Unity

 

I first met Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha at a seminar in Cleveland, Ohio where the Center for Human Development first was located. I cannot remember what the topic of the seminar. But I can tell you what happened during that Sunday afternoon. It is the one thing that sticks in my mind and has for over 30 years. It happened when we broke for lunch.   The lunch had been brought in and there was a whole table set up with salads in foam containers with the accoutrements to be able to eat and also drinks. The foam containers were all on top of one another with the various different salads together. They were all labeled so Pa’Ris’Ha chose one and when she picked it up all the salad fell all over the floor.

 

I saw what happened and as we all stood around in amazement instead of acting or being embarrassed and expressing how sorry that she was everything fell on the floor, she just turned to the rest of us stating well that this was purposeful to be careful because obviously some of them may be upside down.

Now why did that stand out. Well, I would have definitely been so embarrassed and flustered and I would’ve not given any thought to the fact as to what it implied for the others in line. And I don’t know if I can express the wonder of the moment. It seems like such a small thing happens to all of us and wonder is not the result. Perhaps it was because she was the one presenting the seminar and that she was eating with us was a bit different in terms of business seminars. Or here was the presenter and the first thing that happens is this embarrassing moment or it would’ve been for me. And instead of that it became - oh this is a sign for all of us when you go to pick up your salad be careful it’s probably upside down.

 

Now I don’t know about any of you but in my life, I had never seen anyone stand back from something so embarrassing and say OK this is happened because it’s to help everyone. But that is exactly the way Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha lived her life and has lived her life. No one I have ever met has ever shown such great understanding and compassion as a teacher or as a human being.

 As we are constantly looking for good advice or direction. These two qualities of understanding and compassion have to be at the top of your list in this search.

After this event I definitely and immediately wanted to hear more of what she had to say. She constantly demonstrated concern for all. And her laser like views on how we have been taught to view the world put us right where we were stuck. So, to change anything else start with self.

In the years following this eventful seminar I became part of the board of directors for the Center for Human Development. We eventually moved to southern Ohio and started a building program for a physical center where people could come to retreat on the land & to get more in touch with who they really are.

To say building program, I mean we built it! We did not have it built so that meant many weekends of travel, long hours and redoing to get everything right. The main building was over 180 feet long! And most of us that were building had never built anything in our lives luckily some of the people that were dedicated to this project had the building skills for us to accomplish this task. But I can tell you that it was the dedication to bringing this into physical form that got this project accomplished. And Pa’Ris’Ha’s guidance and assistance that sustained us throughout whatever we were doing.

Pa’Ris’Ha led me to learn many things about myself and my relationship to the world both the seen and unseen. Was I ready always for those lessons? She would say yes, I was because I was sitting there in front of her listening. But I of course would take the opposite and say no but I started the process of focusing to what was going on with me.

Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha never separated herself from her family in order to “teach” those of us who were sitting in front of her so her family became part of the lesson.  If you ever asked her what was important in her life; God certainly was first but family was definitely second and all that that means whether that be human, the natural world or the spiritual world. Those of us who have been lucky enough to be around her for many years saw this exhibited on a daily basis. In our lives whether we had a traumatic event or just a daily grind, the spiritual side of our life, the successful side of our life, the worrying, the teachable moment and the loving moments were all combined together. Because it is all one -Life.

So much of Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha words and teachings ring true as I look at the world. “You cannot separate yourself in any way from what’s happening, whether that is in your day today dealings with other people or on the world stage of nations or companies.  What we see around us is FEAR – false evidence appearing real.  If in the moment, you can recognize that your own fear whether that fear is expressing itself (perhaps hatred or love, sorrow or worry) and you can recognize it and you can change your behavior to now bring compassion to this situation.”

I think that is what people mean when they talk about unity and the wonderful descriptions and ideas that people give to this word. “That this is the one & the only, the unity of the whole, or united we stand “all of these words talk about how great it is if we’re together. But the only thing I believe that prevents us from recognizing that unity is that unity is already is there, that we are already whole and it is our fear that gives us a view that we are separate.  It could be from how we were raised and the beliefs that we hold onto from our past but Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha always has spoken to that part of ourselves that we step away from as also who we really were. As we are all god’s children, we are all needed to work at that level as ONE in order to make all of what we do be in harmony.  harmony and unity in what we l strive for.

As Pa’Ris’Ha said to us many times “Unity - the ONE that we are looking for is the one that’s looking back from the mirror. You cannot be separate from yourself; what you see is all part you “.  We must recognize love and hate and anger and suffering but also compassion and beauty as in us, around us -just you or us.” As God states He separated light from dark but the words say the darkness came from the light so it’s part of the light it’s not separated in the sense that we think of it as two things that are distinct from one another.

So, Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha always spoke to how we could work together. How the complementary talents of each one of us formed what we needed and when we needed it to be able to accomplish a task. And isn’t this really where we are in our own lives if we can recognize it. That the talents that we have and the talents of those around us help to make what we see. Whether that is in business or education and in our daily lives are groups together accomplish the task or form the foundation which we work from to accomplish our purpose. So, in this time we must and indeed need to recognize that every experience in life that crosses our path is part of that oneness or unity that Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha spoke to. This unity we see in the natural world or in the cosmos is in each of us!

 

-Ew

 

Reflection

 

The sun's risen to the point that it's just above the level of my eyes and everything underneath it, is being reflected. When I say reflected that's the actual reflection like, the ocean is dancing and sparkling. I can hardly hold my eyes open because of the brilliance of it. That's in the distance then closer.

 

The trees are green, but they're all reflecting, again, to even see the green, that's a reflection. It's interesting because we think naturally that the plants are using green and that's why they're green, but it's actually, that's the light waves that they're not using. That's what they're reflecting back.

 

And in essence, everything that we're seeing, is a reflection back and that's the physical scientific component of it. If we can see it, it's a reflection of those light waves bouncing off that object and into our eyes. So I looked down to my north, which in this case is also my left and there's a Camellia tree.

 

Beautiful Camellia, large shrub, beautiful pink, pink flowers. Each of those pink petals is pink because that's what's not being absorbed by that petal. It's absorbing the blue, it's absorbing the yellow, it's absorbing all sorts of things, but not the reds. They're bouncing back to my eyes.

 

And the teachings from the elder Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha for me have always been this bridge between the scientific world and the spiritual world. And when I say spiritual, I'm not meaning religious, I’m meaning, it's almost science again. Like even when I pause to think, what does it actually mean? Having a spirit. Being a spirit, not having one, probably being a spirit and having a body would be closer to the, to how it relates for me. And the teachings through the Cherokee elder being one that have grown upon personal reflections as a child, and then others mentioning things and traveling. So many countries after I left university, and observed and really to come back home with the teachings that everything you see are a reflection.

 

And then add to that as Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha did, it's a reflection of your own thoughts. And when I say thoughts, it's your own thoughts and emotion.

 

Teaching the traditional way of storytelling. Sometimes wasn't enough for us Westerners brought up on books. So again, to be a bridge Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha encouraged the wide reading and then watching, realizing that movies are also something that can engage the emotions.

 

An emotion being energy in motion, but let's go back to the books. The books include some of those that have been compiled by Dr. Joe Dispenza, where we look at our own thought patterns, beliefs, but again, not going too much into them, not going down, down into a potentially negative reflection of oneself.

 

Looking more with the options of stock change, reading the books from David Suzuki, looking at parallel worlds, reading books by professor Fred Alan Wolf, which you can also Google as Dr. Quantum. And that was the introduction of science experiments like the double slit experiment, Google that if you haven't seen it but in essence, it gives a really lovely succinct look at how a theory that our thoughts influence the behavior of the matter around us, which is another teaching where Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha again, had people, just ask themselves, “Okay, what is it about blackness? So much of what we're taught is, the darkness is the bad and the light is the good. Now that may have come about from a biological perspective, maybe the darks, when things come out and eat us, maybe the lights when we're safe and we can see everything. But traditionally to the dark, the nighttime was a time of people coming together or the introverting time looking inwards, such an important thing that for many today happens only in sleep. And sometimes that's numbed by the consumption of alcohol or other drugs prior to sleep. It's for our health and well being, it's a fantastic thing to have those introvert times of allowing that say the “no thing”. So people talk about nothingness out there or the blackness is the nothingness. That's not that there's nothing there. It's a “no thing”. It's like having all the ingredients for cake and you're yet to make it. Allowing our self-time in the no thing, allows a much broader perspective of what could be.

 

It's like, if you have a house and you've got to do renovations, you're still starting with what's already there. But if you have a completely clear space, you have no thing. You have far more potential in terms of what you can create. So allowing ourselves to go to the no thing allows the opening of a broader perspective.

 

Now this could be for things we actually want to do like a physical world thing. It can also just be in perspectives. And at this time when there are unrest within self, within family groups, within relationships, within parents and adults within work groups, within countries, there is also the opposite of all of that. There are fantastic things happening, harmonious things, environmental restoration, care for displaced, wonderful breakthroughs in holistic medicines, regenerative agriculture, whatever there is, there is the opposite of, and again, Pa'Ris'Ha has spoken a lot on the opposites. And when there's something that we may I disagree with, to know that it's not about being against that thing, but to see oneself in a circle. And as the circle, there are no sides, but as the circle, there is a center point, and from the center, you can move around and look outward at all the perspectives. And from that position in the middle, having taken in as much as there as possible to look, listen, feel, Intuit, then can choose which area you want energy to flow in. Where do you want energy in motion? Where do you put your emotion?

 

So if there's fighting and you don't want fighting, where do you put it for? Good reconciliation actions, for harmonic outcomes.

 

If there's a destruction of the environment, where do you look? To the programs that are regenerating the soil? Planting the trees? Getting the young ones involved, and put out energy in motion there? When we see that, which is opposite and we put our energy in motion to that, which is opposite our emotion, we actually add to that. It’s is a powerful thing. So powerful. And it's one that Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha said so often in so many different ways. And getting back to the beginning of what I was saying with this beautiful reflection of the sun, which is referred to by many names, including Nunda, everything out there is a reflection. Our brain reads the reflected light, the reflected sound. Everything is an energy that we then listen to look at, feel, and through that we make up power outcome of what is reality. So if we take it that next stage, that even for it to be out there to be reflecting back to us, it's not a one-way flow in, as we look, as we speak, we're also creating. So if you want to be an environmental activist, speak for what you're for. I think Mother Teresa is quoted as saying “she won't go to an anti-war March, but she will go to a peace march”. It's probably many who've said that. What we stand for, is what we bring more of. And absolutely this also doesn't mean we don't take action. We don't bring things to the front that are opposite of a harmonic world that we want. We don't turn a blind eye to things, but as much as possible move to the center, when we think there's something we've been told there's something not right, move to the center. Look around, gather as much perspective as possible. And then from that position, make a decision. You can take action, absolutely take action that builds that, which you're for. Whether it's removing people from a dangerous situation, it's all in alignment with that. But when you're removing people from a dangerous situation, but not because they're this race or that race or this gender or that gender, humanity is humanity. If your principle is to care for people, it's all people. So in this beautiful day, as we look out and see the reflection of everything, know, that as it reflects to us, we also reflect to it.

 

May you walk in the beauty way.

-GDB

Grandmother Pa'Ris'Ha

We are now living, some may say, in difficult times.

If I look around, I see fear, fear of what is going on at every level.

The government is taking away our liberties, controlling us more and more with all kind of laws and restrictions, all that for the benefit of everybody; this is what they say!

 

Because of the pandemic there are problems of supply at every level, a lack of workers everywhere and a lot of chaos.

For two years and a half it has been going on and on.

It is not always easy to see and adjust ourselves to the reactions of others around us, including friends and family.

Everybody having his own opinion and criticizing those who do not share their way of thinking; for many it is disturbing and questioning.

It is a good thing I know a grandmother called Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha.

I met her many years ago at the Sundance Ceremony in Ohio.

She is from the Cherokee family.

She is never far away from me.

Sometimes I see her in my dreams, other times in my meditations or during my walk in the forest.

She helps me and many others to understand and face the disturbance we are in now.

I would like to share the teachings I have with Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha about these troubled times.

You can see for yourself that we have been for a long time under fear and manipulation.

Just observe it.

The minute you go into fear you become paralyzed and loose your skill to make good decisions for yourself.

Just look what is going on now.

Are you afraid to get that virus? Afraid of being very sick and maybe die of it?

Then we had the second wave, a third and so on.

We had to wear masks and were confined for a long time.

Go inside and see how you feel about it.

Maybe you were all mixed up with all the recommendations and restraints you received from your government and the health board.

Maybe you feel angry because you lost your freedom.

Maybe you feel desperate because you do not know when there will be an end to this.

                                                     

Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha says

Be aware and choose not to be involved in this insanity. Let the natural phenomenon occur without interference. You do not have to have an opinion on everything. Just relax and observe. If you judge you become cause and effect. In reality if you are against someone or something, you will have arguments with other people and will confront them. Doing that you give more attention, more energy, more power to it.

 

In addition, you think more and more about it and look for reasons to comfort yourself in your way of thinking. You do not understand why others do not share the same ideas.

Now you exclude them.

Maybe some of your friends or family too.

The same process happens if you think to the contrary.

Let’s say that you find something is good for you and others.

You want to rally everybody to your idea.

But not everybody agrees with you. It is like the Yin and Yang process.

That is why Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha says observe what is going on

Do not become emotional, just stay quiet and see what is going on.

You have to be clear in your mind.

You are the field.

Know who you are.

Working on you will help many.

Your first commitment is to take care of you, putting yourself first.

“You are the field” includes everything and everybody.

Know the word opposite.

In this world we are living in duality: outside of us in the external world like

Day and night

Cold and hot

Dry and wet

It is similar for humans;

Sad and happy

Crying and laughing

Angry and joyful

If you want to resolve a conflict you can’t put emotion in it or it is over. When you judge you become cause and effect.

This is why Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha insists that we invest much time in knowing who we are and what we want to be.

It is time to observe what is going on, what is the what, what is really there?

You become the seeker and the watcher.

To master yourself is the goal (mindfulness).

Learn to focus where it is important. Be more aware.

What am I experiencing?

Bring peace to yourself. The importance is your mindset.

Remember Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha says:

Energy follows your thoughts.

When you are judging people, you are attracting the same energy.

Know what you want to be.

Do you want to be part of the solution oriented? If so, you want to observe and see the Yin and Yang everywhere.

Choosing always Love permits everybody to be who they are with their differences.

When you are facing somebody different you can say: help me to understand what is your vision of that.

Then you make a solution and understand it is possible.

“Health, Wealth and Happiness” is for everybody

Now can I say like Grandmother Pa’Ris’Ha

The best for you always                    

MB