Some wisdom from Bear Heart
Posted on Mar 26th, 2008
by 
Innish
Innish
We are here to reflect the beauty of all of life--the beauty of the trees, the grass, the animals, the birds, the rivers as they flow by. All these may be lost in time. While we are still here, can we not appreciate and love the land, the environment, so that when we pass on, we will have left something solid and beautiful for those who are going to follow after us? Are those of us her now building a solid foundation on which our young people can grow strong and be productive in a positive way?
and later...
Our elders taught that when you shoot an arrow, you first have to pull it back before it can go forward. That was the basis of our greatest teaching--self-knowledge. Before you can progress, know who you are, know those things that you don't like about yourself, then know your potential. From there you can go forward. Our children were first taught to shoot an arrow as far as they could. Then, after they had learned that, they were taught direction and how to hit a target. So after you have learned something about yourself, self-discipline is the next step. We have many ways of learning to live in harmony with our environment, but first we must learn to live in harmony with ourselves. If we can't master ourselves, how can we master anything else?
Questing to know ourselves teaches us how to live before we spend too much time in learning how to make a living. If we leave out that "how to live," we may be able to make a living, but what if the stock market drops suddenly, or our source of income is cut off? If we don't know how to live, we may hit bottom when those external things we rely on are gone. But if we learn how to live, in spite of setbacks, we will continue on, we can find avenues to sustain us and life will b meaningful for us.
Access: Public
shaman
July 2008