CHAPTER 2: CIRCLE OF LIFE
Life and Death – A Mirror
Indigenous Worldview (Interview with the Elders):
Part of the indigenous worldview includes how we perceive life and also how we perceive death. Life and death are, to an indigenous perspective, a change of worlds. A child is prepared to bring out his/her full potential and development and the education in all aspects begins after the child is conceived. Before a soul begins its journey to this physical plane, it is provided with specific education or information. After it has been conceived as a child, this information is utilized to help bring about its potential and optimal development. The mother observes certain natural laws so that the child will be born healthy.
According to the elders, we are placed here on this earth to experience this Creation. Part of that experience is to see the wonder and beauty and knowledge that this natural world presents, seek out that knowledge, then apply it to one’s own lifestyle. When you speak the term, Matsuoiin, which means “life”, you have to take a breath inwards as you say it to acknowledge the breath of life, the very act of breathing is a gift. This energy of life is within us – through the breath, it is the life-giving energy that we receive from the air.
According to the elders, the indigenous perspective is that we are assisted in our experience of life by utilizing the traditional ancient knowledge. When the elders are brought in to lecture, this traditional teaching is given in a way that can apply to each one’s life. They think that when you die, you must have deserved to die by having lived well. If one has lived this knowledge to the best of their ability, then they say that death has been earned.
When we enter into the next world, which is the spirit world, it’s just our physical bodies that get worn out but our spirit lives on. How we live our lives determines how long our journey is going to be to reach back to the higher heavens where our ancestors came from. Life is connected to death and death is connected to life. It’s a change of worlds and the role that traditional knowledge plays in the whole cycle of life is to make the change graceful.
The Deeper Shamanic Knowledge
The seven levels of existence mirror the seven vast “bands of compassion” as they are called by Toltec Naguals (see Journey to the Heart of God). Over the eons, what has separated one band from another is the concentration of one type of sub-atomic particle (there were seven types) versus another. Each vast band or macroscopic cosmic building block had specific characteristics – these formed the seven directions.
When space collapsed and the previously separated directions became a unified field (October, 2007 – see Windows into Eternity), the vast bands themselves became a unified field. This field is called the field of Integrated Oneness and contains the qualities of all seven previous bands.
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}