“Most of the world’s cultures have a story about an ancient ‘golden age’ when people lived well without material wealth, simply, with no toil or stress, working together, sharing what they had with each other, caring for the ones who could not work, the sick, the very old and very young. Their joy was not in possession or status or power, but in each other, in the warmth and closeness of their hearts, in humor and laughter, the stories of the old ones, and the play and growing of the children, doing the task at hand well and carefully, in the beauty of the earth in all weather and all seasons…living in a circle and guided by the Original Instructions.”(OI, p.8)
The truth of such stories is not the material facts, he emphasizes, ”but the truth they speak to our inner understanding.”(OI, p.8) They may come from many messengers, but they share the same message.(OI, xvi)
“Black Elk said that when his people were strong and happy it was the result of living in a circle,” what they called, the Sacred Hoop.(OI, p.19) Indeed, “It appears to be that the earliest creatures we call humans lived in circles.”(OI, p.20) And this is “The important thing passed down to us from the old ones… that the Original Instructions are for human beings is to live in a circle.”(OI, p.25) The significance of the circle was that “The circle has no top or bottom. This reminds us that we are all equal on this earth… No greater or lesser. It has no beginning and no end.”(OI, p.19) “It was ‘one for all and all for one’.”(OI, p.20) “Always cooperating, as the survival of the individual depended on the survival of the group. That was the instruction they all understood…”(OI, p.20)
“When you are born and raised in a circle contained by other circles, in an extended family, in a clan, a compound, a village, you come to know well the other human beings there… There are no strangers, no institutions…”(IO, p.21) Such communities incorporate the natural wisdom that “All existence is relationship. Nothing is separate in existence. No one is alone.”(p.18) “They cared for all their beloved children as the children of all. Together they cared for the old ones who could no longer care for themselves.”(OI, p.20)
It is for this reason that Native Americans teach that the wisdom that we need is “to be found only in the book of nature,”(OI, xx) “Creation is one great web. All is in relationship, and it all works together. It functions eloquently. It fits.”(OI, p.12) “The strength of life is in its diversity,”(p.10) and “Everything in this web has its part. Everything is equal and important to the whole.”(OI, p.11) “Each functions and fulfills itself following its natural law, known to many Native people as the Original Instructions.”(OI, xvii)
But it is also true that “the truth of Creation is within you, within us all,” because we are an integral part of nature. And so there are three ways to learn to live in balance with the world around us, and these are:
1. by learning from the natural world
2. by looking inside ourselves
3. by way of learning from each other and those who came before us, ideally who had themselves learned from these natural sources. (OI, xvi)
The first recommendation for this would be to “go away from the man-made world for a time.”(p.11) “At the very least a full night and day.”(p.11) At first we may feel like an observer in that place, a visitor, a stranger…” But soon enough “we begin to feel at home there. We understand that we belong.”(p.11)
They lived in circles, in balance with each other, in harmony with nature.”(OI, p.24) Likewise, the sun and moon follow “the path that brings the renewing of the seasons in a circle.”(OI, xvii) As Black Elk said, “the earth, moon, sun, stars are all circles and move in circles, the greatest power of wind and water, in cyclones and maelstroms, are in spirals.”(OI, p.19) Like birth, youth, adulthood and old age, so the day cycles from dawn to midday, then evening to night. Likewise, the seasons from spring to summer, from fall and then winter.(OI, p.19) “Life grows, reproduces, and declines, eating and being eaten, transformed to new life. It all functions immaculately. There is a balance and a harmony to it all.”(OI, xvii)
What nature’s ancient wisdom offers us is the insight humans need to understand how to live “In harmony, in balance. Developing their minds, learning communication, cooperating. Creating language to communicate better and better skills, not only to survive but also to lead good and happy lives together.”(OI, p.7-8)
“The Original Instructions of living in a circle provide that there will always be a caring person at hand for the child who will listen with compassion and assure the child she only needs to express what she feels and the hurt will pass…and that despite the pain of that moment life will go on being good and manageable. When the children spontaneously express their feelings, and are heard and understood and encouraged, they are quickly forgotten, and the children move on.” Whereas “children who don’t have this resource, who have no one to run to, will not finish with the hurt.”(OI, p.23) “Without such resource and support, when they feel alone and abandoned, they retreat and store the confusing feelings. They will forget them, but they stay in unconsciousness memory and will return, making them once more alone and confused. Children who are neglected or abused will pile up these old hurts inside them,” where “they will turn toxic and poison from within with negative emotions and destructive patterns of behavior.”(OI, p. 23)
And his is how “human beings have forgotten their Original Instructions,”(OI, xvi) Manitonquat says. And it is also the reason it is imperative that we revive and pass on the ancient teachings now, because it is just such “human beings that have put [the earth] in jeopardy and only human beings that can save it.”(OI, xv)
How Alienation Sets In, and How it Heals
Ancient and Indigenous wisdom traditions wisely focused on the lessons taught by nature, and emphasized the best ways to pass these lessons on to our young. Nature knows what it’s doing, has reasons for everything it creates, and its diversity is its strength. Learning from it, we would grow in humility the wisdom to not interfere with its healthy processes. But nature is not our only teacher.
Native Americans tell another story, about an “impish character” named Cheepii, who had been fooled by one of Creator’s helpers into thinking there were “dark evil forces at work in the world making it a dangerous place.” He was told that to protect himself he should share ceremonies and rituals using “all the magic power he could find.” So Cheepii “spent all his time searching for power” to ward off this evil, and in the process, “neglected his family, his house, his canoe, his garden.” Others followed his example, but soon many things began to go wrong, and they “began to get sick, as people do when they worry too much.” So they sought out the healing wisdom of the first teacher who told them that whoever ha taught them “that the Creator has made mistakes and made bad things” was not telling them the truth.
“Creation is good and perfect in every way.”(CI, xvii) “Everything is working as it should,” and only those who forget the original instructions and instead follow those who teach there is evil “disturb the balance and harmony” and make trouble for themselves and others.
Those who understood this turned back to the cultivation of good, rather than the battle against evil, and grew strong again. But those who could not let go of “the story of darkness and evil” did not. And some of them continued “to play bad tricks” on the rest, as if to prove that “there really is evil in the world.” But those who had learned better only laughed, and said “’Oh, that’s just old Cheepii,’ and paid him no attention.
So eventually Cheepii just packed up and left, and no one knew where he went. But some of us figure he must have found other people who believe in his story,” says Manitonquat, “because about four hundred years ago we started getting all these boat people from over the sea who were all dressed in black and talking about Sin, Damnation, and the Devil.”(OI, p.xiv)
The truth is, “Human beings became human, became homo-sapiens sapiens by cooperating… For an individual to join a cooperation group it had to agree to work for the benefit of each one. Men, women, old, young, physically strong or weak, mentally fast or slow, the group had to protect and provide for all. Cooperation was the relationship devised by our weak and vulnerable hominid ancestors to protect and provide for themselves.”(OI, p.25)
There were probably exceptions, of course, because tribes, like people, have personalities, and once disrespect sets in by way of a few bad leaders or bad parents, a feedback cycle develops and people can become “neurotic or even sociopathic,”(IO, p.24) like those who listened to old Cheepii. When power is not distributed fairly, then “the need for power can unbalance and actually make a tribe,” like a person, in a sense “crazy.”(OI, p.24) But those who have been able to retain or relearn the old ways, “are a people at home with themselves and each other, relaxed and full of humor, watching the children grow, attending to the old ones who dream their lives again.”(IO, p.24) “The beloved elders have brought them to here, and now they care for them and show their gratitude. The little ones asleep are the delight of their days and the hope of the years that will come.”(OI, p.25)
“This is how it was for all people before the coming of civilization.”(OI, p.25) They lived in circles, in balance with each other, in harmony with nature.”(OI, p.24)
Films and novels that portray tribal life as filled with savagery and domination are “dramatic and commercial, but there is scant evidence for such a picture except the extrapolation the authors make from what they see as ‘human nature’.”(OI, p.23) This is a false picture of a people who, by and large, lived peacefully with themselves and their neighbors… “People conditioned by our culture think it would be human for those people to quarrel and to fight each other.” But as Manitonquat says, “from direct observation of the circle way of life, it would be human for them to be hospitable to strangers, to be friendly and curious, and to learn from each other. That is exactly what was reported by the Europeans in almost all of their first encounters with the native peoples of North America.”(OI, p.25)
“I see a million years and more,” said Manitonquat. “The earth rolling around the sun. The people [are] sitting around a fire telling stories, wondering about the stars. They are not fighting each other.”(OI, p. 24-25)
But “Now we learn that everything changes.”(p.7) Ideally, it changes “slowly, in harmony with all Creation.”(p.7) But now “We have gotten in trouble… Changing too fast, without the slow development of evolution.”(p. 7)
And as it is, “We live in an inhuman society of institutions, from government to business to education and health, which are pyramids. Power comes from the top, from the elite few who control the wealth and resources of the Earth. It is a society which, rather than supporting people, pit people against each other. Rather than a system of cooperation and equality, it is a system of competition, domination and subordination. Rather than bringing people together, it separates and divides. Rather than valuing love and companionship, creativity and learning and the beauty of the natural world, it turns people into consumers who are taught that happiness lies in wealth and status.”(OI, p.26)
And “what is the result of this alienation?” “It’s a civilization warped and twisted away from the trend of millions of years of evolution with more complex, rational, creative thought and into the madness of blind, unthinking rage, terror and desperation.”(OI, p.26) “This is what we think is normal. We say it’s just human nature.”(OI, p.26) But “It’s not. It’s insanity. It’s dehumanization.”(OI, p. 26)
The Power of Respect
“Respect is the primary instruction because it is the very minimum required of us to survive and not to interfere with the harmony of existence and the true purpose and processes of Creation.”(OI, p.10) “Whatever human beings have not crated they must respect.”(OI, p.9) “Some other power has caused all this to be.”(OI, p.9) “We do not know why the Creation exists. All we know is that it exists, it is really there, we are really here, so we must respect it all or we will surely destroy it.”(OI, p.9) “We are all relatives, and…what any member of our family does without respect has an unpredictable effect on the entire web of creation.”(OI, p.10) “Anything we diminish or destroy disturbs the whole in ways we cannot predict.”(OI, p.11)
“The way to teach respect, of course,” Manitonquat says, “is to show it and give it.”(OI, p.12) Unfortunately, in most modern cultures, “When we are young we do not see many examples of people respecting each other. Elders are not respected… They are ignored, pushed aside, sometimes abused, objects of humor and derision, at best only tolerated… The only thing that can be seen to be afforded respect is material wealth. So the moral message of this society is only that you must get rich, however you may do it, and then you will be sure to get respect.”(OI, p.12)
Those who believe this “have no belief or even knowledge of the spirit and try to content themselves with acquisitions of material things, of power and prestige among other human beings. Others, with a growing sense of spiritual emptiness, seek to fill that void through the scripture, books, rituals and disciplines devised by various human cultures over the centuries.”(OI, p.xviii) “Everyone takes what his culture gives and figures out how to survive. But survival is not enough and now our cultures threaten even that.”(OI, p.xviii)
“But there is a need in human beings for spiritual understanding.”(OI, p.11) And some may “try to fashion new religions eclectically borrowing and melding what still holds inspiration from all the world’s spiritual traditions.” But given the history of organized religion, many have “very little sense or belief in the sacred and the holy.”(OI, p.11) So “God, Allah, Kiektan…are only noises we fashion to be able to refer to what we don’t understand.”(OI, p.8) But too often “In our short history we have convinced ourselves that only our stories are true and we have often fought, killed, and died to convince others that we know better than they.”(OI, p.5)
So these are the bad habits we develop when “People have lost their instructions.”(OI, p.7) “We forget that we are family, that we are related not only to each other but to all that is.”(OI, p.5).
But “that many people may exhibit bad qualities and do bad things” should not lead us to conclude it is their nature, but to ask, why? It “should make us wonder what happened to them?” Because “they were born good,” and “they did not just suddenly decide to do bad things.” They learned that this is not only acceptable, but encouraged to be this way, and may even have come to think of this as necessary to their survival and well being…among so many others who do the same. What choice do we leave our young when we teach them that it is their nature, and others, to be selfish and greedy?
“In time of conflict or when mistakes are made the emphasis within the Indigenous world has been on reconciliation, healing, and fitting back together,” rather than on punishment and isolation.”(OI, Settee, 46) “Even when a person made mistakes in life, there were people that would counsel him or her. There was a process of reconciliation… This came about through discussions about how to get that person back into a balanced life and how to [help] that person aware of how to focus on what is important in life.”(OI, Settee, 46) “Wisdom from life experience, respect for the land, respect for nature…honoring ancestors and spirituality.”(OI, Settee, 46)
Native teaching “recount historic mistakes to remind us not to make them again,” learn from them…(OI, Nelson, 14) No one is perfect, and the fact that even the wise make “ecological mistakes” can’t be denied, in part because of the corrupting power and desperation of the trauma of colonization, assimilation…extreme poverty” in a “capitalistic” world.(OI, Nelson, 13) And “many Native Peoples have become ‘Americanized’ with the same materialism and greed as anyone else and have been conditioned to forget the earth and our nonhuman relatives.”(OI, Nelson, 13) This might help some understand that Americans too have gone through this process, in their own way. So the situation we ALL find ourselves in as adults, if we did not learn well or were conditioned into bad habits in our youth, is how to quit these habits, choose better ones, and reconcile the deficiencies in our education now, while there is still time? (mine*)
So let us ask, “What if all human beings were brought up believing the earth is precious…? What if we saw from birth, everyone around us being careful and respectful of the natural world…? What if we ourselves were respected as children by all adults and taught to respect ourselves?”(OI, p.12-13) What if we all learned when young to give and expect respect – and that “your right to live unmolested, to live freely without harming others, [is] a sacred right?”(OI, p.13)
So here we see the role for dialogic education. For self-respect can be recovered in the same way that it is developed to begin with – in circles of mutual respect. Like “a child born to such a community,” Manitonquat says, anyone who participates in such dialogic groups “will be able to express and so leave behind the hurts and negative feelings that arise.”(OI, p.23) “
Respect doesn’t mean liking,” Manitonquat emphasizes, “only the agreement to listen with an open mind and learn about a person.”(OI, p.17) Again, “the way to teach respect is to show it.”(OI, p.12) Unlike love (at least in our emotional connotations of the word love), “respect is something you can choose.”(OI, p, 12)
But even this requires that we respect ourselves. “It’s true that love is ultimately what we all seek. It is the greatest experience of human life, and it is even more important for us to give it than it is to receive it. But before we can love others, we must love ourselves…be our own best friend…learn of our own goodness.”(OI, p.17) So “Just ask yourself now, do you truly deeply respect yourself? If not, why not? That is a question worth delving into.”(OI, p.13)
“Respecting ourselves means giving ourselves good attention… Paying attention to our minds, to learning and planning and creating. Paying attention to our feelings, being aware, not afraid to feel uncomfortable feelings but not holding onto them, releasing them, letting them go. Celebrating the good feelings, beauty, joy love…” For “when we respect ourselves and pay attention, “ then “we may become aware of something in us that is connected to something infinite and eternal. “(OI, p.14) “As we get to know ourselves more fully we get to understand ourselves…to like ourselves. We get closer to our real selves.” And only “then, because it is our nature, we start to love ourselves.”(OI, p. 14) For “we cannot truly love others unless we love ourselves.” And so “as we have seen that must begin with respect.”(OI, 14)
Manitonquat reports that, having worked with prison inmates for many years, “No matter what terrible things they may have done it has not destroyed the basic human goodness with which they were born.”(OI, p.16) And this goodness emerges again with respect. For “in our circle they were respected, probably for the first time in their lives. They were not respected at home, at school, by teachers, counselors, social workers, police, lawyers, judges, and certainly not in jail.” But “the agreement of the circle is to respect each other. That has a profound impact, creates a safe space of understanding and trust, where it is possible for each to glimpse and seek to recover the hurt but good little child that still hides inside each one.”(OI, p.16) In such groups, they “build trust, openness and intimacy.”(OI, p.26) “It changes them.”(OI, p.26) Even those “who have been so deeply damaged by this domination system and its inhumanity, and …begin to recover their own humanity, the hopeful, caring, thoughtful, playful children they once were.” It “is always astounding, but every week of my life I witness such healing in our circles. And I see nothing else working so deeply, quickly and thoroughly.”(OI, p.26)
In fact, “most people in this sad, violent, crazy, often terrifying world really would want to live in a good way, to be respected and treated well by others. To have peace and security and freedom for themselves and their families… If they thought it was possible.”(OI, p.13) “I believe,” he says, “that the only people who would not desire this are those who have been so badly hurt and damaged that they must require a lot of very deep healing, (and that is a valuable work which yet can be accomplished with sufficient attention and time).”(OI, p.13) For it is just such people who are reigning their personal misery on the rest of the world, so it is in all our interest to help others heal, for “if you do not respect yourself you will not be able to fulfill yourself” and so not do your part. “You’ll get distracted. Perhaps abuse yourself, mistreat your body, neglect your mind. You may well allow yourself to get stuck in patterns that have no meaning, no joy, no wonder, no purpose but bear survival. Killing time.”(OI, p.14) “That’s what happens when our human family is destroyed, when there is no closeness and understanding, no mutual support and kindness, and people are left to wander friendless and alone in a hostile world.”(OI, p.26)“The circle has the power to heal all that.” OI, p.26) Here, “human qualities are enhanced and negative ones minimized.”(OI, p.23) Some “people often say they can’t believe they got so close so quickly to complete strangers, closer in fact than they have been to their own friends and family, because they have taken the time in small circles to really listen to each other. They begin to heal… They start to find themselves and the gifts of Creation they are meant to give away.”(OI, p.27)
“Often…they begin to dream of how to make such a community in which to live the rest of their lives. They have begun to know this is their way, the human being way to live…in the Circle Way, following the Original Instructions.”(OI, p.27)
[1] (Xenophon 1990)
[2] (Xenophon 1990)
[3] (Xenophon 1990)
[4] (Xenophon 1990)
[5] (Xenophon 1990)
[6] (Sessions n.d.)
[7] (Sessions n.d.)
[i] Aristotle feels it necessary to remind some of what they were neglecting in their understanding of Socrates' views. For instance, Aristotle's main concern about Plato’s ‘forms’ seems to be then that, as popularly interpreted, (then and now) they could not explain change.[i] This concern shows the difference in his and Socrates' purposes -- Socrates having the purpose of affirming something lasting beneath change, and Aristotle affirming the importance of understanding change. While Socrates and Plato lament human ignorance of the forms (even as we pretend to 'know' so much about them) Aristotle in turn laments our chronic misunderstanding of the term, misunderstanding which comes in part from Socrates overemphasis on the forms as unchanging, separate and nameless. Another example is in his political philosophy, Aristotle takes a look at Plato's ideal state as it was understood by many in his time (if not Plato himself) and says, in effect, 'Look, that's a nice ideal, but you seem to be forgetting, or at any rate under-emphasizing, the importance of change. Everything living changes, whether by nature or by art,(Timaeus) and so everything is always either moving toward or moving away from its own best self.(Politics)
The truth of such stories is not the material facts, he emphasizes, ”but the truth they speak to our inner understanding.”(OI, p.8) They may come from many messengers, but they share the same message.(OI, xvi)
“Black Elk said that when his people were strong and happy it was the result of living in a circle,” what they called, the Sacred Hoop.(OI, p.19) Indeed, “It appears to be that the earliest creatures we call humans lived in circles.”(OI, p.20) And this is “The important thing passed down to us from the old ones… that the Original Instructions are for human beings is to live in a circle.”(OI, p.25) The significance of the circle was that “The circle has no top or bottom. This reminds us that we are all equal on this earth… No greater or lesser. It has no beginning and no end.”(OI, p.19) “It was ‘one for all and all for one’.”(OI, p.20) “Always cooperating, as the survival of the individual depended on the survival of the group. That was the instruction they all understood…”(OI, p.20)
“When you are born and raised in a circle contained by other circles, in an extended family, in a clan, a compound, a village, you come to know well the other human beings there… There are no strangers, no institutions…”(IO, p.21) Such communities incorporate the natural wisdom that “All existence is relationship. Nothing is separate in existence. No one is alone.”(p.18) “They cared for all their beloved children as the children of all. Together they cared for the old ones who could no longer care for themselves.”(OI, p.20)
It is for this reason that Native Americans teach that the wisdom that we need is “to be found only in the book of nature,”(OI, xx) “Creation is one great web. All is in relationship, and it all works together. It functions eloquently. It fits.”(OI, p.12) “The strength of life is in its diversity,”(p.10) and “Everything in this web has its part. Everything is equal and important to the whole.”(OI, p.11) “Each functions and fulfills itself following its natural law, known to many Native people as the Original Instructions.”(OI, xvii)
But it is also true that “the truth of Creation is within you, within us all,” because we are an integral part of nature. And so there are three ways to learn to live in balance with the world around us, and these are:
1. by learning from the natural world
2. by looking inside ourselves
3. by way of learning from each other and those who came before us, ideally who had themselves learned from these natural sources. (OI, xvi)
The first recommendation for this would be to “go away from the man-made world for a time.”(p.11) “At the very least a full night and day.”(p.11) At first we may feel like an observer in that place, a visitor, a stranger…” But soon enough “we begin to feel at home there. We understand that we belong.”(p.11)
They lived in circles, in balance with each other, in harmony with nature.”(OI, p.24) Likewise, the sun and moon follow “the path that brings the renewing of the seasons in a circle.”(OI, xvii) As Black Elk said, “the earth, moon, sun, stars are all circles and move in circles, the greatest power of wind and water, in cyclones and maelstroms, are in spirals.”(OI, p.19) Like birth, youth, adulthood and old age, so the day cycles from dawn to midday, then evening to night. Likewise, the seasons from spring to summer, from fall and then winter.(OI, p.19) “Life grows, reproduces, and declines, eating and being eaten, transformed to new life. It all functions immaculately. There is a balance and a harmony to it all.”(OI, xvii)
What nature’s ancient wisdom offers us is the insight humans need to understand how to live “In harmony, in balance. Developing their minds, learning communication, cooperating. Creating language to communicate better and better skills, not only to survive but also to lead good and happy lives together.”(OI, p.7-8)
“The Original Instructions of living in a circle provide that there will always be a caring person at hand for the child who will listen with compassion and assure the child she only needs to express what she feels and the hurt will pass…and that despite the pain of that moment life will go on being good and manageable. When the children spontaneously express their feelings, and are heard and understood and encouraged, they are quickly forgotten, and the children move on.” Whereas “children who don’t have this resource, who have no one to run to, will not finish with the hurt.”(OI, p.23) “Without such resource and support, when they feel alone and abandoned, they retreat and store the confusing feelings. They will forget them, but they stay in unconsciousness memory and will return, making them once more alone and confused. Children who are neglected or abused will pile up these old hurts inside them,” where “they will turn toxic and poison from within with negative emotions and destructive patterns of behavior.”(OI, p. 23)
And his is how “human beings have forgotten their Original Instructions,”(OI, xvi) Manitonquat says. And it is also the reason it is imperative that we revive and pass on the ancient teachings now, because it is just such “human beings that have put [the earth] in jeopardy and only human beings that can save it.”(OI, xv)
How Alienation Sets In, and How it Heals
Ancient and Indigenous wisdom traditions wisely focused on the lessons taught by nature, and emphasized the best ways to pass these lessons on to our young. Nature knows what it’s doing, has reasons for everything it creates, and its diversity is its strength. Learning from it, we would grow in humility the wisdom to not interfere with its healthy processes. But nature is not our only teacher.
Native Americans tell another story, about an “impish character” named Cheepii, who had been fooled by one of Creator’s helpers into thinking there were “dark evil forces at work in the world making it a dangerous place.” He was told that to protect himself he should share ceremonies and rituals using “all the magic power he could find.” So Cheepii “spent all his time searching for power” to ward off this evil, and in the process, “neglected his family, his house, his canoe, his garden.” Others followed his example, but soon many things began to go wrong, and they “began to get sick, as people do when they worry too much.” So they sought out the healing wisdom of the first teacher who told them that whoever ha taught them “that the Creator has made mistakes and made bad things” was not telling them the truth.
“Creation is good and perfect in every way.”(CI, xvii) “Everything is working as it should,” and only those who forget the original instructions and instead follow those who teach there is evil “disturb the balance and harmony” and make trouble for themselves and others.
Those who understood this turned back to the cultivation of good, rather than the battle against evil, and grew strong again. But those who could not let go of “the story of darkness and evil” did not. And some of them continued “to play bad tricks” on the rest, as if to prove that “there really is evil in the world.” But those who had learned better only laughed, and said “’Oh, that’s just old Cheepii,’ and paid him no attention.
So eventually Cheepii just packed up and left, and no one knew where he went. But some of us figure he must have found other people who believe in his story,” says Manitonquat, “because about four hundred years ago we started getting all these boat people from over the sea who were all dressed in black and talking about Sin, Damnation, and the Devil.”(OI, p.xiv)
The truth is, “Human beings became human, became homo-sapiens sapiens by cooperating… For an individual to join a cooperation group it had to agree to work for the benefit of each one. Men, women, old, young, physically strong or weak, mentally fast or slow, the group had to protect and provide for all. Cooperation was the relationship devised by our weak and vulnerable hominid ancestors to protect and provide for themselves.”(OI, p.25)
There were probably exceptions, of course, because tribes, like people, have personalities, and once disrespect sets in by way of a few bad leaders or bad parents, a feedback cycle develops and people can become “neurotic or even sociopathic,”(IO, p.24) like those who listened to old Cheepii. When power is not distributed fairly, then “the need for power can unbalance and actually make a tribe,” like a person, in a sense “crazy.”(OI, p.24) But those who have been able to retain or relearn the old ways, “are a people at home with themselves and each other, relaxed and full of humor, watching the children grow, attending to the old ones who dream their lives again.”(IO, p.24) “The beloved elders have brought them to here, and now they care for them and show their gratitude. The little ones asleep are the delight of their days and the hope of the years that will come.”(OI, p.25)
“This is how it was for all people before the coming of civilization.”(OI, p.25) They lived in circles, in balance with each other, in harmony with nature.”(OI, p.24)
Films and novels that portray tribal life as filled with savagery and domination are “dramatic and commercial, but there is scant evidence for such a picture except the extrapolation the authors make from what they see as ‘human nature’.”(OI, p.23) This is a false picture of a people who, by and large, lived peacefully with themselves and their neighbors… “People conditioned by our culture think it would be human for those people to quarrel and to fight each other.” But as Manitonquat says, “from direct observation of the circle way of life, it would be human for them to be hospitable to strangers, to be friendly and curious, and to learn from each other. That is exactly what was reported by the Europeans in almost all of their first encounters with the native peoples of North America.”(OI, p.25)
“I see a million years and more,” said Manitonquat. “The earth rolling around the sun. The people [are] sitting around a fire telling stories, wondering about the stars. They are not fighting each other.”(OI, p. 24-25)
But “Now we learn that everything changes.”(p.7) Ideally, it changes “slowly, in harmony with all Creation.”(p.7) But now “We have gotten in trouble… Changing too fast, without the slow development of evolution.”(p. 7)
And as it is, “We live in an inhuman society of institutions, from government to business to education and health, which are pyramids. Power comes from the top, from the elite few who control the wealth and resources of the Earth. It is a society which, rather than supporting people, pit people against each other. Rather than a system of cooperation and equality, it is a system of competition, domination and subordination. Rather than bringing people together, it separates and divides. Rather than valuing love and companionship, creativity and learning and the beauty of the natural world, it turns people into consumers who are taught that happiness lies in wealth and status.”(OI, p.26)
And “what is the result of this alienation?” “It’s a civilization warped and twisted away from the trend of millions of years of evolution with more complex, rational, creative thought and into the madness of blind, unthinking rage, terror and desperation.”(OI, p.26) “This is what we think is normal. We say it’s just human nature.”(OI, p.26) But “It’s not. It’s insanity. It’s dehumanization.”(OI, p. 26)
The Power of Respect
“Respect is the primary instruction because it is the very minimum required of us to survive and not to interfere with the harmony of existence and the true purpose and processes of Creation.”(OI, p.10) “Whatever human beings have not crated they must respect.”(OI, p.9) “Some other power has caused all this to be.”(OI, p.9) “We do not know why the Creation exists. All we know is that it exists, it is really there, we are really here, so we must respect it all or we will surely destroy it.”(OI, p.9) “We are all relatives, and…what any member of our family does without respect has an unpredictable effect on the entire web of creation.”(OI, p.10) “Anything we diminish or destroy disturbs the whole in ways we cannot predict.”(OI, p.11)
“The way to teach respect, of course,” Manitonquat says, “is to show it and give it.”(OI, p.12) Unfortunately, in most modern cultures, “When we are young we do not see many examples of people respecting each other. Elders are not respected… They are ignored, pushed aside, sometimes abused, objects of humor and derision, at best only tolerated… The only thing that can be seen to be afforded respect is material wealth. So the moral message of this society is only that you must get rich, however you may do it, and then you will be sure to get respect.”(OI, p.12)
Those who believe this “have no belief or even knowledge of the spirit and try to content themselves with acquisitions of material things, of power and prestige among other human beings. Others, with a growing sense of spiritual emptiness, seek to fill that void through the scripture, books, rituals and disciplines devised by various human cultures over the centuries.”(OI, p.xviii) “Everyone takes what his culture gives and figures out how to survive. But survival is not enough and now our cultures threaten even that.”(OI, p.xviii)
“But there is a need in human beings for spiritual understanding.”(OI, p.11) And some may “try to fashion new religions eclectically borrowing and melding what still holds inspiration from all the world’s spiritual traditions.” But given the history of organized religion, many have “very little sense or belief in the sacred and the holy.”(OI, p.11) So “God, Allah, Kiektan…are only noises we fashion to be able to refer to what we don’t understand.”(OI, p.8) But too often “In our short history we have convinced ourselves that only our stories are true and we have often fought, killed, and died to convince others that we know better than they.”(OI, p.5)
So these are the bad habits we develop when “People have lost their instructions.”(OI, p.7) “We forget that we are family, that we are related not only to each other but to all that is.”(OI, p.5).
But “that many people may exhibit bad qualities and do bad things” should not lead us to conclude it is their nature, but to ask, why? It “should make us wonder what happened to them?” Because “they were born good,” and “they did not just suddenly decide to do bad things.” They learned that this is not only acceptable, but encouraged to be this way, and may even have come to think of this as necessary to their survival and well being…among so many others who do the same. What choice do we leave our young when we teach them that it is their nature, and others, to be selfish and greedy?
“In time of conflict or when mistakes are made the emphasis within the Indigenous world has been on reconciliation, healing, and fitting back together,” rather than on punishment and isolation.”(OI, Settee, 46) “Even when a person made mistakes in life, there were people that would counsel him or her. There was a process of reconciliation… This came about through discussions about how to get that person back into a balanced life and how to [help] that person aware of how to focus on what is important in life.”(OI, Settee, 46) “Wisdom from life experience, respect for the land, respect for nature…honoring ancestors and spirituality.”(OI, Settee, 46)
Native teaching “recount historic mistakes to remind us not to make them again,” learn from them…(OI, Nelson, 14) No one is perfect, and the fact that even the wise make “ecological mistakes” can’t be denied, in part because of the corrupting power and desperation of the trauma of colonization, assimilation…extreme poverty” in a “capitalistic” world.(OI, Nelson, 13) And “many Native Peoples have become ‘Americanized’ with the same materialism and greed as anyone else and have been conditioned to forget the earth and our nonhuman relatives.”(OI, Nelson, 13) This might help some understand that Americans too have gone through this process, in their own way. So the situation we ALL find ourselves in as adults, if we did not learn well or were conditioned into bad habits in our youth, is how to quit these habits, choose better ones, and reconcile the deficiencies in our education now, while there is still time? (mine*)
So let us ask, “What if all human beings were brought up believing the earth is precious…? What if we saw from birth, everyone around us being careful and respectful of the natural world…? What if we ourselves were respected as children by all adults and taught to respect ourselves?”(OI, p.12-13) What if we all learned when young to give and expect respect – and that “your right to live unmolested, to live freely without harming others, [is] a sacred right?”(OI, p.13)
So here we see the role for dialogic education. For self-respect can be recovered in the same way that it is developed to begin with – in circles of mutual respect. Like “a child born to such a community,” Manitonquat says, anyone who participates in such dialogic groups “will be able to express and so leave behind the hurts and negative feelings that arise.”(OI, p.23) “
Respect doesn’t mean liking,” Manitonquat emphasizes, “only the agreement to listen with an open mind and learn about a person.”(OI, p.17) Again, “the way to teach respect is to show it.”(OI, p.12) Unlike love (at least in our emotional connotations of the word love), “respect is something you can choose.”(OI, p, 12)
But even this requires that we respect ourselves. “It’s true that love is ultimately what we all seek. It is the greatest experience of human life, and it is even more important for us to give it than it is to receive it. But before we can love others, we must love ourselves…be our own best friend…learn of our own goodness.”(OI, p.17) So “Just ask yourself now, do you truly deeply respect yourself? If not, why not? That is a question worth delving into.”(OI, p.13)
“Respecting ourselves means giving ourselves good attention… Paying attention to our minds, to learning and planning and creating. Paying attention to our feelings, being aware, not afraid to feel uncomfortable feelings but not holding onto them, releasing them, letting them go. Celebrating the good feelings, beauty, joy love…” For “when we respect ourselves and pay attention, “ then “we may become aware of something in us that is connected to something infinite and eternal. “(OI, p.14) “As we get to know ourselves more fully we get to understand ourselves…to like ourselves. We get closer to our real selves.” And only “then, because it is our nature, we start to love ourselves.”(OI, p. 14) For “we cannot truly love others unless we love ourselves.” And so “as we have seen that must begin with respect.”(OI, 14)
Manitonquat reports that, having worked with prison inmates for many years, “No matter what terrible things they may have done it has not destroyed the basic human goodness with which they were born.”(OI, p.16) And this goodness emerges again with respect. For “in our circle they were respected, probably for the first time in their lives. They were not respected at home, at school, by teachers, counselors, social workers, police, lawyers, judges, and certainly not in jail.” But “the agreement of the circle is to respect each other. That has a profound impact, creates a safe space of understanding and trust, where it is possible for each to glimpse and seek to recover the hurt but good little child that still hides inside each one.”(OI, p.16) In such groups, they “build trust, openness and intimacy.”(OI, p.26) “It changes them.”(OI, p.26) Even those “who have been so deeply damaged by this domination system and its inhumanity, and …begin to recover their own humanity, the hopeful, caring, thoughtful, playful children they once were.” It “is always astounding, but every week of my life I witness such healing in our circles. And I see nothing else working so deeply, quickly and thoroughly.”(OI, p.26)
In fact, “most people in this sad, violent, crazy, often terrifying world really would want to live in a good way, to be respected and treated well by others. To have peace and security and freedom for themselves and their families… If they thought it was possible.”(OI, p.13) “I believe,” he says, “that the only people who would not desire this are those who have been so badly hurt and damaged that they must require a lot of very deep healing, (and that is a valuable work which yet can be accomplished with sufficient attention and time).”(OI, p.13) For it is just such people who are reigning their personal misery on the rest of the world, so it is in all our interest to help others heal, for “if you do not respect yourself you will not be able to fulfill yourself” and so not do your part. “You’ll get distracted. Perhaps abuse yourself, mistreat your body, neglect your mind. You may well allow yourself to get stuck in patterns that have no meaning, no joy, no wonder, no purpose but bear survival. Killing time.”(OI, p.14) “That’s what happens when our human family is destroyed, when there is no closeness and understanding, no mutual support and kindness, and people are left to wander friendless and alone in a hostile world.”(OI, p.26)“The circle has the power to heal all that.” OI, p.26) Here, “human qualities are enhanced and negative ones minimized.”(OI, p.23) Some “people often say they can’t believe they got so close so quickly to complete strangers, closer in fact than they have been to their own friends and family, because they have taken the time in small circles to really listen to each other. They begin to heal… They start to find themselves and the gifts of Creation they are meant to give away.”(OI, p.27)
“Often…they begin to dream of how to make such a community in which to live the rest of their lives. They have begun to know this is their way, the human being way to live…in the Circle Way, following the Original Instructions.”(OI, p.27)
[1] (Xenophon 1990)
[2] (Xenophon 1990)
[3] (Xenophon 1990)
[4] (Xenophon 1990)
[5] (Xenophon 1990)
[6] (Sessions n.d.)
[7] (Sessions n.d.)
[i] Aristotle feels it necessary to remind some of what they were neglecting in their understanding of Socrates' views. For instance, Aristotle's main concern about Plato’s ‘forms’ seems to be then that, as popularly interpreted, (then and now) they could not explain change.[i] This concern shows the difference in his and Socrates' purposes -- Socrates having the purpose of affirming something lasting beneath change, and Aristotle affirming the importance of understanding change. While Socrates and Plato lament human ignorance of the forms (even as we pretend to 'know' so much about them) Aristotle in turn laments our chronic misunderstanding of the term, misunderstanding which comes in part from Socrates overemphasis on the forms as unchanging, separate and nameless. Another example is in his political philosophy, Aristotle takes a look at Plato's ideal state as it was understood by many in his time (if not Plato himself) and says, in effect, 'Look, that's a nice ideal, but you seem to be forgetting, or at any rate under-emphasizing, the importance of change. Everything living changes, whether by nature or by art,(Timaeus) and so everything is always either moving toward or moving away from its own best self.(Politics)