Taking a step into the world of our Being

This was the story I was referring to Ta-Tsu-Wa:

"The Ta-Tsu-Wa"

Long ago, near the beginning of the world. Gray Eagle was the guardian of the sun and moon and stars, of fresh water and fire. Gray Eagle hated people so much that he kept things hidden. People lived in darkness, without fire and without fresh water.
~~~
Gray Eagle had a beautiful daughter and Ta-Tsu-Wa fell in love with her. At that time Ta-Tsu-Wa was a handsome young man. He changed himself into a snow-white bird. And as a snow-white bird he pleased Gray Eagle's daughter. She invited him to her father's lodge.
~~~
When Ta-Tsu-Wa saw the sun and the moon and the stars and fresh water hanging on the sides of Eagle's lodge, he knew what he must do. He waited for his chance to seize them when no one was watching. He stole all of them and a brand of fire also. He flew out of the lodge through the smoke hole.
~~~
As soon as Ta-Tsu-Wa was outside, he hung the sun up in the sky. It made so much light that he was able to fly far out to an island in the middle of the ocean. When the sun set, he fastened the moon up in the sky and hung the stars around in different places. By this new light he kept on flying, carrying with him fresh water and the brand of fire he had stolen.
~~~
He flew back over land. When he reached the right place, he dropped all the water he had stolen. It fell to the ground and there became the source of all fresh-water streams and lakes in the world.
~~~
Then Ta-Tsu-Wa flew on, holding the fire brand in his bill. The smoke from the firebrand blew back over his white feathers and made them black. When his bill began to burn, he had to drop the firebrand. It struck the rocks and went into the rocks. That is why, if you strike two stones together, fire will drop out.
~~~
Ta-Tsu-Wa's feather's never became white again after they were blackened by the smoke from the firebrand. That is why the Ta-Tsu-Wa is now black.

the end

[the story is from a tribe in the Puget Sound area, recorded in Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest]

Actually I am from Holland . Us Dutch are hardly Vikings. We are more part of the Germanic people. The descendants of these peoples became, and in some areas contributed to, the ethnic groups of North Western Europe: the Danish, Norwegians, Swedish, Finland-Swedes, Faroese, English, Icelanders, the Germans, the Austrians, Dutch and Flemish on the continent, and the inhabitants of Switzerland and Friesland ( mostly on Dutch ground nowadays ).
Most of our legends/stories are well known throughout the world thanks to the brothers Grimm, who collected and adapted them for their ( not exactly fit for children ) book.

 

Hi Irene,

This is something I too have been noticing more and more. Whether it is due to meditation practice, philosophy teachings or both I don't know, but it doesn't matter, as long as it's there. (I'm guessing it's both)

In our philosophy class we were taught to allow the awareness to come to the working surface. So, if we are writing something down, we let the awareness come to the point where the pen is in contact with the paper; if we are washing the dishes it the contact of the hands with the dishes and the water; if we are using the computer, it is (perhaps a little more tricky to determine) the eyes following the cursor (or the fingers on the keys if you are not a touch typist) etc. By bringing our awareness to the working surface we allow ourselves to be brought into the present moment, preventing discursive thoughts and allowing the work(*) to flow naturally. We should also work until the need has been met which, if we are able to remain present and undistracted by the discursive mind, will happen naturally. (You also find that things get done more quickly, so even if it's not a task you particularly wanted to do, you can get it out of the way and get onto something you do want to do.)

By BEing present, the work will become natural, it will feel effortless. This is the natural way.

(*) By "work" this can be anything you are doing in your daily life, even if it is simply having a conversation with someone. The working surface in a conversation is the sound of the voice. Be aware of the sound of the other persons voice and the sound of your own voice and the conversation will flow naturally and truthfully. Note: Being aware is not the same as "listening". If we try to "listen" to the sound of the voice, we let the mind try and analyze the voice ("ooo, they've got a high pitched voice", "they say that word differently to me" etc.) which brings in the discursive mind and detracts us from being present. Being aware keeps us present.

So, our practice for this week (LOL, this is what our teacher says to us), is to remember to put our awareness on the working surface, and be aware of the sound of the voice when conversing.

Of course we're human, we do have our discursive mind getting in the way and we won't remember to do it all the time but, if you can remember, why not give it a go and see if you observe any difference.

Hugs

Giles

 

Ok Giles, I tried it.

As it turned out, today was a very very busy day. There were loads of orders that had to be finished, everybody came to collect them today, and I only got the raw material to work with around 11 in the morning.

Normally, I would have stressed out.

Now the work is done, I have 40 minutes before going home, and my legs are so tired that I am sitting with my legs up at the moment.
Normally, that feeling would also be in my brain. Headache.
Strangely enough, in my brain I still feel as fresh as I was at the start of the workday. Interesting. And during the most stressfull moments I got the people who were waiting to laugh all the time, as I was cheerfully making jokes about that slow working locksmith, and how I would secretly sit down and have coffee when walking to the back of the business, leaving them waiting.

I think this experiment will last longer than a week with me

 

Excellent Edwin.
Keep practicing and let's see what you find after a week.

Hugs

Giles

 

Giles, this makes me smile because it reminds me of how Michele Cassou teaches:Michele Cassou Workshop.
She leads workshops on 'process painting', a very powerful technique that lets the brush go where it wants without interference from mind. It was so potent, similar to LF in that in can bring unconscious blocks out into the air (art can be one of the best therapies). but it also encourages being constantly in the present moment. It brought me as deep in 5 days as any 10 days of vipassana.


Perseverance whatever the path: self inquiring throughout the day ...or maintaining a knowing of not-I... Or running your mantra in the back of the mind, ...or as you describe, being present to the sensations of whatever the body is doing...whatever arises.. whatever action...letting it flow... it's the continuity of awareness that's the key to progress.

Thanks for the reminders, you all. This is such a great thread

 

Thanks Irene, although this thread is really quite deep for a simple being like me - I'm just really enjoying this amazing journey and if anything I say inspires you, that is the greatest reward for me.

I wish you an abundance of peace, joy and special moments

 

Don't sell yourself short Pollyanna ! I have a feeling that you understand more than you are showing at surface level. It just isn't in your field of interest at this moment, and that is quite allright.

Your contributions are greatly appreciated, as are Irene's and everyone else who takes the trouble to post here.

 

Feathers that have become black

Why Edwin, that would mean I was...what, a dirty bird? Ah, well... I've been called worse. That's TOO hysterical, but a great story. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

I'm not sure how I got it in my head you were originally from Norway. I know your profile indicates the Netherlands but I could have sworn I'd read somewhere you were of Norwegian descent. The first stages of senility, I suppose!

Wayyyy, oh, wayyyyy, oh, wayyyyy, oh Whooooo!

 

What I think is most interesting is your angle of looking at the : Wayyyy, oh, wayyyyy, oh, Whooo" story

You thought it was amazing how the Cherokee never got credit for raising the sun every morning, but failed to wonder how the sun would know it had to keep on rising every time it heard the Cherokee chant these sounds...

You dirty bird you !

Now I keep wondering if you used to end your statements with ~R~ in your previous online life.
I am not Norwegian, but the country I love best in all of Europe is Sweden. I do not know any other country here that is so Zen.
When adding up all my holidays I have spent there, I found out that 3 years of my life have been spent on swedish soil. It is like Canada, only less high. Miles and miles of pine forest, lakes, wide open sky and pure stillness.

So you might have picked up that, I have mentioned this before in the forum, and if not, there might have been a connection on a different level

Ah well, enough off-topicness I suppose.

back to the interesting thread

 

No, not so much amazing as curious. According to this ancient tradition, the Cherokee performed certain very important services for the rest of the world that the world never knew they provided. Let's give these old ones the benefit of the doubt and suppose that maybe they really are responsible for helping the sun rise every day. What happens if they announce this to the world?

"Hey, white, European settlers, you may not know it but it's been us all along that are responsible for you having the benefits of the sun. Stick that in your peace pipe and smoke it."

First of all, they run the risk of taking themselves too seriously and letting their contribution go to their own heads. I think of this as "Guru Syndrome". How often have we observed someone from the East come here to the West with good intentions of spreading a spiritual message. Before long they set up an organization. It grows and becomes quite a lucrative operation needing a bureaucracy to manage its functions. The next thing you know the guru rides in a fleet of luxury cars, commands almost absolute control over his followers, abuses them in various ways, and chalks it all up to his own infallibility as a spiritual leader. It is human nature that the vast majority of people will abuse power if it is given to them without controls or oversights. Perhaps the Cherokee recognized this and avoided it by just keeping silent about their contributions.

And maybe if they came out and let the world know what they've been up to all this time the world would refuse to accept them. In time they would come to the point where they felt their work was no longer valued and simply walk away. Then we'd all be left in a world where the sun refused to rise.

This is something of a common thread through many Native American stories. Do what you do but keep yourself out of the spotlight. It's better for everyone that way. I know sometimes I examine my life and I wonder how many people have contributed to my well being that I will never know about? I suspect the people of which I am aware are but the tip of a massive iceberg. In some ways that's a tremendous comfort. I know when I experience adversity that help will come. I may not know how and I may never know from whom it will come, but I have confidence it will come. It's happened over and over throughout my life. This principle of helping quietly from behind the scenes without letting others know is something I've tried to emulate whenever I can.

 

In retrospect of the last few weeks I can only agree. It seems to become more and more clear that people are willing to help me, even complete strangers. I have had wonderful encounters with newfound friends, and have gained a newfound trust in the Universe. One would almost think that those LoA teachers are right...

 

Acts of compassion are their own reward

I'll share something with you that I hesitate to bring up because it could easily be misinterpreted as patting myself on the back or blowing my own horn and that's absolutely not the intent. I mean it only to illustrate a practice my wife and I adopted some years ago.

There is a young woman we know; a single mother of 3. A very nice girl about 40 years of age I suppose. She is divorced and her ex husband is in the military. He doesn't make a whole lot of money and even though she is entitled to child support he seldom makes his payments leaving her to try to provide for herself and her children as best she can. She could have taken him back to court and secured a judgment against him that would have garnished his wages to an extreme degree, but she recognized that would virtually destroy any chance he had at a decent life for himself and she's just not the sort to put another person through that, even if she's in a legal position to do it. That's a very rare form of compassion these days.

She works for the Veterans Administration which is a Federal agency. The salary isn't bad but making it stretch for a family of four with two of them being teenagers is challenging to say the least. So she went back to college to earn a degree in social work hoping to enter a more lucrative profession. She put herself through two years of junior college and two more years at a university and in fact obtained her degree.

What she discovered upon graduation is that to really get ahead in the field of social work almost requires a Masters degree which would have meant another 2 if not 3 years of schooling, taking classes at night while working full time during the day to earn a living. It also meant going further into debt. Her first four years of college had left her with nearly $40,000 in outstanding student loans and to continue with further schooling she would need to go another $28,000 per year into debt for tuition for the 2 to 3 years of additional schooling. This was unthinkable with creditors already hounding her.

My wife and I discussed her situation. We took care of providing her with a new computer that was required for her ongoing education and for paying for her tuition and related school expenses so she could continue her degree program which, at this time, she's almost completed in just over 2 years.

The young woman's response to our proposal was utter disbelief. It isn't as though she is a close family member or even a close friend. She could not fathom how or why we would to this for her and she was insistent that she pay back every penny as soon as she was able. What we told her when she said this floored her even more. My response was that she did not owe us anything, but she DID owe a debt that she would either have to pay freely or else at some point Life would simply come collect it from her, probably at a time when she could least afford it and wasn't expecting it.

She wanted to know what the debt repayment would be and who she would owe it to. We told her it didn't matter. The opportunity would present itself at some point and she would recognize it when it came up. The key was that she had to offer her assistance to someone who was in need; someone she owed nothing to. Someone who would almost certainly not be able to pay her back directly, and if they told her they would she was to refuse their offer. Instead she was to tell them just exactly what we were telling her. That at some point they would come across someone that would need help. There would be no earthly reason why she should offer her help to them other than that they needed it. And in turn she was to tell them that they must pass along this same help to someone else that would come into their lives, and so forth.

My wife and I are fully convinced that this system of giving to someone who you otherwise owe nothing and asking them to do the same and so forth in an unbroken chain is one of the ways this world will be improved. What service or material assistance they give is irrelevant so long as it comes from the heart, and that they remember the reason they give is because someone once gave to them.

This world, Edwin, is quickly reaching a crisis point. I don't have to tell you that. Inside my heart tells me you are already well aware of this fact. Whether or not you've thought about it in those terms or not, there is a knowing that assures you things must change and change soon before a critical threshold is reached. That growing sense of urgency is why you and others on forums like this one offer their time and expertise helping others to improve the quality of their lives. The balance of the scales is tipped one person at a time. Many of us feel the truth of this deeply, and you're one of them. I defy you to tell me I'm wrong about that....See, I knew you couldn't. ;-)

So if I was to make a plea to everyone on this forum who reads this post it would be to go forth from this day forward and actively look for opportunities to be of service to others without expectation of any kind they will repay you. It doesn't have to be something huge like giving them your home or your first born child. It can be relatively small things. Make a committment to find someone who is feeling down and relate something to them that you see in them that inspires you or makes your day a little better. At first it may seem a little awkward but with a very little practice it becomes second nature.

Take the arm of an elderly person as they cross a street and help them across. Smile at someone who is obviously having a rough day. Maybe take them a cookie from a bakery. Offer to babysit the neighbor couple's child one Saturday evening so they can go out on a date together. Whatever it is, make these offerings of compassion a way of life and ask those to whom you offer service to spread these gifts of compassion along to others as freely as they've received them. If our world is to pass through its present stage of turmoil it's up to the little acts of service and compassion you and I offer each and every day. We can all be like that white bird you mentioned in your Cherokee legend if we consciously choose to be so.

 

This is truly a better way to live - the only way to live - bless you Ta-Tsu-Wa

 

I agree wholeheartedly!! I have been struggling to keep up with the wonderful posts on this thread, so many amazing thoughts and views being discussed and shared. I think that maybe I have already spent so long thinking myself around in circles about such matters, that my mind just can't do it anymore. At some point, I think there comes a realisation that you can no longer solve anything by thinking, dissecting and analyizing spiritual matters, because not one of us can claim to really KNOW what Life is all about, because it may well be that the meaning and path is different for each and every one of us. So now, I try to live by listening to what is in my heart, by feelings and instinct. I love reading what people have to say about their own journeys, but as Ta-Tsu-Wa says, I believe that it is how we live and what we do, our own 'Being', which is ultimately what makes the difference to ourselves and to others.

Peace, Love and Light to you all.

Chris

 

So wondful and true Ta Tsu Wa, this is truly the way to be.

I read an excellent book about this last year.
It's called "One City", written by Ethan Nichtern, founder of the Interdependance Project (Interdependence Project).
Well worth a read and definitely awakens you to the interdependance of us all.



Hugs

Giles

 

Start simple

I can start with something as simple as holding a door open for the person behind you entering a room or store. It grows from there.

gus

 

I love ending my meditations not only with gratitude, but with sharing peace and love with all beings. If you do this, then as you go through your day you'll naturally be moved to compassionate and loving action. Seva - helping others without expectation of any return - is one of the best spiritual practices there is. It brings such great joy.

May we all find peace
Bhavya

 

I absolutely agree

Simple acts like this are exactly the right place to begin. I would add that we should offer such gestures of compassion with full presence of mind as we perform them.

Too often I find myself doing something like this: pulling out a chair for my wife, opening a car door, etc., and while it's a nice gesture it's incomplete because I do it on autopilot. There's little true awareness behind it. I find it to be far more worthwhile if I intentionally think of all the nice things that have been done for me in my life and in the spirit of giving thanks for them I offer up my own small gesture for someone else.

This sounds terribly simplistic but once you try it for awhile you come to feel a qualitative difference between acting consciously out of gratitude vs. acting more or less without thinking.

 

Ta Tsu Wa Thank you

I just want to Thank You because, without ever having met you, I know in my heart that you are a generous, warm, kind, loving person. The way you give of your time, your heart and your wisdom is priceless.

Even if I don't understand half the things you say....lol.

Thanks

Irene

 

Irene

Of course we've met before, in fact, we've never been separated. Not in any absolute sense. What feels so good to you is that you're coming back to an awareness of yourself, Irene. As soon as that process begins you start feeling those warm feelings about more and more people in your life because each one of them is a point of reconnection with yourself.

As far as understanding or not fully understanding the words someone speaks, that's not essential. It can be helpful, certainly, but of far more importance is to feel the sense of presence that supports the words. As an example, which of these makes more of an impact on you:

A) Hearing someone speak the words, "I love you," or,
B) Feeling the love deep within your heart that another person offers you?

It's a similar concept with spirituality. Better to feel the spirit of the words with your Spirit than to merely hear the words with your ears or read them with your eyes and know with your brain what they mean. It's great if you can do both, but if you have to choose between the two, choose the Spirit. Every time. नमस्ते