A silence.
I saw my teacher dozing on a chair on the left;
two others sat with their eyes closed.
A breeze from the cornfields.
Suddenly a flap opens, and sweet smell of
sage from the sweat lodge
I had been listening to the chanting and
singing
The leader comes over, bubbles through a
hollow bone and sprinkles the water over us
No words or smiles are exchanged.
The heat from the stones is also felt.
No one is saying a word.
A couple of children are lying on their
towels.
Red from the heat they are resting.
A noise from a freight train passing at a
distance
If you listen carefully you can hear the
leaves.
We are here for a healing ceremony
Each one of us are praying for the healing
of someone
Usually I am very eager when accepted to
this ceremony
Today I felt the imbalance
Paris Miami Cuba and the news of sickness
of my teachers in the Indian country
I found myself out of balance.
There are five kinds of modifications of
the mind, said the sage Patanjali 2500 years ago, some are painful, and some
are painless.
Neither gives pleasure.
For your own happiness, bring happiness to
others.
And Dalai Lama repeated many years later,
if you want to be happy, practise compassion.
I slowly close my eyes
Tears swell up
Heat, smell of Sage, the silence of praying
Indians, and the day is ending with a golden handshake.
(photo of a sweat lodge taken many many years ago)
Take pity on me, spirits, and grant those
who are my loved ones, bless them with health, good thoughts and continued
ability to help others. One that is too little to analyse, give her the sky as
big as this one to let her imagination roam.
The first face to appear was Mdm. A who
just underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer. Her face repeatedly appears,
give her strength, let her not have reaction to therapy. Over and over again,
fire and smell of sage, yellow sunlight, green leaves of this spring, the wind
through them.
The second face is Mlle. M. I begin to sob,
I am not in control of my emotions here, I am trying to pray for others. In
these moments, the true self of the other person appears to you. Mlle M deserves
more from life so that she can do more for others, which is her natural state.
The third face is a little one, with
piercing eyes. May I always have these tears for her, because I want her mind
to remain as pure as they are now, time and distance has not touched her. In
great gratitude for her love..
Four is the sacred number.
A fourth face appears. Mdm. J, my sister.
Kind and compassionate, a heart as big as a bakery with such gifts, without her
my life in America would be so empty, I pray for her.
This is the first of the four healing
ceremonies. I don't know who to pray for, they appear in certain random order,
I cannot control that order.
The similarity between the Yoga Philosophy
as detailed in Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Native American Indian
philosophy is astounding. That is not surprising. The person who is my teacher
sitting next to me today, who has imparted such knowledge to me, once
said: the spiritual world is the same
for all of us, so is the knowledge. When one is a spirit, one can see how
similar we are all. Our bodies disappear, our professions like uniforms burn
away, who are we then?
It is that thought that connects us to the
mythical world all of us share, which is open to all of us, but few of us
bother to acknowledge its existence because we are too involved in the reality
of the every day life.
Another teacher of mine had been looking me
today. I know that when Indians are looking for me, they want to say something
for me to remember.
Doctor, you go regularly to see your birth
mother, you would realize the significance of that one day. Look how healthy
she is, you will realize what you are doing one day. for yourself.
She put a silver ring on my finger and
walked away.
This is what I do, when I am with the
Indians of North America.
There are four healing ceremonies, today is
the first, you can be sure I will be there for all for.. to show that
relationship with those who are unfortunate enough to suffer is a strong
healer.
