Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
Lessons from Indigenous Wisdom Keepers
At the age of nineteen, I had the rare gift and opportunity to be invited to live and learn with a profound traditional healer in Sri Lanka. I wound up on a Fulbright living and learning with this man for nearly two years, and I was privileged to learn rare insights he wouldn’t share with others. I have largely held this experience to myself, but to say it was formative to my development would be an understatement. This past weekend the Boa Foundation hosted the Aniwa gathering, and surrounded by over 40 wisdom keepers I was reminded of some of their core principles critical at this moment critical time on the planet.
In the traditional language I was told, there was no word for privacy and there was no word for possession. Therefore the diseases rampant today in our world that result from a lack of connection, a feeling of isolation and loneliness, the diseases that result from over consumption were largely absent.
When a person did fall out of balance, it was the role of the entire community to bring them back into balance. The entire community would band together and ritually recreate their shared world view from sunset to sunrise in a ceremony that is hard to describe but marvelous to behold. The result was a bringing of the collective back into balance.
Over the past week, at the Aniwa gathering in Massachusetts, I had the opportunity to be reminded of this profound sense of community and many of the tools used by the indigenous elders and wisdom keepers to maintain balance and well being in their own communities. Below are some of my reflections from the experience of sitting with masters and wisdom keepers from around the world. There were Maori from New Zealand, Dogan, Kogi, the Warika and Mayans from Mexico, and Dine (Navaho) and Cheyenne from North America and Huni Kun, Yawinawa, and Ashaninka from the Amazon river basin to the south.
Indigenous peoples have always lived in harmony with the earth. In these precarious times, where climate change threatens our collective future, I wanted to live and learn with some of the most profound indigenous leaders from around the world.
My experience was profound.
I was able to sit and learn in nature surrounded by elders and families, with access to teachings that would otherwise be extremely hard to reach. I sat in sweat lodge with Dine and Cheyenne elders and listened to their ways as we prayed together and purified ourselves. We were told to ‘take time out’ to give gratitude, to pray, and to solidify collective bonds.
While it is difficult to distill the experience into essential elements, I wanted to take a moment to share some of my reflections on the commonalities and the underlaying practices and ceremonies I noticed:
Offering — Nearly all ceremonies are preceded by offerings, in fact they are offerings in and of themselves. It is a time to sew intention and give thanks for all the bounties afforded us. In offering, we lead by giving. We sew the seeds for appreciation for the bounty which is our lives.
Ceremony — A collective acts of gratitude and prayer. Ceremony is a time for the individual and the community to come together in an expression of gratitude and collective devotion. To see the bonds forged through ceremony is to witness the strength born from devotion to something bigger than the lone ego of the individual-centric mind, the place from which much disease and discord springs.
Music — Everywhere there was music. Indeed music seemed to be the means by which prayer was carried forward, and the way in which we were brought together into a collective intention and mutual resonance. We know music is universal to cultures throughout time and to see its ability to bind and to call forward the dance and the carry the prayer in a traditional sense was truly powerful.
Laughter — Sitting with a Dine (Navaho) elder eating his first Acai bowl from Brazil we spoke of serious things, and then out of no where he told me a joke, from which proceeded a deep belly laugh. From then on we were laughing together. Indeed I laughed a lot over the weekend. Nothing builds bonds or brings us back to where we want to be faster than laughter, it is indeed the best medicine.
Humility — I notice there is a lot of talk of how things should be in the world these days, a righteousness in the world today and I saw that a lot from young and justifyably angry people. While that energy can be a catalyst for action, it is often also divisive. What I saw in the true masters, and the elders, was not a dictate on how one should be, but rather a humility and grace and leading with story. With stories one could draw their own conclusions on how to conduct oneself, and indeed the elders modeled it in their way of being. I find those with the greatest wisdom are often the most humble and you receive the grace of their wisdom only when you are truly listening.
Taking ‘time out’ — Carving out time for reflection and prayer was a central tenant I witnessed. Indeed sweat lodge we would be instructed to bless ourselves with the cedar put on the fire and were told thank you for ‘taking time out.’ Indeed pauses in the day and in the rhythm of life were encouraged, especially where it involved purification (like a sweat) so that one could return to balance and prayer in a good way.
Relatives — All my relations, indeed all are related. I was called ‘relative’ by the elders. As was everyone else, including ’the Earth’ and ‘the waters’ from which we all spring. In our language we have a subject/object distinction, and the earth is an object outside of us. In the traditional was where everything is connected, related, and interdependent, we are all relations. Imagine how the world wold look today if we regarded the earth and all those upon it as family.
Gratitude — At the heart of nearly every practice, indeed every ceremony, was an intention of gratitude. There was an expression of gratitude for the earth, for the waters, for the ancestors, for all that has given us life. Imagine how that affects the consciousness. When you give gratitude on a daily basis to all that gives and brings life, your awareness and happiness is entirely different. Our subjugation and objectification of the natural world for exploitation has brought us to perilous place. What I saw in the indigenous ways was a reverence for our interdependence and an underpinning gratitude that kept individuals, community, and the natural world in balance. How can gratitude underpin practices and a new world view in todays day and age?
It was an absolute honor and privilege to sit and learn from elders from so many wisdom traditions around the world. The Aniwa Gathering is put on by the Boa Foundation, and they are doing several projects to support indigenous communities around the world. Check them out.
For more information and insights from some of the wisdom keepers present, as well as some of the foremost thought leaders in the world, both ancient and modern wisdom, check out my podcast Peak Mind. Wishing you, relative, a beautiful journey wherever you may be and the community and ceremony to remind you of who you truly are.
