Sunday, August 8, 2010

Choose: the spiritual way or the un-natural way, the material way

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Exerpts from White Buffalo Teachings

When I was 12 years old, words of our ancient Prophecies were instilled in me by our Spiritual Elders of that time. Those Prophecies concern drastic changes that would come to all life upon Mother Earth. These changes are here with us today!

Our Prophecies tell us that we are at the Crossroads. We face chaos, disaster, and endless tears from our relatives’ eyes - or we can unite spiritually in peace and harmony. It’s time to bring the Message of the urgent need for Peace, of creating an energy shift throughout the world.

As Keeper of the Sacred C’anupa Bundle, I ask for your prayers for Global Healing. Our Mother Earth is suffering. Her wonderful gifts — the water, the trees, the air — are being abused. Her children — the two-legged, the four-legged, those that swim, crawl and fly — are being annihilated. We see such atrocities occurring everywhere.

Nineteen generations ago the beautiful spirit we now refer to as Pte-san win-yan (White Buffalo Calf Woman) brought the Sacred C’anupa to our People. She taught the People the Seven Sacred Rites and how to walk upon Mother Earth in a sacred manner. She said, "Only the good shall see the Pipe…the bad shall not see it or touch it."...

We must comprehend in each of our hearts and minds the two ways we human beings are free to follow, as we choose: the good way, the spiritual way - or the un-natural way, the material way. It’s our personal choice, our personal decision - each of ours and all of ours.

You, yourself, are the one who must decide. You alone can choose. Whatever you decide is what you’ll be - good or bad. You cannot escape the consequences of your own decision. On your decision — yes, on your own personal decision — depends the fate of the World.

You can’t avoid it. You must decide. You personally - each of us personally - is put here in this time and this place to decide the future of humankind.

Did you think you were put here for something less?

Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger?

Know that you are essential to this World. Believe that. Understand that. You yourself are desperately needed.

This is the message that I carry to you as we stand at this Crossroads in history — I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, known also as Horse Man, Keeper of the Sacred C’anupa (pipe) brought to the Lakota-Dakota-Nakota Nation by the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman nineteen generations ago.

Hau kola. I am honored to greet you. I honor your sacredness, your humanness. I ask you to honor mine. It is good that we meet. Yes, good. Wasté! Mitakuye Oyasin.

When we say Mitakuye Oyasin — "All Our Relations" — many people don’t understand the meaning of those words. The phrase Mitakuye Oyasin has a bigger meaning than just our blood relatives. Yes, it’s true; we are all one human race. But the word Mitakuye means relations and Oyasin means more than family, more than a Nation, more than all of humankind. Everything that has a spirit.

The Earth herself, Maka Unci, is our relation, and so is the sky - Grandfather Sky - and so is the Buffalo…and so are each of the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, those that swim, those that fly, the root nation, and the crawling beings who share the world with us. Mitakuye Oyasin refers to the interconnectedness of all beings and all things. We are all interconnected. We are all One.

Don’t call us "earth-based," as if we worship the Earth. We don’t worship her. We honor her. But to worship anyone, we, the Indigenous, will never do that. We humble ourselves to the sacred energy of all life knowing we are one. We stand up when we address the Creator, we bow down and touch the earth, to acknowledge and give thanks to our Mother.

We see ourselves as part of the universe, part of all that is seen, and part of all that is unseen. We recognize that we are no better - and no worse - than the grasses, the trees, the birds, the insects, the animals, the stars.

But we also understand that we humans are different. Each being of Creation has a unique role and place, and a specific task to perform. Our Original Instructions tell us what our role is, where our place is, and what our task is as human beings.

Do you know your task? Unless you know it, and then perform it in this life, you have strayed from the Good Red Road that the Creator - Wakan Tanka - has given each of us to walk.

Even those who don’t know how will pray or meditate. They will learn to contribute their energy. All people need to learn that within each of us, we have this ability and gift.

Yes, our life energy must be a gift for our future. Your life, my life, everybody’s life must follow your given path.

So pray or meditate. Follow your inner path and learn just how powerful you are and learn that you are a leader for your people, your family, your children, and the Mother Earth.

What happens within us happens in the World.
We are the Message of the World.
As we are and as we do,
So the World will be.

When the people of all colors pray together with the Sacred C’anupa (pipe), or with any other sacred gifts given by the creator, even with just our natural spirit energy — without anger or resentment or prejudice — extremely powerful things can occur. When we do this with a good heart and in a sacred way we can - and will - change the world!

When you begin to believe in the sacred way of life, you will begin to understand the importance of the sacred sites, knowing that they are a connection to Mother Earth. You will understand the traditions and the ability to see the prophecies that were passed down through the generations of Ancestors, who lived in harmony. They had seen what was in store for their seven generations to come (us), they prayed we would re-find the "key" to harmony in understanding the Spirit of the Circle of Life. It is then that you assist in bringing health, prosperity and balance back to Mother Earth. That is human sacrifice and spiritual growth. That is the way. We as the Buffalo People believe in this circle of life, where there is no ending and no beginning. The process of mending the sacred hoop continues.....

Know that you yourself are essential to this world. Believe that. Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the Soul of this World. Did you think you were put here for something less?

-Chief Arvol Looking Horse