Dhyani Ywahoo pertenece al grupo Etowah de la nación Tsalagi (Cheroqui) del Este. Educada por sus abuelos, es el vigesimoséptimo miembro de su pueblo encargado de transmitir la sabiduría ancestral del linaje Ywahoo. Habiéndole sido confiada la tarea de reavivar el fuego de la mente y de las rectas relaciones en esta época de cambio,es un faro que guía a quienes recorren el Sendero de la Belleza
Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire
Dhyani Ywahoo
Introduction
We Cherokee, or Tsalagi, have traditionally called ourselves the Principal People (Ani Yun Wiwa), in that our creation stories and philosophy refer to our sacred duty to instill light, to manifest good for the benefit of all beings.
We trace our origins to the stars known as the Pleiades, the Seven Dancers. Encoded within our ceremonies and patterns of relationship is the Fire of Wisdom, hence we are the firekeepers of the sacred light, responsible for rekindling the fire of clear mind and right relationship in these changing times.
The teachings contained in this volume are put forth by one who is of the fifth generation to survive the coming of darkness upon the Tsalagi’s natural way of life. Children of the fifth generation were given special duties by their elders to rekindle the sacred wisdom fire, by inviting the people to see the effects of our thoughts and actions upon the Earth, upon ourselves and one another, and upon future generations. Our elders, some of whom suffered great deprivations and punishments for seeking to maintain our culture, encoded in us through ceremony, song and example the methods of realizing a sane world.
[…]
This book is dedicated to those wise elders who had the faith and foresight to keep the wisdom fire burning.
Myself, I am a Tsalagi of the Etowah band, a vessel filled with dreams of those who walked before, blessed and empowered by the elders to be a repository of the teachings of the Ywahoo lineage.
The Ywahoo lineage was established 2,860 years ago by the “Keeper of the Mysteries,” the Pale One, a great teacher whose name is spoken only in ceremonies. When the people had forgotten their original instructions, neglected their spiritual duties, and become warlike, the Pale One came to rekindle the sacred wisdom fire. Born in a miraculous manner, his body emitted great light; he appeared in many places at once and spoke the language of all creatures. The teachings of the Pale One flourished throughout the Americas. He reestablished the building of temples and schools, reformed the priestcraft training, and gave methods for cultivating and maintaining peace within individual, family, clan, nation, and planet. This great teacher was a living reminder of the unmanifest potential in all. He rekindled the holy fire and renewed the original instructions encoded within the Crystal Ark, that most sacred crystal that ever sings out harmony’s beauteous note, inspiring people to act as one with the sacred law and bringing all thoughts and actions to harmonious resolution.
The duties of each Ywahoo are to care for the Crystal Ark and to maintain ceremonies for universal balance. Thus the Ywahoo lineage is the caretaker of the crystal and of the crystal-activating sound formulas and rituals.
[…]
From an early age the insight of Tsalagi children is recognized and they are invited into particular spiritual societies according to their clans and the particular lineages moving within those clans. The Ywahoo lineage is of the Ani Gadoahwi (Wild Potato) Clan of the Tsalagi Nation. My ancestors, the relatives who taught me, are from the Carolinas and Tennessee. During the Trail of Tears, which occurred in the 1830s, rather than leave their honored homeland they hid in caves, that they might maintain their spiritual duty to the Blue Mountains and the rivers and land of that region.
So the things I speak are of a continuum. Myself, I am a firstborn daughter of a firstborn daughter. The medicine tradition that was kept by my family is the tradition of the Tsalagi people, traced back through the times of the sun temples. So we consider ourselves a very ancient people; our history speaks of over a hundred thousand years of relationship to the planet Earth.
In the Tsalagi view, children are valued members of the society, and from the moment they make their first smile they are invited to partake in spiritual ceremony and responsible action for the good of all the people. That first smile is an indication of the child’s willingness to reach out and communicate with others, and from that smile one understands what that child’s gift is.
It is common among the Tsalagi and many Native American nations that before a child is born the grandparents have visions and dreams about that coming child. My grandparents also had visions. They say that a Red man came from across the ocean carrying a message of unity, of rebuilding the sacred hoop. He spoke of me, saying that I would travel around the world and that I should be given all of their teachings. The elders followed those instructions. While I was a child my elders would sit around the fire and make many prophecies. They said a time would come when I would speak to people from all over the world, and that we would be of one heart. The prophecies have proven true. Now may the prophecy of unity of action and a shared concern for life renew the sacred hoop, as they foretold.
Prior to 1969, the Ywahoo lineage teachings were hidden, shared only with Tsalagi and other like-minded peoples.
According to the ancient teachings and calendar, a great darkness would fall upon the peoples with the end of the cycle of worlds called the thirteen heavens. Over five hundred years ago a Council of Elders of the Red Nations of North, South, and Central America was called to ensure the survival of the sacred teachings through the coming age of darkness. At that time the teachings were hidden within the home fires, in secret societies within family lines, to sustain the people through times of tribulation. The thirteen heavens ended April 21, 1519, the day Cortes landed in Mexico. Thus a “pale brother returned from the east,” his memory of the unity of the human family impaired, and his coming wrought great destruction upon the land and the people. The science and culture that spawned the world’s most accurate calendar and most beneficial pharmacopoeia and, over seven thousand years ago, discovered the mathematical concept of zero, was stomped into the dust. Yet the widsom survived within the home fireplaces, awaiting a time when the people would be of one heart, awaiting sturdy vessels to carry the fire out.
The Great Smoky Mountains, Arkansas, Georgia, and Tennessee have been homeland to the Tsalagi Nation for thousands of years. During the early 1800s, as the settlers encroached upon the sacred areas and forced the people on the Trail of Tears, the darkest night fell. (The seventh hell began in 1831; the Indian Removal Act was ratified in May 1830.)
It was spoken to me at an early age about the Trail of Tears; my grandmother described it so vividly that I felt I was there. She said that people – soldiers and settlers – came into the cabins and threw the people out, took whatever was belonging to the Tsalagi people and just said, “Go with the clothes on your back.” Even their food stores were kept from them. And what amazed me, as a young child listening to the wisdom of the elders, is that they spoke without bitterness. They described the Trail of Tears as an indication of dark times for the mind of all human beings, the beginning of a final cycle of purification. In this era, illusions of domination over the natural world and materialism in place of ethics have choked the lifeline of all.
As the darkness fell upon the Tsalagi people, some priests and priestesses self-immolated the physical form in the sacred fire. It was recounted to me by my elders how two members of my family thus stepped into the fire and disappeared, leaving no physical remains. Their sacrifice was to scatter the seed essence of the original instructions, to sprout again as the fifth generation appeared to reestablish right relationship with the land, the nation, Mother Earth, Father Sky, and all our relations. In the minds of myself and others of the fifth generation were carefully placed certain keys, that we might again stir and rekindle the sacred fire in all people, so the hoop of life could be renewed.
Thus for hundreds of years the sacred teachings were kept hidden. During 1969, elders of the Etowah Band and the Ywahoo bloodline conferred and decided that the general aspects of the teaching were now to be shared with all those of good heart who were dedicated to manifesting peace. The elders stated that the astronomical teachings were to be restored to the world; these are the basis for understanding the movements of the stars that give order to the ceremonial calendar shared by most Native peoples of the western hemisphere. The elders said that the Medicine of the Twins was to be understood by all, so that even anger and fear could be recognized as opportunities to realize that clear wisdom fire within. And they said that the general teachings of the Pale One were to be shared, to give light to a new day.
[..]
This book contains teachings suitable for all people – basic Elo (philosophy) and practice for purifying ignorance and obscuration, for clarifying mind, for pacifying afflicting emotions, illusions, and suffering, for magnetizing the good, and for actualizing the vision of peace and harmony held as a sacred ember within the heart of every being. Native American religion does not proselytize or seek converts. These sacred teachings call upon you, not to become an Indian, but to become the best human being you can possibly be, to fulfill your unmanifest potential for the good of all beings.
I pray that these teachings be conveyed clearly for the benefit of all my relations, whether flying, walking, swimming, or crawling. May it be known that any inconsistencies or ambiguities herein with respect to historical chronology are the result of my own limitations or of destruction and/or confusion in the ancient records. The teachings themselves are true and offer means for realizing peace on all levels.
We have been in the ninth and final stage of purification, the ninth hell world following the thirteen heavens. And in this time the fifth generation, living in a natural way, is keeping the sacred precepts, dreaming of beauty. The fire is rekindled on Earth’s holy places. The song of peaceful remembrance goes forth. A new day is dawning. The new cycle of thirteen heavens began August 30, 1987, thirteen days after Fifth World ended. Now I pray that each one of you may perceive the vision of peace and have the will and courage and compassion to manifest it. May the thoughts that obscure the inherent beauty be transmuted, revealing the means of right relationship. And may you be called forth as a Peacemaker, turning aside anger, shame and blame, calling forth harmony and joy for all relations.
Voices of Our Ancestors,
(excerpts from the above book)? by Dhyani Ywhaoo
??Practitioners of the sacred teachings being passed today through the Ywahoo lineage of the Tsalagi Nation learn a sacred dance, the Dance of the Directions, based upon exercises and dances taught by Eli Ywahoo, Eonah Fisher, and Nellie Ywahoo. The purpose of the dance is to keep clear the channels within the body, that they may resonate with the land itself. When facing magnetic north, one clarifies mental orientation and tunes the electronic spin of the atom of one’s own body at the angle for optimum energy expression. A test of one’s accomplishment is the ability to generate light from the body, though the clear alignment of one’s mind with the magnetic field of the Earth and the solar system. There are successive stages of realization, alignment with focal points of mind–with Earth, then with sun, then beyond. The purpose: to generate light, to generate good for all sharing this dream. The practice in all its aspects clarifies the stream, that the potential for enlightened action may manifest throughout all worlds.
Let us think about the breathing holes around Hopi and the breathing mountains of the Tibetan Plateau. These places have long held the balance of our planet. When the lunar winds are over Hopi, the energy of the sun is over the Tibetan Plateau, and in twelve hours it reverses. Deep within the ground there are caverns and tunnels and ways for this sacred energy to travel. Earth inhales and exhales just as we do; sacred life energy moves within her body as it does in ours. And from the mind of scarcity, greed, and domination, much of this sacred body of our Mother Earth is being cannibalized and destroyed, through the ignorance of mining without consideration for the future, depleting Earth’s resources and polluting her waters.
Right now in Hopi and at the most sacred Black Mesa, there are great amounts of water being drawn from beneath the Earth to move coal to light great signs in Reno, Los Angeles, and other cities. The electricity used by one casino sign in a day could keep a small town in electricity for almost a year. The areas from which the waters and ores are being taken may be designated by the United States government as “national sacrifice areas,” but it is not the people who have made these decisions. It is the abdication of responsibility by all people of this hemisphere that has allowed a few large companies to decide—and to have the decisions enacted by government—that a certain area can be designated a “national sacrifice area. What are we sacrificing? We are sacrificing the future. As those aquifers are depleted, the electrical energy of lightning has no place to be called to. The lightning activity is the pulse, just as the nervous system is the pulse that animates your body. So, as these aquifers are further depleted, there is less and less energy for growth, for life. There are also more subtle effects of the lightning.
Through ignorance and greed, seeking to control light, seeking to control power, mankind’s technology is destroying the very basic power of our planet. Inventions came about to assist humans. Now inventions run over humans. And this has come about through a fase viewpoint. We have looked and felt, “Oh, the Earth is here to give to us,” and it is true; the whole of Creation is an opportunity to know the beauty of what is. Yet something has been forgotten: the return, the reciprocity, the fact that the Earth is a living being. Within our own physical body flows the energy of life. Through the top of the head and the soles of the feet, the base of the spine and the back of the knees, we give and return energy to the Earth and the heavens. When the heart has become obscured with doubt, with anger and greed, with greed for power, thinking, it is something outside ourselves, then the energy is not returning to the universe, then our breath is not completed.
We have a short time in which to transform incorrect thinking, mental imbalance, and to learn again to live with dignity as human beings, because the elements of life in ourselves have become distorted. Many human beings suffer with diseases of body and mind that are a direct result of disharmony with the current of life. How does one align with the current of life? Through prayer, through right action. That is a return, a thankfulness. When we allow our hearts to give and receive in thankfulness there is an expansion of the biophysical energy (sometimes referred to as the aura) that is scientifically measurable. That force extends and returns to the environment energy that has been given.
We are ever in a reciprocal relationship, also. with the sacred directions and their guardians, the Adawees, those great angelic beings. From the North we realize wisdom through action and we understand, in the stillness of a clear day, freedom and a readiness to act. Attentive and aware, willful intention to be in the moment. From the East arises Ama Agheya, Water Woman bearing the gift of knowing, the east wind, inspiring the mind to see, “I am that I am.” And from the South the seeds of renewal arise, the power of adolescence and the sacred power of rebuilding. As we move toward the West we find that we carry with us, even in our youth, the great and blessed weight of our grandparents upon our backs. We face the West and see the Great Bear, and we realize that we have come and that we can leave, yet there is something to give and to return. At that point one can make a decision to transform and transmute, as in the sacred quality of the amethyst crystal; one transmutes consciousness and decides, “I shall walk around this circle of life for the beauty and the enlightenment of all beings.”
It is an Indian proverb that it is a rich person who has a large family, a very poor person who has no family or friends. In this time something has happened to break the threads of connection, for many people suffer in loneliness and seek good relationship with self and others. Cultivate spiritual friendships with those who demonstrate right actions, and consider your co-workers as you would members of your clan. What is praying? To arise in the morning and to thank the sun. To burn sweetgrass and sage and cedar, to make tobacco offerings—to acknowledge the beauty of what is, that we may ever be clear in that reflections, that we be firm and not rash, that we be true in our knowing. And then at midday, when the sun is overhead, thank all those who have come before and filled your life, filled your body with the energy to be. And as the sun descends over the western horizon, say, “Thank you. Oh, a day has passed and another day shall come. I am thankful.” In the light of day is the seed of night, within the South is relected the North, and within the West, images of the East.
Many Scientists from around the world have come to see that the sacred wisdom of the ancient ones of all the great religions has a basis and a foundation in our everyday life—that there is no difference between spiritual duty and being a good neighbor, a good friend, a good citizen. A citizen of what? The family of humanity. The current of life is in all of us.
Each one of us on Earth at this time is being called to rebuild the sacred circle in ourselves. True, there has been much suffering, generated from the mind of incorrect action, and it is very simple to see the road of right action. For the problems that people of Earth face now—those who have been displaced for political reasons, those who have been displaced for monetary gain, those who have been displaced by loss of heart—there is a healing that must come. How can there be no people. How can there be a place where one can no longer live. Who can decide that a certain part of the Earth shall be a “sacrifice area”? Better to be good caretakers of the land.
This Earth is a living being. The trouble that has engulfed the mind of humanity comes from the false concept of ownership and an idea of government that does not take into consideration our relationship, our sacred duty to caretake one another and our moth, the Earth. Here on Earth we are all connected through the sacred currents of live, and no one can fulfill our responsibilities for us. It is our choice. We can call upon peace in ourselves, we can rise about national rivalry, through making peace with the sun and the moon in our hearts, seeing that there is no above, no below, and that even mind is a form that we are sharing.
What do we hold on to. Sometimes simply the idea that an area of mind is our own or that a concept is our own. Many wars have been fought in the name of religion, in the name of a particular concept. To many Native Americans there is no difference between capitalism, communism, socialism; they are systems lacking in spirit and lacking in wholeness. It is for each of us to look deep within ourselves and to attempt, in small ways in our own communities, in our homes, that process of sharing that renews the heart and makes good friends. For many Indian families it begins early in the morning with the sunrise ceremony and the sharing of our dreams of the night before. The world of dreaming and the world of television screening, they are the same;: projections of mind that we are all sharing.
If you look to the beauty and see the sadness, acknowledge it and the things that are incorrect, yet hold the form of transformation and it shall come to pass. Often we have looked to others to give direction and leadership, to being things correct. But what is someone leading, and what is following? A strong community develops whole vision, considering the future generations. In the Tsalagi way the chiefs are chosen by the clan mothers, women who have watched them grow. Watching the young people grow, the women see their beauty, they see the young person’s concern for nature and life and they know, “Ah, this one can live truly the way of the people and carry the heart of the people and be an inspiration to the people.” In this way the chiefs and the honored people are chose, through their meritorious actions, through their right actions. (And the chief or honored person may be a man or a woman, because a whole person is a whole person. The distinction of sexism is something that comes out of a mind separated in itself.) Now, in most places, “elections” are more like advertising and selling goods. Let us return to looking at one another’s actions. Are they good for the people and the land? Are they good for the children? Let us realize that those elected to leadership really depend upon the people for guidance and for prayer; prayer is the power that opens the mind to see.
Prayer is the most powerful thing. I have seen old men, old women, create and stop tornadoes, make the ground shake or stop, bring rain. Even young people can handle a hot fire and not be burned because they have found peace and resolution with those elements in themselves. Each person has a gift to share. The whales and dolphins, they understand. One dolphin scout may go out, one Hopi scout may go out, and all of the people will know at home what that one has seen. Many people are crying for that shared vision because it is very difficult for a human organism to live in a vacuum. We are all relatives. Even the trees rejoice in our happiness because when we are happy we exude from our bodies a vitality that renews the atmosphere around us. When the human being is thinking thoughts of doubt and anger, a hormone is secreted within the brain that depresses and ages the system. When we recognize joy, when we understand beauty, there is a hormone that infuses even the body of an old, old person with great light, great strength. Age is a concept of mind, and it has become a way of separating rather than acknowledging wisdom. So many young people feel, “Oh, my parents cannot understand me,’ and many parents feel, “Oh, I cannot understand these young people.” But that is an illusion, because all are united in the stream of mind. There is a stream of right action that we can follow, and it begins with forgiving—forgiving ourselves for not fulfilling others’ expectations and others for not meeting ours.
It is our duty now to reweave this sacred robe of Mother Earth, because she is almost denuded by the vacuousness of her children and their carelessness. How to begin? Simply. Learn to sit and watch and find a place of stillness so that one does not react. Let us pray and old in our minds the thought form of a spiritual renewal, a planetary family of know.
Let us make a choice to walk upon the Beauty Path, that path built of right actions, of generosity, of love and compassion, of understanding the sacred duties that each one has, of understanding the currents of life’s energy within ourselves and the weaving of wholeness within our own senses. Be devoted to the life principle in oneself. And live what you know. One cannot understand religion without living the practice. Seek the wisdom of your heart like a child on a new journey—only expecting to arrive. Simplicity is a sacred principle and power within ourselves.
As the basic currents of one’s energy become apparent, thought and action arise spontaneously in harmony with life. When the Earth and the heavens meet in your heart, you realize, “Oh, as it is above, so it is below. As I think, so it shall be.” From that recognition of the power of your mind comes an understanding of ritual, the sacred duties, be it Friday night candle lighting, Sunday-morning communion, or sunrise and sundown chanting. Ritual builds stronger than word; it is the fiber that makes the cables of the bridge that will take you to the other shore, beyond the sea of your ignorance to the shore of your wisdom. Ritual takes us beyond, to a place of change, of transformation. The sound of chanting opens doorways in other dimension, worlds of our know, our heart, worlds of subtleties. There are other beings that await to commune with the enlightened family of humanity. The circle includes the vastness of space.
This family of humanity has behaved like recalcitrant children. In many parts of the universe, in the larger council of the universe, some are saying, “When will they stop hurting themselves? When will they stop hurting this quadrant of the universe with such anger, with the idea of destroying one another?” What good is it to duel, to war? The instruments of war will take life even from the future generations. We see the situation in the Middle East. According to the prophecies of the Indian nations, that bed of coals can ignite this whole planet. And what is the issue? Land rights, a few people making decisions for many. The people want to live in a spiritual way, but they are reacting to an absence of mindfulness or an imposition of materialism upon their hearts.
I pray that those who are in office listen to the prayers arising from the people’s hearts. Let there be peace. Let us understand that you cannot sacrifice one part of the Earth for another. This Earth is a living being that is our home. We cannot sacrifice the rights of one people in hopes that another people will be made happy. This is an abundant universe. It is only through the philosophy of the merchant mind that the concept of “not enough” has become real. People are starving, members of our family are starving in parts of this world, even here in the United Statesall are called to do as human beings. We are called to make peace in ourselves and to take responsibility. The evil that we see, we cannot say that some government or some other person is doing it. It is all of us. Let us come again to the sacred circle and affirm the real principles of government: to serve the people, to bring the greatest good, to be dignified human beings. where “water runs out of a stock. “People are hungry here, not only for food but for peace. And why is this? It is incorrect judgement, incorrect action that has brought the mind to feeling it is productivity that validates us as human beings, numbers of papers printed, pounds of coal produced. There is more to human life than output. There is more that we
Simplicity and truth, to live in harmony—that is our goal. To realize ourselves and our thoughts as creators of our reality, to take responsibility. We are mothers and fathers. We are sun and moon. Our thinking gives birth to many things. Let us think clearly. Earth will not carry much longer a load of rabble-rousing children, of children who bear her and steal her very lifeblood. Think: in ten to thirty years the pumping of the aquifers beneath Black Mesa, Arizona, and the Black Hills of South Dakota would make those areas a desert.
Are you really willing to take life from your grandchildren? Do you want to take the water and the life force from the Earth so that there is no place for your children and their children? Quickly come now to a place of balance in this dream that we share. Let us return to one another love and forgiveness and understanding. Make an effort to grow corn with a neighbor. Try doing something for another person, even when you think you yourself have not enough, especially when you think you yourself have not enough. There may be elderly people in your neighborhood who have wisdom through the years of their experience and who may be suffering because of Social Security cutbacks, hunger, illness, loneliness, poverty. Can you be a friend one day a week to someone else who is not able to go out? To share is the way that we learn, it is the way to realize our fits. In the Native way, the give-away is a frequent celebration. When people are thankful for something—it may be the birth of a child, it may be a healing, it may be anything—they will call together their friends and neighbors and give away everything they have. A wise person realizes that in nonattachment to the material forms they are always sustained in the abundance of what is. Let us all recall that.
WEAVING A TAPESTRY OF LIGHT
The cycles of life and death include all of us on this sphere, Mother Earth. We are all determining the future of our grandchildren and our home, the Earth. The concept of neighborhood, nation, is all based on the family and the process of interrelations. As citizens we have a responsibility to guide those whom we have chosen as leaders. This requires a clear vision of our family’s needs and our neighbor’s and of our hopes for the future. When individuals clearly ascertain the main ideal to manifest in their lives, they are aware of their sacred law to do right, to do good, to transform emotions, thoughts, and actions that may obscure one’s good relations.
This is a time of mass dislocation and relocation. Jobs are being relocated out of the cities, leaving citizens bereft. The poor are relocated for urban renewal. War and famine—caused by greed and ignorance—drive many people from their homelands. Farmers are being dislocated so that others may profit by artificially inflating the value of their lands… [and for mining purposes]
… The Native American worldview sees cycles of life and death and the individual always in relationship with family, clan, nation, and planet. This relationship is biological, mental, emotional, spiritual, economic. The circle is inclusive. By virtue of being on Earth, being a member of the family of humanity, we are included in the circle of life. The actions of our group, one nation, resound through the atmosphere, affecting the entire planetary circle. The concept of circle makes clear the individual’s responsibility in acting for the benefit of all one’s relatives and for the benefit of future generations. The oceans and the plants upon the Earth supply us with oxygen, the rivers give us water, and our reciprocal responsibility is to respect and keep pure those elements of life, that many may live with good health and peace of mind.
We all need pure air and water to live. What is an individual’s responsibility and power in maintaining pure air and water? The mass careless destruction of our forest affects the entire circle of life, through the depletion of oxygen in the air. We are each responsible for the trees that help us breathe. Your generous action of planting trees clears the air. And in these times we may honor our relationship with water by not wasting it and by purifying waste products before they return to the cycle of the water’s flow.
The common factors that unite human beings are the desire for security, peace, abundance, and ease for our children and grandchildren. Parents all around the world have the same concerns. The cause of imagined separation is ignorance of the means by which we are all interrelated. We are connected by the air we breathe and the Earth we share. As one manifests energy and discipline to transform emotions or actions that disturb one’s own peace or peace with others, then one may turn aside the energy of aggression and relate in equanimity. The illusion of separation arises from the mind of not-enough and the thought of “them” and “us.” Nation against nation arises as a thought when individuals and groups fear difference, not realizing the underlying unity… [we must remember we all have concern for our families and children] … When we realize that our children and grandchildren will be affected by the actions of both nations, we recognize our common responsibility to transform aggression. Reactive mind perceives differences. Circle mind sees what is like. [Humans in one country are like humans in another country] In recognizing our likenesses we have the first thread of bountiful communication…
…A reaction is a response that has no thought. It may be a pattern of action based upon past situations. A wise person of any age perceives that patterns of mind and stands in the present, nonreacting from the past. When we are not controlled by the thoughts and emotions of the past, then we are free to choose and create in the present and for the future. For this reason forgiveness is an energy of pacification, of peacemaking, so that peaceful relationship may ensue.
The thought forms that obscure peaceful human relationship are many, all arising from ignorance manifest as miscommunication. An individual holding the thought of anger or fear without seeking to resolve such energy can become embroiled in repetitive patterns of discord. As the patterns are perceived and resolved, one has access to more creative energy to accomplish one’s life goal and purpose. First one identifies the patterns of fear, anger, envy, competition, whatever; then one diligently transforms them. Say you feel competitive with co-workers, family, or friends. Observe; consider wi=hat energy and actions arise from that competitiveness. Then speak clearly of your purpose and your gifts, give thanks for the gifts of others in the circle, and recognize that many gifted beings may work together and need not be in competition. Observe your mind and action, and each time a thought of scarcity or competition arises, carry it clearly to resolution. Then you are free of reacting and can choose to respond.
As a member of a family, ream of co-workers, community, neighborhood, nation, one has vast energy to work with, a fire to burn clear the mind as one warmly interacts with other beings. With one’s family it is wise to speak and share experiences and also to state the purpose of your being together. Hear from each member what is hoped for and wanted. Here we can see likeness-threads in the dream of happy relationship that all individuals share. In working and living together, express clearly expectations and goals and agree on what is to be accomplished. Individually and collectively this is powerful. In the Native way this is the united mind of the council. As the people council with one another and with the legislators, laws are enacted to benefit all. When we see that something needs to be done, it is up to us to do it. When we look around and see people homeless in this rich land, it is for each of us to join together and create the solution. When we see jobs relocated out of this country and people left unsure and insecure, it is our duty to bring the situation correct. When we see farmers relocated, foreclosed form their land, let us recognize the responsibility of investment speculators arbitrarily raising the cost of the land speculating on future sale value. Land speculation means the future is for sale. Do you want other people deciding your future, or are you willing to choose and create the tomorrow that is best for all?
A mass relocation of Native peoples is being carried out in the Southwestern United States. [and now the same in India] This has come about through lust and greed for uranium and oil beneath the land. The uranium is more beneficially energetic in the Earth, drawing rains to refill the aquifers. And certainly, to destroy the culture of people living in harmony with the land, creating a sacrificial wasteland, is an unwise action that will have deleterious effects throughout the nation.
Too often individuals and groups, overwhelmed by forces oppressing them, become angry and lash out, shouting even at those who seek to aid them, putting forth a hollow cry of despair. The wise citizen will consider that fear and anger with understanding, and respond with equanimity and with actions that will bring solution. You do make a difference. Your voice is important in this time. Let each of us act to correct the abuses of our relatives and the Earth. Consider the effects of wasting four billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to force a self-sufficient people into bureaucratic slavery. Let us recognize that such means can at any time be applied to any of us in this land if we allow that thought of force to continue. Write to your legislators; call correct those whose actions threaten the well-being of the people and the land. The farmers in the Midwestern United States who generously supply the bread upon our tables [and now also self-sufficient farmers in India] are being forced from their homeland, forced into servitude to megabusinesses. The same plantation mind that has enslaved South and Central American as banana plantations now turns upon its own.
This is the time for us all to consider what threads are weaving our tomorrow. We cannot allow self-sufficient people to be enslaved in bureaucratic manipulation. We cannot allow our grandparents and our children to be reduced to hunger and despair in order to assure greater profits to those who exploit. Let us actively encourage and support all who live in harmony and self-sufficiency, all who seek to live in right relationship with the Earth and one another. We can effectively express wisdom and a vision of peace to benefit the group, the nation and the planet—immediately. Right now, let us envision a world of harmony and good relationship. How would it be?
Let us take steps to balance the confusion. Let us call the legislation to be responsive to the real needs. Let us invest in a future without greed. We can work together, creating stronger and more stable neighborhoods. We can clarify confusion through clearly defining our purpose and goals and the skillful means by which to realize them for the benefit of everyone.
In the old days, Native American governmental systems incorporated the wisdom of the minority voice until all were clear on a single choice and course of action. As we work with one another, clearly stating our goals and our course of action, we bring tomorrow, the objective actualized. Ten people can come forward in a circle, hear the needs of the people, and act to create a solution of homes for those who are homeless. Let us plant gardens in the city, that the mind may come again to understand our relationship to the foods that give us life. Whatever the work, your actions can be infused with the clear mind of complementary resolution—peace for all and for the group to accomplish its goal.
Long ago the Pale One walked upon this land. He reminded the people, “Take care of one another, cause no harm, work together to benefit all.” His message was one of unity and responsibility, consensus. The Constitution of the United States is based upon the governmental system that he outline for the Native people, and his voice and wisdom still resonate today through all of the Americas. He reminded us of the cycles of life and the cycles of human development, and as nations we are now at the end of one cycle and the beginning of another—where we extend the love of the family to include the entire cycle of life.
May we all trace our roots to the great Tree of Peace. May we honor the wisdom of our grandparents and caretake that wisdom for our grandchildren, unto seven generations. Let us recognize the sacredness of this time of transformation and choice, that we may truly manifest the beauteous family of humanity.
Affirmations: Why & How…
excerpted from: Voices of Our Ancestors by Dhyahi Ywahoo
Dhyani YwahooAffirmation is a skillful means for transforming energy, and it begins with the deletion of negative statements about self and others. A negative statement freezes one in time and space without room for harmonization. For example, when the Tsalagi first met the settlers, the term used to describe them was “acts like a mean man” — “acts like” instead of “is”, so as not to freeze them in the character of meanness, leaving room for essential perfection to manifest.
To manifest fully, an affirmation needs to be unambiguous, a simple and clear statement of one’s intentions. To make clear an affirmation, one first gives thanks for having a human life and the ability even to consider enlightened action.
Then, in the sanctuary of mind, one assesses the skills of this time and considers the goals and objectives to be accomplished — in three days, three months, three years, one’s lifetime — for the benefit of one’s family, clan, nation, planet, and future generations. Affirmation enables one’s unmanifest potential to become real through the following means:
1. Acknowledge the creative principle in yourself. Look at yourself in the mirror and greet yourself: “Hello, how are you?” Affirm, “I am alive, I am thankful, and I shall accomplish this day, for the benefit of myself, my family, and all beings, these three specific things . . . .” Repeat the affirmation three times. You may say, “On this day I shall respond with compassion to any anger or frustration,” or “On this day I shall listen without interrupting.” One states very clearly an objective of clear relationship.
2. Affirm, “I shall realize my creative gifts”, repeating this affirmation also three times. And visualize in your mind’s eye the accomplishment of such tasks. For example, if you wish to have better relationship with coworkers, visualize you and your co-workers seated in a circle, surrounded by rose light, talking heart to heart and accomplishing great works. It is important to believe your words and to cultivate faith that you will manifest your sacred gifts in this life. Another example: Suppose you are addicted to tobacco, alcohol, coffee, or unwholesome food. The first step is to acknowledge that this is something that will be put aside. Then affirm, “I am free from attachment to…” repeating three times. And see yourself surrounded in light, happy, healthy, active, free from attachment, those objects of craving or attachment no longer present in your life, your mind-stream.
To actualize is to manifest the ideal, through sacred practice, great diligence, perseverance, and perspiration. To actualize is to make real a vision of peace for the people and the land. It is the happening and the doing. You bring your mind to stability with thankfulness, prayer, and meditation. The actualization of your idea — be it the idea to be free from drinking intoxicants or to build your home — is apparent in your actually putting aside that to which you were attached or beginning to create designs for your new home. This is the wakening of clear energy to bring forth your visualized goals and your creative potential.
Another example: You hoped, you prayed to make your family relationships clearer. Your vision of family harmony, magnetized by your prayer, your affirmation, and your action in generating peace, is manifested as a family gathering free of previous negative patterns. Through the process of magnetizing and actualizing what is beneficial for all, patterns that have obscured clarity of thought and relationship become less and less grasping, they become more transparent until finally they disperse. The actualization is the beauteous result derived from the skillful means of the third sacred fire.
Will is the neutron, compassion the proton, and the energy of actualization the electrons in the outer ring, wisdom that succeeds, bonding in good relationships. In your life, the clear intention to manifest your sacred gifts, to bring forth your creative potential and establish good relationships, is the neutron of will. So here we are, weaving patterns in a dream.
********************
ENSEÑANZAS DEL PUEBLO CHEROQUI
1. Cuantocamina, nada, vuela o se arrastra está en relación; las montañas, torrentes y valles y todas las cosas, están relacionadas con tus pensamientos y acciones.
2. Cuanto sucede en tu entorno y en tu interior es reflejo de tu propia mente y te muestra el sueño que tu mismo tejes.
3. Tres principios de la mente pura sirven de guía a la acción iluminada: la voluntad de ver el Misterio tal como es; la intención de exteriorizar los propósitos personales en provecho de todos; el valor necesario para hacer lo que es debido.
4. La generosidad de corazón y la generosidad puesta en la acción aportan paz y abundancia a todos los integrantes del círculo.
5. El respeto por los mayores, el clan, la tierra y la nación inspira una conducta de armonía con la ley sagrada,, el cuidado de los dones recibidos.
6. Las acciones realizadas por el bien de la tierra y de los hombres y cuyos efectos se prolongan por siete generaciones dan forma a la consciencia del Guardián Planetario, que sueña con quienes no han nacido aún, siempre atento al despliegue de la vida.
7. Mantenerse en buenas relaciiones, transformando las pautas de separación, apaciguando las emociones conflictivas, es experimentar la sabiduría interior, el lago inmóvil del Misterio.
DE ESTAS ENSEÑANZAS EMANAN NUEVE PRECPTOS QUE CONTIENEN ELCODIGO DE RECTAS RELACIONES.
1. Pronuncia únicamente palabras sinceras.
2. Habla sólo de las buenas cualidades de los demás.
3. Sé un confidente y nunca divulgues murmuraciones.
4. Descorre el velo de la ira para liberar la belleza inmanente en todas las cosas.
5. No malgastes la abundancia ni la desees.
6. Reverencia la luz existente en todas las cosas. Nunca hagas comparaciones; considera las cosas por su propia esencia.
7. Respeta todas las formas de vida; extirpa la ignorancia de tu propio corazón.
8. No malgastes ni albergues pensamientos de naturaleza colérica, que destruyen la paz como una flecha.
9. Haz las cosas en el momento; si observas algo que debe hacerse, hazlo.
VOCES DE NUESTROS ANTEPASADOS. DESPERTAR EN EL SUEÑO
“Despertar en el sueño y asentar los pies firmemente en el Sendero de la Belleza es una práctica Tsalagi que permite desarrollar la consciencia. Cuando obramos en la mente o en el sueño tiene efectos tan tangibles como nuestros actos físicos. Cuando controlamos nuestra mente galopante y la dirigimos a lo largo del sendero, alcanzamos nuestro destino: el hogar del aro, el origen del sueño.
Recordar que estamos en un sueño, supone mantenerse en contacto con el flujo de la mente a medida que devana su camino a través de las distintas esferas de la consciencia. El fértil creciente lunar, sembrado de deseos, pensamientos y acciones, representa un camino que refleja el propósito solar de cada uno de nosotros en esta vida.
Abuelo Luna (Nudawa Guiniduda) refleja la luz de Adawee. La claridad de tal reflejo queda determinada por la consciencia que cada uno posea del ideal sagrado. El ojo de la sabiduría se abre cuando culminamos una acción en el sueño, como alzar los brazos hacia el Cielo convocando a la suave lluvia para que derrame sus aguas sobre la tierra sedienta”
Voces de nuestros Antepasados. Enseñanzas del pueblo Cheroqui de Dhyani Ywahoo
Our Hearts & Heart of Earth Are One
The first half of this recording is designed for you to sit and meditate with. Meditation practice can help one live more fully and consciously. This simple daily ritual can deepen awareness of one’s own true nature, life purpose and inherent unity with all life. the Sunray meditation practice uses light, sound, breath, and visualization to cultivate and strengthen these awarenesses.
LIGHT AND SOUND to attune us with the pure vibration that is the essence of all form.
BREATH, as our most present, basic connection with the life force in every cell of our being.
VISUALIZATIONS of sacred symbols to strengthen cler ideation through which form is created. It is our choice to create a world of beauty and maintain right relationship with ourselves, our communities and the planet.
For your meditation practice, you can create a sacred space by meditating in the same place at the same time each day. Have near you a candle, incense, water, and any other objects which evoke clarity and harmony. Begin by sitting quietly with the recording. Feeling the power of the sound and vizualization. Then chant with the tape and see the visualizations with your inner eye. Eventually you will be able to practice without the tape.
In the second half of the recording, Venerable Dhyani is joined by Paul Temple in spirited and inspiring chanting and music. The vibrancy and aliveness of this music and chanting give access to the spiritual power of ancient Native sound.
Recorded 1984.
**********
Basic Meditation and Star Weaving
Transcribed from a recording of the Sunray Basic Meditation Practice by Venerable Dhyani Ywahoo
This is a practice of mindfulness coming from the tradition of the Tslagi people, the Cherokee people. Mindfulness that one may ever be in good relation with oneself and others and the understanding that each of us is weaving a dream and determining our reality.
By calling upon the power of chant, the power of affirmation, the energy of visualization the mind is brought to stability. One is able to perceive the stream of thought and be in good relation.
Yourself, you are a calm lake and your thoughts, they are ripples in that lake and those ripples go out and touch many others and those ripples return to you. Or you may be weaving a rug with your thought your intention, your desire to act. And your actions they are determining the warp and woof of your reality. Let that rug be a rug of beauty a beauty road. Let the lake ever be placid reflecting the clear mind within.
So this practice, it is very old, it is over a 100 thousand years old. In the long long time ago this practice came with the people from the stars to Elohi Mona, the land of Atlantis. So the people came and carried a crystal message a reminder of the pure gem of wisdom within, that as human beings we have a sacred duty, and responsibility, to take care in our thoughts, care in one another, to cultivate the light of clear mind.
So that one can overcome the impediments to that clarity of thought and right relationship, let anger be transformed to compassion, jealousy to care, greed to sharing, pain to no shame no blame, dishonestly to truth. All of these things can separate one from the essential truth within. Even though acting in ignorance we can always come again to that pure mind within through discipline of the mind and awakening the heart to the spirit of generosity. Thru acting in consideration of how it will be for the people seven generations from now.
So you see, your thinking, it is a sacred trust, your action and deeds let them be deeds of future good relations with the earth and the people. Let what you do now bring forth what is good for people. May the attitudes which obscure clear mind many they be transmuted by this practice.
It is passed by Nellie Yawhoo, Eonah Fisher and Eli Ywahoo.
For over 27 generations this mystery has been passed along.
**********
Nine Precepts in Code of Right Relationship
Speak only words of truth
Speak only of the good qualities of others.
Be a confident, and carry no tales.
Turn aside the veil of anger to release the beauty inherent to all.
Waste not the bounty, and want not.
Honor the light in all-compare nothing; see all for its suchness.
Respect all life; cut away the ignorance from one’s own heart.
Neither kill nor harbour thoughts of angry nature, which destroy peace like a bullet.
Do it now; if you see what needs doing, do it.
************
Actualizing our
Life Purpose
by Dhyani Ywahoo
Dhyani YwahooHow to establish the priorities in your life, to make the right order? The first priority in life is to be true to the creative principle within yourself — to recognize that you have the gift of life and to be a caretaker of that gift. Second is the responsibility to your parents, your family, and your friends — to see the best within them. To call forth the best within others, to understand your special purpose and reason for life, and not to give away what you know until you are certain it will grow — that is important.
How to be sure of your purpose? Look at what comes easily. What are the gifts that most easily manifest in your life in this present moment? What are the areas that you feel called to work in? Are the skills there or not? When do you feel the most clear flow of energy? What part of the Earth are you comfortable upon? As we analyze that energy, as we analyze the sense of fullness and relaxation in the heart and the sense of feeling strong or weak, we are more able to make a clear determination of what our particular skills are and what areas we are to develop further in this lifetime.
Sometimes we have four or five purposes in one life. Some people flower swiftly and realize many accomplishments. Others are like some very rare orchid, slowly developing and blossoming, almost in secret, and then years and years later, when people have forgotten that the seed was planted there, it flowers. So we needn’t be concerned about when or how we recognize ourselves to please others. We understand our true entity in accordance with our life purpose and the unfoldment of our own vision and the accumulations of thought force around us from this and other lifetimes. The wise person goes to the heart of the matter, examining the heart of his or her own nature.
First responsibility: to know yourself, understand your own mind. Knowledge of self is knowledge of will, the clear intention to be, seeing its threads as it weaves through all aspects of life. And it is each one’s responsibility to understand one’s family, one’s relatives.
Understanding of your family is recognition of the lunar and solar energy within yourself, the positive, the negative, the mother, the father — and how within the center of your spine there is emptiness and the potential of the childlike wisdom body coming forth. Your relationship with your co-workers and your clan is also very important, and the land you live in, and the nation.
As you more finely tune your concentration of mind upon manifesting your potential in a creative and harmonious way, there is the reciprocity of the universe saying, “That is good”. For the young college student, it is the unexpected grant; for the business person, it may be people saying, “I want that product”. Always the universe is responding to our question, “This is good, this is correct”, or perhaps, “Wait upon that”. So we don’t make a decision alone. We make our decision in relationship to the world around us. How is my duty as an individual, how are my gifts as an individual benefiting the world? How is it coming back? Can I write something that will help the people?
Sometimes we are aware of our gifts and wonder what we will need to bring them clear. How to turn aside what obscures our great potential? This is very important. Here you may call upon the creative power of ritual. Make a special place, a shrine area, a praying place, a studying place, observing your own nature and all of the world from that place. Make offerings of sage and sweetgrass or frankincense and myrrh, whatever is good for you, to clarify the space. In the mind’s eye, in the heart’s eye, surround the area with light, that you may have clear direction, clear connection with the seed of your perfect mind. Then look and see if there are certain attitudes of mind that stand in the way. Sometimes people are afraid of success; that is a common fear. How to overcome this fear of success, of accomplishing your goal? That is laziness, actually, because you know you can accomplish, but all these little ifs and what-nots come up.
How to overcome those ifs and what-nots? How is it that we have lost our self-empowerment? How is it that we have lost the essential peace that is within each of us? What are the attitudes and thoughts that stand in the way of our seeing clearly that which we are? In the Native American way of understanding, the first illusion we are faced with is the illusion of pride, of superior and inferior. In the circle all things are related, neither up nor down. Nothing is alone; everything is together. We are in the family of life. Each of us is carrying that spark of will, that spark of clear mind. We each have a special purpose and reason for being here in this time. To uncover that sacred purpose we take a vision quest, a journey within. In a journey to the Temple of Understanding we can clarify our understanding and come to true knowing of our gift and purpose in this time.
The Temple of Understanding is within us and all around. Within this temple there is a great library where the records of all things are kept. The library is a study room for each and every one of us, in which we have stored away all the programs of our expression in this life and the other lives that are coexisting. As you look, you want first to affirm the purpose of being here, to do good, and then to look at the patterns of living that have been moving you through this life, to see if they are in harmony with your primary purpose in this lifetime. If they are not, there is a fire that always burns and never smokes, there within the temple. This fire is where the old patterns are to be thrown as we write out a new model of consciousness, a very clear affirmation of our purpose.
If we sense fear in ourselves about meeting our divine qualities and the power of our being, the creative force, we want to take that script and burn it and write a new one, a script that says, “I will be all that I am to be and will manifest all of my gifts.” It is also good to look at relationships, to see how we share with other people. Where are the points of least resistance and clearest communication? Affirm those bridges, those fibers of life. And the obstructions, the attitudes and patterns of relationship that stand in the way of your fully manifesting your potential, they are to be taken down, released, offered to the fire.
Basically, there are seven kinds of human beings, that is how the Tsalagi people have said. There is the person who is moving along the line of will; that may be the timekeeper, the drummer. There is the Peacekeeper, the White Chief who never sheds blood; that is the person along the compassionate way, the one who always seeks to bring peace and turn aside anger through prayer and generous actions. There is the one who builds through envisioning, the one who sees along the golden light of clear mind and brings forth with hand and word and action what is beneficial to all. Then there are the builders of lovely places, who bring the dream into solid formation for the benefit of all and who have a way of understanding and communicating along the entire stream of the clan mind, the group mind. And there are the scientists, the ones who have looked at the particulars, who have watched very carefully to see, “Oh, this and this together has a certain effect upon the environment, this and this together brings forth the wisdom of bioresonance; the mountain man has lofty thoughts, and the man by the shore has the wisdom of the waves.” This is the science of bioresonance, seeing the particular wisdom within each one and recognizing that it is all one. And there is the person who understands the wisdom of the heart, one who is devoted to the ideal, to bringing forth for the benefit of all beings what is good. This one is concerned, not with science, not with the how, but just with being and doing, complete devotion for the benefit of all the people. Then there is the shaker, the transformer, the lifeforce maker. That is one who shakes aside old thought forms, turning aside what needs to be turned aside. That is the person who wears the amethyst; that is the person who glows with the violet flame.
Each of us at some point in our life is radiating and resonating according to those different rays. As we come to complete integration we make a decision: Will we continue our work for just our own enlightenment alone, or will we continue to work for the benefit of all beings? Will we continue on Earth, or shall we become the seed of a future life, a future planet? These islands in times of confusion, these beings who decide to make a way station for the expanding mind, they are very wondrous teachers. My teacher, my grandmother Nellie, she has become a planet. Her heart was so big, her prayers were so pure. Always she brought people home to eat with her, and sometimes her children and others would say, “Why is this?” And she would look and smile and say, “Have you enough, my dear?” She was reminding us of the abundant universe and the power of compassion. The gift of giving is the gift of receiving. So it was her path to carry her way beyond this time to create a resting place for those minds that have expanded beyond the learning of the Earth. And others decide to stay on Earth until the last person, the last being, recognizes and understands the Mystery of life.
Be aware of the power of mind, remember that we are all in process, unfolding, and let yourself know freedom from the suffering of doubt. We can choose, we can weave; we hold the form, we dance it, and the moment comes when it is recalled in each of us. We are human beings. We can live in harmony and dignity. We can make peace, we empower ourselves to be peaceful. That is an affirmation, that is a hope, that is a vision. By the power of its sound it is a reality.
May our hearts ever recognize the clear light of mind. Let us affirm our wholeness as human beings. Let us affirm the mode of complementary resolution in ourselves and in all our relationships. Let us honor the light of clear mind in each one we meet. The Beauty Path, the Great Peace, is the meeting of ourselves, the perception of our minds, and the cessation of those waves and thought forms that create discord. Let us sow the seed of peace in all our actions, thoughts, and words. Let us renew the sacred hoop.
******************************