[Buddha-l] Fwd: Please post on the list if poss--Joanna

[Jim Peavler]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "jkirk" <jkirk at spro.net>
> Date: April 17, 2007 8:04:35 PM MDT
> To: "JimPeavler" <jmp at peavler.org>
> Subject: Please post on the list if poss--Joanna
> Reply-To: "jkirk" <jkirk at spro.net>
>
> Jim--this came from a friend here--an Idahoan for umpteen yrs--I  
> hope it's
> not too long for the list
>
> "Anyone Can Hear The Water Speak"
> a call to awakening the intuitive self
> by Bill Chisholm
>
>             As we sat together in the sterile hallway of the Federal
> Courthouse in Las Vegas, outside Judge Hang 'em High Lloyd George's
> courtroom, Western Shoshone spiritual elder, Corbin Harney, said,  
> "The water
> spoke to me."  We were sitting five feet apart on a bench, looking  
> straight
> ahead, waiting our turn to testify on behalf of our friend, anti- 
> nuclear
> weapons activist, Rick Springer.  Corbin then said, "The water told  
> me, 'In
> a short time you will see me, I will look like water and feel like  
> water,
> only I won't be the same.'" After a few moments, he concluded,   
> "Anyone can
> hear the water speak if they will only listen."
>              Corbin's words sunk deep into my consciousness.  In my  
> journey
> through life, I have played many roles, among them wilderness survival
> instructor,  wildlands firefighter, and yoga instructor.  I have  
> spent a
> good deal of time alone in Nature contemplating the deeper meaning  
> of life.
> Though I have a degree in business and could have found a niche in the
> modern consumer oriented world,  I found I experienced myself at a far
> higher level when I was down to a minimum of comforts in the  
> wilds.  Free of
> comforts I found an edge I hadn't experienced anywhere else. Though  
> I hadn't
> heard it articulated in such a way, I sensed what Corbin was  
> talking about:
> alone in the wild, if you quiet your noisy mind, open your eyes,  
> and your
> ears, the wild has much to say. The wind, the trees, the clouds, the
> wildlife, and yes, the water all have a voice.  I observed that  
> even more
> during my years doing damage assessment for the, now inept, Federal
> Emergency Management Agency.  If we'd learn to listen to the water  
> we might
> not suffer so much flood damage.
>              The sad truth is: people don't listen.  They have  
> insulated
> themselves from Nature and from each other with technology, stuff, and
> information shuffling jobs. They like to think technology has  
> advanced them
> as individuals and as a culture, but in truth, it has deafened  
> them, made
> them weak, more dependent.  After the powerful tsunami hit southern  
> Asia
> wiping out large areas,  destroying homes and communities, and killing
> thousands of people, it was expected there would be a large loss of
> wildlife.  As the reports started coming in there was not the  
> wildlife loss
> expected. There were in fact stories of animals of many species who  
> sensed
> something was going to happen and headed to the safety of higher  
> ground.
> That same thing was true of some indigenous folks, people who lived  
> simply
> and more attuned to their surroundings; they sensed something was  
> going to
> happen and got themselves out of harms way.  "Anyone can hear the  
> water
> speak if they will only listen."
>              My late wife, Kathy, and I had been on trial in  
> Beatty, Nevada
> for blocking traffic or trespassing at the Nevada Test Site.  After  
> the post
> Easter trial, we decided to take a little journey into Death  
> Valley.  On the
> way in, a white Chevy Blazer with all the windows mirrored, except the
> windshield, passed us coming the other direction, went a short  
> distance,
> turned around, came back, and passed us again.  They then pulled  
> off at a
> rest area, as did we.  When we continued, so did they. There were a  
> couple
> of routes to choose; we looked at the map and took the right hand  
> fork in
> the road.  First, I noticed what we call "ducks" (stacked rocks) or  
> trail
> markers near the side of the road, but not right next to it.  These  
> trail
> markers made no sense.  Thoughts of the Chevy Blazer stuck in the  
> back of
> my mind, but I wasn't really thinking about it as we started into  
> Death
> Valley. Shortly at a road cut we saw walking towards us along the  
> side of
> the road a coyote.  El Coyote' happens to be one of my medicines,  
> in fact my
> main one.  As we approached, the coyote kept its pace and looked  
> right at me
> as we pulled alongside.  I would glance at him in the rearview  
> mirror.  He
> would be stopped looking back at me.  When I stopped, he would  
> start walking
> away again.  This happened at least three times.  I finally  
> listened.  I
> told Kathy we needed to turn around and get out of there; she'd been
> experiencing the same "unease" I had.  After we turned around and  
> headed
> back through the cut, the coyote disappeared into the brush.  We  
> got up on
> top and shortly started experiencing problems with our car.  I'm  
> not sure
> what we avoided that day by heeding the call of that coyote, but I  
> know it
> saved us from something bad; perhaps it saved our lives.  In that  
> case, we
> listened with our eyes and to our own inner voices.  Since we are  
> mostly
> water, perhaps it was the water speaking in us.
>               Modern man has lost touch;  lost their ability to  
> listen with
> more than their ears, to see with more than their eyes, and often are
> distracted from the reality around them.  Much of it has to do with
> technology, the speed of life, the noise, the disconnectedness.   
> Very few
> inputs come from Nature.  More and more and at an earlier and  
> earlier age,
> inputs come from TV, iPods, cell phones computers, DVDs, and video  
> games. A
> great deal of time  is spent insulated from the world in cars, homes,
> factories,or offices.  People don't get outside- outside; when they  
> do go
> out, their technology goes with them. People are going faster and  
> faster and
> in the process see less and less of the world around them..  Very  
> often when
> they are outside, they stay hooked to somewhere else via cell  
> phones or
> satellite TVs.  Too often they aren't where they are and not with  
> the people
> they are physically with.  Baba Ram Dass must be wondering, whatever
> happened to Be Here Now.  Folks are missing the cues, the clues.   
> Something
> happens and they aren't prepared because they aren't paying  
> attention.  You
> can't last long in the wilds or anywhere else if you don't pay  
> attention to
> the world around you.
>              Poet/philosopher, Robert Bly, in his book The Sibling  
> Society,
> talks about the importance playing in Nature has in the development of
> children's brains.  The observation of Nature helps us develop our
> curiosity, play creatively, grow from the inside out, and connect  
> to Nature.
> Many of today's young grow from the outside in via a technological
> environment that feeds information to the them.  Bly says this hampers
> maturity, keeps society in a state of perpetual adolescence well  
> into people's
> thirties. People are robbed of their real childhoods: that  
> opportunity to
> play in Nature, and use their imagination.  It is imagination that  
> gives us
> the ability to respond to disasters and  changing circumstances.  That
> perfect plastic product thing in toys  took away our opportunity to  
> imagine:
> to make a toy out of a piece of wood, a rock, some string and some  
> spools.
> Not too long ago people knew how to do many things, they had many  
> skills,
> they knew how the systems and the tools they used worked.  They  
> could build
> or fix them.  Modern man has become reliant on the system for toys,  
> food,
> houses, and  answers.  There is a belief that things will fill the  
> holes in
> life, give popularity, and self-esteem.   In reality "stuff"  
> diminishes
> self-worth.  A society of perpetual discontent, a world of  "I  
> want, I want,
> give me, give me" has been created.  It is the marketing man's  
> dream: a
> culture never satisfied, never connected to anything, desiring  
> newer and
> newer gadgets that isolate them more and more from each other and  
> Nature.
>              "Anyone can hear the water speak if they will only sit  
> and
> listen."  We can't even hear the people we are with.  Just look  
> around; if
> you see three people together, particularly people under 30, often  
> two of
> them are talking on their cell phones.  They are oblivious to their
> companions and to the world around them.  When not on cell phones,  
> people
> are listening to iPods, playing video games or watching TV: all inputs
> coming from outside.  There are so many senseless noises and  
> flashing images
> going on most folks never have a quiet moment to ponder, to use  
> their minds,
> to listen to what Nature is trying to say.
>              How then does Nature compete for attention.  She has  
> to speak
> louder and louder.  You'd think people might pay attention when  
> they can no
> longer see the mountains or the stars, when the air stinks so bad  
> they can
> hardly breathe.   The sad truth: most folks don't even look towards  
> the
> mountains unless they want to recreate.  They really don't  
> experience the
> mountain because they have too much with them: cell phones, iPods,
> snowmobiles,  four wheelers.  They are going too fast; they are too  
> focused
> on their fun.   Caught in the noise and the speed they miss the  
> world around
> them, its smells, its sounds.  They are so caught up in the world  
> of man
> they miss the warnings, fail to see much less read the signs, sense  
> the
> stillness for its tension.  Then boom they are surprised by an  
> avalanche, a
> flood, a fire, an earthquake, a tsunami.
>              We have forsaken many of the incredible tools of our  
> own minds
> and bodies for the mediocrity of things.  The more technology we  
> take on,
> the more we lose our own abilities, the more impact we have on the  
> Natural
> world.  We are becoming mono-talented.  We don't know how to do  
> real things:
> raise our food, make things we need, provide for our water and  
> shelter.  It
> is all marketed to us. All that stuff we are made to want more and  
> more of,
> takes huge amounts of natural resources and energy to mine, mill,
> manufacture, transport, and sell to us.  It is an interesting cycle to
> ponder.  All that technology we have come to rely on, to respond to  
> like
> Pavlov's dogs, weakens us.  The over consumption of things and  
> technologies
> with its lusty demand for resources and energy is pushing the  
> limits of the
> Natural order of things   Rather than becoming more self-reliant,  
> we are
> becoming more vulnerable.
>             It is not that technology is necessarily bad; it is how  
> we let
> it control us that  should concern us.  Technology takes away  
> knowledge,
> skill, and action.  Whenever something separates us from the  
> ability to
> raise food, or clothe and shelter us, then it becomes a liability.   
> Whenever
> the technology or stuff becomes more of a liability than an asset,  
> then it
> is time to step back, take a look, and assess its real value.  What  
> are its
> real costs across the board, socially, culturally, spiritually,
> environmentally,  and economically.  If it is creating more  
> problems than it
> is solving, it is something we can do without.
>         Our economy, our lifestyle, is based on a false economic  
> model, a
> model that doesn't account for all the costs of doing business.  Cheap
> energy is not without costs in terms of other species, natural  
> resources,
> pollution, and lives. What I call "steroid economics" (more and big is
> better, growth is good) has made us neither wealthier and wiser nor  
> stronger
> and more secure in the truest sense. A dangerous triangle of related
> circumstances is coming together that will change the way we do things
> forever. On one side is the fact that oil and natural gas  
> production are
> peaking, and other resources including clean water are becoming  
> scarcer.  On
> the second side demand for diminishing resources is rising as  
> population
> increases and more countries such as China, India, and Chile strive  
> for the
> same materialistic lifestyle.  The capping issue of this triangle  
> is climate
> change.  We can no longer hide the costs in cooked books, creative
> bookkeeping.  Our foundation is made of sand.  It is washing away.   
> All we
> have become reliant on (our economy, our technology, our  
> entertainment) is
> in for a drastic change.  We are ill prepared.  We have become too  
> soft, too
> reliant on unsustainable systems, too "dumbed down".
>              Most folks when they hear the news that the "king has no
> clothes", that the "gig is up", do one of two things: flight or  
> fight, our
> native instincts for survival.  The thing is in this case there is  
> no place
> to flee to.  The flight option becomes denial, which doesn't save your
>  "arse", but only puts off acknowledgement of the predicament.  The  
> other
> thing is to fight.  To fight is far better than sticking your head  
> in the
> sand.  Now this looks bigger than a David and Goliath fight and it is.
> Those who could and should be helping, our supposed leaders,  
> aren't. They
> often have too much invested in the problem.  So it boils down to  
> us, as
> individuals.  We are the ones that control the consumer side of the
> equation.  We can either remain "dumbed down" or we can lighten up and
> become enlightened. We can quit wasting energy, and quit buying  
> stuff we don't
> need, stuff that only exacerbates the problem.  We can learn new  
> skills that
> make us more self-reliant: plant a garden, simplify your life, get  
> hand
> tools, park your car, take a walk, install a clothes line.  We can  
> start
> quieting our minds and begin to listen to the water.  "Anyone can  
> hear the
> water speak if they will only sit and listen."
>
>
>
>
>