Bill Neal ~ I have invited many new friends to this circle for a reason - this is our virtual talking circle, please have a seat. When we connect with each other in the circle we form "one great mind". Because the form of the circle is in harmony with the universe, many things are possible that otherwise cannot be accomplished.

Pl...ease read my Notes
"The Nature of Reality" and "Bringing About Change - Part 1"
and we can begin.


Bringing About Change - Part 2 is coming up...
Tsalagi Way of the Seventh Sacred Direction



The Nature of Reality

From what I am capable of understanding, "reality" is based on two things - perception and agreement. First, we are aware that we exist. Then, whatever we perceive and interpret in our minds becomes the world that we live in. That world for one person is not necessarily the same for another. Individual perception of the sensory information we are surrounded by is the foundation of our sense of "reality". We only accept something as "real" if we can perceive it through our senses. Unfortunately this seemingly simple process is complicated by a function of our brains which is to filter out sensory information based on its effect on our survival and our ability to process that data. Some say that, for whatever reason, we use only 10% of the capacity of the brain. The outcome of the brain's function seriously affects our conclusions about the nature of what is "real".

An example of how our minds affect our perceptions is a story that someone told me once of a people who lived near a powerful waterfall, not unlike the Miwuk people of Yosemite Valley. It was a very beautiful place and the people counted themselves as very lucky to live in the midst of such beauty. The waterfall, however, was very loud. When friends and family would come to visit the people, they could not even hear themselves speak. The people who lived there, over time, had learned not to hear the noise. That not-hearing eventually became a permanent partial hearing loss. This is one way that our brains affect our perceptions while aiding in our day-to-day survival.

Once, after having taken a photograph of a very beautiful view, when the picture was developed I saw that there were power lines passing through the foreground view in the picture that I had not seen while I was there admiring that beauty. It made me wonder - what else do we not see, not hear or smell or taste or feel, and not even know that we are missing it? What loss of sensory information do we suffer everyday without even knowing it? If perception drives our version of "reality", how different is my reality from what it would be if I really "saw" the world?

Many years ago I was introduced to the art of mushroom hunting. My friend knew the safest and best-tasting mushrooms and how to cook them. The first time I went mushroom hunting with him it did not take him long to begin to fill his basket. I, however found nothing. I didn't understand it. I knew that I would not know what kind of mushrooms I found, that I would have to rely on him to identify them for me. But I found nothing. Finally I stopped to relieve myself. Looking down at the ground in front of me, I was shocked to realize that I was relieving myself on the mushrooms that I had not previously seen. It took that foolish act to begin to learn to "see" them. What does that tell you about our way of being in the world?

Perception, however, is not the whole story. Our minds interpret the information that our senses collect and prioritize it in association with interpretations already made. Those interpretations are made by agreement with other minds that say "this is the way it is". That becomes the reality that is handed down to us. Various terminologies have been applied to this "agreement" - we call it a mind/set or paradigm or conceptual worldview, etc. These paradigms are subject to periodic shifts based on various causes. The Native American worldview, for example, was shifted by contact with Europeans with a totally different version of "reality".

A paradigm shift is a metamorphosis, transformation, or revolution from what existed before. The latest agent or catalyst of change is the introduction of the personal computer and the internet. The effects of the introduction of these catalysts are still coming into being and is the subject for my messages of change to come that we can bring about together.

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Next, in my note "Bringing About Change", I will discuss how I see these changes occurring. I hope that you stay with me through this process and add to this discussion your understanding of what is occurring right now.

Bringing About Change - Part 1

First of all I would like to quote from the White Bison Wellbriety Movement training manual for recovery coaches. It concerns Prophecies. "These are stories disclosed by the Elders when it was time. The Elders have told us we are now in a new time - a time of change - a new Springtime of life - a coming-together time. For a long time the people have been sleeping. We have given up and are living life without hope. We have put up with disharmony and confusion. We are either sleeping as a people or are in denial.

"There are certain gifted people in every community or tribe that have special gifts given to them by the Creator. This gift is insight. These people are able to see beyond delusion or denial. They know the people are asleep. They are able to see solutions to problems. They are able to see vision where there is no vision.

"Often these people seem to be irritants or troublemakers. These people are the Coyote Clan People. What do coyotes do? They yip a lot. If you try to go to sleep or you are sleeping the coyote's yip will wake you up. Coyote Clan People are willing to be radical, in a good way. Coyote Clan People are willing to speak the truth. Coyote Clan People will not conform to injustice. They insist on justice. Coyote Clan People are persistent. They are tenacious. Coyotes know that every set-back is only temporary. Coyote Clan People are change agents. Coyote Clan People fight for change.

"You will never see a Coyote Clan person who fights for him or herself. They always fight for the people. They are "cause people". Coyote Clan People are very valuable to a community or organization that wants to heal. The Coyote Clan People help create new ideas and new visions. They energize people and create followers who will help do the work. Coyotes are energizers.

"Now is the time for coyote to be active. We are in the beginning of the change. Coyotes must wake up and help the people.

"The Elders tell us that the Great Spirit has selected thousands of healers from all walks of life, all ages, all colors, and all four directions. These chosen healers will be given gifts that the human being has not used before. These gifts are the new life force that will be used by the healers. They will cause the people to "come alive". As the people "come alive", they will be willing to sit in circles they were unwilling to sit in before. Different races will sit in the same circle, different tribes will come together and people will want to form communities. Traditional values will return. We will search for a simple life and families will heal. We will start to respect the Mother Earth in a sacred way, our hearts will be changed and forgiveness will start to take place."

This is all quotation from the White Bison Wellbriety Movement training manual for recovery coaches. These words are for all of us. Take them to heart - make them part of your being. Go out and tell others to come sit in the circle.

Coyotes! We are calling you to come to the circle!

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Bringing About Change - Part 2 is coming up.

Tsalagi Way of the Seventh Sacred Direction

In the way that I have been taught, the Tsalagi hold that there are Seven Sacred Directions - East, South, West, and North representing all of creation, the Sky Above and the Earth Below. The Seventh Direction is Here, Inside, at the Center. Standing at the Center means that you realize that where you are in your life, right here, right now, is the sum total of all the decisions that you have made in your life, your reactions to all that has happened in your life that have brought you to this point, right here, right now. Taking responsibility for that is to Stand at the Center of all that you have created in the world with your life. That is the Seventh Sacred Direction. When you Stand at the Center you are creating consciously. When we are all ready to do that the world will be a much different place.

At this point some might object that, by speaking about creating consciously, I am allowing the ego of the self to imagine that the two-leggeds can do the work of the Creator. This is not about self in the way that you might think. This is about being responsible for what we create with our lives which each of us needs to to begin to do. Part of the difficulty with understanding these discussions has to do with how we perceive what let's call a "First Cause" or "Prime Cause". Most of us have grown up with a concept of "God" as the First Cause in which he is an anthropomorphic being, the image usually being an old man with a long white beard up on a cloud somewhere, a being that lives outside of us and outside of nature. Even when we say "Creator", "Great Spirit" or "Wakan Tanka", we are still thinking of the "he" who looks like us and is outside ourselves. To truly understand the Native American concept of the "Great Spirit" or "Great Mystery" or "Grandfather", that goes by names like Gitchi Manitou, Wakan Tanka, Chinigchinich, Sakoiasitan, or Taiowa to name a few, is to understand that all things are part of an incomprehensible totality which always was and always will be, that all things are equal because they are all part of the whole. What we call God and all other names is what Black Elk described as the "spirits" of all things living together as one. Even the word "spirit" does not adequately represent a concept which to us is incomprehensible. Because it is incomprehensible, we assign to it meaning that we are capable of understanding, but we have to remember that our limited understanding is not what it truly is - only what we can understand. This I think will be a difficult discussion for many but, if you are truly interested in the Native American way, it is worth sticking with it.

When one is called to begin to create consciously, it is essental to learn to pay attention. To learn to perceive more of what is actually taking place all around us is the first step in taking responsibility for what we create with our lives. The primary function of our minds in day-to-day life is to filter out the sensory data that is not directly applicable to our day-to-day survival. Today, in the way that we live our lives, we are bombarded by more sensory data in a single day than people one hundred years ago dealt with in an entire year. As a consequence, we have learned not to hear, not to see, not to feel, not to taste or smell. As the products of compulsory public education, the one thing we have all learned to do is stare out the window.......

I am minded of a story that someone told me once of a people who lived near a powerful waterfall, not unlike the Miwuk people of Yosemite Valley. It was a very beautiful place and the people counted themselves as very lucky to live in the midst of such beauty. The waterfall, however, was very loud. When friends and family would come to visit the people, they could not even hear themselves speak. The people who lived there, over time had learned not to hear the noise. That not hearing eventually became a permanent partial hearing loss.

I had an epiphany once after having taken a photograph of a very beautiful view. When the picture was developed I saw that there were powerlines passing through the foreground view in the picture that I had not seen while I was there admiring the beauty. It made me wonder - what else do we not see, not hear or smell or taste or feel, and not even know that we are missing it? If perception drives our version of "reality", what kind of loss do we suffer everyday withouteven knowing it?

Learning to pay attention is number one if we want to create a better life, a better world, if we want to Stand at the Center. How can we make the best possible decision of how to react to any situation if we are not acting with the best possible information about the situation? Many years ago I was introduced to the art of mushroom hunting. My friend knew the safest and best-tasting mushrooms and how to cook them. The first time I went mushroom hunting with him it did not take him long to begin to fill his basket. I, however found nothing. I didn't understand it. I knew that I would not know what kind of mushrooms I found, that I would have to rely on him to identify them for me. But I found nothing. Finally I stopped to relieve myself. Looking down at the ground in front of me, I was shocked to realize that I was peeing on the mushrooms that I had not previously seen. It took that foolish act to begin to learn to see them. What does that tell you about our way of being in the world? We are lucky that all the other living things in the Circle of Life have not already risen up against the two-leggeds because of our harmful foolishness.

I have a friend who teaches "earth skills". He is a tracker, has written manuals on animal tracking, teaches wilderness skills and "earth philosophy". He introduced me to a series of books by a man named Tom Brown, Jr. My initial reaction was that I had no reason to want to track animals and, though I used to work with wilderness survival therapy programs, today I am much more sedentary and urban than in my adventurous youth. What value then is there for me in these books? For me they were entertaining and educational illustrations of the value of learning to "see" what is going on all around me. When will we all really begin to see what is constantly going on all around us?

What moves us to care about these things? As the Native American Spiritual Leader in a prison, I work with women who are broken, sometimes massively so. The motivation there is clear. But there is an old Anishnaabe prayer that says that of all the living things in the Circle of Life, it is only the two-leggeds that are broken. The Hopi have a prophecy about this world that we live in. They call it "Koyaanisqatsi", a life out of balance. It is a physical law that systems tend toward stability. If we think of this world and its life as being part of a system and recognize that the two-leggeds are the cause of the instability, imbalance, and disharmony, we need to realize that eventually the system we occupy will eventually eliminate us in the natural tendency to regain stability. Should we care about that? How long do we have? The Hopi say the hour is now. Aho! Mitakuye oyasin!

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