong with this picture?""
She doesn't mince words. The real question then, I say to her, is how do you foster self-love?
"You have to nourish self-love all the time. If your parents or husband didn't give you the love you wanted, you have to give it to yourself. If something throws you into a slump, look at it right in the eye. Figure out what you didn't see about yourself that allowed that slump to happen, then change it. After all, we live in a do-it-yourself world!" She chuckles once again.
Looking back over your lifetime, what do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
"I really don't know how to answer that. If you were to ask me about my greatest experience, I would say being married and raising my five children. But 'accomplishment' ... I don't know."
She looks at Bob for a way into this question. They talk about this for a while and then she realizes why the question is so difficult for her to answer. "You see, Seneca people gauge accomplishment by where we are on our Earthwalk, how we've developed our natural potentials and shared our gifts. Our elders know we're ready to move forward by the questions we ask. There is no criticism or praise, there is only movement through the labyrinth of experience until we remember Who we really are. A bear wakes up in the morning knowing who he is and what he must do each day. He doesn't 'accomplish,' he just lives in harmony with Great Mystery. This is true for us as well."
OK, I think to myself. Be bear-like: know who I am -- part of the Oneness of all life -- and live in harmony with Great Mystery. It's a good thought to hold on to when I get sucked into the vortex of my To Do list.
When your Earthwalk ends, how would you like to he remembered?
"For greeting people with a smile and for spreading the Seneca Peacemakers' message of 'All for One and One for All'. When you feel your oneness with all life, you carry that with you everywhere you go. You feel centered. Then whatever you do helps others; it unifies life. I believe in these words and honor them by how I live my life. It's really as simple as that."
I look at Gram and smile. Is there anything we didn't cover? Anything else you want to add?
"No," she says. "It's been nice."
It's been nice for me, too. More than nice. I try to thank her but I cannot find the words.
Bob tells me, with an impish smile on his face, how someone once told him that when you don't know what to say, you can always ask the other person if their shoes fit right. We all laugh.
Gram, do your shoes fit right?
"When my stockings don't get all hunched up," she says, and we howl. As I pack up my gear, Bob suggests I listen to the tapes I made of my conversation with Gram to see if anything needs clarification. He invites me to come back the next day to pull together any loose ends. I've so enjoyed being with them, it's an offer I can't refuse. Before I leave, Gram takes me into her room and gives me a "wish pouch" she knitted, a small apple green-colored sack she tells me to fill with my wishes for my life. She walks with me to the door. Gram and Lee hug me good-bye and I drive off to a nearby hotel to spend the night.
That evening, I listen to the tapes and come up with a few questions to ask Gram -- not really enough to warrant another visit, but I'm so glad to have the opportunity to sit at their table again, to hold hands and express my gratitude at being a part of their sweet family, that I return for a few hours the next morning. At noon, I pack up my gear, and Gram and Lee walk me to the front door and hug me goodbye for the last time. Though I know I can call up the comfort I have felt here whenever I think of her, I am reluctant to leave. Gram smiles at me and gives me one last gentle word of counsel: "Remember the Peacemakers' message: All for One and One for All."
I nod and return her smile. My voice catches in my throat as I say goodbye, then I turn and walk out the door.
Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html
For our best and highest good, all ways...
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
All For One & One For All
by Margaret Wolff
...they could not dislodge the garrison which was within -- her serene, great heart and spirit, the guards and keepers of her mission. -- Mark Twain
IT WAS THREE days after I met with her that I realized Grandmother Twylah Hurd Nitsch is a small woman. Her fathomless eyes, her great good humor and the magnitude of the peace that effortlessly flows from her heart convey a physical presence that reaches far beyond her diminutive frame. She is warm beyond measure, mercurial and deeply connected to the Earth.
Daughter of a Seneca mother and an Oneida/Scots father, Grandmother Twylah is a direct descendent of Chief Red Jacket, a renowned Seneca orator whose discourses are still studied by scholars today. The Seneca are one of the original members of the Five Nation Peace League known as the Iroquois Confederacy and are the acknowledged philosophers of the League. Seneca society is composed of various clans. Grandmother Twylah's clan, the Wolf Clan, teaches the wisdom, philosophy and prophecy of earth history, namely that all creatures -- all creation -- are members of the one family born of Mother Earth, and that our destiny is to reclaim that Oneness. Her family has been teaching the wisdom-traditions of the elders since the 1700's.
Born in 1913 on the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in upstate New York, Gram, as she is often called, was raised by her grandparents, Medicine Man Moses Shongo and his wife Alice, and trained to become the Lineage Holder of Seneca wisdom and leader of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge. This role was prophesied before her birth and assumed after her grandfather's passing -- when she was just nine years old.
As a young woman, Gram worked for a time as a jazz musician, singing and playing the drums, and was once invited to sing with Jimmy Dorsey's hand. She married and raised five children. When she began to teach, Gram brought students into her home to live with her family and learn the ancient ways first-hand. As her work grew, she formed the Seneca Indian Historical Society, a school without walls, and began disseminating her teachings through a home study correspondence course and holding semi-annual councils and workshops around the world. True to her Seneca name of Yeh-Weh-Node -- "She Whose Voice Rides on the Four Winds" -- she has single-handedly spread her ancestral teachings to Australia, Africa, Holland, Germany, Poland, Canada, Isr'l, Russia, Japan, the British Isles, Italy and the United States. In April of 1999, she received the prestigious North American Living Treasures Award in recognition of her life's work.
I first heard about Gram from a friend who is a great admirer of her teachings. I knew little about her then, but something about her beckoned me, stirred pristine images within me of walking barefoot on the loamy trails of an ancient Redwood forest. I had a hard time finding her for she had recently moved from her home on the reservation to live with her son Bob, the future Lineage Holder of the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge and the current President of the Seneca Indian Historical Society. Eventually, I contacted her publisher who forwarded my invitation to participate in this project on to her. Several weeks later, Bob phoned. They were preparing to leave for a European lecture tour, but he offered me one brief window of time to meet with Gram and I jumped at the chance. I made my travel arrangements that day and one month later, met with Gram, Bob, and Lee Clark, Bob's wife and the Society's Program Coordinator, at their home in Jacksonville, Florida.
Driving from the airport to Gram's modest ranch home in the neo-wilds of suburban Jacksonville, is no easy task. As a result of a car accident, I have immense difficulty with linear thinking and in perceiving spatial relationships. Though I have written out every step-by-minute-step of the drive, I cannot track even my own directions and must ask for help at least a dozen times en route. I talk to myself as if I am the little engine that could -- "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." -- and it helps, but the glue that holds me together, that actually keeps my frustration in check, is my heartfelt longing to be with Gram. This provides me with an important key to managing the impotence I feel whenever my cognitive dissymmetry will leave me geographically or mentally adrift: Now I know that staying in my heart, that connecting to someone or something that fills me with meaning and purpose, can propel me to the other side of oblivion.
I arrive at her front door relatively unscathed, take a deep breath, then climb out of the car. Bob greets me with a firm handshake and ushers me inside, past a desk piled high with educational materials, into the simply furnished living room, a room pulled together by a man who has little interest in material things beyond the practical necessities. He introduces me to Lee who welcomes me warmly, then excuses herself to get Gram. For a moment I blanch, wondering if there's some protocol I must follow when greeting a tribal elder, but my concern evaporates when Gram enters the room. Her long white hair is woven into two braids that sit on top of her head like a crown. Her face is weathered, etched by time. She wears a cardigan over a simple cotton dress and tennis shoes. Lee introduces us and Gram looks squarely at me with crystal-clear gray eyes. She opens her arms in an embrace, and I step inside. I feel as if I am a lost child come home.
We all chat for a few minutes about the tribulations of cross-country travel. Gram is surprised to learn that I came from California to talk with her "I can not imagine why anyone would want to come all that way just to talk with me," she says as she sits down on the couch. I settle in on the floor at her feet with my questions and recording equipment fanned out before me. Once I'm situated, I look up at her and smile. She returns my grin. Lee retreats into her office and Bob hunkers clown at his desk nearby. Gram and I talk for a few minutes about the fact that we are wearing the same tennis shoes. Then we go from the mundane to the sublime as I ask my first question:
All the great religious teachings presuppose that the everyday world and our individual consciousness are manifestations of an underlying Divine reality. The Hindus call it Brahmin, the Buddhists call it One Mind, the Christians call it The Kingdom of Heaven. What do you call it?
"The Seneca call it Swen-i-o, The Great Mystery. Great Mystery is everywhere. It has no one particular form or manifestation, no criteria or rules that limit or define it. It is present in all creation and is beyond matter. It is spiritual energy, spiritual intelligence, the original source and the creator of all life forms, of all existence. It is the essence of all things."
The word "mystery" intrigues me -- the implications of complexity and secrecy -- and I ask her to tell me more about this.
"When something is mysterious," she says, "there is an energy, a magnetism about it that draws you to it, that makes you want to know more about it. It propels you to ask questions, to explore and, hopefully, to learn. Eventually you understand that you can not grasp the totality of Great mystery, your Creator, with the small mind, with the logical, linear mind. Great Mystery can only be understood and remembered through the experience of Oneness:'
You said Great mystery has no one specific form. Does it manifest to each person in the way that most appeals to them?
"It can. It's very personal. Once Great Mystery nips you, you follow the way you are shown."
What kind of a relationship do you have with Great Mystery?
"It's an energy that lives within me constantly, It calls to me internally and prompts me to develop or expand specific information or insights for myself and for others. It talks to me through my mental processes, through my intuition and feelings, and through inner visions. Great Mystery both sends and receives -- it's a two-way street. I talk to Great Mystery all the time and Great Mystery responds."
She is quiet for a moment, then adds, "I once asked Great Mystery for more understanding about this way of communication and the answer I received was, 'We speak the universal language of love.' Hail-lo-way-an is the word Great Mystery used to describe it.
"Everyone has experiences of being inwardly guided like this," she says, "but most of us simply don't honor the information we're given. We say, 'Not now,' and let the guidance pass, because we do not want to take the time to enter the silence."
What is "entering the silence"?
"It's communion with your true nature in spirit, mind and body. When you enter the silence, you go through an inner portal into the unity of all life. The more you go into the silence, the more you learn about your true self and your capacity to function in society. You can't just say 'I want to go through the portal,' and off you go. You have to become receptive; your purpose and intention must be pure. That's why most of us don't go there. Initially, it takes work."
It sounds a little like meditation.
"Well, that depends on how you interpret meditation," she replies. "Going into the silence is listening within. I have a feeling that when some people meditate, they are busy concentrating on a process or they are daydreaming. They are doing instead of listening. I sometimes sit in a chair in a comfortable position when I go into the silence, but that's where any similarity to meditation ends.
"When I go into the silence. I have something specific I want to discuss with Great Mystery or with my Band Members, the friends and relatives in the spirit realm who serve as my teachers and guides. To go into the silence, you must first enter what the Seneca call your 'Sacred Space'."
What and where is your Sacred Space?
"Imagine a dot in the center of a circle that is located at the solar plexus. This dot represents what we call your Vibral Core, the home of your inner wisdom, balance and stability. A vertical line that starts just above the head and ends just below the feet dissects the Vibral Core. This is your Truth Line. Another line extends horizontally as far as the arms can reach on either side of the body and intersects the Truth Line also at the Vibral Core. This line represents your Earthpath. The endpoints of the Truth Line and the Earthpath rest on the circumference of a circle. Inside that circle is your Sacred Space."
I close my eyes and visualize what Gram has just described. When I open my eyes again, she is smiling at me.
"In the North, at the twelve o'clock position of the circle, rests your wisdom; in the East, at the three o'clock position, rests your integrity; in the South, at the six o'clock position, rests your stability; and in the West, at the nine o'clock position, rests your dignity. When anything negative enters your Sacred Space -- such as an inharmonious thought or a disagreeable person -- it disrupts your peace and harmony. You become unbalanced and things begin to get difficult. The only way to restore harmony is to act with wisdom, integrity, stability and dignity."
Wisdom. Integrity. Stability. Dignity. I take these words in each time I edit this piece, breathe them into me so that I can move them beyond the ideational realm and make them a part of how I operate in the world. I ask myself: What do these qualities now look like in my life? How can I develop them more fully? How do they relate to each other? To my needs and my desires? I see this questioning as being integral to living my life with more effectiveness and meaning. Gram explains why this is so.
"If you continue to avoid Truth Within, your difficulty lasts longer and hurts more because it also affects Love Within and Peace Within. Eventually, your pain compels you to grab hold of the Truth you tossed aside so you can integrate it into your life and remember the experience of Oneness with all creation that is locked inside your Vibral Core at birth. Hopefully, this experience will provide you with the understanding that prevents you from making the same mistake over again. But you will continue to learn through opposites until you remember that you are a part of the unity of all life."
Learn through opposites?
"Yes. You confront the opposite of Truth so that you can learn Truth."
Oh, yes, I say, and roll my eyes, for I have ample experience of my own opposites. I have learned to be more honest with myself, to be more proactive, to take time for personal renewal -- the list is endless -- as a result of an intimate communion with the silver-tongued converse of each of these behaviors.
Gram looks at me with a twinkle in her eye as I say this and chuckles. In your book, Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours, you wrote about the fallout that occurs when we lose that deeper connection to Truth and have to learn through opposites, how we "... unconsciously project our sense of separation from the unity of all life out onto the world and see it as broken." In the heat of battle, most of us rail against the opposition -- whomever or whatever is outside of us -- rather than try to reconnect with our inner Truth.
"Yes. Once the bonds of Love Within are broken and you begin to operate outside of your Sacred Space, you forget that you and all of life are a part of Great Mystery and that Great Mystery loves all creatures equally and unconditionally. When you are no longer aware of your true nature, you feel threatened by anyone or anything that is different from you; so, in an attempt to restore your own balance, you make others wrong or the world broken.
"When something inside us needs work, most people generally don't take the time to look at it honestly or deeply enough because, initially it can be a painful exploration. So we hang onto false beliefs, false patterns of self-knowledge because they keep us from making important inner changes or we try to 'fix' others rather than make things right within ourselves.
"Truth Within is sacred. It's whole. It's a positive energy that unifies and feeds the body and the mind. It helps you digest your food, digest your lessons and move through your Earthwalk in a focused and positive manner."
Truth Within is like soul food.
"That's right. And when you live Truth Within, your challenges do not affect you as deeply."
Is Truth Within the same for everyone?
"We each have an individual truth that relates to our gifts, our willingness to develop our gifts, the time and environment were born into, and so on. There's also a Uniworld Truth, a Whole Truth, derived from our oneness with Great Mystery that is the same for everyone. We have to live in accordance with both aspects of Truth to maintain our inner balance. If we don't, that imbalance becomes the part of you others will notice most."
It's also the part of myself I notice most. And, if I'm not living my Truth, I can't be of real service to myself or to others.
"If you really want to help others, be an example," she counsels. "A good example is the best teacher. Others admire you and want to be like you. They sense your inner comfort and want that for themselves."
She leans toward me and says. "It's like this: If you wear a sharp outfit that makes you feel good, yet you can't maintain that comfort and wholeness when you take off the outfit -- or no matter what else you put on -- you've got a problem. Your outside image doesn't ring true. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of people today who feel whole."
I think, these days, more people are working at it though. Sometimes we've got it together, and sometimes we don't.
"That's part of the growth process. We learn in increments because we can take in and hold just so much at one time. Attempting to remain in your truth is better than not trying at all. The main thing is to be open to learning and to learn with a humble attitude. Seek more than immediate or exterior comfort. Be true to yourself. When it's time for you to learn more, Truth is there for the asking. It's always with you. Unity is always with you. All you have to do is recognize it."
What blocks our recognition of Truth and Unity?
"Not knowing Who you really are and not understanding your connection to Great Mystery. Not knowing limits you; it compels you to look to the small mind to sort things out. We know there's 'something more,' we hunger for it, but we haven't the remotest idea what 'more' really is! In our ignorance, we create exhaustion, fear or intentional busyness or we passively let others tell us what to do just so we can have something to use as an excuse for why we're not happy. Once you get distracted and pulled off-center like this, you see only the periphery of Truth. The energy required to navigate through this illusion is immense, often more than we can muster. But the process can be simplified through prayer and willingness to follow Great Mystery's guidance."
She smiles at me and I get the sense that she knows that I am both fierce about my own growth and looking for answers to questions I have not yet named. I am not at all intimidated by this. She is so comfortable to be around, so safe, that I'm happy to let her in. She may see parts of me that aren't particularly attractive, but I intuitively know this doesn't matter to her. She looks out at me, out at the world, from some cavernous core not molded by theory or opinion -- or judgment. I notice how internally quiet I have become just by sitting with her, and I rest for a moment in the Quiet.
Something else I read in her book floats up to the surface of my mind -- her belief that all creatures are Relations, members of one planetary family. Humans, she wrote, are the only Relation unaware of this familial relationship. The animals, the trees, the stones, and so on, have all chosen to endure the harshness of mankind's delusion of separate existence until we remember our unity with all life and can then, all return to Great Mystery together. I tell her how moved I am by the compassion, the patience, of creatures we consider to be "less than."
"The sun and moon, the earth and sky are our family;" she says. "The Earth is our Mother, the sky is our Father. It's Grandfather Sun. Grandmother Moon. White society doesn't feel this connection the way Native people do. They walk the Earth, they eat Her food and drink Her water, they even love Her trees and mountains, but they don't feel their natural bond with the Earth.
"Humans have become pushy and egocentric. We do not know that all life is interdependent. Our other Relations can wait until we remember this Truth because they know that within the challenge of separation, lies the promise of equality and unity."
As I begin to grab hold of these words, Lee emerges from the inner sanctum of her office and suggests we break for lunch. I look at my watch and am surprised to see that three hours have passed. Ten minutes later, the four of us are sitting on stools around the breakfast counter holding hands, each offering Great Mystery our gratitude for something the day has brought. I listen to their effortless words of thanksgiving and when my turn comes, I give thanks for being able to share this day with them. I do not feel as if I am a guest in their home; rather I am a Relation, a member of the family.
The salad Lee prepares is delicious and we laugh and talk as we eat. Lee and Bob giggle as they try to piece together a wonderful story about Gram's visit from the Dali Lama. I get the full report several months later from a student of Gram's who witnessed the event.
It goes like this: During the winter months of 1991, the Dali Lama and an entourage of Buddhist monks visited Gram for two days at her home on the reservation. She often received guests, people from all walks of life, who came to learn more about her teachings and enjoy her warm hospitality. The two spiritual leaders spent many hours in deep conversation about the state of international affairs and exchanged thoughts on their shared desire for world peace. As was her custom, Gram also invited the Dali Lama to visit the twelve-sided Wolf Clan Lodge building located a short distance from her home.
The two elders walked slowly, arm-in-arm, along the ice and snow-covered path to the Lodge, with members of the Dali Lama's party and the Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge following at a respectful distance. Then, without warning, Gram and the Dali Lama slid on a patch of ice, lost their balance and fell, in Gram's words, "butt over tea kettle" on their hacks into the snow. For a few brief moments, no one breathed. Horrified monks and Wolf Clan members engaged in a mad scramble to assist their leaders, but Gram and the Dali Lama just turned to each other and burst out laughing. Then, like two mischievous school children, they each gathered a lump of snow in their hands and initiated a snowball fight. From the little I know of Gram, it is not at all difficult me to picture the event in my head.
After lunch, Gram meanders hack to the couch and I resume my place on the floor. The tape starts to roll as I ask her if there's one precept, a sort of "Golden Rule" she follows, that guides or inspires her.
"My Grandfather taught me to follow the Twelve Cycles of Truth and the pathways of Peace to preserve my wholeness and help me walk in balance and fullfil my life's mission. They are: learn the Truth, honor the Truth, know the Truth, see the Truth, hear the Truth, speak the Truth, love the Truth, serve the Truth, live the Truth, work the Truth, share the Truth and be thankful for the Truth. The Pathway of Peace is living in harmony with this ancient philosophy."
So, if you live in harmony with these cycles, you fulfill your life's mission?
"You fulfill your Earthwalk, your Pathway to Peace, the personal pattern that guides you toward wholeness. Each person must develop their dreams and discipline themselves to achieve what they desire for their life in a way that satisfies Truth Within."
What is your Earthwalk?
Gram looks over at Bob, who is, by now, back at his desk, and chuckles. "Well, my Earthwalk is just about over," she says. "At this time in my life, I'm happy to sit back and take it easy. But when I was a young girl, my elders told me I would carry on the work of my Grandfather Moses Shongo to spread our teachings and help others understand their connection to the earth. My Grandparents also told me I would experience certain disabilities when I grew older that would help me learn how to carry out the work and better understand others. This too, has been part of my Earthwalk. I was crippled to teach me about perseverance, positive thinking and faith in Great Mystery's plan. I was blind to learn to perceive more than what my outer eyes could see and be more sensitive to the energy of others. And I was deaf so I could become aware of a deeper vibration and rhythm of life that extends beyond my sense of hearing."
I make a presumption and say. "Those must have been difficult times." But Gram is on a totally different wave length.
"Actually, they were wonderful times! My elders also told me I would fully recover from these challenges, but I had to do my part and be willing to grow through them. I never lapsed into 'Poor me."
Did you ever have periods of doubt?
"Never."
Lack of faith?
"Never"
No "dark night of the soul"?
"No. Never"
That's amazing! What do you attribute this to?
"To these teachings. Everything that happened to me was just like going to school. Even when I couldn't hear or see, I didn't feel disappointed. I felt like I was being gifted because of what I was learning through the experience.
"When I was a child my elders taught me it was up to me to make myself happy each day, and when I go to bed each night, I should thank Great Mystery for my happiness. Most people don't take responsibility for their own happiness -- it doesn't even enter their heads to do this! And at the end of the day, they're not grateful for the good things that happen to them."
Were your Grandparents your mentors?
"They were my examples. My grandparents raised me before I went off to boarding school. My grandfather was a Seneca Indian Medicine Man. He was always in the woods looking for herbs, and I learned from him how to live in harmony with Nature. Our kitchen constantly smelled like a 'medicine factory,' as he called it. He was a brilliant man. All the doctors in the community were his friends. Sometimes they would send him patients who didn't respond to their medicine. My grandmother was a very quiet person, but when she spoke, her words were packed with meaning.
"Our house was always full of people. My grandparents knew how to make everyone feel comfortable with who they were. I often heard them tell people, 'You were born with these gifts so use them. They showed me how to listen and pay attention to others and to be aware of what was going on around me. They also taught me that I was worthy of having my own ideas and that the answers to my problems lay inside me."
After your Grandfather died, you assumed the responsibility for carrying on his teachings. You were just a young girl at that time. Did you feel prepared for this?
"His passing was a devastating loss to me, but he had been preparing me for this role all my life -- by his example, in everything we did together and in the ancient stories he told me. In our tradition, wisdom is passed on orally. Those who tell the stories are called the Wisdom Keepers or the Storytellers. They are chosen for their ability to listen and speak, so that the people can he sure our wisdom is passed on correctly. That role, like the stories themselves, is passed on from generation to generation. When I die, my son Bob will become the Wisdom Keeper. I have prepared him in the same way my Grandfather prepared me."
What advice, would you give to others seeking to live a more spiritual life?
"Be kind. Do nice things for others; speak kindly about others. If someone does something nice for you, be grateful. Say 'Thank you: Be grateful for every day. Be grateful for waking up. Be grateful for being able to breathe.
"You know," she says, after a moment's pause, "gratitude is actually based on love, and nothing is more powerful than love. It's lack of love, or the misuse of love, that causes many of the problems we have today. People don't appreciate what they have. They don't love and respect themselves or each other. They take without giving anything back. They hide their elders -- the ones who have the most life experience and can be most helpful in guiding them -- in old folks' homes to get them out of the way. No wonder people today are so confused! No wonder people are not happy!
"In order to be happy, you need to develop and share your inner love. That's how it grows. If you're not sharing what you have with others -- your gifts and abilities as well as your material possessions -- if you're not helping others to grow, if you're not a teacher or an example, you're a user. Users don't honor what they have. They don't know how to take care of things so they can be perpetuated. Madison Avenue steps in and tells us to 'Have it your way,' so we push for more. Once we get what we want, we devour it until it's gone. There's no happiness in that," Gram declares and shakes her head.
"Happiness -- inner happiness -- is the goal of life. Most people can't even look at themselves in the mirror and smile! If someone comes to me and tells me they're unhappy, I tell them to examine their feelings and figure out what their limitations are and deal with them! You may have a nice house, a nice car, a good job and make $100,000 a year, but if you have all that stuff and you're still unhappy, you have to ask yourself, "What's wrong with this picture?""
She doesn't mince words. The real question then, I say to her, is how do you foster self-love?
"You have to nourish self-love all the time. If your parents or husband didn't give you the love you wanted, you have to give it to yourself. If something throws you into a slump, look at it right in the eye. Figure out what you didn't see about yourself that allowed that slump to happen, then change it. After all, we live in a do-it-yourself world!" She chuckles once again.
Looking back over your lifetime, what do you think is your greatest accomplishment?
"I really don't know how to answer that. If you were to ask me about my greatest experience, I would say being married and raising my five children. But 'accomplishment' ... I don't know."
She looks at Bob for a way into this question. They talk about this for a while and then she realizes why the question is so difficult for her to answer. "You see, Seneca people gauge accomplishment by where we are on our Earthwalk, how we've developed our natural potentials and shared our gifts. Our elders know we're ready to move forward by the questions we ask. There is no criticism or praise, there is only movement through the labyrinth of experience until we remember Who we really are. A bear wakes up in the morning knowing who he is and what he must do each day. He doesn't 'accomplish,' he just lives in harmony with Great Mystery. This is true for us as well."
OK, I think to myself. Be bear-like: know who I am -- part of the Oneness of all life -- and live in harmony with Great Mystery. It's a good thought to hold on to when I get sucked into the vortex of my To Do list.
When your Earthwalk ends, how would you like to he remembered?
"For greeting people with a smile and for spreading the Seneca Peacemakers' message of 'All for One and One for All'. When you feel your oneness with all life, you carry that with you everywhere you go. You feel centered. Then whatever you do helps others; it unifies life. I believe in these words and honor them by how I live my life. It's really as simple as that."
I look at Gram and smile. Is there anything we didn't cover? Anything else you want to add?
"No," she says. "It's been nice."
It's been nice for me, too. More than nice. I try to thank her but I cannot find the words.
Bob tells me, with an impish smile on his face, how someone once told him that when you don't know what to say, you can always ask the other person if their shoes fit right. We all laugh.
Gram, do your shoes fit right?
"When my stockings don't get all hunched up," she says, and we howl. As I pack up my gear, Bob suggests I listen to the tapes I made of my conversation with Gram to see if anything needs clarification. He invites me to come back the next day to pull together any loose ends. I've so enjoyed being with them, it's an offer I can't refuse. Before I leave, Gram takes me into her room and gives me a "wish pouch" she knitted, a small apple green-colored sack she tells me to fill with my wishes for my life. She walks with me to the door. Gram and Lee hug me good-bye and I drive off to a nearby hotel to spend the night.
That evening, I listen to the tapes and come up with a few questions to ask Gram -- not really enough to warrant another visit, but I'm so glad to have the opportunity to sit at their table again, to hold hands and express my gratitude at being a part of their sweet family, that I return for a few hours the next morning. At noon, I pack up my gear, and Gram and Lee walk me to the front door and hug me goodbye for the last time. Though I know I can call up the comfort I have felt here whenever I think of her, I am reluctant to leave. Gram smiles at me and gives me one last gentle word of counsel: "Remember the Peacemakers' message: All for One and One for All."
I nod and return her smile. My voice catches in my throat as I say goodbye, then I turn and walk out the door.
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Monday, April 14, 2008
An article I felt guided to pass on...
For our best and highest good...
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
The Children of the Next 1000 Years
By DRUVALO MELCHIDEZEK
The story you are about to read is true, but it is also unusual. So much so that if you do not have an open mind, it will seem impossible. And if you don't have an open heart, it will not be understood so that the meaning can be lived.
Over the last few years I have been to the Yucatan several times working with the Mayan shaman Hunbatz Men. He has been performing the ceremonies of the ancient Mayan priests in modern day times to bring in and stabilize the new energies of our sun, energies that have never before entered into the Earth and altering the way we perceive life. His work is very important to the unfoldment of the new world on Earth, and to the birthing of our new consciousness.
A few months ago a man named Ellis, who used to work closely with Hunbatz Men came to me and began to tell me this story. He said that in Columbia there was an aboriginal tribe deep in the Amazon jungle called the Kogi. They had no language and "spoke" only telepathically to each other. In truth they made little sounds, but these sounds were not logically arranged into any pattern such as an alphabet. They were just sounds, but these sounds came from the heart not the mind and created images inside your head, and you could "see" what the other person was communicating. Ellis said that they were able to "travel" out of body clearly and knew everything that was happening around the world, though they had never physically left their homeland. They had never even tried to communicate with the outside world, except to a very fortunate few.
The Kogi do not see us as "sleeping" as many of the Hindu and Oriental religions perceive us. The Kogi see us as "dead". We are not alive, but only shadows of the energy we could be. We do not have enough life force energy and consciousness to be classified by them as real people.
And the Kogi believed with the use of their psychic abilities, they could see the future clearly. And what they saw was similar to what many other tribes around the world saw, a world that was about to be destroyed by the misuse of consciousness.
So sometime ago they traveled over the whole world in their light bodies searching for anyone who is alive. And in the whole world they could only find one other tribe who were Mayan that lived far in the jungles of Guatemala. They were so happy to find someone else who was alive.
But the Kogi belief, their prophesy, was that with the coming of the Eclipse on August 11th of 1999, all the world would stop and only the Kogi and this one other Mayan tribe would survive to inhabit the Earth. This is why they were so happy to find someone else other than themselves who understood.
Then when the eclipse slowly revealed its face on the 11th of August, it became apparent to the Kogi that something had happened since the time they had searched the world for life. Something that they could not understand for the "great change" had happened, and we, the "dead" ones were still here. We should have dissolved back into the Dream. Not that they wanted us to, that was not their nature. It simply should have happened.
So the Kogi set out to find out why the "dead ones" were still on Earth, and as they searched the living vibrating records of this Reality, they found exactly where and why it had happened. Some of the "dead ones" had become alive, and had created a dream with enough life force to "save the world" as we know it. In our terms, some of us had created a "parallel world" where life could continue to grow, a world where the "dead" could become alive. The Kogi were so specific to locate exactly who these people were that were creating this change that had altered the world's destiny.
The Kogi saw these people with living bodies of light around them. People who had activated their "Light Bodies" or in the ancient terms, their "Mer-Ka-Ba". Since I was one of the teachers of this information, the Kogi sent a messenger to Ellis and from Ellis to me. They sent me a small amount of tobacco wrapped in a bright red piece of cotton, and simply said "Thank you".
A couple months later, the Kogi sent Ellis another gift to give to me with a message. The gift was a small ball of dark and sticky tree sap about the size of a plum. It smelled of the jungle. There was an energy around this gift of sap that I could feel deep inside me. I felt the connection in my heart.
The message was that they were going to send someone to me to teach me how to speak without words so that we could communicate. They then said that once connection and communication had taken place, they would ask that I enter into the Colombian jungle and visit their tribe. And that if I would visit their world, they would visit mine. They would then be prepared to come out of the jungle, for the first time in the history of their tribe, and go on world television, no less, and talk to us.
Whatever "talk" means since they have no language that we know, I am not sure. And what it is that they have to say, I also do not know. But through this little piece of tree sap, I am beginning to feel.
After Ellis left on this second visit, I sat and thought about this whole event. Was it true that the Kogi could see this clearly into the Reality? Were they really going to send someone to me to teach me how to speak without words? What was this really all about? I meditated with the angles, but they only approved what was happening, but would not give me information or assist.
Then last month in November, I gave an Earth/Sky workshop in Mexico and about 100 people came from all over Mexico, Central and South America, and one of the countries that many people came from was Columbia. And from this group, there was this young lady whose name I will keep quite to protect her.
She was different than any of the other Colombians. Whenever we entered into sacred space and could feel the presence of God, she would begin to seemingly go crazy with ecstasy. Not that that was really unusual, but it was extreme.
This woman would become primal. Her whole body would begin to shake and a different person would emerge out of her with a different feeling to her words and different body language. I watched her, looking for the reason why she had come to this work and looking for a way to help her.
Then on the last day of the workshop it happened. The group had formed one great circle, and we were singing to God. This lady broke away from the circle and began to dance primitively and unashamed within the center of the circle. She abandoned herself and seemed to lose control. I went over to her and took her hand to comfort her, and she grasped my hand and looked deep into my eyes and made a soft and longing sound. The sound went straight to my heart and vibrated inside my very center, and I could "see" what she was saying. I had never experienced anything quite like this before. I didn't understand at that moment what was really happening, my heart simply reacted.
I took her outside the circle and sat down facing her. Then she made another "sound", and my body responded with another similar "sound" that had never come from me before. Instantly, we were speaking in a new and profound manner that was so beautiful, so complete. It made all the languages of the world seem inadequate and obsolete. For two hours we communicated in images of full color and depth with all the sensory completeness of real life. I learned so much. I learned about life, and I learned about this woman within a woman.
She showed me with her sounds where she had come from, a small village next to the Kogi tribe. She showed me her husband and her three children. I know them like they were my family. She showed me around her village where I met two other older men who were from the Kogi. She showed me how her tribe had asked her to enter this woman's body and to come and see me. She was instructed to teach me how to speak without words. She was told that once she had done this one thing, then she could leave this woman's body and come back home and be back with her family. She missed her husband and children very much. I could "see" how when this lady returned home she would leave her body. I could see her own body lying in a pile of grass inside a grass hut waiting for this moment.
When I returned home, I saw my wife Claudette, who I love so much, in a new light. I loved her in a way that was different, because I could hear the sounds coming from her heart. I could see her pain, and I could see her joy. I was so happy for this experience with the Kogi, but I still didn't know what was happening to me.
It seemed to just bring a great anticipation of something to come.
Then two weeks ago I gave an Earth/Sky workshop in Maryland. While I was setting up and preparing for the workshop, I told this story to a woman named Diane who was facilitating the workshop. She asked if I would demonstrate these sound. And I agree to do so.
We sat facing each other, and I asked her to close her eyes. Then a sound came from my heart and at the same moment an image appeared within my mind.
It was a full image of a large cat, a puma, walking along the edge of the Amazon near the water. Then it jumped up onto a tree and began to walk along the edge of a long and heavy branch that slowly sloped down to the ground. It jumped back to the ground and continued to walk along the edge of the water. I opened my eyes.
All of this took only about one minute.
I asked her what she saw, and she began to tell me exactly what I had seen. She described it perfectly. A joy emerged from my heart.
I then asked her to again close her eyes. Another slow and strange sound came from my heart, and instantly another image. I not only "saw" but experienced what seemed like myself, floating out of the woman's body from Colombia and rising high up into the air. Then I felt myself begin to fly very fast over the jungle.
I could see the trees moving rapidly under me. Quickly I approached a village, and I felt myself getting lower to the ground and heading for a specific grass hut. In the next instant I was inside the body of this tribal woman looking out of her eyes. She knew I was there. She did not mind, it was suppose to happen.
Her husband quickly took hold of her/me and was obviously happy that she/I had returned. He knew also that I was there, and was also very happy. Then all three of her children ran up and began to hug her and love her. The youngest one reached in and began to suck on her breast. It was a very moving experience to meet this family that I didn't know and yet I did. Then I opened my eyes.
I waited a moment to center from this experience, and then asked Diane what she saw. She began by saying that she experienced herself as a "bug" coming out of this woman's body. And then she lifted up into the sky and began to fly over the trees of a jungle. She watched as we went down to the grass hut and met the "family". She saw perfectly.
I sat quiet for a long time. I could feel this was a gift of unparalleled value. But what did it mean to the me or the world? All of this was such an unusual experience that I still do not know what this means.
When I returned home from the Maryland workshop, every night for the first seven or eight days, I would find myself dreaming that I was "home" in this village.
The dream would last all night long with a complete memory of the dream the next morning. I would dream that I was doing my chores in the village, and living my life. Taking care of my children and husband. Many, many men from both tribes would come up to me and ask questions with sounds that made images. These people were beautiful and yes "alive". I understood why they saw us as "dead". I could "feel with the sight of my heart" what they meant. I knew they meant to help if they could. They were amazed that I was there. So was I.
Now, it is only the beginning. The Kogi are excited about the way we are growing. They want to come to us. God willing, they will.
They have asked me now to give you a message in your language if you can accept it. You who have discovered your light bodies and are changing the world by your lives.
"You are changing the world into light. Be not afraid of your innocence and your child nature, it is close to God. Let your imagination soar into a Dream where love surrounds all events, then "see" it as real. Let the sounds of your hearts talk to those who are not alive. You have shown them the way by your example, now "show" them the way from within. Listen, and your heart will speak. We are with you now. We will help you.".
May the next 1000 years be golden, and may the innocent children lead the way.
I love you, Drunvalo
Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"
at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
The Children of the Next 1000 Years
By DRUVALO MELCHIDEZEK
The story you are about to read is true, but it is also unusual. So much so that if you do not have an open mind, it will seem impossible. And if you don't have an open heart, it will not be understood so that the meaning can be lived.
Over the last few years I have been to the Yucatan several times working with the Mayan shaman Hunbatz Men. He has been performing the ceremonies of the ancient Mayan priests in modern day times to bring in and stabilize the new energies of our sun, energies that have never before entered into the Earth and altering the way we perceive life. His work is very important to the unfoldment of the new world on Earth, and to the birthing of our new consciousness.
A few months ago a man named Ellis, who used to work closely with Hunbatz Men came to me and began to tell me this story. He said that in Columbia there was an aboriginal tribe deep in the Amazon jungle called the Kogi. They had no language and "spoke" only telepathically to each other. In truth they made little sounds, but these sounds were not logically arranged into any pattern such as an alphabet. They were just sounds, but these sounds came from the heart not the mind and created images inside your head, and you could "see" what the other person was communicating. Ellis said that they were able to "travel" out of body clearly and knew everything that was happening around the world, though they had never physically left their homeland. They had never even tried to communicate with the outside world, except to a very fortunate few.
The Kogi do not see us as "sleeping" as many of the Hindu and Oriental religions perceive us. The Kogi see us as "dead". We are not alive, but only shadows of the energy we could be. We do not have enough life force energy and consciousness to be classified by them as real people.
And the Kogi believed with the use of their psychic abilities, they could see the future clearly. And what they saw was similar to what many other tribes around the world saw, a world that was about to be destroyed by the misuse of consciousness.
So sometime ago they traveled over the whole world in their light bodies searching for anyone who is alive. And in the whole world they could only find one other tribe who were Mayan that lived far in the jungles of Guatemala. They were so happy to find someone else who was alive.
But the Kogi belief, their prophesy, was that with the coming of the Eclipse on August 11th of 1999, all the world would stop and only the Kogi and this one other Mayan tribe would survive to inhabit the Earth. This is why they were so happy to find someone else other than themselves who understood.
Then when the eclipse slowly revealed its face on the 11th of August, it became apparent to the Kogi that something had happened since the time they had searched the world for life. Something that they could not understand for the "great change" had happened, and we, the "dead" ones were still here. We should have dissolved back into the Dream. Not that they wanted us to, that was not their nature. It simply should have happened.
So the Kogi set out to find out why the "dead ones" were still on Earth, and as they searched the living vibrating records of this Reality, they found exactly where and why it had happened. Some of the "dead ones" had become alive, and had created a dream with enough life force to "save the world" as we know it. In our terms, some of us had created a "parallel world" where life could continue to grow, a world where the "dead" could become alive. The Kogi were so specific to locate exactly who these people were that were creating this change that had altered the world's destiny.
The Kogi saw these people with living bodies of light around them. People who had activated their "Light Bodies" or in the ancient terms, their "Mer-Ka-Ba". Since I was one of the teachers of this information, the Kogi sent a messenger to Ellis and from Ellis to me. They sent me a small amount of tobacco wrapped in a bright red piece of cotton, and simply said "Thank you".
A couple months later, the Kogi sent Ellis another gift to give to me with a message. The gift was a small ball of dark and sticky tree sap about the size of a plum. It smelled of the jungle. There was an energy around this gift of sap that I could feel deep inside me. I felt the connection in my heart.
The message was that they were going to send someone to me to teach me how to speak without words so that we could communicate. They then said that once connection and communication had taken place, they would ask that I enter into the Colombian jungle and visit their tribe. And that if I would visit their world, they would visit mine. They would then be prepared to come out of the jungle, for the first time in the history of their tribe, and go on world television, no less, and talk to us.
Whatever "talk" means since they have no language that we know, I am not sure. And what it is that they have to say, I also do not know. But through this little piece of tree sap, I am beginning to feel.
After Ellis left on this second visit, I sat and thought about this whole event. Was it true that the Kogi could see this clearly into the Reality? Were they really going to send someone to me to teach me how to speak without words? What was this really all about? I meditated with the angles, but they only approved what was happening, but would not give me information or assist.
Then last month in November, I gave an Earth/Sky workshop in Mexico and about 100 people came from all over Mexico, Central and South America, and one of the countries that many people came from was Columbia. And from this group, there was this young lady whose name I will keep quite to protect her.
She was different than any of the other Colombians. Whenever we entered into sacred space and could feel the presence of God, she would begin to seemingly go crazy with ecstasy. Not that that was really unusual, but it was extreme.
This woman would become primal. Her whole body would begin to shake and a different person would emerge out of her with a different feeling to her words and different body language. I watched her, looking for the reason why she had come to this work and looking for a way to help her.
Then on the last day of the workshop it happened. The group had formed one great circle, and we were singing to God. This lady broke away from the circle and began to dance primitively and unashamed within the center of the circle. She abandoned herself and seemed to lose control. I went over to her and took her hand to comfort her, and she grasped my hand and looked deep into my eyes and made a soft and longing sound. The sound went straight to my heart and vibrated inside my very center, and I could "see" what she was saying. I had never experienced anything quite like this before. I didn't understand at that moment what was really happening, my heart simply reacted.
I took her outside the circle and sat down facing her. Then she made another "sound", and my body responded with another similar "sound" that had never come from me before. Instantly, we were speaking in a new and profound manner that was so beautiful, so complete. It made all the languages of the world seem inadequate and obsolete. For two hours we communicated in images of full color and depth with all the sensory completeness of real life. I learned so much. I learned about life, and I learned about this woman within a woman.
She showed me with her sounds where she had come from, a small village next to the Kogi tribe. She showed me her husband and her three children. I know them like they were my family. She showed me around her village where I met two other older men who were from the Kogi. She showed me how her tribe had asked her to enter this woman's body and to come and see me. She was instructed to teach me how to speak without words. She was told that once she had done this one thing, then she could leave this woman's body and come back home and be back with her family. She missed her husband and children very much. I could "see" how when this lady returned home she would leave her body. I could see her own body lying in a pile of grass inside a grass hut waiting for this moment.
When I returned home, I saw my wife Claudette, who I love so much, in a new light. I loved her in a way that was different, because I could hear the sounds coming from her heart. I could see her pain, and I could see her joy. I was so happy for this experience with the Kogi, but I still didn't know what was happening to me.
It seemed to just bring a great anticipation of something to come.
Then two weeks ago I gave an Earth/Sky workshop in Maryland. While I was setting up and preparing for the workshop, I told this story to a woman named Diane who was facilitating the workshop. She asked if I would demonstrate these sound. And I agree to do so.
We sat facing each other, and I asked her to close her eyes. Then a sound came from my heart and at the same moment an image appeared within my mind.
It was a full image of a large cat, a puma, walking along the edge of the Amazon near the water. Then it jumped up onto a tree and began to walk along the edge of a long and heavy branch that slowly sloped down to the ground. It jumped back to the ground and continued to walk along the edge of the water. I opened my eyes.
All of this took only about one minute.
I asked her what she saw, and she began to tell me exactly what I had seen. She described it perfectly. A joy emerged from my heart.
I then asked her to again close her eyes. Another slow and strange sound came from my heart, and instantly another image. I not only "saw" but experienced what seemed like myself, floating out of the woman's body from Colombia and rising high up into the air. Then I felt myself begin to fly very fast over the jungle.
I could see the trees moving rapidly under me. Quickly I approached a village, and I felt myself getting lower to the ground and heading for a specific grass hut. In the next instant I was inside the body of this tribal woman looking out of her eyes. She knew I was there. She did not mind, it was suppose to happen.
Her husband quickly took hold of her/me and was obviously happy that she/I had returned. He knew also that I was there, and was also very happy. Then all three of her children ran up and began to hug her and love her. The youngest one reached in and began to suck on her breast. It was a very moving experience to meet this family that I didn't know and yet I did. Then I opened my eyes.
I waited a moment to center from this experience, and then asked Diane what she saw. She began by saying that she experienced herself as a "bug" coming out of this woman's body. And then she lifted up into the sky and began to fly over the trees of a jungle. She watched as we went down to the grass hut and met the "family". She saw perfectly.
I sat quiet for a long time. I could feel this was a gift of unparalleled value. But what did it mean to the me or the world? All of this was such an unusual experience that I still do not know what this means.
When I returned home from the Maryland workshop, every night for the first seven or eight days, I would find myself dreaming that I was "home" in this village.
The dream would last all night long with a complete memory of the dream the next morning. I would dream that I was doing my chores in the village, and living my life. Taking care of my children and husband. Many, many men from both tribes would come up to me and ask questions with sounds that made images. These people were beautiful and yes "alive". I understood why they saw us as "dead". I could "feel with the sight of my heart" what they meant. I knew they meant to help if they could. They were amazed that I was there. So was I.
Now, it is only the beginning. The Kogi are excited about the way we are growing. They want to come to us. God willing, they will.
They have asked me now to give you a message in your language if you can accept it. You who have discovered your light bodies and are changing the world by your lives.
"You are changing the world into light. Be not afraid of your innocence and your child nature, it is close to God. Let your imagination soar into a Dream where love surrounds all events, then "see" it as real. Let the sounds of your hearts talk to those who are not alive. You have shown them the way by your example, now "show" them the way from within. Listen, and your heart will speak. We are with you now. We will help you.".
May the next 1000 years be golden, and may the innocent children lead the way.
I love you, Drunvalo
Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"
at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Insights just for you
I was just interviewed by two wonderful ladies Coach Frankie Picasso and Kelly Wallace on Quantum Radio you can listen to it by clicking on the following link:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/QuantumRadio/2008/04/11/Al-DiazThe-Titus-Concept
I was asked very direct questions and I gave very insightful answers for the benefit of all. There is even a discussion regarding The Secret and The Law of Attraction on how it does or does not work.
This is all free and it just might touch your Heart to guide you to remember what is for your best and highest good.
In this moment you deserve it.
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"
at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/QuantumRadio/2008/04/11/Al-DiazThe-Titus-Concept
I was asked very direct questions and I gave very insightful answers for the benefit of all. There is even a discussion regarding The Secret and The Law of Attraction on how it does or does not work.
This is all free and it just might touch your Heart to guide you to remember what is for your best and highest good.
In this moment you deserve it.
Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
Continue the healing and empowerment... purchase "BEing The Titus Concept"
at http://www.thetitusconcept.com/BEingEbookSalesPage.html
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