From another angle

[Elaine]

hi

[Don Wood]

It is good to hear another perspective. It enriches our understanding and our lives. Thanks. Don

[Larry]

Golly Gee whiz Elaine i must confess you either went over my head or just plain exposed my ignorance.The only thing i think i got out of what you wrote and by the way i am part American Indian as my GrandFather on my mother's side was Cherokee.

Now back to what i was saying and that is the only thing i think i understood is If i think or imagine the Moon is really made of green cheese then according to the Lakota Student it is.

You know if one studied the Religious believe's of the Indian one would or at least i did notice the strong similarity between there belief's and the Ancient Jew's.In fact in Cherokee legend there is a flood story and a creation story not to unlike the one Jew's,Christian's and Muslim's tell.

But at least the sharing of different belief's sometime's to me show a common thread that i often think tell's us we came from a common geneology.........

Larry

[Elaine]

hi

[Elaine]

Larry,

Well the third one is a bit confusing and I probably worded it wrong. I think he meant that anything we can imagine must be a possiblity or else we could not have the thought. It is comforting to think that if we can imagine a cure for cancer then it can be. It is also comforting to believe that we will be with our loved ones after death. I can imagine winning a million dollars, but I doubt that will ever happen--but it IS a possibility.

I think the thing the three "ideas" have in common is that we may be looking at illness in such a way that we wont find a cure unless we can adjust our thinking.

Imagination and science have a long history. Think of how many discoveries were made with the aha! method then put to test with the scientific method--most all. Thus, if we take away art and music from our schools, are we ensuring the imaginations of our children are going to be so limiited that science will struggle more. Also television in the past has done little to foster imagination--quite the contrary.

Lakotas believe that for every ailment there is a cure in the environment. I hope that still is the case despite the many thousands of species that have been destroyed on this earth in just the past hundred or so years.

Their "doctors" are also their spiritual leaders. Prayer is combined with medicine in a totally inseparable way. There is also a different attitude toward death. There is less fear and more acceptance. It's hard to explain. But mainly that life is a circle. We go back to where we came. We are not moving linearly towards old age and death, but we are moving toward our beginning. We may say we believe that, too, but as a society we do all kinds of things to avoid growing old as if it is something to be feared instead of welcomed.

The fact that humans are the youngest of all living things should make us feel humble in face of the environment instead of feeling superior to the rest of nature and trying to conqueor it and rob it of its gifts. Traditional Lakota belief says that all things, not man made, are alive and have spirit. Thus each thing has a lesson that we are to learn from it. If we ignore that which surrounds us and don't observe it, then we don't learn what we need to learn. Worse if we destroy that which surrounds us, the lessons and cures won't exist.

I think the point I might be getting at is that industrialized societies need to "learn" a little bit from indigenous ways of thinking and being in order to solve the problems that face us, problems we have caused in many ways with technology and greed.

I hope I am not sounding like some "new age" person because I am not. The new age movement has distorted these thoughts and made them into something almost laughable--crystals and stuff. These ways of looking at the world are imbedded in the traditions and place and persons. I can't begin to really decribe with OUR language that which just "is" within another culture.

As for the stories of American Indians. I have done a little reading on that and one thing a person must beware of in looking at stories is whether the story originates prior to missionaries or not. And how the stories changed after the missionaries came to the reservations. It's really fascinating.

elaine

[Guest bean_si (Not Active)]

Personally I believe that everything has a spirit - that we need to learn respect for everything around us - mountains, lakes, earth, plants, butterflies, birds, animals....

I believe that all life is interconnected. What we do to the smallest of insects, has a reverberation in our own spirit. When we pray we increase the positive energy throughout the universe. When we are kind to another, when we smile, when we love, when we hug a child, we increase that good energy.

I believe truth is what we decide it to be. Everything we see, think, hear is a result of our perceptions.

Cat

[Larry]

Good point's Cat but i do not believe personally that plant's have a spirit unless one consider's that the fact it grow's and ages and dies in it's life span as being of spirit.

Elaine all ancient writing's and stories have a story of a great flood example i believe it was the incas in SA that in there recording's told of a great flood and this was all written before they had heard of Christian teaching's.......And as i recall the Indian in his relious experiences gave the Great Spirit as Highest honor's and fully accepted as part of his family all living thing's such as the deer,buffalo,fish .even the lightning and rain and snow as all proof of his caring for his children here....Thus i say the similarity as Christian's ,Jew's,Muslim's have a not to unlike relationship with our heavenly father or Great spirit as the indian's described him.I realize that i did not take this to deep in discussion but mearly did a generalization.....

Larry