Making Room
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
Everything that occurs is not only usable and workable but is actually the path itself. We can use everything that happens to us as the means for waking up. We can use everything that occurs—whether it’s our conflicting emotions and thoughts or our seemingly outer situation—to show us where we are asleep and how we can wake up completely, utterly, without reservations.”
~ Pema Chodron
The image above is the view from the portal in front of this new house. Such a coincidence that it is facing the Pecos Wilderness – the same view from my kitchen window at 313 Santistevan Lane. Soon there will be dark snow clouds swirling around Taos Mountain and the Pecos. Time to order a cord of wood for the stove adjacent to the kitchen. Buying a few extra non-perishables at the grocery store, just in case. My landlord promises to plow the driveway in front of the house whenever it snows.
All my winter lessons in survival were learned when I lived at the horse ranch in Truchas. Moved there on September 17th 1984 – first snow on the mountains that day – pure magic! Packed in our belongings was a brand new medium sized freezer from Sears which we kept in a little shed. The house was a long way out on Llano Quemado next to the Land Grant from the King of Spain. I called this place “suburban Truchas”…..as close as you can get to living right under the magnificent Truchas Peaks. It snowed for three days during Christmas that first year…bear tracks near the horse barns – big mountain lion footprints on the front porch! School vacation time – no snow plows for about ten days – we were snowed in!! Brilliant white silence all around…complete solitude….and a well stocked freezer!
Am close as I will ever get to reliving that place and time today in this new house….waking up and making room for the Dream one more time!
The creation process
The Dreaming also explains the creation process. Ancestor beings rose
and roamed the initially barren land, fought and loved, and created the
land’s features as we see them today. After creating the ‘sacred world’
the spiritual beings “turned into rocks or trees or a part of the
landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated
men.” [6]
The spirits of the ancestor beings are passed on to their
descendants, e.g. shark, kangaroo, honey ant, snake and so on and
hundreds of others which have become totems within the diverse
Indigenous groups across the continent [3].
Spirits don’t belong to anyone and can be accessed by everyone.
“No-one owns a spirits,” says Quandamooka woman Evelyn Parkin. “You can
have what I have got if you’re in touch with the spirit.” [7].
It is interesting to note that many Aboriginal people also use the
term ‘Dreaming’ to refer to their concepts about spirituality. This
might be because some of them find ceremonies or songs in a state of
dreaming, a state between sleeping and waking [1].
Strictly speaking, dreaming and mythology can be considered as the same
thing: the deep mental archetypes and images of wisdom which we take on
to be guided by them when the conscious mind is in a state of quietness
[8].
The fact that the Dreaming is still around Aboriginal people is
a fundamental difference to other spiritual beliefs. In Christianity,
for example, the spiritual world is ‘heaven’, and many Christians
believe it is reachable only after death and never while the person is
still alive. (Those who find heaven inside might disagree, but such a
discussion is beyond this article.)
Aboriginal man Midnight Davies describes how all-encompassing the Dreaming can be for Aboriginal people: [9]
“The Dreaming is, however, more than just an explanation of cultural
norms, and where we came from. The Dreaming is a complete guide to life
and living – it is an encyclopaedia of the world. It is not just stories
– it is art, songs, dance; it is written into the land itself.
“Through the Dreaming we are taught knowledge of plants and animals,
to us many of the flowering plants are treated as signs of animals
available to hunt, fish about to appear, fruits about to ripen; the
movement of the stars foretells the changing of weather, the birth of
animals, the time for ceremony and gatherings.
“The Dreaming completely surrounds us, we are shown proof of it
everyday. It’s not some old book written thousands of years ago, it is
the living world itself. The Dreaming belongs to every Aboriginal person
– it isn’t the sacred property of a few priests/rabbis/imams, it is the
property of everyone – every ceremony, every right, every tradition,
every bit of knowledge is destined to be known to an individual sometime
within their lifetime.
“The Dreaming was not designed to be just practised one day a week,
or to only be turned to only in times of need – it is designed to be
lived in every moment, and to shield you from those times of need. It
serves as a guide to day-to-day life, a guide to the spiritual side of
life.”
What we draw on from our memories, and think, imagine and create in our daily lives is our dreaming.
— Djon Mundine, Bundjalung man and Aboriginal Curator, Campbelltown Arts Centre [10]
Source: What
is the ‘Dreamtime’ or the ‘Dreaming’? – Creative Spirits, retrieved
from
https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming
The creation process
The Dreaming also explains the creation process. Ancestor beings rose
and roamed the initially barren land, fought and loved, and created the
land’s features as we see them today. After creating the ‘sacred world’
the spiritual beings “turned into rocks or trees or a part of the
landscape. These became sacred places, to be seen only by initiated
men.” [6]
The spirits of the ancestor beings are passed on to their
descendants, e.g. shark, kangaroo, honey ant, snake and so on and
hundreds of others which have become totems within the diverse
Indigenous groups across the continent [3].
Spirits don’t belong to anyone and can be accessed by everyone.
“No-one owns a spirits,” says Quandamooka woman Evelyn Parkin. “You can
have what I have got if you’re in touch with the spirit.” [7].
It is interesting to note that many Aboriginal people also use the
term ‘Dreaming’ to refer to their concepts about spirituality. This
might be because some of them find ceremonies or songs in a state of
dreaming, a state between sleeping and waking [1].
Strictly speaking, dreaming and mythology can be considered as the same
thing: the deep mental archetypes and images of wisdom which we take on
to be guided by them when the conscious mind is in a state of quietness
[8].
The fact that the Dreaming is still around Aboriginal people is
a fundamental difference to other spiritual beliefs. In Christianity,
for example, the spiritual world is ‘heaven’, and many Christians
believe it is reachable only after death and never while the person is
still alive. (Those who find heaven inside might disagree, but such a
discussion is beyond this article.)
Aboriginal man Midnight Davies describes how all-encompassing the Dreaming can be for Aboriginal people: [9]
“The Dreaming is, however, more than just an explanation of cultural
norms, and where we came from. The Dreaming is a complete guide to life
and living – it is an encyclopaedia of the world. It is not just stories
– it is art, songs, dance; it is written into the land itself.
“Through the Dreaming we are taught knowledge of plants and animals,
to us many of the flowering plants are treated as signs of animals
available to hunt, fish about to appear, fruits about to ripen; the
movement of the stars foretells the changing of weather, the birth of
animals, the time for ceremony and gatherings.
“The Dreaming completely surrounds us, we are shown proof of it
everyday. It’s not some old book written thousands of years ago, it is
the living world itself. The Dreaming belongs to every Aboriginal person
– it isn’t the sacred property of a few priests/rabbis/imams, it is the
property of everyone – every ceremony, every right, every tradition,
every bit of knowledge is destined to be known to an individual sometime
within their lifetime.
“The Dreaming was not designed to be just practised one day a week,
or to only be turned to only in times of need – it is designed to be
lived in every moment, and to shield you from those times of need. It
serves as a guide to day-to-day life, a guide to the spiritual side of
life.”
What we draw on from our memories, and think, imagine and create in our daily lives is our dreaming.
— Djon Mundine, Bundjalung man and Aboriginal Curator, Campbelltown Arts Centre [10]
Source: What
is the ‘Dreamtime’ or the ‘Dreaming’? – Creative Spirits, retrieved
from
https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/spirituality/what-is-the-dreamtime-or-the-dreaming
