the Power of Acceptance

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"

It's difficult to try to be what you are not. 

Being what you are doesn't require any effort. 

When you become wise, you accept yourself the way you are, 

and the complete acceptance of yourself 

becomes the complete acceptance of everyone else.

"
- don Miguel Ruiz

some will say

"accepting unacceptable things about either oneself or the people you interact with is not always a good notion"

On the physical level, what you say makes sense, and many of us are trained to believe such things.

I have found it does not work. 

I have found that I can, and others can, tweak the outside, try harder for limited periods of time, etc. 

But I have found this method doesn't work for me on the inside, or in the long run, or for anything that is a Core issue for me.

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From my experience:

Unless I can BE with what is 

Unless I can stop Resisting 

Nothing Changes 

IF I really do choose change, 

It serves me to let go, accept what IS. 

then 

Say 'hello' deep inside, and attend to that.

Allow the shifts to flower from within.

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Some will say: 

"we are responsible for the people we become"

"Honesty in looking at ourselves and realizing that if we are less than we choose to be"

"it is within our power to become the best we can be"

"we are not "stuck" with ourselves" 

AMEN

The question is HOW? 

IN what Context?

Through what Process.

It is obvious that one can change the facade, paint the walls, and change the curtains easily enough. 

In my spiritual tradition, we find that Effort works on the physical, but not on the spiritual level. 

I have found to truly realign the foundation and change the structure of my being, it takes a New way of BEing.

Of course, many people don't believe we CAN realign the foundation and change the structure of our being, 

so the process of acceptance/non-judgment and ease/no-effort may seem superfluous 

- but I don't believe so...

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Allowing Ease, not Effort
Finding Freedom from Judgment
What We Resist, Persists...

Is a fruitful journey.

For me, 

- Beating myself (and others) up for where I am. 

- Eschewing what is Real.

- Effort & Striving ... merely looking the part...

Works Not At ALL :)

Acceptance, etc 

actually Does Work, in my experience!

For myself and with others. 

Sometimes the mere release of my judgment and resistance 

and things miraculously shift. 

After all, I am HOLDING in place with my NO!

Some say:

Acceptance Produces Change.

It makes sense, because 

Acceptance removes One of the Forces in Play

after that, shift happens, finding a New Balance. 

So, I just get to keep practicing Acceptance 

- a Powerful blessing of: Truth and Miracles

Being with what IS. 

Releasing the judgment and resistance. 

Easier said than done - and the fruit is Delicious!

: )Wendy 

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Choose: the spiritual way or the un-natural way, the material way

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Excerpts from White Buffalo Teachings

 "

When I was 12 years old, words of our ancient Prophecies were instilled in me by our Spiritual Elders of that time. 

Those Prophecies concern drastic changes that would come to all life upon Mother Earth. 

These changes are here with us today! 

Our Prophecies tell us that we are at the Crossroads. 

We face chaos, disaster, and endless tears from our relatives’ eyes - or we can unite spiritually in peace and harmony. 

It’s time to bring the Message of the urgent need for Peace, of creating an energy shift throughout the world. 

As Keeper of the Sacred C’anupa Bundle, I ask for your prayers for Global Healing.

 

Our Mother Earth is suffering. 

Her wonderful gifts — the water, the trees, the air — are being abused. 

Her children — the two-legged, the four-legged, those that swim, crawl and fly — are being annihilated. 

We see such atrocities occurring everywhere.

 

Nineteen generations ago the beautiful spirit we now refer to as Pte-san win-yan (White Buffalo Calf Woman) brought the Sacred C’anupa to our People. 

She taught the People the Seven Sacred Rites and how to walk upon Mother Earth in a sacred manner. 

She said, "Only the good shall see the Pipe…the bad shall not see it or touch it."... 

We must comprehend in each of our hearts and minds the two ways we human beings are free to follow, as we choose: the good way, the spiritual way - or the un-natural way, the material way. 

It’s our personal choice, our personal decision - each of ours and all of ours. 

You, yourself, are the one who must decide. 

You alone can choose. 

Whatever you decide is what you’ll be - good or bad. 

You cannot escape the consequences of your own decision. 

On your decision — yes, on your own personal decision — depends the fate of the World. 

You can’t avoid it. 

You must decide. 

You personally - each of us personally - is put here in this time and this place to decide the future of humankind. 

Did you think you were put here for something less? 

Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger? 

Know that you are essential to this World. 

Believe that. 

Understand that. 

You yourself are desperately needed. 

 

This is the message that I carry to you as we stand at this Crossroads in history — 

I, Chief Arvol Looking Horse, known also as Horse Man, Keeper of the Sacred C’anupa (pipe) brought to the Lakota-Dakota-Nakota Nation by the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman nineteen generations ago. 

Hau kola. 

I am honored to greet you. 

I honor your sacredness, your humanness. 

I ask you to honor mine. 

It is good that we meet. 

Yes, good. Wasté! Mitakuye Oyasin.

 

When we say Mitakuye Oyasin — "All Our Relations" — many people don’t understand the meaning of those words. 

The phrase Mitakuye Oyasin has a bigger meaning than just our blood relatives. 

Yes, it’s true; we are all one human race. 

But the word Mitakuye means relations and Oyasin means more than family, more than a Nation, more than all of humankind. 

Everything that has a spirit. 

The Earth herself, Maka Unci, is our relation, and so is the sky - Grandfather Sky - and so is the Buffalo… and so are each of the two-leggeds, the four-leggeds, those that swim, those that fly, the root nation, and the crawling beings who share the world with us. 

Mitakuye Oyasin refers to the interconnectedness of all beings and all things. 

We are all interconnected. 

We are all One. 

Don’t call us "earth-based," as if we worship the Earth. 

We don’t worship her. 

We honor her. 

But to worship anyone, we, the Indigenous, will never do that. 

We humble ourselves to the sacred energy of all life knowing we are one. 

We stand up when we address the Creator, we bow down and touch the earth, to acknowledge and give thanks to our Mother. 

We see ourselves as part of the universe, part of all that is seen, and part of all that is unseen. 

We recognize that we are no better - and no worse - than the grasses, the trees, the birds, the insects, the animals, the stars. 

But we also understand that we humans are different. 

Each being of Creation has a unique role and place, and a specific task to perform. 

Our Original Instructions tell us what our role is, where our place is, and what our task is as human beings. 

Do you know your task? 

Unless you know it, and then perform it in this life, you have strayed from the Good Red Road that the Creator - Wakan Tanka - has given each of us to walk. 

Even those who don’t know how will pray or meditate. 

They will learn to contribute their energy. 

All people need to learn that within each of us, we have this ability and gift. 

Yes, our life energy must be a gift for our future. 

Your life, my life, everybody’s life must follow your given path. 

So pray or meditate. 

Follow your inner path and learn just how powerful you are and learn that you are a leader for your people, your family, your children, and the Mother Earth. 

What happens within us happens in the World. 

We are the Message of the World. 

As we are and as we do, So the World will be. 

 

When the people of all colors pray together with the Sacred C’anupa (pipe), or with any other sacred gifts given by the creator, even with just our natural spirit energy — without anger or resentment or prejudice — extremely powerful things can occur. 

When we do this with a good heart and in a sacred way we can - and will - change the world! 

When you begin to believe in the sacred way of life, you will begin to understand the importance of the sacred sites, knowing that they are a connection to Mother Earth. 

You will understand the traditions and the ability to see the prophecies that were passed down through the generations of Ancestors, who lived in harmony. 

They had seen what was in store for their seven generations to come (us), they prayed we would re-find the "key" to harmony in understanding the Spirit of the Circle of Life. 

It is then that you assist in bringing health, prosperity and balance back to Mother Earth. 

That is human sacrifice and spiritual growth. 

That is the way.

 

We as the Buffalo People believe in this circle of life, where there is no ending and no beginning. 

The process of mending the sacred hoop continues..... 

Know that you yourself are essential to this world. 

Believe that. 

Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. 

You yourself are desperately needed to save the Soul of this World. 

Did you think you were put here for something less?

" 

-Chief Arvol Looking Horse 

(WRW added old, and whitespace) 

You Can't Be Loved Until You Make Peace With Betrayal

I watched Helen Hunt’s movie (Then She Found Me) yesterday. I watched all the special features today, including the movie with director’s voiceover. I recommend the movie. I found it moving: funny and sad; insightful, true.

Turns out I had written about some main themes in this movie 14 months ago (below) – because I had read Helen Hunt being interviewed about it and I was really moved.

I watched the movie and didn’t realize it was THAT movie until it was done. I’d ‘accidentally’ bought the DVD at goodwill for $4 because it had great people in it.

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*************

Monday, June 02, 2008

Hi Friends,

I haven’t seen Helen Hunt's new movie, J & Y weren't overly impressed by it.

But, I received some treasure from reading about her process with it. This is from an interview Redbook, May 08:

I spent a lot of years writing, then put the script away because I just couldn't get it made. The best movies have one sentence that they're exploring, a thesis, something that people can argue about over dinner afterward. I couldn't say what that was.

At the time, I was wanting a baby. April's younger in the novel, and I thought, You either have a baby, want a baby, or don't want a baby, but you don't nothing a baby if you're in your 30s or 40s. Then a friend sent me an essay by James Hillman [author of The Soul's Code] called "Betrayal." I studied and studied it. I started to realize that people will think this movie is about adoption or motherhood, but for me it's about this issue of betrayal. April feels betrayed by everybody. She betrays herself. She feels betrayed by God. I finally landed on the idea that you can't be loved until you make peace with betrayal. With that, I had a compass for the movie.

I read this line and I was arrested by it:

you can't be loved until you make peace with betrayal

WOW, That sets an interesting and useful context for issues I have been chewing on and struggling with in the last few years, and for most of my life. And it is not just me, I see other folks that I am close to be “hooked” around the issues in this arena.

So, of course, I immediately found this essay (last night), and I am already profiting from it - and I expect I will continue to find continued blessing as I dwell here. Hillman presents several aspects to this issue of betrayal that I find to be useful places to stand to consider my own world-view and experience; it has already given me useful insight into others’ choices around things like intimacy and leadership, as well.

If you are interested, here is a link

http://www.blacksunjournal.com/psychology/18_betrayal-part-1-of-3-by-james-hillman_2001.html

(remember, eat the fruit; spit out the pits)

hope you are enjoying your cycles of love and learning,

in life,

wendy

in case the above link disappears, I put a copy of BETRAYAL here