I just read the item, "Hands Off" by Faith Spotted Eagle, August
11.
It's an argument I've seen before, and the justice of it is
impressive. I'm going to offer an argument from, let's call it
the other side, somewhat. Not because I disagree with the author,
but i think there's other things at work as well. My sense is
that the answer, to speak for the moment as though there were a
single one, hasn't been found yet and I'd like to put forward
some of the considerations.
To begin with, where I come from. I'm active in
environmental issues, and in a group that supports First Nation
causes. I've been a Buddhist for 25 years. My parentage is
entirely European. I certainly don't consider myself a New Ager,
don't have much use for the term, but I have a friend who
definitely does. To me it suggests fuzzy-mindedness, rose
glasses, and maybe superficiality. To her, I suppose not.
I briefly joined a couple of circles with an aboriginal
spiritual parent, was introduced to the sweat lodge, but was not
impelled to remain with them. Occasionally I find myself in a
native gathering where I'm happy to honour the earth with the
appropriate offerings. So my personal case is very mild. Partly
I'm passing on the words of others, and partly I want to address
some issues I think aren't resolved yet. Faith Spotted Eagle and
others who have written to the same effect express concerns
mainly about whites leading ceremony and offering teachings.
There may be a line there. Let us see.
The core of my concern is this: as an environmentalist, I
came to realize that while we can spend our lives putting out
brush fires, the majority will not stop ripping off the Earth
without a recentering of their awareness around some idea of the
Earth's sacredness, and all the living beings on it. With that
idea in mind, it is much less possible to carry on in the same
exploitive way.
Well and good. Now, Faith suggests us whites returning to
our roots, ie presumably Christianity as far as spiritual
practice goes. Does this work? Maybe. The idea has been put
forward by some historians (and disputed by others) that it's
precisely Xtianity that has authorized the rapacious exploitation
we all here reject. Go forth and multiply and subdue, etc. All
the critters of the earth I give into your hands. Not to mention
the assumed mandate to convert everyone in sight by any means
necessary, which continues today in the deepest parts of the
rainforest. At best the world is viewed as a garden for two-
leggeds to husband (wisely of course) for our benefit. That the
world is a great living mystery full of beings legitimately
pursuing their own ways, and in which we have a place but not the
right of command, may be recognized in some mystical branches of
Xtianity but not particularly the mainstream, so far as I can
tell. So, whether most folks will come to such a position of
respect from the mainstream, or in the absence of dialogue with
other ways, I think is questionable. (I also have a Christian
friend who would probably disagree.)
Such a position is abundantly implicit in all the branches
of Buddhism. But no-one can tell another what path to take. To me
it looks like Xtianity, while it has some excellent people, has
failed as a guide for the majority.
While on Turtle Island, it seems to me most appropriate to
honour the spirit(s) of the land with the forms that have
developed here from the beginning. So at least I smudge and offer
tobacco at gatherings, if that's what is happening. Should it
stop there? I don't know. One elder suggested to me that Euro
descendants can participate but not lead ceremony. For a while,
sure, a long while. Generations? But what does someone do who has
been close with native teachers and elders since childhood? What
about a native teacher who takes on non-native students? There
are a number of those, as readers of this will know, who are
condemned by other native spokespeople as sellouts or fakes. I
guess some could be. All of them? One such person's argument to
me was that she is the authentic inheritor of her teachings, and
it is her decision alone how to pass them on. Show me where you
draw the line.
I make these points not to say that anyone is right or
wrong, certainly not in their outrage at what may be casual or
deliberate exploitation, depending on the case. Someone also
pointed out to me that a generation or so ago his father and
grandfather had to sneak off into the woods to hold their
practices, and were thrown in jail or beaten if caught. Anyone
trying to buy his way into native traditions today while ignoring
the political and economic struggle needs to deepen their
practice. It's been suggested that getting involved with a
community in a total sense, participating in their struggle to
survive, and sharing in ceremony in that context, is more like
the real thing. I'll buy that. What about someone who starts off
with a shield-making workshop, and then realizes there's more to
it?
An aside: Part of what attracts some people to, let's call
it shamanic practice is the promise of personal power, a la
Castaneda (remember him?). A way, let's say, to experience the
living power of the universe within one's own self without
mediation by some priestly or state hierarchy. In a society where
we are increasingly hedged round by bureaucracy and mass society,
that's very tempting. Don't know if Xtianity has an answer for
that, either. For most, it's an opiate or pie-in-the-sky.
Another aside: Europeans' long-buried roots are in another
Earth-centred way: Druidism, Wicca, or whatever. That was totally
cut off centuries ago, and is now under reconstruction. Even
assuming the reconstruction will be successful, do the Norse gods
have any place on this side of the Atlantic? I don't know.
On the subject of taking money for teachings: I don't like
it but I'll pass on the words of someone who does. She said she
found her time so taken up by the lodge she was running, and
answering the phone, etc. that it was a choice between doing that
and making a living.
Under a non-capitalist system, healers and teachers aren't
forced to sell or starve. On the other hand, students visiting
teachers in the Amazon find that gifts (not usually money) are
expected. I'd very much like to know how traditional healers
surrounded by capitalist society manage, if anyone can inform me.
There needn't be deliberate ripoff involved for it to be
harmful to charge for teaching. It transforms matters of spirit
into commodities, an impersonal exchange with no implied
commitment that is the opposite of the spiritual. The best
compromise I know is a paying membership system, where your money
goes into a fund to maintain the community, that supports the
teacher, and your teaching comes out of that community.
What all this comes down to is this: I don't think the
matter is resolved yet, and I'd like to keep it open for a while.
Chief Tom Porter, from Akwesasne, said we'll have to develop or
own way. I took that to mean, with some reference to the way that
evolved in this land, over perhaps generations.
I hope we have the time.
This is a long and rambly note with no clear conclusion as
to right and wrong, but a lot of questions. My best sense is that
we still have a gate to pass through, which may allow us to
participate in the life of the land in a healthier way. If we
approach this gate with patience, respect and openness, we may
get through.
Yours in the dharma, I hope,
Steve Kishewitsch
Toronto, Canada
Comments requested. Appreciated if someone knows how to get a
copy of this to Faith Spotted Eagle.