When I refer to other cultures as being our 'own', I am not
referring to western culture. What I am saying is that we can see
all cultures as being part of our heritage - if we can broaden the
concept of who we are to transcend the bounded notion of self so
popular in 'modern' life.
We are part of life. All life is one family. What we do to
'others' we do to 'ourselves'. Without such an understanding, the
chances of putting an end to homicide, brothers, is slim. What we
do to life, we do to our(mutual)selves.
This can be taken further than 'cultures' into 'species'. The way
we treat non-human beings - 'cattle'- is how we treat ourselves.
How gross it has become.
I do not stop at some boundary erected by the vested interests of
property. Nor am I confined by the narrow materialism which
accompanied the expansion of the marketplace mentality into all
areas of life.
The messages inscribed in my Being are not for sale, and you can
get your paws off my genes.
The western way of life is in crisis. It has been in crisis for
eons. Crisis is inherient in the neolithic transformation of First
life. How could life be improved upon - that was the task. The
trouble begins ten thousand years back, undergoes various crises,
keeps promising miracle solutions, but the crisis keeps returning.
There is nothing new about the present social breakdown and
environmental disaster. Its not much good holding your breath
waiting for the sciemtific magicians to come up with the answer.
They got us into this latest mess.
No. We have to look to the only experts with a proven record. In
Australia - to the First People and their law.
We, in the west, can learn from other ways in which respect for
life is a 'total social fact'.
We must realise that every time we take a life - even that of a
cockroach in the kitchen - it is an act of sacrifice. When we
transcend the limits of our little self image, that roach and I
share something in common - we are both life. To set ourselves up
as being apart from life - and then to attempt to dominate life -
is a sure fire mechanism for creating bad karma.
First People have been categoried, by the narrow materialism of
science, as 'hunters'. They are not mere hunters. This makes a
mockery out of their balanced way.
The practices which contribute to restoring the balance have been
made to look ridiculous in western eyes. But those practices are
vitally important for atuning Being to the Cosmos.
We tend to identify ourselves by mental processes which are
drummed into us by vested interests. Our minds are in linear
straight jackets which come free with every membership in
contemporary western life. Nationalism, for example - the outer
limit of the sum of a cluster of strategies designed to protect
someones expropriated 'private' property. It is OK for me to kill
someome - my brother - if he is in a different 'nation'. Come off
it.
We buy the illusion daily - and its is constantly being fed up for
us to consume. But the forces which generate and sustain us are
quite different. Next time you eat your cereal, look beyond the
packaging and the chemical poisons responsible for the bumper
crop. You will find in every grain something of the vital force of
the country - the country for which we have lost the name and in
which we attempt to find our way. Every mouthful has a Dreaming
message from the life force of the country. A sacrament.
That vital force - call it the Dreaming - has been keeping us
going, despite the continued abuse which is directed at it - such
is its great tolerance for its wayward children. We must learn to
behave to our greater parent with more respect than ticks on a
dog. I talk here to remind myself, as much as anything else
(sharing my thoughts).
So, I do look to those First People who have retained this
understanding - and they are to be found in many different places.
They understand the true depths of the expression 'fraternal
solidarity'. Life is not a matter of membership in an elitist
club.
To me, this is a truth which is coming through - the Rainbow
Serpent is on the move, and the cracks are already showing in the
rigid categories of western understanding.
And can I recommend a track I heard on the radio last night by
Champion Jack Deprey (spelling?) from his latest (1990) release
'Back home in New Orleans'. It was an African man in America - as
categorised - who said "Let brotherhood be the first item on every
agenda". Take it away Champion Jack.
Bruce Reyburn Sunday 27 October