. . .
nothing got wild here, the west didn't get wild until the white man
got here. And then it got very wild. And so what we had was a clash of
values and perceptions. So when our Chiefs talked with these men,
these leaders, who we met from another hemisphere, their discussion
didn't mesh, they passed one another. They weren't talking about the
same thing. So when they sold the island of Manhattan,
or, shall we say, when the Dutch "bought" the island of Manhattan, the
Indian said, `I wonder why he's giving us all this, because it's free
anyway. But he's a nice fellow so we'll take it and we'll share this
with him too.' So the next year as the Indian came back to hunt and fish
in this great hunting ground Manhattan was. . . there was a fence and
they said `What's that?' They said, `Well that's the fence, I have just
bought this land.' And they said, `What do you mean, "bought"?'
And so began the conflict.
...This conception of private ownership--of property, of the blood and sinew of Mother Earth, of people, of life, of ideas--came from the euro-centric world-mind. This kind of mentality is not only destructive, it is devolutionary. It is NOT appropriate. The indigenous mind operates from the basis of "Is it appropriate?" The euro-centric mind has only ever asked "Is it possible?" In our species' present collective memory, such a world-mind did not exist here on Turtle Island as it did across the Atlantic prior to 1492. What a truly radical "way of life" was operative here as of 1492 compared to what had been happening on the european continent for millenia. The descendants of those people and that "way of life" still exist and endure here. They still struggle to live by their ancient, sacred precepts and teachings. How MUCH people like myself with a euro-centric upbringing can learn and come to understand and appreciate by teaching ourselves all we can about this more balanced and connective way of being and sharing. We must all begin to reconnect with the practice--in a daily manner--of asking the question "Is is appropriate?" This will open us up to and reconnect us with the intelligence of the heart and will offer our species the most potent healing opportunity to again be aligned in a positive, constructive manner, with our infinite potential to transcend our own self-created and self-learned limitations and boundedness. There are an infinitude of dimensions of being beyond this physical time-space world we have been taught to regard as being "all there is." The ability to conceive and be aware of such dimensions comes through reconnection with the intelligence of the heart.
~Oren Lyons, Los Angeles, October, 1990
Happy Columbus Day
And so began the conflict.
...This conception of private ownership--of property, of the blood and sinew of Mother Earth, of people, of life, of ideas--came from the euro-centric world-mind. This kind of mentality is not only destructive, it is devolutionary. It is NOT appropriate. The indigenous mind operates from the basis of "Is it appropriate?" The euro-centric mind has only ever asked "Is it possible?" In our species' present collective memory, such a world-mind did not exist here on Turtle Island as it did across the Atlantic prior to 1492. What a truly radical "way of life" was operative here as of 1492 compared to what had been happening on the european continent for millenia. The descendants of those people and that "way of life" still exist and endure here. They still struggle to live by their ancient, sacred precepts and teachings. How MUCH people like myself with a euro-centric upbringing can learn and come to understand and appreciate by teaching ourselves all we can about this more balanced and connective way of being and sharing. We must all begin to reconnect with the practice--in a daily manner--of asking the question "Is is appropriate?" This will open us up to and reconnect us with the intelligence of the heart and will offer our species the most potent healing opportunity to again be aligned in a positive, constructive manner, with our infinite potential to transcend our own self-created and self-learned limitations and boundedness. There are an infinitude of dimensions of being beyond this physical time-space world we have been taught to regard as being "all there is." The ability to conceive and be aware of such dimensions comes through reconnection with the intelligence of the heart.
~Oren Lyons, Los Angeles, October, 1990
Happy Columbus Day
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