Returning to Balance

The Native American Wisdom Tradition is far older than a thousand years. But it does not have millions of adherents today, though it may have a few centuries ago, before the Native American population was decimated by the coming of Europeans to North and South America. Yet the wisdom of these ancient tribes has been preserved and passed on in various ways, and I think it is important to share it with you.

I discovered that I have some resources for this wisdom on my bookshelf, and though the traditional way Native Americans always passed on their wisdom was personally and orally, I am taking the liberty of sharing the flowering wisdom I have found in the prayers, sayings, and speeches that have been preserved in books.

In today's first blog on the Native American Wisdom Tradition, I am quoting the introduction to a book called "Native American Wisdom" edited by Kent Nerburn and Louise Mengelkoch and a couple quotations from Native Americans themselves. I hope you will find them as instructive and wise as I have.

In 1492 Columbus and his crew, lost battered, and stricken with sysenterym, were helped ashore by a people he described as "neither black nor white...fairly tall, good looking and well proportioned." Believing he had landed in the East Indies, he called these people Indians. In fact they were part of a great population that had made its home on this continent for centuries.

The inhabitants of this land were not one people. Their customs differed. Their languages differed. Some tilled the earth; others hunted and picked the abundance of the land around them. They lived in different kinds of dwellings and governed themselves according to different rules.

But they shared in common a belief that the earth is a spiritual presence that must be honored, not mastered. Unfortunately, western europeans who came to these shores had a contrary belief. To them, the entire American continent was a beautiful but savage land that it was not only their right, but their duty, to tame and use as they saw fit.

Western civilization is now confronting the inevitable results of this philosophy of dominance.

We have gotten out of balance with our earth, and the very future of our planet depends on our capacity to restore that balance.

We are crying out for help, for a grounding in the truth of nature, for words of wisdom.

That wisdom is contained in the words of the native peoples of the Americas.

But these people speak quietly. Their words are simple and their voices soft.

We have not heard them because we have not taken the time to listen. Perhpas now the time is right for us to open our ears and hearts to the words they have to say.

It does not require many words to speak the truth. (Chief Joseph Nez Perce)

The first Americans mingled with their pride a singular humility.

Spiritual arrogance was foreign to their nature and teaching.

They never claimed that their power of articulate speech was proof of superiority over "dumb creation;"

on the other hand, speech to them was a perilous gift.

They believe profoundly in silence--the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise or balance of body, mind, and spirit.

Those who preserve themselves ever calm and unshaken by the storms of existence---not a leaf, as it were, astir on the tree, not a ripple upon the surface of the shining pool--their is the deal attitude and conduct of life. For them, silence is the cornerstone of character. (Charles alexander Eastman (Ohiyesa) Santee Sioux

Silence is meaningful for the Lakota, and their granting a space of silence before talking is done in the practice of true politeness and regardful of the rule that thought comes before speech. In the midst of sorrow, sickness, death, or misfortune of any kind, and in the presence of the notable and great, silence is the mark of respect. More powerful than words is silenc with the Lakota. Their strict observance of this tenet of good behavior is the reason, no doubt, for being given the false characterization by white people of being stoic, or dumb, stupid, indifferent, and unfeeling.

As a matter of truth, they are the most sympathetic of people, but their emotions of depth and sincerity are tempered with control. Silence means to the Lakota what it ment to Disraeli when he said, "Silence is the mother of truth." The silent people are the ones to be trusted, while those ever ready with speech are not taken seriously. (Chief Luther Standing Bear, Teton Sioux)

You must speak straight, so that your words may go as sunlight into our hearts. (Cochise)

My prayer of response:

Great Spirit of all people, sorrow fills my heart as I think of the lost lives and lost wisdom of the peoples who lived here for so long before my ancestors came to this beautiful land. Today we are reaping the tragic harvest

of our foolishness and destructiveness. May we who have settled in this land that was once theirs learn from what remains of their wisdom. May be treat this land with the same respect and care with which they treated it. May we not allow our greed to determine how we use the rich natural resources of this land, but rather what is best for the future of our children and grandchildren and the generations after them.

Help us to learn the wisdom of thoughtful and reverent silence. In that silence, may we listen again to Your wisdom in the whisper of the wind in the trees, the sounds of the creatures with which we share this earth,

and the voices of those who once roamed this land, living in harmony with it. amen.